Barb-
The plans and policies you are describing are NOTHING like the experience I had with LAWL last year. They told me on average a person looses 1-2 lbs a week in the beginning, and then it often slows to 0.5-1. They told me how many weeks they thought it would take for me to lose the weight, but I made the ultimate decision on how many weeks I wanted to buy. I think I chose to purchase 6 months worth of weeks. In which time I lost 50 lbs.
Now....I know nothing about the red pen and cheating stuff you are talking about. I know that if you go in 3 times a week and make your goal weight....then maintain it for a certain period of time, they will refund a % of your program costs. As far as I know, there is nothing you can do that would cause them to cancel your contract.
As for the quick start...they do have that. They actually have several different versions. I asked to see the meal plan before I joined and they happily showed it to me. Who in their right mind is going to join something without knowing what they are getting into???
I think you probably know that there are several different food plans....you are given one based on how much you need to lose, gender, age, health conditions, etc. The one I was on allowed for 3 servings of starch a day. So...that is much more than 2 slices of melba toast. I have seen 2 additional meal plans, both of which allow for more than 1 serving of starch a day (2 melba toast slices). There may be a plan that includes only one starch serving, but I have not seen that one.
They still recommend eating fresh fruits and veggies instead of canned...but I think we all know that they are better for you. Food processing takes away a lot of important vitamins and minerals. When I was on the program bananas were not allowed....I have never figured that one out. There was another fruit also not allowed...mango or guava or something.
I stopped the program before they got the weekends off program...but I dont think it means "free for all". I think they just get more food variety than usual.
As far as I know, it is 2 LA lites per day, but they are no longer required. A lot of people use Luna or Balance bars or substitute for other foods.
I ate out all the time on plan. Lots of places have grilled chicken salads and lite dressing (for instance). They also have a book that has a ton of restaurants and frozen meals and what the exchanges are.
I think I covered most of your questions....let me know if you have more.
There are two things I want to say about LAWL.
1) like any other "diet" this program is great for some people and not so great for others (I think it is more of a diet than a lifestyle change)
2) the LAWL centers are all VERY different and VERY inconsistent...all of the people posting on the LAWL board have had very different experiences, some tremendously better than others (Barb...I think you had a TERRIBLE center that really lied to you and cheated you!)
I lost 50 lbs on LAWL and have successfully kept off 48lbs for over a year. I just recently started working on the next 50....I am doing a program that I created for myself, using things I learned at both LAWL and WW.
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