Like a lot of people, I’ve always struggled a bit with my weight. I used to start a diet every Monday and I'd generally have given up by Wednesday at the latest.
I was a pudgy child, an awkward, overweight teenager and then in my twenties I hit upon a sort of a truce with my body. I ate a bit better, I exercised a bit, I felt MUCH healthier and happier… but I was still overweight.
I was always meaning to join Weight Watchers because I'd heard good things. Also have you seen Jennifer Hudson? She is looking really good!
One thing held me back though: The Public Weighing.
Getting on a scales is traumatic enough for me without a roomful of people watching. So I always secretly thought ‘Oh, I’ll just lose a couple of pounds and THEN join a weight loss class.’ (I’m insane, I know.)
Anyway this January, I FINALLY joined Weight Watchers and now I’m hooked! There is no public weighing, your leader weighs you privately and you set a goal weight. You get a folder full of useful information with a little green booklet where you write down everything you eat and a pocket guide to the points system.
You can just show up to your first meeting, there's no pre-registration or anything, you can check out the locations here.
J-Hud... Thinspirational!I’ve been losing weight slowly but surely, a pound one week, two pounds the next, then up a half a pound. It can be frustrating but hopefully because it's going slowly, it'll stay off long term!
POINTS
And I'm really finding Weight Watchers brilliant. It simplifies your choices by assigning every food a point value and you're allowed a certain amount of points per day. I get 26 but it varies from person to person. There are also an extra 49 discretionary points per week to use whenever for treats. I always tell myself I won't use the 49 'weeklies' but then the weekend comes and they somehow all get used.
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Fruit and veg are zero points, apart from peas, potatoes, avocados and a couple of other exceptions. So you can fill up on vegetables at meal times with zero guilt. And there are LOADS of great recipes for zero point soups out there. (Sometimes I feel as if all I'm eating is soup and salad - so a bit of ingenuity IS required to keep things interesting.)
PORTION CONTROL
The Pro Points system is pretty hard on the my all time favorite food category - carbs are roughly 1 point per 10 grams uncooked. I have never used the old points but I hear this is the main difference. I LOVE carbs, and I used to eat insanely huge servings of pasta and bread and spuds. Now I weigh all my carbs before I eat them, and I've realised I don't actually need enough pasta for two people in order to feel full!
Generally the standard serving of 40 grams looks like NOTHING when I weigh it out, but once you get used to the smaller portions they seem perfect, not too much, not too little!
Carbs - NyomAt first I was permanently confused by the points system if I'm honest but for me that turned out to be quite a good thing. While I was learning the points for everything I was constantly checking my Weight Watchers pocket guide. (Months later it STILL lives in my handbag.) I really started to put a lot of thought into what I was eating BEFORE I actually ate it. Amazing!
Following the points means you're getting by on roughly 1400 calories a day, so at first I was a total walking nightmare a bit moody. I was used to a lot more sugar and cheese than I was now allowed, so it was a tough adjustment. BUT once I started actually losing weight I felt GREAT! With Weight Watchers you earn extra points by being active. So I took up running, which made me feel even better.
Plus there's really nothing like fitting into clothes you actually WANT to wear, as opposed to choosing everything based on covering up the problem areas. I'm sort of holding off making major purchases until I get to my goal weight but I'm already enjoying clothes shopping more.
Weight Watchers teaches you good habits and makes you think about every morsel. Brilliant, because a lot of my weight was down to food I ate without really thinking; by force of habit or for a treat; because I was a bit worse for wear or just because it was in front of me.
At the meetings everyone is lovely: our leader Nicola gives us pointers and we swap recipes and tips. The meetings are really helpful and motivate you for the week ahead, thy're a crucial element of the plan and gives the whole diet its momentum. The leaders have all lost weight on the plan: they've sat where you're sitting and they're really encouraging.
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I’m now proud to say I'm three-quarters of the way to my goal weight. Once you reach your goal weight you get a gold membership, meetings are free, and you can continue to weigh in every week, which is handy for maintenance.
I'd really recommend Weight Watchers to anybody who wants to lose weight. Have you ever given it a go?
