Hey all,
I wanted to share what I learned from the COD. First, the manager at my center is great & I have never had any problems with them forcing products or the other complaints I've read in various forums. She seems genuine about helping you lose your weight and is quick to pull out her before "fat" pictures to show you she knows how hard it is and she had to lose her weight without LAWL. Anyways, I said all that to say that I really trust what she says.
I weighed in last Friday and saw a counselor who briefly told me that there was a new plan coming with more starches, etc... but she couldn't give it to me until Monday. I called my center Monday and talked to the manager to make sure they were opened late enough for me to make it and said & I'll get my new plan? She said that it would depend because not everyone was going on the new plan and she would look over my file & for me to see her when I came in.
Well, I went in that evening and she said that basically, they were applying the "if it's not broke, don't fix it" rule when switching clients over. If a client was losing real well on the old program they would not be switching them until they hit a plateau. However, some clients were struggling & had plateaued for months and they were switching them over. My mother was one who was only losing ounces at a time and was going to be switched over. She said looking at my file I was losing good on the old plan & she did not recommend switching me. (I had gained 1.8lbs previous week but had lost 2lbs, 3lbs, & 3lbs the previous three weeks.)
I explained that I was very sick of the program and about to crack and needed something new with more starches. From the beginning, I have been POP. After begging her, she did agree to let me move to the new plan, but stated she didn't recommend it and I could gain on it. We agreed I would try it for a week and if I gained, I needed to go back on the old plan. She also told me that I may initially gain & my next weigh-in may show a gain, but it should be off by the end of my first week. When going over the plan she told me the following things:
1) First 4 weeks is LA Express & there was NO eating out for 4 weeks. She made sure that I would commit to not eating out for 4 weeks.
2) She did say that this plan recommended doing take off every 2 weeks. I asked about using cantelope instead of the TO juice and she said with the weight I was currently at she wouldn't recommend it & if I didn't want to use the juice I was just better off not to do the TO. I do not plan on doing TO on this new plan, as I can't justify $25 for a bottle of juice. She seemed ok with that.
3) After 4 weeks on this new plan, two things would happen. They would either switch me to another plan (not back to the old one), or I would stay on this Express plan. She wouldn't let me see the next plan & said to take it one step at a time.
I was on Purple with lites and moved to plan 3. As everyone knows from previous posts that is 3P/4V/3F/4S/2F/2D & 2 lites. Some of the big things I noticed on the Express is this
1) No ketchup for condiments
2) No nuts can be used for fat (although they are still allowed as protein)
3) No raisins for fruit
3) Bananas and pears are now 1 fruit for a whole, but it is only 4 ounces which is incredibly small, so you will probably still be eating a half (and that weight is with peel!)
4) You cannot have fruit juice as a fruit
5) You cannot use the V8 Fusion or Fusion Lite for fruits and veggies
6) No Kashi cereal (you can have Fiber1, Corn Flakes, & Shredded Wheat)
7) unlimited Splenda, SF Jello, & I can't believe it's not butter spray
These are the items that made a difference to me.
Then there are all the other things others have posted. My counselor warned me to look up everything because you may not realize it's not allowed on this new plan or the portion is different. She said you have to get the Free to Live plan (old plan) completely out of your head.
So far I have been on this for two days & LOVE it. I haven't gained and it looks like I could be down a couple of tenths. I weigh in tomorrow & will let you know.
My advice is don't go on this program without information from your counselor. It is a whole lot different than Free to Live & if you just take the portions listed on this post and try to adapt the Free To Live Program it is not the same. You need all the information, to get it right and I would hate for you to gain weight because you ate raisins as a fruit, which isn't allowed!
Hope this helps,
Kathryn (sorry for the long post)
at WI!!! 
