Weight Watchers PowerStart Works Well: Lessons on Productivity

December 6, 2011 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

Weight Watchers just introduced PointsPlus 2012.

The program has not changed a great deal. They’ve made some minor Points Plus target changes, giving some people the ability to go to a Points Plus Value as low as 26 (it used to be 29). They’ve instituted a range. In effect, they’ve made a flexible program even more flexible, which I think is good.

However, the biggest change (at least in my opinion) is how it’s explained to the new members (as well as returning members who would like to have it refreshed). It’s called PowerStart.

What is PowerStart?

Previously, new members would stay for a single “Getting Started Session,” where the concept of points (or points plus values) were explained. The weekly points plus allowance and activity points were also outlined, as well as the concept behind the Weight Watchers program in general. It took about 30 minutes, but was necessary if you wanted to be successful – as I’m sure people do when they join. However, one thing they found out is that in trying to take in that much information, especially while being a bit emotional at the time, people were overwhelmed.

Why emotional?

Think about it. Most people who join Weight Watchers – or any diet plan – are not in a good mood when they begin. They tend to be sad, feel guilty for putting on that much weight, or scared. After all, no one wakes up one morning and says,

“Yay! I finally put on enough weight that I can go to Weight Watchers!”

By the time they show up, they’ve tried everything; nothing has worked; so they broke through the veil of denial and decided to do something about their weight. But let’s face it, when you finally admit to yourself that you’ve “let yourself go,” you don’t feel so good about yourself. Therefore, when somebody starts a diet program, she usually feels bad about herself. Add to that feeling that they’re absorbing a lot of information and, well, what happens is they get distracted; they don’t learn it, and their heads explode.

What to do?

Weight Watchers has changed the game, so instead of one” getting started session,” they have introduced three PowerStart sessions; each one focuses on the basics of the program for just a few minutes but spends a lot of the time focusing on three different skills that will help the members actually make some helpful and healthy changes – and begin without delay.

[Read more…]

Noticing Perfect Moments

November 14, 2011 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

Take time to notice “perfect” moments in life.

How often we do let them slip by unnoticed?

When was the last time you lingered over a brilliant sunset, or stopped to watch children play, or smelled the air after a first rain, or put your day on hold long enough to make a baby giggle? How long has it been since you sat and held hands with someone special, not even bothering to talk? Can you remember just sitting and thinking about how wonderful is life – without having the urge to get up and “do something?”

Life cannot be perfect.

However, do not confuse that with a lack of perfect moments. We get so busy, we forget to notice them when they occur.

Stop.

Slow down.

Breathe deeply the moments when they happen.

Life is good.

[Read more…]

Finding Four Leaf Clovers – If You Look, You’ll Find What You Need

November 13, 2011 by Scott "Q" Marcus

By guest author Dr. Sue Morter, who was a guest on “Getting Past What Holds You Back” (see below)

There is a purpose for every event that occurs in our lives: service. Everything that occurs serves as an opportunity for us to come to know ourselves more fully as an empowered co-creator of our experience. No exceptions.

In the first three months after my mother, Marjorie’s, passing, I found 69 four leaf clovers. This was not because I was particularly gifted in any way, but rather because I simply slowed down enough to see them. And when I did see them, sometimes three or four at a time, a deep and overwhelming sense of joy slipped in between the crushing grief and reminded me that there was more to the moment than the obvious.

So what was different?

I sat down. I stopped from a pace of running a private practice, managing a staff, traveling to all corners of the country and abroad teaching professional seminars, being one of her primary care takers on the weekends and catching a flight back home in order to return to work and begin again on Monday. I stopped with the notion of everything having to get ‘done.’ I just sat down. I ‘had’ to.

In that sitting down, in the despair of what felt like losing such a beautiful and rare relationship, my mind stopped and it felt as though all that remained was my breath. Literally all I could focus on was my breathing. Everything else fell away. And something shifted in me. I felt an actual physical, shift. Something let go, and something else ignited.

A feeling (rather than a philosophy) — that it really was OK to fully accept my state, trust it, take action from that space or take no action at all, and let go of the outcome — was born.

“One of the reasons that people can’t find four leaf clovers is that they are too busy looking at all of the three leaf clovers,” a favorite quote of mine, offered by Marjorie.

Part of the reason that we have a hard time getting to what we want is that we are so indoctrinated into what we ‘don’t want.’ But by allowing ourselves to sit down enough to listen within, our perfect path can be known. My business/speaking opportunities and revenues doubled in the year following my ‘sitting down.’ And the results I see in private practice are like I have never seen before. [Read more…]

Observations after an Accident

November 2, 2011 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

This is my 312th column, putting a period on six years.

These thoughts I share every week do not have a “mission statement” or goal per se; however, I always aspire to use the privilege of this space (and your time) to inspire, uplift, and to be supportive in whatever way I can. If I am also able to generate a laugh or two in the process, that makes it all the better. However, whatever my topic, I attempt to tie these dispatches into what I consider the “big picture;” that each of us possesses the ability to be who we wish to be. Whether we indeed want to drop a few pounds, improve our relationships, or just smile more often; the solutions lie not in our actions but in our thoughts, those sparkling connections firing day in and day out between our synapses.

Let’s take that concept a little deeper, shall we?

Our thoughts — to a large extent — are altered by our feelings. If I am angry or sad, my thoughts will be unlike when I am happy or excited. Upbeat folks are more inclined to venture down new avenues than depressed folks; who will lean toward stagnation; both of these due in large extent to underlying emotions. Therefore, it makes sense — at least to me — that the more I accentuate the positive, the more I engage in new behaviors.

Why don’t we do that more often? It’s not that difficult really.

Underneath these thoughts and their triggering feelings lie beliefs. By example, if I believe that life is painful, it’s much more difficult to modify my emotions to find the positive than if I believe life is glorious. Since we are always looking to validate our beliefs, we find “proof” of them wherever we look. One who believes life stinks will uncover countless examples as evidence. Whereby, one who loves life will find an equal number shoring up her philosophy. In effect, what you seek generates emotional responses, altering your thoughts, leading to different actions, adjusting the outcome of your life. Change your observations; change your life.

[Read more…]

Controlling Your Feelings & Emotions

October 31, 2011 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

Nobody makes us feel anything.

It is a choice. It can be changed.

It’s hard to remember that when we feel something, the truth is we have learned to feel that emotion under those circumstances. Feelings do not just “happen.” In effect, most of the time, our feelings are a habit. And if they are habits, they can be changed.

When you say to someone (for example), “You make me so mad!” You put control over your emotions in someone else’s hands, making you a victim to their whims. A more helpful way to respond is “When you do that, I get angry.” By wording it that way, you empower yourself to change your reaction – while still being honest about how you feel.

The only other option is to give control over your emotions to other people or to external events, in effect abdicating responsibility for how you live and never being able to achieve what you want. [Read more…]

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