"Flex" it baby!!!!! :)
Written: Nov 11 '04
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Pros: Follow the plan and you cannot go wrong! I've lost 15 pounds in 7 weeks!
Cons: If you are not committed, it is easy to stray away from the plan.
The Bottom Line: I know it seems cliche' I thought so too. It's really all about what we should do anyway, make our portions smaller and live a healthier lifestyle!
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| Dinaker's Full Review: Weight Watcher's Points Weight Loss Program with F... |
Hi, my name is Dawn and I am a junkie for sweets! Well, here is my story.
I am a 35 year old stay at home mother of 2 boys. Anthony is 7 and Nicholas is almost 3. After the birth of our first child, it seemed I had no problem losing the weight of being pregnant. I put on about 30 pounds and a month later, I was back into my size......should I say it........size 4 clothes. I am 5'6 and I think I was 118 pounds a month after Anthony was born. How lucky was I, my girlfriends were all struggling with losing the weight and I had it made! Ha, I could do this again! Forget the 19 hours of labor with him, I was still thin!!!! Yipeee!!!!!
Then the pregnancy of our second, Nicholas. What a breeze, not a worry in the world (except 24/7 ) morning sickness, who came up with it only being in the morning, I would like to talk to them? :) I put on my weight being pregnant, just like I did with Anthony. I was 28 when we had our first and 32 when we had our second. Hmmmm, but I was older, ah, so what, back to thin I will be!!! WRONG! I know I was being punished for being so lucky to be thin after the first. Well, 30 hours of labor passed with Nicholas and there he was, beautiful and healthy. Of course I wasn't worrying about my weight loss, I just had a baby! I had all of my friends saying, "It's ok Dawn, you just had a baby!" Ah, they were right. Well, Nicholas is almost 3 and nobody is saying that anymore. I was as of September 2004, up to 164.4 pounds! Holy cow, when did this happen?
I realized in my life, staying home with the boys and tending to everyone else's needs, I had completely neglected myself. A lot of times, I wouldn't eat my dinner until everyone else was finished, which a lot of times I wouldn't eat until 7:00pm. Breads, pasta's, cookies, anything chocolate, fried foods, fast food, and of course, no exercise. I would eat what my children left on their plates, I called it "mother food". I wasn't going to let any food go to waste, instead it went to my waist. I realized in the past 6 months, my active lifestyle turned inactive. I was staying home more, I was canceling time with friends because I didn't want them to see my weight gain, I even told someone I thought I was pregnant, even though I knew I wasn't. I tried to wear things that would cover my body more, I started wearing alot of darker clothes. My wardrobe started to consist of a lot of elastic waist clothing and size large and extra large. It doesn't matter what clothing you wear, light, dark, etc, if you are fat, you are fat, nothing is going to cover it, it is there to stay.
I have heard of Weight Watchers my entire life, I thought it was for "old" people, I remember my grandmother and mother going to Weight Watchers when I was little. Now I am the parent and my weight was starting to spin out of control. I wasn't happy anymore with myself, I never looked in the mirror from the neck down, when I showered, I never looked down at myself. My 2 and a half year old would say to me,"Mommy, you have big hiney?" I would politely answer, yes honey. Yikes! Wow, I did have a big hiney! Time to do something!
In the past, I've tried Atkins, South Beach, Slim Fast etc. I just couldn't stick to them, they either made me sick, or I gained weight. I kept seeing ads about Weight Watchers on television, is someone trying to tell me something? OK, why not, I gave the 800 number a call, found out where our meetings took place and I went. I didn't know what to expect. I was a little nervous, nobody wants to admit they have a weight problem, but I knew if I didn't go to this meeting and see what it was about, I would never know if it was a plan for me!
I went, the room was full of men, women, all shapes and sizes, 300 pounds + and down to 100 pounds. What were these thin people doing here anyway? I signed up for 10 weeks $99.00. Found a place to sit, had my name tag on like everyone else and away we went. Our meeting coordinator, Ginny lost 180 pounds she started out. How did she do this, she looks great? She was almost 300 pounds and counting. She talked a little about herself, how she reached her peak weight and told how she did it! Commitment was her key. She was determined. She didn't want to hide from the world anymore (hmmmmm, who did this sound like.......ME!) She started on the Flex Plan. They offer 2 plans, the Flex Plan and the Core. I won't be talking about the core, I didn't do that plan. The Flex Plan, gives you the ability to eat any food you want and the accountability and control that tracking what you eat provides. It is a point system. Depending on your weight, you are allowed so many points a day. I started at 164.4. I was allowed to eat 22 Flex Points a day. 22 was my daily points target. Tracking your food means to log everything you eat into a diary and count your points. You will find your points by using a pointsfinder slide. It is a rectangular cardboard sleeve with a slide inside. You will see two open windows on the slide one for fiber & calories and the other window for fat grams and points value. You follow the directions on the slide to convert the information into a points value. Look up points values on the food list. You can find the points value for the serving size of a recipe using the pointsfinder slide and the calorie, fiber, and fat information given. If there isn't any nutrition information, you can find the points value for each ingredient, total them, then divide by the number of servings. Foods are assigned a points value based on the calorie, fat grams and fiber grams information provided for a serving size of that food. There's a daily points target each day based on your current weight. For example, I was 164.4 pounds when I started, if I look in the Weight Watchers Welcome book, it has a chart of your weight right now and across from each weight is a number and that is the daily points target number. I was allowed 22 points per day. Now I am allowed 20 since my weight has gone down under 150. It shows you how to figure servings, portions, etc. You can purchase a kit that contains 2 books. One is the Dining out Companion, which has almost every restaurant known to man and each restaurant in this book has a list of certain foods on the menu and the points these meals are! there is another book which I take everywhere with me, it's called the Complete Food Companion. It has everything listed that you can imagine, cheese, wine, meat, bread, sweets, dressings, drinks etc. After each of these items is a number that is a point value. You need to track (write) everything down you eat each day. You need to make sure you have the correct point value. If I start at 22 points each day, I need to be @ zero by the end of the day. You are allowed 35 weekly points allowance along with your daily points target. I use them if I am desperate for something sweet! Another thing that has helped me with my weight loss is exercise! I exercise everyday for a half an hour, weather it be walking, running or biking. My energy level has soared and I can keep up with these little boys of ours! WATER people! Water is my drink of choice. I have never drank so much water in my entire life, and boy what a difference it makes, it's also great for you skin. Get those 6 glasses of H2O in everyday. Fruits and Veggies, 5 servings a day. Get your dairy, 3 times a day. Also your body needs oil, we are machines after all, have to keep it oiled. Two oils a day will do it!!!! Weight Watchers has some great frozen meals called, Smart Ones, out there for the Flex Plan too. Check them out in the grocers freezer. They have wonderful blueberry and apple spice muffins too and don't forget the little chocolate cakes and the little carrot cakes. When you attend the meetings, you can buy anything from breakfast bars, to snack bars, to smoothies. These small treats do not taste like cardboard, trust me! And finally, attend these meetings. They are uplifting and inspirational. It's nice to hear other peoples stories about weight loss and gain and you can relate to them.
So, eat what you want on the Flex Plan, log your points in your daily points target diary, exercise, drink water and commit yourself, trust me, I didn't think I had the will, I do and there is no stopping me now! I hope this helped and good luck to all that try, I highly recommend this plan! Thanks for letting me share!
~Dawn
Recommended:
Yes
Approximate Monthly Cost (US$) 10.00
Food Variety Restrictions You eat any food you want
Restrictiveness of Portions Satisfying
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Epinions.com ID:
Dinaker
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Member: Dawn M Rodriguez
Location: Ft. Myers Florida
Reviews written: 59
Trusted by: 15 members
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