At the beginning of the year I was prescribed Xenical to help me lose weight, it did work but was very slow and the side effects were very nasty so I wasn’t disappointed when my GP temporarily took me off them when I went down with a nasty illness in the Summer.

I had often thought of joining Weight Watchers and it had been highly recommended to me by several people, however, as I’m not a fruit, salad or veg person I didn’t believe that any kind of “NORMAL” diet would work for me so I just put it off. In fact the only reason I stopped putting off giving it a go was because the free registration offer was about to end and I didn’t want to pay the £9.00 joining fee, £7.50 for people over 60.

The website is very informative and has a facility which will help you to find your nearest meeting by simply typing in your postcode.

When I arrived I was taken to the new members table where I had to fill in a registration agreement and I was then given a membership card, introduced to my leader and then weighed.

The meetings are all typically the same, they run for an hour, with the first half hour being weigh in time, this is where you are weighed, (discreetly – nobody else will know your weight), during this time you can also raise any concerns you may have with your leader, the second half hour usually consists of the leader offering general advice and tips, listening to other members sharing their experiences and generally offering each other support if and when required. At the beginning of the talk, new members are introduced to the group and there is an opportunity to show off if you are happy with your weight loss, by telling the rest of the group how much weight you have lost that week, or if you are disappointed because your weight loss has been minimal or non existent there is an opportunity to seek advice or support from the other members.

At the end of the first meeting the leader asks the new members to stay behind so that she can introduce them to the Weight Watchers “Time To Eat” diet and answer any questions they may have. At this point you are also given a Weight Watchers handbag which contains lots of useful information about how the diet works, a points calculator which is useful to take with you on shopping trips and a handbook which lists the points values of most general foods. The contents of the handbag are invaluable as they really do help to answer any questions you have forgotten to ask and will help to steer you in the right direction. You will also be given your leaders telephone number and if you have any questions you can contact her at any time to discuss your worries.

For those of you who don’t know – Weight Watchers is based on a point system – each food and drink item has a points value and you have to calculate all your points throughout the day to ensure that you stick to the points you allowed.

The day after I joined Weight Watchers I went shopping at my local Asda store and took my Weight Watchers calculator with me – I found this really useful as by simply looking up the calories and amount of saturated fat within the product I was able to calculate the points value. It did take me longer to do my shopping, but I shopped wisely and made sure that I only purchased products that I could eat without going mad on the points, for example, I could have bought a pack of four fat sausages that worked out at 3 points per sausage, or chosen thin sausages at only 1.5 points per sausage – it is definitely well worth checking out the points values when you are shopping or you could end up buying something and only being able to eat that one item as the points value is so high that you have no points left over to eat anything else with it.

2 Slices of white Hovis bread 3 points
100g of wafer thin ham 1 point
1 teaspoon low fat spread ½ point

**EVENING MEAL**

1 Low fat Marks & Spencer Strawberry Yogurt 1 ½ points

Leaving 5 points left over for another day – or I could have a Crunchie for 3 ½ points or a 100g glass of white wine for 1 point, etc.

As you can see from the brief typical daily menu there is plenty to eat and you won’t be starved – however, you will probably find that you do get very hungry during the first week as you will have been used to eating a lot more, this feeling soon subsides and I found that filling up on a drink helped.

At the Weight Watchers meeting there is a table where you can purchase Weight Watchers items such as sweets, snack bars, electronic food weighing scales, the Weight Watchers magazine, a shopping guide which lists all major high street and brand named foods along with their points values, and an eating out guide which lists most major pubs and restaurants as well as cafes and take away restaurants, the guide details a selection of the most popular dishes and their points values. I would strongly advise buying both the shopping guide and the eating out guide as I have found them invaluable. The total price for them both is £5.50 but it is slightly more if you buy them individually.

You don’t have to stay to the meetings, you can just go along and get weighed and go straight home – I always stay to the meetings to get the most value for my money and to gain helpful tips that other members may have to offer.

Weight Watchers will only accept members who need to lose 10lb or more based on the standard Body Mass Index regulations.