After success on doing Weight Watchers online and reaching goal, my problem has always been maintaining. And I blame that on myself. I’m like so many others that think they can handle their new eating without any rules. I lost my binge mentality and truly thought it was gone forever. But your bad habits creep up a little at a time until you’re gaining everything you lost and sometimes more.
I don’t know what made me change my mind, but I decided to give my local WW facility a try. I’m sure I got the free coupon so didn’t pay to sign up. However, I did purchase the whole package with cookbooks, journals, etc. I think I decided to try the actual meetings to get the kit and to get weighed in. I thought I’d feel more accountable having to get weighed in once a week.
The Leaders
I also decided to attend the meetings. My first impression during my first meeting was that the leader wasn’t very thin looking. Please understand, I’m not expecting a super thin leader, but I really felt this woman would be considered to be slightly overweight by most weight charts. I did like her leadership but I needed to switch days.
The leader that I felt really looked like a success, lean but healthy looking, had more of a “rah, rah” attitude. She even gave us silly homework and I felt like I was a little kid in class. She looked the part of a successful WW leader, but I didn’t like her method of conducting meetings.
So I once again chose a different meeting time. This leader was the worst. I kid you not, she was clinically obese. She made mention about taking meds which she was struggling with but in my opinion, she should have stepped down from her position until she got her weight under control. Had I been brand new to WW and had her as my first leader I wouldn’t have thought WW was very successful. I almost wanted to write a letter about it but I didn’t want to ruin her WW opportunities.
Her other problem was the fact that she preached a sermon. I think that’s what she wanted to do in life - be a preacher. She got so off the message of Weight Watchers that I almost left before the meeting ended. Listening to a sermon (not religious - just the tone of the meeting) from an obese leader? I was losing my interest in this whole thing.
The Meetings Didn’t Offer What I Wanted
Now let’s forget about the leaders. They did have to abide by a weekly topic that they got from headquarters but as mentioned, their styles were very different. I ended up attending meetings held by the first leader I tried. She was the best of the leaders available in my time frames.
But the meetings were more motivation and less hands-on diet techniques and how to follow the program. If you had any questions about the plans (they started the options of The Flex Plan and The Core Plan - the two plans were choices in a new program called TurnAround) you were really supposed to stay after the meeting. That surprised me as I was expecting the meetings to be different.
You see, when I’ve got the motivation to attend these meetings, that means I’ve reached that click. I’m getting motivation coming to the WW office, getting weighed by strangers and sitting with a group of people there for the same thing. I wanted more tips and ideas like I was getting from the free forums I was on.
I had the idea that I would continue going to the meetings, paying my weekly fee, getting weighed and leaving. In fact, I did it a few times giving an excuse that I had to work or something. But I also felt it was stupid paying to get weighed. I’ve reached goal without paying anything and without attending meetings, why couldn’t I do that again.
All in all, I can’t see myself ever attending a WW meeting again, even if I go back to the plan. Leaders do vary and if you’ve got a good one consider yourself lucky. Maybe others need the motivational focus of the meetings but I wanted the diet plan facts and ideas. Feel free to share your feelings.
