The meetings themselves are rather boring (depends on the leader, though, and you wouldn't be going to the Waltham ones). arawen and I went to 3-4 of them and then stopped going because we weren't getting anything out of them - we just go weigh in and then leave. It's probably a good idea to go to a few when you're starting. I think the weighing in every week (accountability) is the important part of the meetings anyway - I get better support and ideas by lurking on Dotti's Weightloss Zone. But if you doing the program alone, meetings might be more necessary - support is a really important part of being successful. I don't think I'd be doing so well if arawen weren't doing it with me. It's also harder in a group situation - when I started, I went through the house and got rid of food I didn't want to have around (wheat thins = carbohydrate crack for me) and marked point totals on every single food item that we had. I don't know if you'd be able to do that or not (you could just tell people to ignore the number). It's also much harder to order in food or go out to eat than before, because guessing points is tough.
Yeah, I don't like the idea of others judging how well I'm losing weight either. I try not to pay much attention to what the person who's writing down the results say. I'm paying them to do the program (basically, to give me structure, since I could follow the points system on my own).
I really truly think Weight Watchers is the most sensible and most longterm "diet" program out there - it's really more about learning healthy eating habits than specifically eating or not eating certain foods. My main problems right now are 1) I get nervous and snack at work, and I don't have good snacks available (cookies eat up my points really quickly), 2) We don't cook enough - when we do cook, we have healthy, yummy food available for lunch and dinner, and 3) need more fresh fruits and vegetables. Without WW, I think I would be floundering a lot more than I am right now. WW tells me about how much I can / actually need to eat every day to be healthy (they're very big on hitting your minimum points every day so that you don't go into starvation mode), and it gives me tools to figure out more easily how much food items count for (supermarket veggie sushi - whole package = 5 pts, mmmm :) ). I know that arawen hit days, especially at the beginning, where he had to eat more food before going to bed. [g]
Probably evangelizing a bit too much here. :) I highly recommend giving it a try - I think 12 weeks is something like $139, which isn't too bad. I'm also more than happy to try and answer any questions that you might have (like here!). Right now I'm sort of rambling, because I'm not sure what information will interest you.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2003-04-08 09:28 am (UTC)Yeah, I don't like the idea of others judging how well I'm losing weight either. I try not to pay much attention to what the person who's writing down the results say. I'm paying them to do the program (basically, to give me structure, since I could follow the points system on my own).
I really truly think Weight Watchers is the most sensible and most longterm "diet" program out there - it's really more about learning healthy eating habits than specifically eating or not eating certain foods. My main problems right now are 1) I get nervous and snack at work, and I don't have good snacks available (cookies eat up my points really quickly), 2) We don't cook enough - when we do cook, we have healthy, yummy food available for lunch and dinner, and 3) need more fresh fruits and vegetables. Without WW, I think I would be floundering a lot more than I am right now. WW tells me about how much I can / actually need to eat every day to be healthy (they're very big on hitting your minimum points every day so that you don't go into starvation mode), and it gives me tools to figure out more easily how much food items count for (supermarket veggie sushi - whole package = 5 pts, mmmm :) ). I know that
Probably evangelizing a bit too much here. :) I highly recommend giving it a try - I think 12 weeks is something like $139, which isn't too bad. I'm also more than happy to try and answer any questions that you might have (like here!). Right now I'm sort of rambling, because I'm not sure what information will interest you.