[Skinny4baby]

Hello I am fairly new to the boards..I post alot in the 100lbs.. as I have quite a few pounds to lose.

Yesterday at work..one of my co-workers mentioned that we should all go to LAWL together. So today I am looking around boards and here you are!..loads of LAWL people

I was curious to know..if someone goes in with over 100 to lose. Should I say I only want to concentrate on 25 lbs? at a time?...because I surely would not want to pay for 100 lbs?...Also...from what I read you have a blast off/cleansing diet at the beginning..then a red phase???..then a maintance plan once you reach goal weight?..Is that kinda the way it works?....I plan to call and make an appointment to go in and check-it out. The closest one to me is 50 minutes.

Also do they talk about the emotional eating at all?...which is my main problem...but even so...Maybe if I had a more structured plan such as this..and also the accountability of weekly weigh in....maybe it would help me?

Any information of LAWL would be great. thanks! My bio-clock is ticking away..need to get some weight off ...so I can be a mommy!

[ad4now]

Hello Skinny4baby!
I can only talk of my experience with LAWL...but I will tell ya what I know. I started LAWL 6 weeks ago (because my best friend who wanted to lose 120 lbs was doing SO good on it). I have been following it RELIGIOUSLY and have lost 12. 4 lbs in 6 weeks...but I am trying to lose 52 lbs total. However my best friend who is trying to lose 120 lbs, has lost 55 lbs in 13 weeks!! She is just doing great! I feel like I am not doing so great, and don't really know why. The LAWL counselors have said it's because I don't have as much to lose and that hers too will slow down, but I am not sure how that works. Right now I am feeling pretty bumbed.

To give you some tips about how LAWL works....you go and talk to a counselor. Then they try pretty hard to get you to sign a contract to join. I felt it was pretty expensive, and felt a bit pushed to sign. I did sign as they kept saying "it's guranteed to work". The plan I signed up for was $560 for 1 year. That includes 26 weeks of weightloss (at 2 lbs a week) and 26 weeks maintenance.

The 1st 3 days they give you a drink (pretty much like the Hollywood diet) and tell you to eat as many meats and veggies as possible. And drink 5 ounces of the drink with 5 ounces of water twice daily. This pretty much gets rid of water weight, and boosts your metabolism up to burn fat. (so they say....)

Then according to what you weigh, and what you'd like to lose they assign a food plan to you...although they do not tell you any of this, until AFTER the 1st three days of the cleansing have passed. (And you only have 3 days to cancel and get your money back)

Then they assign you a food plan, my friend who wants to lose 120 lbs is on the Red Plan, she gets...

2.5 proteins (1=6 ounces meat)
4 veggies (1/2 cup serving)
3 fruits
3 starches
8 ounces of skim milk
1 fat

I started out on the Purple Plan and I get....
2 proteins
4 veggies
3 fruits
2 starches (i.e. 1 slice bread)
1 fat
4 ounces skim milk

**All the plans you get beef only twice a week, and you cannot have pork unless you switch out one of your beef for the week. You mostly have to eat fish, chicken, etc. Nothing else.

**Also they limit your salt to the diet salt, and you get only 1/4 a teaspoon a day. As well, as your sugar is limited. You cannot eat anything that has sugar as one of the 1st 5 ingredients.

I have since been put on the Gold Plan, which is the same as the Purple plan, except that I get 1 less veggie a day.

The concept is, as you lose the weight, they give you less and less food to eat. You have to drink at least 64 ounces of water a day, and no exercise is part of the plan. They do not talk about exercise, and when I asked, they have said....it's up to me.

Also you have to go to the center 3 times a week (like every other day and weigh in), which is up to you how that will work out depending on how close it is for you.

They promote the selling of their soy bars (which taste like a candy bar and are actually pretty good) but somewhat expensive. You are supposed to eat 2 bars a day, midmorning and mid afternoon. And the bars are $14 a box, and with 7 per box it takes 2 boxes a week, so $28 a week for the bars.

Also they promote their supplements, but these are not necessary to join the plan. But if you ask, why I am not doing so good...they will say.."Well, you really should try out supplements". So you feel (or I did) feel pressured.

Pretty much each center is different with a different group of people. I have mixed feelings about it...and am contemplating trying something else. I would encourage you to get several opinions BEFORE you sign your contract. Because their "guarantee" is that they just guarantee it to work, and they will keep working with you til you lose the weight, if that's 6 months great...if it's 6 years...then you have many trips to the center. And for me personally I want to lose weight faster than that. But then again, it's workign great for my best friend.

Have I contradicted myself yet? I am really unsure of whether I will stick with it. I really wanna lose the weight, but money is a big factor for me. And to date I have spent about $1000 on their plan and have only lost 12.4 lbs. I only wish I had asked a few more people before I started., and perhaps I would have "borrowed" my friends plan card and tried it out before I spent all the money.

Feel free to ask me anything I have left out. Or if you need clarification on anything...I will be happy to do so. I wish you the best of luck, and hope things work well for you.
Take care...
ad4now

[Skinny4baby]

Thank-you so much..Your post was so precise and detailed! Their plan looks pretty good to me!..If you (meaning me) can stick with the portion control and not overeat! The more detailed something is the better I do!

Have you been exercising at all?...Maybe you should try to do some exercises to boost your losing. I know when you first start you expect more to come off!...A podiatrist once told me that if a person walks "25 minutes first thing in the morning to get their system going"...and "25 minutes in the evening after your last meal of the day.. to keep the system going while we sleep"...you will lose weight. She said to walk at a good pace..not slow as a snail but you did not have to kill yourself either!..I thought that this sounded very resonable and doable at the time...but I have yet to try it! But it is something I have never forgotten, because it made such sense to me.

I will keep you posted if I go in for a consultation?....the bars sound really expensive to me. Even though..I think all bars are kinda expensive. If you take a good multi-vitamin everyday ..which we all should do...I think you could substitute the bars maybe for fruit or yogurt with almonds..as long as the calories are the same...and save some $$$. I am a firm believer that you should be aware of how many calories you are eating!
thanks-again!

[aphil]

My personal opinion is that if you have already signed with LAWL, then you may as well finish out your weeks and get your money's worth-but you can do the same thing without signing their contract...you were pretty much given the information in the post on what you can eat each day following their plan...there is no need to do the 3 day cleanse AT ALL...it is just an LAWL thing to charge you more for the juice...if you want to do the cleanse, you can buy Morning Blend Juice by Knudsen's at some grocery stores for about $3...and it is the same thing-same ingredients.
LAWL has a lot of policies that I do not agree with...such as the high sales tactics and pushing of supplements and bars-which you do not need to lose weight. They also do not push the exercise, because if you lose weight quicker-then you will not be a customer as long...and they want you there longer-catch my drift??? You SHOULD exercise while and after losing weight to keep it off, and for all of the health benefits. The counselors are also not any sort of nutritionists, or really trained in exercise or health issues...they are salespeople who are briefly trained with the LAWL plan and the product that they are supposed to push...they also work on a comission basis...so they get more $ the more you buy...not a standard hourly wage.
All in all...the $500 plus dollars I believe would be much better spent on a gym membership, a consulatation with a nutritionist, subscriptions to GOOD health magazines like Shape or Fitness, home exercise equipment, a few solid books on good nutrition and exercise basics...or a number of other things.
Any of the information LAWL charges you $500 plus dollars for you can get for free on the internet...and without all of the cost and a binding contract...it all comes down to eating less calories and exercising.
Good luck,
Aphil

[Kimbova]

Skinny4baby,

I agree with Aphil & ad4now. I joined LAWL when the prices were half price and so I don't feel like I lost a lot of money. Please go and look at your options but I would think very carefully about joining. At the center I attended, they did not promote exercise at all. As a matter of fact, I was told not to exercise until I'd had lost all the weight, which I didn't think that was smart. It's my desire to be toned as well as smaller. They even gave me stories of how the plan didn't work for people who exercised.

As Aphil said, they promote their bars & supplements and claim without the bars you will lose slower and they will increase your time, which mean more money. I've found that to be untrue. With you having a 50 min drive to the nearest center, I would really think twice about this plan, 3 times a week for the next year is a long time, can you commit to that journey every other day? I had a hard time because of my work schedule and I was told that once a week was not good enough, which really upset me since this was my money being spent on this plan.

Anyway, this is not to discourage you, just to make you think about the plan and what it offers. I found my counselors to be uneducated in the area of health & fitness and that was fustrating after about 4 months. I put my membership on-hold and it's been that way for a while now and I do plan on going back just for the accountability but not there plan. I found that if I followed it to the letter I lost, but if I ate 1 thing off plan than I would see a gain. Also, no sweets are allowed at all.

Hope this helps some.

[BabySteps]

Do a search on the web about LAWL, I did because a center just opened here and I was interested in it. I found out that the State on NY sued the LAWL CO. and won. Its said that the company is not a reputable one.

[ad4now]

I did the same search Babysteps....AFTER I joined So right now I am sticking to it...because I had already lost all my money.

I wish I had known before I joined....it's good that you came here to check things out. I also found this place AFTER I joined...so it's good to do research before jumping into something. I thought I had done research, as I checked around with ppl in my area...but it wasn't well known enough yet for that to do any good.

Take care!
ad4now
_____________________
Start Date: 8/05/03
Lost: 19.2 lbs (10/01/03)
Goal: 52 lbs