Buy Walking VideosShould You Pay For It?
This entry on Diet Blog about free weight loss programs versus ones that make you pay a weekly fee really got me thinking.
I keep telling you that you can eat healthy and exercise for free, yet I go to Weight Watchers and advocate their meetings. Am I a hypocrite? Am I confused? What am I really trying to tell you?
You CAN do it for free
The truth of the matter is, you CAN lose weight for free. You don’t need expensive dietary supplements, gym memberships or fancy exercise gadgets. All you need is to eat less calories than you burn, and there are a myriad of ways that you can do this within the confines of a healthy diet. You don’t need to pay anyone anything to lose weight.
I wasn’t able to do it for free
I tried for years and years to lose weight before I decided to just love my body the way it was. I had tried every diet and sometimes I lost weight, but mostly I just lost five pounds and then gained back ten after the diet-induced bingeing. When I decided to stop dieting forever and to just love my body the way it was, I gained a few pounds and decided that I was okay with it.
After a few months of accepting myself the way I was, I decided that I wanted to exercise to help keep my heart healthy. That step alone took me from 235 to 190 pounds. Exercise was my first step toward a healthy lifestyle, but after a muscle strain, I started gaining the weight that I had lost back. That’s when I had a realization.
Exercise alone won’t do it. Dieting alone won’t do it. I needed to do both and I REALLY needed help in the eating department because all diets had sent me into binge-mode. When I found out that a close friend and my sister had great success with Weight Watchers, I decided to join. What I learned there changed the way I dealt with food.
Conquering bingeing took more than just learning what is healthy. It has taken a daily focus on keeping myself satisfied both physically and emotionally. It’s such a vast subject that I don’t think I would have ever been able to get past bingeing on my own. That’s why I’m so dedicated to Weight Watchers.
So, should you pay for it?
That’s a question that only you can answer. There are people who have paid their Weight Watcher dues every week without success. There are others, like me, who have completely changed their lives. It all depends on you. Are you ready to do it on your own? Do you need extra support? Give yourself an hour or two and a stack of paper and write it out. That has always been the most helpful way for me to look at things.
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March 12th, 2006 at 6:50 am
People pay me to help them lose weight for a number of reasons. For some it’s simple. They need to be told what to do. For others it’s the investment itself. When a person hands over hard earned monmey they want a return on their investment. They will make it pay off.
For others it’s the fact that when they come for professional counseling, they don’t get a one-size-fits-all approach. They are listened to. They get meaningful feedback. The program they follow is their program which takes their lifestyle, needs and wants into first consideration.
Admittedly I only work with a small percentage of the 100,000,000 people in this country alone who are trying or will be trying to lose weight this year. But for the ones I do work with, it is the right choice.
Marc
March 12th, 2006 at 10:06 am
I found your blog a month or so ago and have been really enjoying it. Thanks for all the information and the food for thought.
I tried to diet on my own; my attempts at dieting (T-Factor, South Beach) went nowhere. Ditto my attempts at joining a gym. Originally, I didn’t want to do WW, because I remembered my mom doing it and making us eat baked chicken all the time!
Finally, I hit a point where I knew I had to take myself in hand and lose the weight, but I didn’t want a “gimmick” diet (if no carbs are allowed, for example, I will desire bread and potatoes…) I looked up the information on WW and decided to join. I like that it’s a combination of teaching tools and support, and I really like that I can, within reason, eat what I like so long as I plan around it. I feel that I’m learning how to eat properly, how I should eat for the rest of my life. But I also think that WW works for me because this time, I was really ready to make the change into healthy eating, to stop playing mind games with myself, and to stop sabotaging myself. That part didn’t come from WW (although WW helps encourage it and gives me the information on amounts in a way I can deal with easily) — it came from me. Paying money to WW is not what keeps me on track. I keep me on track.
(The other big help? Switching to a mostly organic diet and doing away with most processed foods. I’ve been reading up on high-fructose corn syrup and other food additives, and now I’m actively avoiding them. Even though it meant giving up my beloved Coca-cola!)
I’ve lost 53 pounds since last July. Only 37 pounds to go!
March 13th, 2006 at 1:59 pm
I’ve lost 70 pounds on my own so far & have a little over 50 left to go. Part of the weight gain was due to a disorder I had & the medication I was required to take. Technically I still have the disorder, but using natural remedies & exercise actually helped more than the drugs & once off the drugs a good portion of the weight just dropped off. Some of it, though, was my own fault & I had to work to get more to come off. I actually really enjoy exercise, though, and am an advanced exerciser because I have that thing, whatever it is, in me that can really push myself. I LOVE to workout. I do it in my home for free (or outside if I decide to go hiking or something – again free) The only things that cost me money are my shoes, good wicking socks, home exercise equipment, and any exercise videos I buy to use in addition to my treadmill, elliptical, weight bench, etc… I think what it comes down to is personality types. People gain weight for their own reasons, their own responses to the world around them. They will lose weight according to their personality type as well. Some people need people around them to push them, some people need somebody else to set up a plan for them, some people are perfectly capable to do it on their own & prefer to do so.
March 19th, 2006 at 6:23 am
Isn’t it amusing how people spend quite a bit of money on food that makes them fat and then spend more money to try and lose the fat they gained from eating all the fatty food!
I think if you have a mental problem regarding weight, you do need to pay someone to help you get on the right track, psychologically.
For the average person though, I don’t think you need to pay so much just to lose weight. Walking, to many, is the best form of exercise and that’s free! Cleaning the house and garden is also a good way to move the muscles and a lot of people pay others to do that for them.
As for eating the right food, I think people these days definitely need to be more educated about that. We’re now living in a society where junk food has replaced the natural foods we should be putting in our bodies. There’s so much free info out there about that though, whether in the local library or online, that it’s not necessary to to pay for all these crazy diet ideas.
I guess if you’re someone who finds it hard to stay motivated, then joining a club or a group of people losing weight might be in order. In the end, though, no matter how much you pay other people to tell you how it’s done or to tell you to get up and move, it’s really how disciplined you are to sticking to the decision you made of losing the weight.
July 24th, 2007 at 3:38 am
i payed out over 300 pound to lose weight but no weight was lost i went to weight wathers nothing helped why should i have to pay out this kind of money for something that dosent help
July 26th, 2007 at 9:20 am
I have chosen to pay, like others I tried on my own. It’s not about money it’s about my health. I needed the structure and guidance that came along with the program. Now to many’s surprise I coordinate other people’s matters for them, but could not do it for myself….go figure!
Thanks for this blog.
October 6th, 2007 at 5:58 am
I DON’T MIND PAYING ,BUT I WANT TO LOSE EVERY WEEK SO I FEEL LIKE I AM NOT WASTEING MY MONEY,BUT I WORK FOR MY MONEY AND I AM WORTH IT NO MATTER WHAT I SPEND. IT IS THE BEST WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT, BONNIE