Time To Breathe...

It finally happened. The long awaited final piece of the Weight Watchers Leader training puzzle was completed Thursday night. After that the next three days became a whirlwind ... but let's back it on up. I let you all know about how I led my first ever full Weight Watchers meeting on Tuesday night...

After that, I felt a little more comfortable with the "big" meeting that would take place on Thursday night in front of my boss. Well, that was on Tuesday night/Wednesday. Thursday the nerves set back in. :P

Thankfully Thursdays are my busy day as I am the receptionist for three meetings (8am, 12:15 & 1:15) so the nerves really didn't set in unti I got home around 3ish.

I went over my notes one more time, got in to my "power dress" - the same one I wore at WW training and have worn a few times (the black ny&co dress) and headed out to the meeting.

My Leader coach Heather got me my very own "Leader Bag" :) A Leader Bag basically is a big bag to keep all of your WW stuff for your meetings together - not an official thing, but many have them. I felt wicked cool receiving my own. She stocked it up as well with great little goodies. :)

 

Thankfully she loved the gift I got her - Dunkin Donuts gift card & her very own reusable DD iced coffee cup - I know, we were a good fit. :P

Then all of a sudden it was 5:30 and time to start...

The meeting was great! It was a great topic - "Anchoring" - and the group was talkative and more than willing to share. I felt a lot more comfortable at the front and really tried to learn everything I had at training while being true to myself.

They even loved the "anchors" I gave out to the group as well - tiny sneaker erasers - for them to take with them for the week to remember the topic and ideas we had discussed.

The meeting wrapped up and it was time for the final verdict. It was great hearing what my Leader coach, Heather, and big boss, Elaine, had to say.

I felt awesome! You couldn't, and still can't, take the grin off my face from the awesome conversation we had. And after all that...

I got the word...

I WAS OFFICIALLY A WEIGHT WATCHERS LEADER!

Yay!!

Now would come the fun part of working on getting meetings of my very own to Lead. How cool, right?

I am so honored to be a part of such a great group of people and a great organization, Weight Watchers, trying to help people change their lives.

---

I then found out that I would be subbing in for a leader the next day (Friday) and then two the following day (Saturday).

Wow! I went from leading one full meeting that week for my big boss to leading five meetings. Woo! I was ready for the challenge.

I happily went off to the meeting on Friday, but it was a smaller crowd because of the holiday. It was a small group, but one that challenged me ... and I welcomed it. Plus, they liked the little dog erasers I handed out at the end for "anchors."

Saturday brought my first experience with leading back-to-back meetings, but they were groups I was familiar with since I am normally a receptionist at that location.

The groups can range from low 50s to high 60s depending on the week so I had to make extra "anchors" to be ready for any size crew. This time I used decorative plastic easter eggs with motivational sayings in each. I made 122 to be on the safe side.

Despite it being Passover/Easter, we had a great turnout and totaled about 70-something between the two meetings. The groups were great and I had an awesome time.

They also let me know they loved the meeting and were shocked I was so new to the role of Leader. They thought I was a veteran. Yay! I loved hearing that.

---

What a week. I went from one meeting to five and I loved every minute of it. Each group was so unique and each meeting was different from the next.

I can't wait to continue this journey and start the next phase ... waiting to hear which meetings I will be able to Lead on a regular basis! :)