I began Weight Watchers (online) in 2004 completely alone. My mom had had success with the program, and I had a feeling if I just gave it a go, it’d work. Being in a long-distance international relationship, with family far away, all I had to focus on was myself and my friends. It was the most selfish time of my life and, admittedly, that’s partially what I credit to getting me to my goal in December 2004. I lost 35 pounds and was a lean (but solid) size 6.

What also helped me get to goal with this fabulous group of women I met online in September 2004 on the Weight Watchers message boards. We dubbed ourselves the Weekend Sabatogers. We’d post several times a day on our thread sharing menu ideas, workouts, weekly weigh-ins (WI) and Weight Watchers-related stuff at first. But in time, we grew closer and shared much more personal things, celebrating each other’s joys as well as not-so-joyful times. Though we all still keep in touch via Facebook, emails, and — for some of us — in-person gatherings (Chicago ’07, wooooot!!), we stopped regularly posting as a group in late 2008. Life just got busy, most of us were at-goal or close to it, and I personally needed to step away because I’d gotten deep into my food issues by this point and talking about food/exercise was just not helping.

But now, four years later, I’m in such a different place now. Those dark days are long gone and I am not worried about going back to my obsessive, restrictive, disordered ways. It’s in the past. Done, and done.

And I have missed the camaraderie we shared and the accountability I felt being part of such an amazing group. A recent Facebook post from one of the girls got the ball rolling and yesterday, we recommitted to posting again.

We all have different goals in mind — and they don’t necessarily have to be weight-related. I’ve never really stopped tracking anyway since I started in 2004, but I am the first to admit since hitting goal in December 2004, I’ve gained back half of what I initially lost (two pounds a year over 8 years adds up).

And I have pretty much gone over by 50-100 Points each week for the past year (which was OK when I was pregnant 2 yrs ago; not now!). I’ve been able to maintain my pre-pregnancy weight (and have even lost a couple more), and so I feel I’ll be more likely to NOT go over my Points knowing I’d be weighing in each week and sharing that number (whatever it is — I’m not sharing here; this isn’t a weight loss blog) with the group.

This is how I see it now: I know if I lost 10 pounds, I would look/feel better and would be back to my wedding-day weight (which was still 8 lbs above my original goal, but I felt good there). And if I don’t, I’m not going to be crying about it, either. I have way too much positive in my life to fret over a number on the scale. And I like to eat (and enjoy food!) and work out (but for fun now, not obsessively).

Yet at the same time, I’d love to get my little (for me) waist back. It used to be an asset and now … it’s just, well … nonexistent. I know having a baby changes things (especially delivering via C-section; bye-bye nice abs my OB commented on during my C-section!), but there’s still hope.

As a social person, I’m really in this for the accountability and if weight loss is a byproduct of that, great. If it’s not, I’ll be happy to check in and, at the very least, maintain my weight.

Cheers to accountability!

How about you? Are you more accountable (re: training for an event, losing weight, spending, etc.) when you have someone to confide in or do you prefer to go it alone?