For a while there I was afraid that my new employment with Big Weightloss Corporation (hereby known as BWC) would mean that I would have to stop blogging. Which threw me into a total panic because I truly do think that this blog has so much to do with my health/weightloss/fitness success this year. In so many ways.

But I have found a way to make it work, I think.  The thing you’re not allowed to do is give away any BWC secrets that are not public knowledge, ie things that people have to pay for to learn. That makes sense. It is a for-profit company. But I do think that I can blog about certain aspects of my own personal response to this job, without giving away stuff that isn’t kosher.

Last night was the first training meeting. I was surprised that I really enjoyed it. The other new hires were a diverse (yay) bunch of people (all women) whom I liked a lot.

We learned some stuff about the history of BWC that I didn’t know. One, that it was begun by a housewife in 1963, who was trying to lose weight on various diets like Cabbage Diet, Egg diet and others, but could not do it. So she invited her friends and neighbors to her house to come over and discuss their various struggles with weight loss. I wonder if she was the one who made these original bizzaro menu cards! Anyway, she and her buddies started making small weekly goals for themselves. I like that it started as a place of community, honesty and support, which is totally what I think is working for me in the blog and Twitter (and RL!) world. I wish I could say that I felt a great sense of community in my own BWC meetings, but so far that has not been the case. People drift in and out and don’t seem to be very bonded. But it is one of the stated goals of what we are supposed to do: to make people feel like they are part of a group. I think this probably happens much more naturally at the At Work meetings, where it’s the same people week after week, and they already know each other. But I really want to try and develop this more when I have my own group(s). I think it’s really important.

I was nervous about coming to this training. So much that I lost my appetite pretty much all day yesterday. I was worried that because my goal is near the top of my Healthy Range, that I wouldn’t really be able to inspire anybody.  I’ve said this before, but I know that plenty of people who are at my current weight are VERY dissatisified and come in wanting to lose 20 more. But I didn’t feel bad or freakishly huge in this group and everyone oohed and ahhed when they saw my Before pics. So that was a relief.

When I went through the materials, I found them very reassuring and inspiring. I can get behind this program. So, this week I begin working with a mentor receptionist, and we’ll see how it goes. So far, so good.