I have been a member of WW (used to be Weight Watchers, now WW) off and on since the mid 1970’s. I have made Lifetime twice. My last recommitment to WW started on May 16, 2019, and I have been faithful since then. To maintain Lifetime and not have to pay, the rules are simple. One must gain no more than two pounds over your goal weight, and weigh in once a month. Since Covid, the meetings were virtual until a few months ago, and weigh-ins could be at home and recorded online.  

I made Lifetime the first time in 2002, the year of our daughter Tara’s wedding. I did not want to be overweight in wedding photos that are kept forever! Unfortunately, I regained the weight and have photos of me with that extra weight in daughter Chatham’s wedding five years later in 2007.  

I spent several years paying my WW monthly dues and was not really serious about it. In January of 2019 I began to get serious again about losing weight, when I hit my all-time high weight. Between January and May I lost thirteen pounds. I weighed every day and began to watch what I ate. But I wasn’t yet serious about WW, until May 16, 2019, when I went back to a WW meeting and made a commitment to myself to lose the weight. I weighed in at 145 pounds. I set my goal weight at 130 pounds and made Lifetime July 13, 2019. I have continued to lose, maintaining my weight between 101 and 106 pounds most days in the past eighteen months. I reset my goal at 110. I do not want to weigh any less than 100 pounds, which is still an ok weight for someone of my height and overall body size and shape.

Even before Covid, I rarely attended WW meetings, although whenever I did, I always learned something helpful. WW believes that those who attend meetings are usually more successful at losing their weight and maintaining the loss. The group support is deemed helpful to most people, even more so than the meeting content. I am not a “groupie,” and found more value in the content than the group support. I never attended a virtual meeting, although I recorded my weight once a month at least.

So, I have been a member of WW off and on for at least forty-six years. Still, it was recently that I received my first personal touch from a WW staff member, ever. Before this, no one who saw me at WW seemed to care if I attended a meeting. I was a number, and they had a job to do. Their job did not include making me feel important to them. Until Coach Leslie G. This blog is not really about me and my weight loss. It is not even about WW. It is about customer service and Coach Leslie G.

For whatever reason, and I do not even know why, I decided to go to a WW meeting in Raleigh a couple of Sundays ago. Coach Leslie G was the Leader. It was a very small group. The content was interesting, as was the discussion. I recall being impressed with Coach Leslie G as a Leader. I have been less than impressed with some others over the years.

I had already been thinking about whether to attend the next Sunday’s meeting, when an email from Coach Leslie G came through on Saturday evening and made my decision for me. The email was “Connie (the other WW staff person) and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow at the WW meeting.” It seems that there was another sentence or two, but “We look forward to seeing you” was what connected with me the most. Someone knew I was there and looked forward to seeing me at the meeting! Coach Leslie G’s message reached out and touched me in a way that made me feel important.

Now, I am still not a groupie, and do not think I am “needy.” But I was very touched by Coach Leslie G telling me that she and Connie cared that I was there. As a customer service teacher for many years, as one who believes in the power of good customer service, that customer service experience was so meaningful to me. There was no question at that point about whether I would be at the WW meeting on Sunday, for they cared if I came. I promptly registered for the meeting.

On Sunday at the meeting, I thanked Coach Leslie G for her email, and told her how important it was in getting me to the meeting. I also told her that she was the very first WW staff person in my many years as a member who “reached out and touched me.”

How can you and I reach out and touch someone?