Hi!

Today I'm having trouble...alfreakinready. I somehow didn't have any real "meals" or anything particularly satisfying for that matter, and yet I used up all my points before 5pm! Yikes. There was NO planning involved, so, there ya go....Proof I have to get my act in gear and plan ahead - something I HATE doing. Oooh I hate it. I'm very spontaneous when it comes to eating and I usually go by mood and craving, etc. No good, I know. Darnit.

After I found out I had used all my points, I was angry at myself; I'm still hungry....but also, I panicked and thought what if this doesn't work?

Does WW work, and I mean really work all the way to my goal as long as a follow my points and the guidlines? Can I relax and just follow the rules and exercise knowing I'll lose the weight? Is it guaranteed weight loss?

Bleh...I hate how easily I can get nervous/discouraged. OK. It's only day 3! I'll be OK. I gotta adjust, get the hang of it, practice.

i found that WW works ... if you follow the plan and be honest with yourself when you don't .. .it totally works

Everytime i failed was not because of the plan, it was my own doing ....

I am a lifetime member.It works as long as you are following the program.

I remember feeling the same way when I first started WW. There are so many diets out there, and many of them DON'T work, even if you follow their plans 100%. More often, lots of them seem to set you up for failure by being so hard to follow. WW was different for me because it was so easy to follow (as long as I was willing to be honest with myself and journal), and because it worked so well! Even though I've been up and down throughout the years, WW helped me get off that initial weight and for the most part keep it off. It really educated me about the way I was eating and changed my thoughts about food forever.

Even though I eventually felt that I had to mix things up and try new ways of eating I still recommend WW to everyone I know because it is so user-friendly and effective. If you follow it, it will work!

I'm a returning member of my own doing....I just let everything go and didn't worry about what went in my mouth and all of it ended on my A--. You get the drift.

The plans that I have tried: Weight Watchers, Fat Flush, Atkins, South Beach, Cabbage Diet, Sugar Busters, Carb Addicts diet, Jenny Craig, liquid diet, all vegetables and nothing else diet, and the last one that lasted the longers --> "I don't give a damn diet" -- thus bringing my weight up to 195 pounds.

Does Weight Watchers work? You bet it does. I lost 47 pounds and kept it off for 2 years -- then divorced and was on the "I don't give a damn plan".

If...and IF you follow the program the diet works, unless you have a medical condition that no one is aware of. If you fstick to your points, pay attention to portion sizes, drink your water, plan your meals and focus on a balanced diet (aka veggies, protein, high fiber carbs), IT WORKS. Now if you eat and eat and eat -- doesn't matter what you eat = calories in. If you plan on having just lettuce for the rest of your life (yeah low in calories), but the plan may kill you before your weight will.

I know it's tough and I too have had days where I ate all my points PLUS some. But that was THAT day, and tomorrow is a NEW day where you can choose what to do. Think about this for a minute: "A year from now you can be glad you started -- or wish you had!"

Good luck and remember we are here to help!

I'm on my third week, and so far I've been consistently losing, and have more than my fair share of non scale victories. Each time I've been weighed, I'm just so happily surprised that it works. Just recognize the bumps in the road, and next time you travel that road, remember where those "bumps" are. I'd been having a salad every day for lunch for about a month before I joined, and on my first day, I realized the salad dressing I'd been using (if I used a serving, and who willingly uses only a serving of salad dressing?) was worth like five points, when that was how much the rest of the salad (feta cheese, croutons, lettuce, chicken, pita bread) was worth all together. The first few days are an eye opener, but with each day it gets easier and closer to second nature, I promise. I realize I'm still a noobie in this whole WW scheme, and I'm still having trouble believing that it works myself, but I believe it can and will work for me if I don't compromise myself.

I'm gonna sound like a downer her but no weight loss program is GUARANTEED. And it is not usually the weight loss plan that is the failure. It is usually the person following the plan who is the failure.

Now on to a better note....so you used all your daily points...this is where you can earn some activity points and also use some of your flex points. If you have no activity (and no way to earn them) and no flex then you make a plan for the rest of the day...EVEN if it puts you over. You use that day as a learning experience, evalulate what happened and why, evaluate what you could do better the next time and move on...NO GUILT!

I like to give into my craving but because I plan my foods and don't deprive myself of what I enjoy my cravings which say MUST HAVE are few and far between.

Technically just following points is all you need to lose weight...may not be the healthiest but yes. You should follow the 8 HG as it does help make weight loss more consistent, keep you satisified and make you healthy

And again weight loss on any program IS NOT GUARANTEED The program only works if you work the program.

Like you, I have difficulty with too much pre-planning, but find it works out okay as long as I stay within certain broad limits rather than an actual clearly defined plan . . . for example:

Breakfast is usually cereal, fruit and milk; lunch is most often a vegetable and broth based soup; dinner is usually a BIG salad and a good sized piece of protein (lunch and dinner are pretty interchangeable, too). Snacks and desserts are usually fruit or yogurt or SF jello and a blob of cool whip. That's as much of a plan as ever gets put in place for me.

After a little while, it all becomes pretty much automatic. Of course, things upset the routine quite often . . . but the old 80/20 rule seems to work out pretty well over the course of time.

Good luck, AMBEROO. You can do it, Chickie. . .

While you can never say GUARANTEED, I do believe what everyone else has said. If you follow the plan, the plan works. No ifs, ands, or buts. If you follow it, track your points, and are honest with yourself about the portion sizes, etc., it will work and you will lose weight! Wrap your brain around the need to measure/weigh your food, and write down all points, and you will be a big loser!

Just an additional side note: Don't allow yourself to become relaxed with the measuring and weighing, or you will run into trouble. 9 months in and I still weigh my piece of chicken or whatever. I can look at it and think, oh, that's 2 ounces....but when I weigh it I'm surprised every time. It might be 1.6, or it might be 2.3, but it's never exactly 2 ounces.

Psssssssst been doing W/W since 1998 and still weighs and measures.

It has taken me a long time and several attempts on WW to realize some things.

#1...Don't get down on yourself. If you do, that only leads to more stress and more eating! I am an emotional eater, and I find that beating myself up over eating the wrong thing or too much just makes it worse. It is what it is...this is a learning process. Your habits are not going to change overnight. Forgive yourself and let your mind get over it!

#2...I really had a "light bulb" moment recently when I realized that I don't have a stop watch in my hand...I'm not racing against a clock. My weight will come off, I just have to be willing to accept that it is not going to happen overnight. I have to be willing to learn from slip ups, and learn how to incorporate foods that I really love to eat.

#3...Losing weight IS a lifestyle change. It is going to take you more than 3 days to figure it out. Allow yourself time to learn! Just don't give up!

You can do it!

WW does work, but you HAVE to put some thought, energy and planning into it and you HAVE to do the work for it. No plan will "work" unless you work it.

You just started - don't worry too much about today, you learned something! You learned that planning is KEY to all of this so today was, in fact, a success for you

I can not express enough how important it is to PLAN PLAN PLAN!! This week for example I have all my dinners planned out, with points, and I am working backwards to plan the rest of my meals and snacks.

I lost 62lbs on WW a couple of years ago and kept off the weight for almost three years. WW didn't stop working for me, **I** stopped working WW.

Velveteen, you are really cute! (WINK)

Hello everyone - thank you SO much for the feedback. I heard just wanted I needed.... You know what I meant by "guaranteed" - because so many diets out there simply don't work or are way too hard to stick with. Thanks again, so very much, all of you're words are a big, big help. I now know I AM ready to think before I eat, to measure, to work on it rather than just "hope" I lose weight. I'm DOING it this time. And I've lost 7lbs so far!! Yiiipppppeeee.