Weight Watchers

I watched my mom struggle with her weight all my life, and not from lack of trying. Exercise, diets, nothing worked. I was her first born and never saw her healthy unless it was in old photos before she was pregnant with me. She developed diabetes and was on the Atkins diet only by necessity and had no weight loss. She finally lost 70 pounds by the time I was 21. The lap band surgery was what finally gave her what she'd wanted for two decades. It was stunning, but costly to her. It never taught her better habits that got her there, only forced her to eat much slower and much less at once. When the food inevitably got stuck above the band, it had to come back up. The constant acid up her throat damaged much of her vocal cords. My mom's singing voice was one of our family treasures. She was heartbroken at losing her ability.

I was gifted with a similar talent. I struggled with my own weight gains. I was terrified that I would have to give up my own singing voice in order to reach my previous state of health. Back to seeing that WW option. For free. I remember my grandma tried it and did well. She was the only person I knew who had. If my employer was willing to waste their money for three months when nothing happened and still pay part of my premiums, I felt I had nothing to lose. I had built confidence in myself that didn't rely on how I physically looked. It couldn't hurt to try it.

January 12th, 2018 I was 247 pounds. April 12th, I had lost 19.2 of them. That week my employer gave me an email thanking me for sticking with all three months. The same email informed me they were paying for the next nine months of my membership. I'd become convinced of the program's benefits a month before and was planning on paying it myself at the end of the three months. I was elated at this reward!

May 3rd I reached 25 down. In September, we had the first anniversary of our wedding. I was 38 down. April 5th, 2019 I was under 200 pounds. I hadn't seen that for at least 7 years. My husband woke up thinking something happened when he heard me yelling that morning. A month later I reached 50 pounds down. My dog's bag of food weighs 50 pounds, and I struggle to carry it.

My journey wasn't a total straight declining line. Whoever named them plateaus was a liar. Should have named them nauseous roller coasters. I've had FOUR of them... so far. At those times it boiled down to a waiting game and finding new ways to keep my physical confidence in myself high. I'm not ready to call it done. If I could choose an ultimate weight goal, mine would be 160 - the same as when I was 18. I don't have any baby weight to lose as I've never been pregnant. I'm only 35 pounds away as of May 19th. I've become a fan of my local thrift shop. I'll probably keep going there even after I no longer have clothes outgrowing me.

I finally found the contact info for those amazing souls who offered me the first three months on them. I'm working on sending them a big thank you. My husband has been in love with me and my body years before I started. This month he picked me up for the first time. He grins every time his arms wrap tighter around me than before. I see my face in the mirror and have found a long lost friend. Most of all, my biggest non-scale victory: I can still sing.

That's when I first went to Weight Watchers. I made slow, steady progress, and hit my goal weight, 116, a 6 months later. By then I had started running too - and losing the extra weight really helped my race times. I stayed within 5 pounds of my weight for several years. Then, as I trained harder for races, long simmering digestive problems started to make me miserable. Going off dairy and gluten had a huge impact. For the first time I could get through a half marathon without having to stop. And then the pounds fell off like crazy. At my lowest, I began to look gaunt - down to 106 pounds.

I began to think I could eat anything without gaining weight. But after a couple of years, as I turned 66, I started to see my weight tick up again. Slowly but steadily. When I got to 117, I could feel it in my running. My clothes didn't fit. So I decided not to let things keep going and downloaded the WW app. I started the program again - and within 3 weeks was back down to 113. But most important, I was reminded about the basics: portion control, healthy eating and mindfulness. I still want to get back down to my running weight (between 107 - 109), although that's below what WW considers "healthy." So I'm going to keep at it. I feel great when I'm really thin and my strength to weight ratio is high.

Now... in actuality, living "well" is a lifetime commitment. Life constantly throws at us "trials and struggles". Of course eating STILL happens THROUGH these challenges... and the workshops provide support with many ideas of how to stay well THROUGH these hardships. I learn something new almost every week! I learn of new recipes that break the boredom syndrome which results from overuse of normal meal plans. Even in Lifetime, EACH workshop brings something motivational, interesting, and encouraging to me. Living well is a lifetime commitment... so WW allows for lifetime accountability and encouragement from others (at no extra cost)... and even continues to reward you. If one does not care for the reward options, then one is welcome to donate their wins to someone in need. THAT is not a worthless reward but one with REAL meaning and more value than ANY of the other options combined!

WW is also a place to "give back" encouragement and help others along to "wellness" as one attends weekly workshops. If one follows the WW plan as taught, and "tracks" and eats as encouraged, plus follows through with other topics discussed in the workshops... like drinking minimally 6 cups of water, getting plenty of sleep, staying positive (which is encouraged in the workshops), exercising several times per week, eating plenty of protein-rich foods, and keeping accurate tracking of points in foods... then one will certainly be on their way to wellness that works! I'm am MORE than thankful for the WW program. It has CERTAINLY worked for me... Follow the program (meaning that you GO to the workshops and actually follow-through with what the coach encourages), and it WILL work for YOU!!!

I would love to see the WW website Connect feature to become as fully functional as the phone app. Not all people live on an iPhone or android phone, and some actually prefer to use a personal computer. It would be nice to have the same "clickability" on the website for features such as looking up a particular Connect member, following and UNfollowing other Connect members, etc. It would simplify the experience.

As far as the WW program itself and the change from SmartPoints to Freestyle, I do see the struggle that has resulted for two groups in particular: Those who struggle with portion control. The zero points foods which are more calorie dense (chicken, fish, eggs, Greek nonfat yogurt, beans, corn, etc) can become problematic for those who struggle with controlling portion size. Free doesn't mean zero calories. I believe, from reading Connect posts, that many people have found their weight loss stalling on Freestyle.

Perhaps a workable process might be to have the healthy, yet calorie dense foods be zero points for a first serving, and have points when more than 1/2 cup, or 3 oz (for example) is consumed. Don't know if that complicates things too much. Those are my thoughts!

I have a bunch of reasons now which is I am proud of MYSELF for where I am at now versus where I started at. I started Weight Watchers at my all time highest weight at 217 and I am 2 pounds from a 40 pounds loss. This makes me want to cry happy tears. I first joined Weight Watchers back in 2006 and never stayed on it very long just to get my 16 weeks and 10%. (that old charm holder that looks like 10%) I have been previously been borderline diabetes and with losing weight I have defeated that for a long time. I have been for over 1 year right in the normal range. It runs in my family on both sides so I was told that I choose when I get it our if I get it. It took a long time to really take care about myself.

I started this back in February 2016 and other people doubted me and said that I couldn't do it. Plus other people at my work back then started a diet of their own choice. Then shortly after I joined and I was keeping my eye on the prize. They ALL ended up stoping their diet and then I got the normal why are you paying to loose weight? Well my why was cause I did it before years ago but fell off the wagon hard. But I kept going on the path cause I wanted to prove them wrong and that I could do it; but now I am happy to say that I am doing this for me and I don't care what anyone things.

I was focused on the number on the scale versus how my clothes fit, how I feel, and you know all the other things like we all have felt once we got there. I had some bad habits like just taking cookie dough out of the fridge and eating it like a snack, eating in my car tubes of frosting, 2-3 donuts in one sitting. I look back at that now and think “ Why did I do that to myself I only made it worse and harder to work off after how many times that I did that”.

I have a great leader and our corner of friends at the meeting every Saturday that I go weigh in. I have a great family support of my husband that keeps me in check if I like it or not, and close friends that hasn't had doubts. I have other friends that have helped me through this and seen them get to goal. I also have a great accountability partner Kathleen we have stuck together no matter what type of week we have we communicate everyday multi times a day. We keep each other going. She has became a close friend to me like another family member.

I also have just finally be able to get my wedding ring past my knuckle. I haven't been able to do that until now. I thank you for believing in me while I didn't believe in myself but I am happy to say I am in the game and not giving up this feeling at all. I also just signed up for to run my 5K in Maryland in November this year. I am in training to prepare for it. In closing this is what my why would be other than the common things family and feeling better about myself. I have never put thought of what or how I would put my why. I did not intend for this to be this long but more came out while I was thinking and makes me think of how far I have came from the start.

I request to cancel, stating how difficult it is to use and how I feel their database lacks a number of foods and they tell me now that I signed up for a 9 month commitment and am not allowed to cancel without paying 39.95 + applicable taxes. WHAT??? And that I should have been aware of that per my sign up. I wasn't aware. If I was, I wouldn't have signed up. I thought I was signing up for the same programs I've had before. This feels like robbery, unclear marketing and a definite disinterest in actually helping folks, but rather lining their pockets. BOO and shame on Weight Watchers. I am absolutely appalled and will be seeking legal counsel. It's only $40, but it's the principle of the thing. I can't even log in for Pete's sake.

We left our meeting realizing that we'd have to be more careful, but even doing so, the weight continued to pile on. I went back to the previous program while continuing to attend meetings, but they became useless with all talk of Freestyle and nothing pertinent to my old program. Needless to say, I left WW and am very disappointed in their false advertising, making it seem as though one can eat as much of their "free" listed food as desired. Unfortunately, it doesn't work.