The most successful dieting experience I have ever had was with Weight Watchers, that tried and true institution that has helped people melt off tons of unwanted fat. I joined Weight Watchers in the summer of 2008 with their on-line diet program, and for $14.95 a month lost twelve pounds in three months. My weight loss was about one pound a week, well within any healthy weight loss guidelines, and the diet plan itself was a breeze.
For those of you who are unfamiliar the program, every food you can conceivably think of eating is assigned a “point” value, and you are assigned a number of points that you can eat per day. The website provides you with a program to track your points, as well as a calculator that figures out the points for food that is not in their database (for example, a certain type of name brand cookie – you just enter the calories, fat and fiber content, and the point value is produced for you.) You track your points, your weight, your exercise, and your weight loss journey begins.
For the first few days I followed their suggested plans, noting with interest and sometimes alarm the points value of certain foods. (A hot dog is five points? Are you kidding me? And that’s without the bun or the French fries!!) Then I began to go off on my own. I had joined after a friend did, and we spent long hours discussing our diet options on the program. The first week I lost five pounds, and I was off and running (not literally).
Weight Watchers became not just a weight loss tool but a whole new way of life. I found other people at work that had joined the program, and we began speaking a secret diet language to each other. “How many points is this?” I would find myself asking a friend, holding up a bagel or a yogurt in the cafeteria at work. It is easy to become obsessed with points – you can even buy an electronic points calculator so you won’t ever be stuck somewhere and not be able to know the points of any food you are eating! Points become your life – adding points, subtracting points, even finding ways to cheat on your points. One slice of reduced calorie bread is zero points, two slices is one point, so if you just stretch out your morning toast over a few hours, is that one point or none? If half a cup of refried beans is 1.5 points but one cup is 2.5 points, where does that other half point go?
Anyway, you can see how this diet works. You add points by eating, subtract points by working out, and after a while this becomes an obsession, too. (You have to work out for twelve minutes on the elliptical to burn off one point. Not fifteen minutes, twelve!) Finding foods with one point becomes your life mission. But on the way, something else happens. For the most part, low point foods are also healthy foods (fruits and vegetables are usually only one or zero points.) So by eating those lower point foods, you are eating healthier. And in your quest to subtract points by exercising, you’ve developed another healthy habit – exercising! Sometimes every day! And maybe it’s only because you want to burn off enough points so you can have a glass of wine with dinner, but, hey, you’re still doing it!
To support your diet, I also consider to take weight loss supplement. Products like leptoconnect will help you to sustain your diet. This is also made from natural ingredients so you don’t have to worry about is effects on your body.
And that is what happened to me. In spite of all the points madness (which was actually a lot of fun), I began to make healthier eating choices, and to work out five times a week (even if it was only twelve minutes on the elliptical.) My diet became a way of life, a healthier one at that, and I am proud to say that I have kept off the weight that Weight Watchers helped me lose for over one year.
