You don’t need food to have a good time

I didn’t achieve my Weight Watchers goal for the week. But I gained a valuable lesson that helped me on my journey towards greater health. I realized I didn’t need food to have a good time. I gained this from two experiences.

The first was a department lunch we had last week at the Yard House. This was the first time I had seen my coworkers face-to-face in a year. I planned for the meal in advance. I looked up the menu and picked out an entrée that was delicious and fit into my Personal Points for the day. I even fit in an appetizer into my daily plan in case the team ordered one. As soon as we got seated, we got right into the conversations. We had a lot of catching up to do. There were so many personal discussions we missed out on because we had all our meetings on Microsoft Teams. When it was time to order, no one was interested in an appetizer. We just ordered our lunch.

Before I started on my health journey, my primary focus at company lunches was the food — especially if the company was paying for it. I had to have my share, and then some. I couldn’t leave anything out, and I always had seconds. (And if anything was left in the lunchroom afterwards, I’d go back for that.) I shied away from conversation. Part of this was because I was focused on the food, and part of it was my embarrassment of being seen eating so much. I’d eat by myself or go…