by teaplease

Created on: February 08, 2010

Weightwatchers helped me lose weight and keep it off for over twenty-five years but it's not a diet.

It's a lifestyle. They are not going to tell you where and when to eat specific foods (although you'll learn about healthy options). That's why it works for so many. It's a way of thinking about food and exercise that you incorporate into the rest of your life.

Many of my family members have eating disorders. They're either morbidly obese or anorexic and bulimic. It ain't pretty.

By the time I reached tween-age, I was getting big. My family held an intervention and started taking me to Weightwatchers meetings.

I was the youngest member there! It was intimidating but it worked.

Nowadays, you can attend meetings in-person or sign up for on-line resources. While I have many friends who enjoy Weightwatchers On-line, they've never succeeded at the level and with the same longevity of those I've known who attend meetings.

The first thing we all do when attending a meeting is queue. Depending on the location, there may be one or more workers receiving (greeting, handing out new materials and accepting payments) and weighing. The leader will moderate the meeting. If it's your first time, be sure to let the receptionist and leader know and plan ahead to stay after the meeting to jump-start the program.

You pay and weigh before the meeting starts. Your weight is private. Only the person who sees it does so to record it, unless you ask the leader to help you with a particular question regarding weight.

Weightwatchers meetings rely on support, education and fun to help members lose weight and increase activity, thereby helping us reach our health and fitness goals.

    * "Classroom" - leaders teach information and ideas directly from Weightwatchers
    * "Share" - members provide tips, celebrate losses and "Non-Scale Victories"
    * "Support" - share difficulties and glean wisdom from one another, as little or as much as you like

Education, repeated along with new information, reminds us and keeps things fresh. Friendships are struck. Many of us find a sense that we're understood in a way at Weightwatchers meetings that even our closest friends and family members can't touch. Some Lifetimers attend weekly meetings their whole lives! I freely admit to being a "repeat offender" (sometimes falling off the wagon and then having to climb back on) but I've never slid back to being obese.

The lessons Weightwatchers taught me about being honest to myself, nutrition, fitness and portion control are always there. It's hard. You know that it is. It's worth it, to be healthy - whatever that might mean to you. I've avoided diabetes and heart disease by sticking close to a Weightwatchers lifestyle. Knowledge is power. Weightwatchers gives that to you. It's up to you to put it into action.

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