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Article
Weight Watchers Article
- Article Written by Vinnie Tortorich
Your best diet friend? Believe it or not – it’s Weight Watchers!
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
On the home page of this site I state the basic truth that there are literally hundreds of diet programs available, and that you can lose weight on most any of them. I also state that in order for any of them to enable you to KEEP the weight off, however, they need to be sustainable, promote a healthy, rational approach to eating, and provide your body with the actual daily nutrition that it needs to maintain a healthy lifestyle. In my twenty plus years of experience in this field, I can honestly say that I think probably the easiest to follow, smartest, and overall best program for losing weight is that tried and true staple, Weight Watchers.
What I love about Weight Watchers is that it puts you in control of your own eating, and forces you to get into the habit of considering what you’re putting into your body at all times, without limiting you to any specific food items, or putting anything that you may love “off the table.” You get to decide what, when, and how much you want to eat, but you’re given intelligent advice, guidelines, and a structure to follow that will enable you to maintain a daily caloric intake that will have you losing weight at a sensible, SUSTAINABLE pace.
 I keep repeating that word – sustainable – and emphasizing it with bolds, underlines, and italics, because it’s the most important aspect of any diet you choose to follow, whether it’s this one or another. Your goal should not be just to lose the 20, 30, 40, or even 100 pounds that you’re trying to lose, but to change your entire relationship to food and eating, so that once you’ve reached your goal weight, though you may have the usual slight weight fluctuations that are part of being human, you will never go back to the place that got you thinking “MAN, do I have to get serious and lose weight!”
I know that a lot of people have a lot of pre-conceived notions about what Weight Watchers is, and how it works, and I’d like to dispel some of those right now. The system is really very simple. A calculation is made based on your weight, age, gender, and goal weight. That calculation gives you a set number of “points” that you are allowed each day. You are then provided with a thorough guide to what foods, in what amounts, equal what number of points. If you stay within your point allowance for the day, you’re on track. There are additional variables, such as point credits for exercise accomplished, etc., but all in all it’s a very easy plan to follow, and even becomes fun. All of the information on point values, etc., is available on the Weight Watchers website, as well as in books that are easily available on Amazon, etc.
Objections
A very good friend of mine, who is also a client, had been doing the typical seesaw thing with his weight over a number of years – never getting truly “fat,” but getting 20 or so pounds over his ideal weight, then taking it off, then putting it back on, etc. When he’d get serious and buckle down, he’d lose the weight very quickly – hitting the gym, cycling, hiking, and eating very strictly until he did it. The problem was, six months later he was right back where he was. Finally I suggested he try Weight Watchers.
At first he was resistant. I can still hear him saying “I don’t want to have to go to some dumb meetings and listen to a bunch of yentas complaining about how fat they are.”
Weight Watchers Myth #1: YOU HAVE TO GO TO MEETINGS
The concept of the Weight Watchers meetings is that the support and structure provided can be helpful in keeping you on track. This is great for some people, and for them, the meetings are available all over the country. But for other people, either the bother of getting to the meetings is a problem, or the inherent nature of them is a turn-off. For those people, there is a very easy and wonderful alternative. Weight Watchers can be done entirely online! NO MEETINGS NECESSARY!
Weight Watchers Myth #2: YOU HAVE TO BUY SPECIAL FOOD
Some diet programs work by making you eat mostly pre-ordained foods that are specially packaged and branded, and bought either at supermarkets or through their company websites. While Weight Watchers does offer some prepared and frozen foods that you can use to make your point tallying easier, their plan neither relies on these items nor demands that you use any of them at all.
Weight Watchers Myth #3: YOU’LL BE HUNGRY
One of my favorite things about Weight Watchers is that it recognizes that you can eat some foods literally to the point of bursting and not have it harm your diet at all. In the Weight Watchers system, these foods have “zero points.” Now, they may not be your favorite things to eat, but for many of you they can be delicious, and you can feel free to eat them to your heart’s content. Examples are – most green vegetables. This does not mean you can load them with butter or hollandaise sauce, but if you like broccoli, or zucchini, or carrots, etc. – eat up! And you can be creative with them as well. Plain steamed zucchini not your thing? Try cooking them in a can of plain stewed tomatoes, adding no oil. Add some mushrooms, onions, and eggplant if you’d like, and you’ve got yourself an impromptu sort of ratatouille! Delicious. This is just one example. Get creative!
Weight Watchers Myth #4: IT’LL BE IMPOSSIBLE TO FOLLOW WHEN I EAT OUT
Nothing could be further from the truth. Once you master the principles of the program (which doesn’t take long at all, believe me), you can figure out how to eat, and eat WELL, at pretty much any restaurant you go to, and stay within your point allotment for the day. The program even provides exact point values for specific menu items at most national and regional restaurant and fast food chains. Stuck going to a place where everything is high in points? Make it up elsewhere in your day by keeping the rest of your point values down. Go over a point or two today? Make up for it tomorrow. Remember it’s not an exact science, it’s a guideline and a way of life. Don’t start rationalizing and getting off course, but don’t let it box you in too much either, and you’ll be fine.
Weight Watchers Myth #5: IT’S EXPENSIVE
There are a number of ways to follow the Weight Watchers program, including both in-person meetings and online only options. Find the one that works for you. There are options that can fit within pretty much anybody’s budget. And if you’re following the program and doing it well, you’ll find that you’re actually SAVING money by spending less on food!
In another blog post soon, I’ll talk about some specific ways to enhance your Weight Watchers routine, and suggest some specific recipes that take good advantage of the point system while providing delicious and filling meals. But for now – just take that first step and sign up!
I'm Just Sayin'. . .
There's a simple truth about losing weight that very few diet plans will tell you. And that is... you can lose weight on pretty much ANY diet you choose, if you follow it and don't "cheat." The simple math of the matter is that as long as you take in fewer calories per day than you expend, you will lose weight. You could eat nothing but cookies and still lose weight, if the total number of calories in the amount you ate equaled less than what you burned up that day just getting around. The problem is... that kind of diet is
unsustainable. After a while you would a) suffer from malnutrition, and b) start desperately craving other types of foods, and start eating everything in sight, gaining back all the weight you had lost, and probably more. For these reasons, I’m going to suggest some very simple diet solutions that will get the job done, be
sustainable, and ensure that your body is getting the real nutrition it needs to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
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