Living the Lifestyle- Wednesday - 12/4/2019

GavinFlynn1

We meet here to explore, share, celebrate and (sometimes) agonize over how we do (or don't) incorporate weight loss guidelines into our daily lives. "It's a lifestyle, not a diet" is easily and often said, but sometimes not so simply put into practice.

This is a thread for everyone. If you're new to GoaD, or to weight loss, your questions and comments are always welcome. If you're maintaining, or a long-term loser, your thoughts on the topic may be just what someone else needs to hear. If you're reading this, join in the discussion!

Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion. Thread starters for September are below:

Monday - 88olds (George)
Tuesday - Imastar2 (Derrick)
Wednesday - GavinFlynn (Gavin)
Thursday -
Friday -

Today’s topic: Healthy Lifestyle “Tourism”

Have you ever gone to out of town WW meetings? Visited other healthy lifestyle groups outside of your “home groups”? Do you enjoy the experience? What do you get out of it? Do you hate the experience? What bothers you about it?

88olds

Murfreesboro TN. A weekday morning. Me and about 80 women. What could go wrong?

Every indication was that they loved me. Out of towner. A guy. Been maintaining for years. I was a real curiosity. It was great fun.

We were in Murfreesboro after we evacuated Key West for Hurricane Irma. At that point my WW attendance fell apart. I didn’t go back to the Key West meeting. The following summer we were in Chicago and I went back to my old meeting. I told the receptionist that my last meeting had been in Murfreesboro TN. The substitute ML overheard me. He had been to the same meeting. Stopped by while driving to FL.

Before we moved to KW, I had attended that meeting on vacation. Not nearly as much fun as Murfreesboro.

GavinFlynn1

I live in Vancouver, Washington, and I have been to out-of-town WW meetings in Seattle once, and many times in Spokane (my hometown). The Spokane meetings all seemed to notice and mention my out of town status, and ask for my input on the topics. That felt really good. The Seattle meeting seemed to ignore it. I felt proud of myself for attending the meeting, but otherwise felt like an outsider at that meeting.

gadgetgirlIL

I've been to out of town meetings 3 times: Sheboygan, WI, San Francisco, and New York City. The best of the three was the Sheboygan meeting where the regular members made a ball out of their name tags at the end of the meeting and gave it to me as a keepsake! I felt the most welcome in Sheboygan. Felt anonymous at the other meetings which isn't too surprising considering the population density differences.

myallforjcbill

I used to go to out of town midweek meetings when I was working and had to travel. I found it quite helpful to keep a focus while traveling. I think Fort Worth TX and one near Reno that I really enjoyed. Some pretty much ignored you like you were an outsider, or perhaps as the only man in the room crashing their get together. But the good ones generally welcomed you and made you feel part of the group. I am not in WW anymore, but the meetings here are pretty large, at least on weekends. These ones tended to be smaller. But a good leader is what made it work and I generally found good leaders a the out of town meetings.

podkey

Only a WW meet-up with Gavin, his son, Greg from Cottage Grove area, and some others. We met at a nice restaurant in the Vancouver WA area. I enjoyed that a lot. I have not been to any official WW meetings away from home except in our local area.

GavinFlynn1

That was awesome, Pod!!

That reminds me that I also traveled to Seattle for a GoaD meet-up there, plus a few of us gathered to do a 5k walk around Mt. Tabor once.

podkey

Oh how could I forget walking around Mt Tabor one time with our PacNW group me laddy! I know "sandravixen" joined us upon occasion too.