Support is needed!!!

Hello old friends! It has been a really long time! A lot of changes have happened in my life (marriage, back injuries, pregnancy, and surgeries), which I allowed to get in the way of my health related goals... slap me on the hand if you must ;). As a result, I've gained back all but 40 of my 116 lbs lost, causing me to have some pretty ridiculous self-esteem issues. Don't worry, I'm still an overall positive person, but I realized recently how much I tend to base my self-worth on how much I weigh, rather than on things of much more importance. This realization, along with a recent conversation with a my awesome friend Rebecca Peterson, made me really excited about what I want to do with this blog in the near future. Therefore, I'd like to re-evaluate the purposes for this blog. Don't worry, it's still about health, motivation, and challenges, but I'm taking it a step further. I, ALONG WITH REBECCA, AM CREATING A WEIGHT LOSS/HEALTH SUPPORT GROUP!!! This blog will become the home for that support group... There will be meeting recaps, weight-loss results as per member permission (not weights, but differentiation of weight from week to week, ie. -2 lbs or +1...), recipes, etc. We will have contests, goal prizes (not your typical prizes), and a few extras to help keep us all motivated :)

Those of you who've read this in the past, know I'm a member of TOPS... I still plan on attending my TOPS support group because they've become a family to me, but because it's a nation-wide organization, there are a lot of laws and bylaws which must be followed, that don't necessarily motivate me and everything is controlled from a higher level. I love the basic concept of TOPS, but every time I go to the meetings I secretly say to myself, "If I was in charge, I would change this..." Call me a control-freak if you must, but I know that what motivates some people, doesn't motivate me and vice-versa. Because I know myself pretty well and I know what motivates me, I know that I need to surround myself with positive, friendly, and motivated people and I myself need to be a motivator in order to succeed. As a disclaimer, this will not be like TOPS. It is based solely on what Rebecca and I think up, which may or may not include some ideas we've been motivated by in the past. So please join me in my selfish plea and I guarantee you'll have fun, meet incredible people, and become healthier and happier in the process. If you wish to only come one week, one month, or a year, we'd love to have you. If you choose to participate in competitions, however, you will need to be there at least at the beginning and the end of each month you choose to participate.

Here's the deal Boise area peeps:

• Meetings will be held at my house (text me for an address 284-8649) every Saturday morning at 10:00 (with a few exceptions). Weigh-in will be the first 15 minutes, with a short meeting afterwards. If you are only coming for support and don't want to participate in weigh-in, just show up at 10:15. (If you have children, please try to find someone to watch them. We love kids, but there is only so much room in my house and we'd like to keep chaos to a minimum. If childcare would keep you from coming, we'd rather have you come.)
• Meeting topics will be (but are subject to change): 1st Saturday - Goal planning, 2nd Saturday - Recipe exchange and meal planning, 3rd Saturday - Motivation and/or exercise, 4th Saturday - Reward day and open discussion. If there's a 5th Saturday, the 4th Saturday will be a discussion and recap of how our goals for the month panned out and Rewards and open discussion will move to the 5th Saturday. We will not promote any specific diets, so please keep recipe ideas and health ideas about health and not about specific diets.
• Rebecca and I will weigh everyone in and everything will be kept completely discreet, except for your results (again, with permission). We will keep individual results, as well as group results. We're very sensitive when it comes to weight and understand that most people are. We will never judge you and  will never release your information to anyone. I'm getting a new scale for this, but it will not be like a doctor's scale. Therefore, there's a maximum amount of weight it will hold. If you know you may exceed this limit, please try to find a gym or doctor's office where you can weigh in weekly if you wish to participate in this aspect of the group. An extra pair of eyes is highly motivating, so please take someone with you.
• Because I'm competitive to a degree, we will have a contest every month. Every person choosing to participate will put $2 into the pot. The person with the highest percent of weight-loss for the month gets the pot. This could be awesome! If you participate, you must be there for the first and the last weigh-in for the month. I'm sorry, but even if your weight loss % is higher in week 3 than the winner in week 4, the money goes to week 4 winner. If you're like me, you could easily gain 5 lbs in a week and I don't want anyone skipping week 4 because they've gained and think they could still win with their week 3 numbers. If you exceed my scale's weight limit, you need to have 2 pairs of eyes at your weigh-ins to win the contest.
• Try to bring some type of folder, some paper, and a writing utensil. In the future we may make a "Join Our Journey" notebook, but for now the aforementioned will do.
• FIRST MEETING IS NOVEMBER 3RD!!! We want you there! I want my scale to run out of batteries often (don't worry, I'll always have back-up)!

Whether you have no weight to lose or 500 lbs to lose, health is important. Though this support group is mainly for weight loss, we welcome anyone with open arms that wants to be healthier. Just remember weight can be and generally is a very sensitive subject, so we would ask those who don't have much or any weight to lose to be sensitive to that fact and come with love and encouragement. Again, I say this selfishly because I can be over-sensitive in this area. Thanks ;)

What we do NOT want to promote with this group is extreme dieting, extreme exercising, or eating disorders. This is to promote a healthy way of life and support to get us all through our journey.

SO EXCITED FOR THIS AND HOPE TO HEAR FROM MANY!!! BRING YOUR FRIENDS! (Please, no one younger than 14.)

XOXO - Jerusha (and Rebecca)