M.,
After my son was born (I gained 45 pounds) I was desperate to lose weight. I have been proportional my whole life and have never really had to diet for long periods of time, but my immediate family has always struggled with lots of weight so I've felt their burden. Suddenly I was in their shoes when 8 weeks after my son was born, I stopped slowly losing the baby weight and started gaining again! I made a New Year's resolution to join Weight Watchters and attended my first meeting the Thursday following the turning of the New Year.
To put things in perspective as to how badly I was looking and feeling, I was still wearing my large maternity clothes and while I was a gym rat before and during my pregnancy, I refused to go back since I looked just as pregnant as when I left (and remember, that was 45 pounds in addition to my normal size). I was embarrassed to leave the house and started getting so depressed my husband was seriously concerned.
When I joined Weight Watchers, my sister in law did as well ~ and she opted to try Alli at the same time. I was still breast feeding and was jealous of her option, but what could I do? A week later she'd dropped 6 pounds and I'd lost 3; three weeks into the program I was down 9 pounds from my starting weight and she was up one! She soon gave up both the Alli and WW while I continued with the WW.
I am proud to admit that I have lost *sixty* pounds with Weight Watchers, and I have honestly never looked or, most importantly, FELT better. Their flex plan is so easy to follow, the comraderie and ideas you get from weekly meetings is motivating, and while you are definitely hungry at first while adjusting to their plan, it's absolutely do-able and the results are amazing. It's the best money I ever spent and I say a silent thank you to them whenever I shop for new clothes as I always grab sizes too big for me and have to make several trips back to find the right size.
I am someone who LOVES food, chocolate mostly, and have never known how to deprive myself of anything ~ thus my resolve with diets has never worked. I have to say that WW made it so much easier, allowed me to have the things I wanted (within reason) and splurge when I wanted to, and was easy to "hide" from my friends when I didn't want to admit I was trying it as I didn't want an audience if I failed. Not only am I as thin as I was in high school, my sister has dropped over 100 pounds the same way and looks better than she did at 18 :) Try it, all you have to lose is weight :)
Hugs and good luck,
L.
p.s. The other great thing about WW is that it is that it's a life change ~ I met my goal weight loss several months ago but have managed to maintain it with making better choices with what I eat. While I still have sporadic, celebratory days like yesterday that I call myself "eating disorder L." (or "falling off the wagon" where I go whole hog and eat exactly what I want without portion control, point counting, or guilt), the next day I am back on the program and feel content that I overdid it but proud that I'm "detoxing" by eating healthily the next day ~ and the word "starving" is not part of my vocabulary as it would have been previous to joining WW...