Our friend Lori from Readheaded Stranger was the winner of the Get a Guru sweepstakes! Here she writes about her first impressions of having a guru, from when she first found out she won through her initial talk with Cynthia.

I had to admit, my first thought was, “This is the answer to my prayers!” But what I was praying for? Someone to tell me what to do? I already know what I should be doing. Maybe I needed to win a chef or lunch-packer or something. But I was psyched. Psyched, psyched, psyched! I know I eat lousy. I know I need to add more vegetables to my diet and eat healthier. But I hate so many vegetables, it’s not even funny.

Then I made the mistake of checking out Cynthia’s Web site and re-reading old entries on Elastic Waist.  Uh-oh, she loathes Diet Coke. That’s one of my major food groups. I don’t drink coffee—I need some caffeine goodness. Maybe winning this was not such a good idea after all. She’s into macrobiotics I think. And lots of vegetables (like that’s a big surprise from a nutritionist for goodness sake). I may be in trouble here. I wrote Sarah about my fears and she wrote and told me not to be nervous.

On Saturday, I got a call from Cynthia. She sounded very nice and very reasonable. One thing she has asked me to do is to give up using Weight Watchers points. I was honest with her and said that I could do it. I also pointed out to her that I’ve been doing it so long that I pretty much know what the points for the things I eat most often. So I probably would still go to WW for the weekly weigh-in and inspiration but I already was not driven to record points religiously. I think I’m going down the intuitive-eating road, which is fine with me. I said to her that for a little while, I would cling to WW much like I clung to my kickboard in my many swim classes until it was time for someone to yank it away from me or I didn’t need it anymore. She was fine with that; she thought it was a good analogy. She said we’d discuss the Diet Coke situation. I think I may be a tough nut to crack. I don’t see myself making tempeh (whatever that is—I think it’s a grain, right? or is it in Arizona?).

But it’s a bit scary to tell someone what you’re eating and letting them judge you. On the other hand, if you walk around being overweight, someone with no training can do this to you too without any constructive criticism. It’s going to be an interesting prize. I’ll be writing about it. —Lori