My Weight Watcher's Story

I have been asked to speak at a Weight Watcher's meeting tomorrow. Here is what I plan on saying. I hope it is interesting:

Hi! My name is Melissa Coleman and I have been a Weight Watcher’s member since July 1st 2010.

I became a Life Time member this past Wednesday.

Growing up I was the type of person who could eat anything I wanted. If I needed to lose any weight, I would just skip lunch and I would be fine.

Then I got married to a man who liked to have a little snack each night before bed. Who was I to tell him no, and I liked to snack, so I joined him and put on enough weight to go up a size in clothing the first year we were married.

Then I got pregnant and while I didn’t put on a ton of weight, my metabolism just stopped and I had trouble KEEPING the weight off when she was born.

A couple of years later I lost a bunch of weight and a bunch of money doing Herbalife. 2 Shakes a day and one meal. As soon as I started eating again, the weight came right back on.

Finally, 11 years later my husband told me something I already knew – he said no one can make you lose the weight but you. If you are unhappy, do something about it.

So I joined Weight Watchers. But I was determined that if I was going to do this, I was going to have fun doing it. Luckily for me, I have a leader who has a sense of humor and fellow members who like to laugh. I like my meeting for that reason. I have made friends that have helped me and I have helped be successful.

I believe in this program. If you follow it, it will work. If you put a little into it, you will lose a little weight. If you put a lot into it, you will lose a lot of weight.

If I can do this, anyone can do it.

I stand up here in front of you today, wearing a size 8 jean. 6 months ago I was a size 16. I am off of my high blood pressure medicine. I have walked in 4 5K’s and am currently training to walk a half marathon in March.

I think the thing to do is believe in yourself and surround yourself with others who believe in you and respect what you are doing.

I believe in this program and I believe in you!

Home

Home

It means different things to different people.

I have had a home in California, Key West and am on my 3rd home on Georgia.

But my home is in California.

My parents bought this house when I was 2 years old and still live there. The back bedroom, where they keep their computer now, is my room.

When I get the chance to go home, which is not very often, I walk in and slip right into comfort.

Home

The sound the Furnas makes when the pilot lights and you know in a few seconds the heater is going to come on.

Home

How when water is run in my parents bathroom, you can hear the pipes “pop” in the living room.

Home

How when you are sleeping you are still aware that my dad is up because of the sound of the newspaper pages being turned because he reads the paper every single day first thing. You can count on that just like you can count on the sun coming up every day.

Home

How if you need change for something, look in my dad’s shoe that is on the hearth. I used to wonder when I was little if he ever accidentally left a coin in his shoe and then walked around on it all day.

Home

Where Christmas Eve’s were spent with family after the church service and then on Christmas morning presents were opened and we all went to my aunt’s house for brunch.

Last night we were having very bad winds and I was awakened early. As I lay in bed, I heard my own familiar things…

The clunk of the ice maker.

The wind chime on the front porch.

The stomp of my daughter’s feet upstairs as she gets up to get ready for school.

The patter of dog paws coming down the stairs as Oliver goes from Court’s bed to ours once she gets up.

And I realized, just this morning, that I have my own home, with my own sounds and memories.

And I know that it sounds stupid, but I laid there this morning and smiled to myself in the dark listening to the wind and my husband snore and was just happy to be home!

Put A Fork In It...It's Done

When your faith is stretched so thin
that you can see straight through your soul-
-Sugarland

Faith is defined on the web as: A strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny; an institution to express belief to a divine power.

For the last 14 years I have had faith that my child would, not be healed, but would progress significantly. I thought by the time that she entered high school, friends would be made and life would be less hurtful and hard for her.

Prayer is defined on the web as: The act of communication with a deity.

For the last 14 years I have prayed that I would know what to do when it comes to parenting her; that I would know what decisions to make when it comes to her schooling and when it comes to her autism treatments.

Lately, I have had so much trouble with these two words and EVERYTHING that goes with them.

I can tell you this…14 years into it, I fell no more confident than I did when they told us she had autism.

But my faith has been shaken a lot over the last year. The loss of a couple friends – one to anger and one to selfishness, watching people’s marriages dissolve like it wasn’t worth the time or effort to save and a myriad of other things that are little but add up.

And I am sure that many of you will want to quote scriptures to me that prove that prayer works, and that things happening are God’s will and not mine. I get that, I really do.

And I get that nothing is ever easy and I believe that when I tell Courtney that anything worth doing is not going to be easy I am telling her the truth.

But the people who tell me to just pray and have faith and that all will be better need to understand that I have done all of that.

I have done all of that – so what else do ya got? Because, really, right now I am open to anything…aliens, cults, drugs…so what else do ya got?

And no, I am not going to do any of those things. But right now, this minute, I am done with everything. Tomorrow, we will try it again, but as for today…

Today I am done.