Hi there, AdoAnnie
Welcome to our thread.
I know how it is to be low on cash. I am a recently-graduated college student, and money's really tight. Let me try to help you as best I can:
There is nothing mysterious or magical about weightloss. Simply eat fewer calories than you burn during the day, and you will create a "deficit." Do this over a week, and you may notice a change. When the deficit reaches around 3500 calories, you have lost a pound of fat. Fat is, after all, just stored energy that fuels us through our daily activities. Even if you do not exercise, you burn calories in your daily life. You can do this by purchasing a calorie-index book (at most bookstores... it lists foods and caloric values for them), and keeping track of what you eat vs. what you burn. I use a website called
www.fitday.com for this, and it works great.
All LA Weightloss is selling, since their supplements and foods are optional, is support from its counseling staff. We visit them a few times a week where they either cheer us on, chastise us, catch our mistakes, etc... Since counting calories can be time consuming, they do that for us as well by grouping certain foods (veggies, fruits, starches, proteins, etc...) and giving each client an allowance of servings of these foods per day. The allowances depend on the activity level of the client, his/her health, and his/her weight to lose. This is pretty analogous to WeightWatchers' points system.
So you see, there is no great secret to be gained. It's all in the motivation. I have tried just counting calories and experienced some success, but I am tied to this program now because I plopped down a couple hundred dollars. I will receive a portion of it back when I reach my goal.
I, myself, am on a payment plan and have not yet fully paid off the program. I imagine many folks do the same. Good luck to you, and really check out fitday.com. It's a good tool.
To AdoAnnie:
