[lilliemarie]

Hi everyone -

Just curious... I know this get asked a lot but would love to know what the current people are doing. This flex group is so supportive and upbeat and successful and I would love to join you all! I read through some of the other threads and was discouraged until I found you guys! Just would love to be around a lot of positive, upbeat, friendly people!

So was just curious as to what you feel works best for you - meetings, online or at home. I did meetings a while back and was successful though that was before there was so much internet support. Right now I am limited with my schedule with work to the times I can attend a meeting and though I do enjoy them but I wanted to ask you all!

Thank you so much and I look forward to joining you!

LM

[sunshower]

Hey there, LM! Those are my initials, too. Join us in our Flex Chat if you like.

I attend the meetings every week. I am very busy at work but I am more committed to my health than my job. I have to be! (And if my employer doesn't like it, they can fire the new healthy me who will be able to work a lot longer with less of a strain on their healthcare benefits. ) I scheduled the WW weekly meeting into my calendar as an offical meeting every Thursday including the amount of time it takes to walk there and walk back to the office. I don't stay for the whole meeting since I don't want to be gone longer than an hour but I stay long enough to get recharged and get some great new tips from the other folks. I set it up in my calendar so that no one else can book a meeting with me during that time. Plus, thanks to Outlook reminders, I get a little pop-up on my screen 15 minutes before I need to leave reminding me to wrap up my work for a little bit and get my butt to the scale.

I love the support online, don't get me wrong, but for me personally, going to the meeting helps. I know it's not for everyone but it works for me. The trick is to find out what works for you keeping in mind that what works may not be convenient.

[lilliemarie]

Thanks so much LeeAnne -

I posted the same question on your pic thread! You have done great! I agree about the meetings and I know I have 2 options right now (going through a 4 week training right now with work but still haven't received my permanent schedule) but the meeting place has several meetings each week so I can always switch around. I asked this today specifically because today is an off day for me (work Sat) and though all the other days have AM meetings, there isn't one today but there is a dinnertime meeting that I would want to take advantage of to get started!

Thanks again for your post and looking forward to chatting more!

LM

[Chey]

Hey lilliemarie! Welcome!

I am doing WW on my own at home. I had joined WW in 2001 and went to a couple of meetings but stopped going. The personalities attending and mine just didn't mesh at all. Go figure on that one! LOL. They weren't very positive and gossiped more about people in the community than talking about weight loss, tips and encouragement. If you didn't belong to their church, group, live in a certain neighborhood you were basically shunned. I figured I didn't want to pay each week to be treated like poop on a platter. LOL

Anyway - for me, this forum is like my mini-meetings. I get lots of tips, encouragement and have put myself in a position to be accountable here. I feel as if I have made friends here in this virtual world and it works for me. It may not work for others - it is best that you decide for yourself. Attend some meetings to see what they are like so you have something to compare. Hey, the more encouragement that you have and dealings with others that are going through similar issues the better your success will be IMO.

The ladies on this forum are very positive and have a wealth of information. I like to think I would be successful had I not found this place, but to be honest, I know that I will be because I did.

[mamaspank]

I do it at home. Money is a problem to attend meetings or do it online. I had friends who were doing it, and they were nice enough to explain the rules to me. I looked up WW patented formula online, and off I went. I have reached my major goal; now, it is just a matter of trimming up and dropping about 15 more pounds so that I can look and feel better than I have in years. I have to say also that this is the easiest diet I have ever done. I have been on Atkins and South Beach, and while I like to have rules, I just can't follow them to a T. I would cheat on those diets, and I felt like I might as well just quit because I secretly just missed all my old foods. WW allows me pizza, burgers, fries, whatever. I just love how I don't feel deprived -- most of the time.

[lilliemarie]

Thank you all so much for the information! I realize it can be done no matter what if you want it badly enough and it is a very personal thing depending on many issues!

Thanks again and I am so happy to have found this group!

[luvmyfam]

LM,

I started out by attending a meeting so I could get the basic startup information. I was lucky that at the time in our region, there was a special going on where the registration fee was waived. If that hadn't happened, I wouldn't have gone, but I knew the first meeting was only going to cost $15 instead of $40.

I had a feeling I wasn't going to be one who was much for a meeting, and I was right. At our meeting, the information discussed was information I already knew, except for the newbie mini-meeting at the end. The next week's meeting sounded as if it was going to be more info I already knew. But it sounds as if different meetings have a different feel to them, perhaps better information discussed. My choosing not to stick with it was based on the ongoing expense and not wanting to keep paying out $14/week.

Since I plan on sticking with this for the long haul, I decided to order the at-home kit for all the extras, to do it on my own, but to come here for the support. I broke down my payment of the at-home kit into 3 payments. It was basically the equivalent of 9 week's worth of meetings. I have one more payment coming out, and then I'm done. I can keep up what I'm doing with what I have and the support here, but not have to keep paying for as long as it's going to take me to get to goal.

HOWEVER, that's me. Everyone's needs are different. A lady in front of me in the weigh-in line was re-joining. She had done well going to meetings in the past, decided to try it on her own, and it didn't go so well for her. So she was coming back. She told me she realized she NEEDS the meetings, and it's great that she recognized that, just as I recognized that I'm better with online support for something like this.

I didn't sign up for WW online because of the ongoing expense thing and the startup fee (no waiver there, lol). It's cheaper than the meetings, and there are a lot of people who love it, especially those who have busy or erratic schedules and can't make the meetings available to them.

I think the biggest thing is to try and figure out what kind of person you are and what your needs are. Do you feel you'd be better served by going to meetings and having that one-on-one interaction? One interesting thing at our meeting was that I guess each week someone would volunteer to share a menu of what she had eaten, and figure out the points. Then the leader discussed the strengths and weaknesses of what she had eaten.

Or are you most at-home with the online format? I think you can get good support either way, so it's really a matter of figuring out where you're most comfortable.

I think there is an option to check out a meeting without paying. You don't get the start-up literature (points slider, "Getting Started" book with a points index for common foods, week 1 booklet) until you start paying, but you can at least assess whether or not the meeting setting is something you feel will help you or not.

Good luck figuring it out!

[lilliemarie]

Thanks so much JennT - I have all the materials etc and have had great success in the past with meetings so I know how they can go - it sometimes depends a lot on the leader and the class and switching meetings at the same location sometimes can be a lifesaver! Just curious as to what people liked here!

Thanks again!

[librarygirl12]

I started out in the WW meeting, but after going about 18-20 weeks, I decided that I wasn't getting the support I needed. On top of that was the money issue, as I had to go to the Thurs morning meeting (since I work nights) and didn't get paid but every other Fri. So I decided to start doing it on my own. Posting on this site helps so much, just being able to communicate with others going through the same thing. I might go and do the online thing later, but for now this is working for me. Plus I'm excited b/c I've convinced my mom and dad to join WW as well, switching from Atkins.

[suitejudyblueeyes]

I am a meeting devotee so in my bit of time between packing things I just have to respond - be the pro-meeting voice in this thread. The meetings for me are THE thing about WW that keeps me here with WW. I absolutely adore my leader. She is this fantastically upbeat, motivational, bright, sunny person and has such a great outlook on everything. More than anything she shows us regularly that she's human, which I find very important in this process. We all stumble, we take falls, we get right back up and keep going. The first meeting I went to I ended up leaving because of the personalities there - there was a group of women who were too snarky and gossipy for me, so I chose another meeting and I LOVE it. There are women there who have kept their weight off for years, there's another woman who has lost 140 pounds so far. These real life success stories are incredibly helpful for me. I don't think I would have stuck with it this long if it hadn't been for the meetings. I feel like without meetings this journey ends up just being about the weigh in - which I don't like and would never recommend.

So that's my quick two cents Now off to pack more!

[lilliemarie]

Thanks so much Jaime and librarygirl -

The reason I had great success in the past with WW was becaue of the leader. There was little info online at that time and I just focused completely on my meeting and the leader who was just fantastic. I moved cross country then and never found one that I felt the sam way about. Now I have moved again - cross country again the other way, so finding a leader I connect with would be fantastic. I am limited to my times right now because I am n classroom training and work mid morning to mid evening but should be receiving a perm schedule soon and hoping for early afternon to later evenings which would open up my possibilities further. At the same time I don't want to delay much longer in getting started

Thank you again everyone!