Weight Watchers

[dancerjodi]

My Aunt has been doing the Weight Watchers program for a while. She swiped some extra books/charts for my parents and they'll be doing the program on their own at home. The family was checking out everything on Father's Day and discussing nutrition, portions, etc.

For those that don't know Brian, he was a very thin and lanky guy for most of his life, and went through tough times at home with his Mom where they often wouldn't have food in the house to a period where he was technically homeless and squatted on friend's couches. Once his Italian girlfriend came along (heh) he was fattened up with a home, a family to feed him, and eventual a computer desk job. Brian's made huge gains in losing weight though - he's dropped about 40 lbs over the last couple of years just from making minor changes in what he's eating. When he did eat as a kid and teen it was mostly a lot of junk, so just ruling out soda and sweets and that kind of thing resulted in that 40 lb loss.

Now he's kind of stuck at a plateau. I've also posted here about how a couple of years ago I put on about 10 lbs and have yet to lose it. We're both fairly active (well, me much more so than he), so we need some serious diet changes to make the difference. I think the big thing with us both is portion control. And eating out at restaurants - when we cook at home its usually healthy and well balanced, its going out that kills us.

Yesterday we pondered the idea of doing the Weight Watcher's thing together. Its essentially a simplified way of counting fat and calories, which is something I've done myself before through the Self Challenge, and I learned a lot about the amount of food I was eating, and what my body needs. We thought the information available doing WW online would be helpful, but I think the support and info gained going to meetings would be good too. I've known a lot of people that have enjoyed their WW experience. I wonder if we should do something like that, or do something on our own (more like I was doing before, counting calories and fat, etc).

So WW peeps, what do you have to say? Are you an online member or a meeting member? What are the pros and cons? If we joined a center it would be the one in Waltham with meetings at the Elks lodge. OR, have you made a change in your life that's lead to eating better that may work for us that you'd like to share?

Comments

[ggirl.livejournal.com]

WW works. I use the online program but at times I've also done meetings and also just the At Home program. THe key to WW and any diet or lifestyle is commitment and motivation. You have to really want to lose the weight otherwise it won't work. But if you're at that stage, then it *will* work.