Getting Started

IF you are going to to Weight Watchers, I do recommend going online and checking it out. I am using the e-tools (no meetings) version and while I don't love it, I do think it's a great way to get started and learn the point values of food. The first few weeks are intensive in that respect. You have to look up everything and plan your day a little bit, but it does get easier. Once you learn to values for things you eat often...say chicken breast...it gets LOTS easier. The website will give you how many points you need in a day, based on your height, weight and gender. Eat your daily points. I will tell you that when I didn't, I didn't lose. There's a science behind this plan, they didn't just make it up!

I hear they have a great iPhone app, but I have a Droid so that was completely unhelpful for me. The Droid app blows. Sorry folks.

If you go to a meeting, which is around $12, I think, at the first one they give you a handy-dandy purse sized booklet with point values in it. There is NO other way to get this book, I am told. So...I plan to go Tuesday and get one for myself!! I think one meeting would be helpful for people new to WW. I have done it a few times already and this time didn't feel the need. (Boo me, not the program.)

I have been using e-tools and the tracking app online and I find that it is just not that useful on the go. Find a way to track that works for you and DO IT. I have found it immensely helpful in guiding my choices at the end of the day, to know exactly how many more points I have to "spend" before bedtime. I am currently using a click to count app on my phone, but they have little mechanical clickers for sale at WW meetings. When I eat something, I count it immediately. If I don't know the point value of something, I have a little blank notebook in my purse where I can write down these things and look them up asap. Don't wait. You will "forget" or "underestimate" the size of your pasta bowl when you recall it later as dinner is calling your name. TRUST ME on this.

What are you waiting for? Get going! Start today.