I have had some people asking me why I chose Weight Watchers, and why I spent the money on it.
First, let me explain how Weight Watchers works (although I think most of you probably understand). When you start the program you are given a 'quiz' to find our how many points you are allowed everyday. I started out being allowed 23 points. Youth and young adults get more points than middle-aged people, and men get more points than women. Your points is also determined by your weight, so when I moved from the 160's to the 150's I lost one point per day (I can now eat 22 points per day).
So, the goal is to eat that many points every day. The program also allows you an extra 35 bonus points per week (which makes you feel like you can splurge when you want). And you can get even more points if you do activity (walking, hiking, running, biking, or whatever), and you can 'eat' those points too, which leads me to the first thing I like about Weight Watchers:
1. They don't make you eat certain things at certain times, and you can eat more (or eat worse) if you make up for it. That is motivation in itself. That being said, the healthier food is typically less points. For example. I could eat 22 timbits in a day to get my 22 points, but that probably wouldn't fill me very much, or I could have a four point breakfast consisting of: oatmeal, milk, brown sugar, and apple juice, snacks consisting of 5 points, zero point soup and a 2.5 point sandwich for lunch, plus still have another 10.5 points for supper. That would be much more filling.
2. You can't lie about your weight. Every week, I go into Weight Watchers and someone there weighs me. They know what I weigh. So if I suck, I can't just pretend that I didn't. This makes me much more accountable.
3. You get rewards. To be honest, the rewards are dumb. So far, I have hit the 5 pound, 5%, and the 10 pound mark, and I have gotten stickers for each one. But, at the meeting, they congratulate people who have lost and it makes you feel good.
4. My parents have done it. Part of the reason I joined weight watchers is that I knew the program. My parents sometimes did it while I was growing up so I learned about it. It was slightly more familiar for me.
Moving on to the cost issue. I always get asked how expensive it is. First let me express that I realize it isn't cheap. But I would argue it isn't overly expensive either (I will actually argue that I am pretty sure I have saved money). I paid 170$ for 12 weeks (that included the registration fee). That works out to about 14.17$ per week. Which really isn't that expensive. I am also going to be paying 40$ for 3 months to use their e-tools, but that is by choice and only because I find them extremely helpful. (works out to 17.50$, still not too bad).
But I think I have saved money for three major reasons:
1) I don't eat out as much (although I still fall prey to it too often, because I know the points values!), but it is harder to eat out then it is to stay in, and we all know eating out is more expensive, so I am saving money there.
2) I found out the difference between being hungry, and craving food. I used to drive past Tim Hortons and think "oh, I am hungry, I want some timbits", and drive in and get a 20 pack of timbits (I would tell myself I would be buying them to share). Sure, I probably wasn't full when I thought that, but I most definetly was not hungry. I just craved food. And I still do sometimes, but I see the difference, and don't need to stop and get something all the time. This saves me money.
3) I don't eat the whole bag. I love chips ahoy cookies. I think they are phenomenal. I used to go buy bags of them, which were supposed to last me a couple weeks, and they would be gone in a couple days because I had no way to track how much was going into my body, or how that would affect me. I believe that it is 3 points for 2 chips ahoy cookies. So when you consider I was eating maybe 8 or 10 per day, that is 12 or 15 points for something that would definetly not have filled me up. So when I buy things, I don't eat the whole thing at once, which saves me money because I am buying less because I am eating less processed junk.
So, this is why I chose Weight Watchers. I had tried losing weight before on my own, but the accountability sucked. Now I track (most of the time at least!), and I am monitoring, and other people know how I am doing.
Mostly I chose Weight Watchers because it is working for me. I have lost 11 pounds in a little over a month and I could not be happier about it.
