I'm wanting to start the healthy life style and losing weight would of course be my perk. I'm 24 I go to college and I'm an office assistant so I sit on my butt all day basicly. But I honestly am slightly lost on where to even start, I'm pretty sure WW is a good way to get there but where to start. I've got my lil weight watchers kit w/ the books and the calculator and I bought that fancy little scale. I've been doing Shapely Secrets but I know that isn't real exercise. Maybe its just that the whole process is slightly over whelming. I've thought about doing my WW in conjunction w/ that calorie shifting thing f@t l0ss for idiots thing to see if that would work, I did that before and I lost about 10lbs but then nothing and I've since gained it back. Any suggestions on just where to begin? Sample menus?

Hrm... where to begin!

First of all, WELCOME to 3FC!! This is a great place and I'm sure you'll find tons of info and support here.

Second of all, as I understand it Fat Loss 4 Idiots is pretty much just severe calorie restriction and totally unsustainable as a result. Hence, I imagine, your re-gain of what you lost on that program. There IS NO magic pill, if FL4I really worked we'd all be at our goal weight. There's no way around this, you have to be committed to doing it for the long haul. But that's probably not what you want to hear

WW is a great program, and allows for plenty of flexibility in what you eat so that you never feel deprived. It is something that is truly sustainable.

As for sample menus, how many points are you going to be allowed per day? We had a thread hanging around in which we tracked our menus, that would be a great place to start for some ideas. If you give us a little more info maybe we could make some concrete suggestions for you (any places you're having trouble? like with snacks, or dinners, or getting enough food, or lightening up certain meals?).

Anyway, hope that helps a little, and I hope to see you around

Thank you for the warm welcome and I need the motivation too. And it'd be nice to go to the gym but time and money are a constrant exercise wise. I believe I'm suppose to get about 24pt my lil thing I got (kit and notes from ebay) says 175-199 lbs 24pts. If that's not right please let me know! I'd say my hardest thing is getting dariy/calcium I hate milk and my body doesnt always like dairy, and protein. I love eggs, but I know one egg a day doesnt cut it, I don't eat beef or pork and I try to eat chicken a occassionaly. Pasta is a weakness but I did stock up on some wheat pasta the other since it was on sale at safeway. My weakness is by far ice cream.

Whole wheat pasta is better for you, not necessarily calorie/point wise, but you get more per serving. As for ice cream, WW has some low point options in the freezer section which are a pretty decent size portion.

Just be sure to read your labels when you go shopping. The advantage to this program is that it works if you work it. You have the flexibility to spend your points on whatever you want, however, for successful results, you should make changes to your eating habits. Maybe not all at once, if it seems too overwhelming. Take one day/one week at a time, and make one change at a time.
For example, if you are a big soda drinker, start with substituting water for your soda. When I first started WW I couldn't stand regular plain water so I would buy flavored water. Now I drink more plain water than flavored. (Gotta watch the sodium with flavored water though. Certain brands are better than others)
I subscribe to WW magazine, which always has recipes and menu ideas in it. There are tons of great ideas on this website as well.

The key -- start small, take one day at a time and don't get discouraged. I know that I didn't gain weight overnight, and I won't lose overnight.

Definitely spend some time focusing on getting your protein in. It is a very important tool for your body, especially if you're going to be exercising!! Remember that nuts and beans/legumes have good protein in them too. As for dairy, I'm not a big dairy person either. I won't just drink a glass of milk, and I don't do cereal with milk. I will eat 1/2c of plain yogurt, though, and WW makes these smoothie mix powder things that count as a serving of dairy. You can mix them with ice and cold coffee and you end up with a 1-point Starbucks drink I def. recommend checking those out if dairy's a concern. They also have 5g of fiber and 10g of protein, so it really helps on a lot of fronts.

Thank you for the good advice. Soda isn't an issue for me, I stopped drinking soda about 7yrs ago, coffee is iffy I can give it up but I do enjoy it. Where can you get those little smoothie mixes? I've seen advertisments for WW stuff and WalMart and my safeway is old and kinda ghetto so they don't care a large variety of anything. I've tried plain yougurt and I just cant do it, I can if I make into a smoothie. Is fat free vanilla and strawberry ok? Or Cottage cheese? And does it really make that big of a diffrence if you use regular eggs vs egg beaters?

I buy flavored yogurts, not just WW brand. I look to see what's on sale at the time, and I check to see the nutritional info before I buy. (Dannon or Yoplait Lite for me)
I don't buy egg beaters. I use regular eggs at the house. But when I go out for breakfast, I will usually order a veggie omelet made w/eggbeaters.
Nothing is off limits if you plan for it within your daily points. If you choose to eat all "full fat" foods vs. all lite foods, that's fine, they just calculate differently, and may be smaller serving sizes.

I recommend the WW dessert, I have a major "sweets" problem and they make some great desserts for like 3 points- they also have fudge bars that are great. I was an ice cream addict and these things hit the spot for me!

As far as protein- do you like beans. I know in our organic isle, I get a can of salad beans- like kidney, chickpeas..and I put them on my salad- they are yummy, fill me up, give me protein and are only 1 point! Do you like cheeses? Skinny cow makes these cheese spread things that actually taste pretty good, for 1 point- you can get five cubes or a wedge and they are spreadable, I put them on flaxseed bread of triscuits. I too don't really like dairy so I try and find ways that are low in points to get it in.

Smoothie mixes -- I bought them at my meeting. I don't think they're something that grocery stores carry (unlike yogurt/cheese/frozen meals/etc). You might be able to get them from Ebay, or I know you can get them at the official WW website. If you go the ebay route keep in mind they're officially $7.50/box, a lot of times WW stuff has a huge mark-up on ebay to rip off the people who don't go to meetings. If you don't go to meetings but have a WW center near you you can just go in and buy stuff, you don't need to be an official WW person to do that.

Yogurt -- any kind of yogurt that you can eat is fine. Really whatever works for you works with the program. Personally I prefer low-fat instead of non-fat dairy; it tastes better than the FF stuff, and I just account for the points difference. It's best (health-wise) if you can do plain yogurt as it doesn't have any artificial stuff in it, but if artificial sweeteners and such aren't a concern for you then you can do pretty much anything. Just take a points slider or calculator to the grocery store and figure out which brand is best -- doesn't have to be WW brand.

Eggs -- the only difference is points. I don't care for the texture of JUST egg beaters. I usually only use them if I'm trying to lighten up a recipe, not if I'm planning on eating an omlette or whatever. Again, I just account for the difference, since I think there's such a huge quality/taste difference between them.

It's all up to you and your preferences

You're getting some great feedback, I enjoyed reading it myself. I prefer Yoplait light to other yogurts, and certain flavors, it's been a trial and error process to discover, I'll try different ones if they're on sale or I have a coupon.

I second what Suite said, if there's a WW center near you, you can look on the WW site to find a meeting, find a place that has meetings every day (ours is in a union building, so it's not officially called a WW center) they usually have products you can buy.

When I make oatmeal, I use 1% milk instead of water to get dairy in, I'm on a cereal kick now, so I'm not having a prob. with that. I made some SF FF jello pudding last night, that was good, also a way to get in some dairy. That smoothie coffee drink sounds good, I'll have to try it.

I read just about everything I come across about dieting, living a healthier lifestyle, etc. If there was a part of your old program that worked for you, incorporate it into your WW program. I read on here about a book where the guy was saying to cut 50 calories here and there, so sometimes I'll leave a slice of cheese off my sandwich or use spicy mustard instead of mayo or salad dressing.

The important thing is to make changes that become part of your lifestyle. You'll see that a million times on here, lifestyle not diet. You want to make small changes that you can keep doing, like parking further away at the mall or shopping center, going back out for the mail instead of stopping on the way in, etc.

Best of luck to you!

Hey! Welcome to 3FC! I'm sure with all this advice you'll do very well I am a huge fan of ice cream too, it is my all-time favourite treat. Skinny Cow do great bars that are only 2 points each and they're pretty big too! I love the double fudge ones, and the mint ones are quite nice also.

Those smoothies sound delicious. I love coffee drinks but can't afford Starbucks on a regular basis and the amount of points in their drinks scare me sometimes! I'll have to go look them up!

Welcome! I started last week with the 7 day free online trial on the WW website. Are you going to meetings? If not, maybe you should try the 7 day free online trial just to give you a bit of a boost. There is tons of information and articles on the website. You can read them as well as try the online tools. I've decided to continue doing the online program but after 1 week if you decide not to you, you can cancel.

I'm not going to meeting, no time between work, school and homework you know. I think I seen a weight watchers place the other day I'll double check though next time Im at target. I think I really need to step it up with the exercise too. I honestly just want to be healthy, yeah Id love to lose weight but I figure the sooner I get healthy and the longer I can stay health the better it'll be for when I decide to start a family and that's been my main motivator I guess you could say besides my evil boss basicly telling me I was fat ( I can't join the air force she tells me cause I weight too much). Really? I didn't know that. Anyway I don't want to get started on her.

When I was younger, I was going to join the Navy and had to lose a bunch of weight, they do have maximum's you can weigh for your height, and age limits for joining as well. I got pretty close, had physical scheduled and took some tests, then I got a job with the govt. and that was that...

You have the right idea about living a healthier lifestyle, even if you're overweight, if you eat better and exercise, it will benefit you. And if you'll have good, healthy habits to pass on to your children, if you're so blessed.

best of luck

Thank you thank you. I knew already I couldn't join but I didn't need her telling me that you know. You'd think she'd know better since I'm union and you can't make comments like that!