So I went to my very first Weight Watchers meeting tonight. You probably know I’m trying to lose weight for the wedding, which is in May. As in…8 1/2 months from now! And the gym workouts and calorie counting are working, just not fast enough for me.
So I thought I’d see what WW was all about and see if that could kick start my efforts into a higher gear.
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Well let me tell you, Weight Watchers and I didn’t get off on the right foot. I thought I could attend my first meeting for free….you know, check it out, kick the tires, take a test drive. Not so, said the quite stern lady sitting behind the registration table. She was apparently sympathetic to all of my reasons why the first meeting should be free, but “corporate” is taking a hard line and doesn’t allow it. So out came the debit card and goodbye $15! Needless to say, I wasn’t too happy at that moment.
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But then the stern lady (with the box of cash in front of her) sent me down the way and I got a packet of info and weighed in. The meeting leader, Cindy, welcomed me (Ok that’s a little better) and wrote my weight in a little passport-sized book and said tonight was a good night because I was going to start taking control of my weight. That sounded a little cult-like to me but whatever. I took my passport thing and sat down to read through all the material and wait for the actual meeting to start.
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I read through all the booklets and it seems pretty straightforward IF you can determine the number of “points” are in each thing you eat. I’m thinking it’ll be tough to figure out some things like meals at restaurants and things like Dream Dinners which I stock my freezer with every 6 weeks.
The meeting was pretty interesting. Cindy had a lot of energy and was very knowledgeable and positive. I did like her. And we talked about grocery shopping and tips to do this in a healthy way. People contributed ideas, comments, things that work for them, pitfalls to avoid, etc. It was good! And afterwards Cindy sat down with me alone to go over the basics, figure out how many “points” I should eat per day, and answer any questions I had. I told her one challenge was the fact that I’m a picky eater. I don’t eat seafood, I don’t like yogurt or cottage cheese, I hate the taste of artificial sweeteners. She said the beauty of WW was that I could choose my food as long as I stay at that point goal. I also expressed concern over the cost. You have to pay $14 per meeting, which is once a week. That will add up! But if I think of it as investing in myself and my health, isn’t it worth it? Yes but….
So I’m going to give it a try for at least a week and see how easy/hard it is to track these points. Maybe I’ll go to another meeting next Thursday, maybe not. There’s also an online component that you can subscribe to that might be an option for me. We’ll see. Either way, I learned a bit and I’m ready to give this a shot.
Have you ever tried a weight loss program like WW? What were your results?
Musings and Mumblings 