I want to leave LAWL, maybe this is the wrong place to post
however, I really need some advice.
I pre-paid for the entire program and the bars. Yes, it was a lot of money and I don't really regret any part of my experience.
I have lost 50 lbs. 20 was on my own, and 30 was because of LAWL and the eating plan.
I am breastfeeding my 15 month old daughter. I started when her sole source of nutrition was me. Now she eats plenty of foods, but I am still nursing.
I feel a lot of pressure from the staff to quit breastfeeding and to not walk as much as I have been.
I am training for a sixty mile walk, so 2-6 miles five days a week is an absolute must for me.
I have had some supportive staff, but overall the thought is that I should be walking less and weaning my daughter faster.
At first, I started to wean her and it was just not time for either of us. So, I am often (I feel) taunted with the magic carb pills they offer and I hear "well, as soon as you are done nursing you can take these so you can eat more variety" and I absolutely hate it and feel sick every time I leave the center.
Anyway, here are my issues...
1, I get many different "rules" - not just opinions. I had two people that were willing to sell me the pills so I could participate in the carb cravers menu, but then the next day when I actually went to purchase them I was told "sorry you can't, you're breastfeeding" which I appreciate, because obviously I don't want to take something without researching it. However, I feel completely taken advantage of by the fact that the previous staff were willing to sell it to me (wallet was not with me that time) and the head counseler at the time had even Ok'd it.
2- I started out on red and when I went down 20 lbs they put me on purple. I was starving and told them several times. It wasn't until recently that I was told "you should have never been switched and you will most likely get free weeks due to this error"
3- I need more food. I have hired a personal trainer and it's not just about losing the weight anymore. It's about learning new habits, staying active and eating MORE food that will help me achieve my goals.
I loved the center when I started. I feel different now and I am frustrated that the sales approach has taken over. I am either forced to stop nursing my daughter or I am going to live on the same foods and my body will stop losing (like it has) because I do not have enough variety and/or I am too active for the program.
Lastly, I started lifting weights and instead of the support of "well, you gain muscle then lose it" I am treated like "oh darn, you're up 2 lbs" like that is a bad thing when in the long run it's better for me.
I would like to know if anyone has any suggestions on leaving or how I should deal with this?
I know that everyone has individual experiences so please don't feel like I am telling everyone to leave, because I am not. I am just to a point where I am not losing and I am not getting the foods that I need for my lifestyle.
Hey pink - I feel for ya! That's quite a runaround you're getting.
First things first, you do NOT need to buy the carb supplement to use the carb cravers menu - this is just another LIE and a sales pitch.
Just curious, did you ever negotiate your free weeks for when they switched you to the wrong plan?
CONGRATS on losing 50 pounds! You must feel great!
I don't know too much about quitting, although it sounds like you have plenty of reason to. As an alternative, have you thought about telling them you want to go on hold until you are done breastfeeding (15 months and counting - wow!) and/or until after this event you are training for?
(I'm almost at the end of my weeks and nowhere near goal (my fault, not the plan's) and I'm just way too broke to buy more right now, so I think I'm going to have to tell them to put me on hold until I get closer to goal and/or have more money, and they can kiss my hiney if they don't like it. )
Do you have a decent relationship with ANY of the counselors there, or better, the manager? My optimistic nature would like to think that if you sit down with someone who has a full understanding of your situation and can come to an agreement that LAWL is just not a good fit for your lifestyle right now, you may be able to work something out.
Great advice! Hopefully one of the counselors will be willing to do something to help. We've received a LOT of complaints about lawl in the past, more than any other diet program out there. Of course there are also people very happy with the program, as you can see here,.
I agree about the carb supplement. It IS a ripoff. Carb blockers, also known as starch blockers, do not work, it's all marketing hype. You block carbs with your fork, not pills, lol.
Quote:
This is complete nonsense. If you managed to completely block all
digestion of starch you ate, the bacteria in your intestine would get the sugars and you'd blow up like a balloon from gas, and then have diarrhea. Exactly like having lactose intolerance, and for the same reason. In fact, the well-known gas from beans is also a result of incompletely digested sugars in beans. Stuff that isn't digested higher up, will always get digested by bacteria further down, and with disasterous results. There is actually a prescription starch digestion blocker on the market for diabetics (called "Precose" or acarbose), but its effect is only to slow digestion of starch down, not stop it. Nearly the same calories are absorbed, and even here, the major side effects are (you guessed it) gas and diarrhea.
Several studies of the actually effect of weight-loss "starch
blockers" are in the literature. In one famous one, the entire gut was washed out with a "colonoscopy prep solution" several hours after a test meal, or a test meal with starch blocker. This was done for a number of subjects. The caloric content of both kinds of washout mixtures was measured (yeah, gross work, but it's science). The result? No difference. These things are scams. They don't even block starch digestion as well as Precose, and Precose is no good for weight loss.
Steve Harris, M.D.
The plans are all low in calories. If you eat more carbs, you'll still lose weight as long as you are on a low calorie diet. No pills required.
Furthermore, the counselors should have no input in when you wean your child from breastfeeding. This is something you should only discuss with your physician. The lawl counselors almost always have no training in nutrition or health, they are sales reps, and even if they did, this is not their concern and I feel your rep is overstepping in this issue.
Your daily walking goal should be encouraged, and you should be proud of sticking to it! Everyone should walk a minimum of 5 miles per day. We've heard from other people that have said their counselors discouraged exercise, and I even started a thread a while back to see how others felt about this, or if they had the same experience. Everyone's experience was different. You might be interested to read this thread about a radio DJ that was hired to endorse lawl, and she was also working out. The scales did not move, even though she was losing inches. They even asked her to stop exercising. It was all about the scale and not the true weight loss and fitness.
I'm sorry to sound so negative. I have very mixed feelings about lawl. The diet plan itself is a healthy plan for most people, though it's no better or worse than any other diet. It's just the way they manage the program that bothers me.
Choose your own counselor...request her each time you go in! I have started doing that, and I have been very happy. I was getting frustrated before-I felt the knowledge, support, encouragment wasn't there in some of the counselors and I actually stopped going for awhile. But the one I'm exclusively going to now is great.
I'm posting based on my sister's experience with LAWL and pregnancy. She was on the Red Plan, no lites, no supplements, while she was sole source. When she went back to work and was using both formula and breast milk, they let her start back on the lites, but she still stayed on Red. She was able to use the carb craver menu, but the counselors at our center enouraged her not to so she might see more of a loss, I guess from not eating the additional carbs allowed in place of the protein. As others have said, you don't need the Carb Enders. Once she stopped breastfeeding altogether, she stayed on Red until she got to a certain weight and they recently switched her to Purple.
Our center has never discouraged cardio/aerobic workouts, but they frown upon using anymore than 5lb weights. If you workout 5 hours or more a week you're supposed to be on the Red plan and not go to a lower color plan like Purple, Blue or Gold.
I think you should contact the corporate office and request/insist that they work out a liveable plan for you since you have paid all this money upfront. They can be a pain to get an answer from, so if you can make the time to stay on top of it, it might help. LAWL needs to get with the times, unfortunately, there are still many people who do not want to exercise to lose weight, and this is part of the appeal of LAWL. At least register a complaint about their comments about discontinuing breastfeeding your child. They are in no position to make that request or to even suggest it!
Being a mother who nursed my children, I think that they are overstepping their bounds. They in NO WAY should be tempting you to wean your infant and sacrifice something that is wonderful for her nutritionally-so that you can buy their pills that don't even work. That is just my opinion.
I agree that the LAWL counselors are not trained at all in health and nutrition. They are sales reps. They are trained for only a few days.
I also agree that they should not be telling you to stop what you are doing exercise-wise. What you are doing is wonderful for your body. They SHOULD be putting you on a higher calorie plan because of your nursing and exercise however.
I don't think that the LAWL plan in itself is all that bad-but they way that the centers and the counselors treat their customers with their condescending attitudes, high pressure sales pitches, and "lack of eduction" for health, fitness, and nutrition I do not agree with at all. You do what feels right to YOU...not what they are telling you you should do.
I know this was said a few times but I just wanted to reiterate that you do not have to take the Carb Enders to do the Carb Cravers meals. And, if you are working out (lifting 5 or more hours/wk) you are actually supposed to be on the Red Plus plan which gives I think 4 carbs, 2 1/2 proteins, 3 fruit, 4 veggie, 2 dairy (?) and 2 lites.
I can tell you right now, they aren't going to let you quit. Or, you can quit, but you won't get a dime of your money back. Believe me, I have been down this road. Right now, I am having to sell my lites on e-bay and had to just wave goodbye to the $800 I spent on the plan. I have tried to get my money back and the district manager who has to approve it absolutely REFUSES to call me or to give my center an answer about my refund.
When I started, I was told there would be counseling. I felt this would be good for me as I have emotional issues that involve food. To them, counseling is weighing you, looking over your diary and getting you out of there as fast as they possibly can. More than once, while I was talking w/ my LAWL "counselor", another employee would stick their head in the door and say "there is a walk-in (possible new customer) out here and I am doing such and such." In other words, we already have her money, get her out of here so we can get someone else's money.
I won't ramble on about it cause I will just get madder and madder but like Suzanne said, it is a healthy eating program but is not all it is advertised to be. And the corporate office won't do anything to help in any situation...they want it handled through your center that you go to. I have never gotten anything but the run around from everyone involved in LAWL.
I would run, not walk, from any place pushing me to wean my child. That's totally inappropriate, IMO. 15 months is very young; if you and she want to continue nursing, you absolutely should (the World Health Organization recommends that mothers breastfeed for a minimum of two years for optimal child nutrition and health). I wish I could have nursed mine that long.
IMO, if a nutritional plan cannot accomodate important, HEALTHY things such as nursing and walking, then it might well be time to find another program. There are other options out there, even if it means losing part of your initial investment.
I agree with what everyone said here- that the center has no right to tell you when to wean your child just to help you make THEIR numbers.
One other thought, though - I did the Avon 3 day walk (50 miles) about 3 or 4 years ago, and I was on weight watchers then. I had a REALLY hard time losing weight then. I don't know if it was because I was not eating my activity points, or what, but it seemed that I certainly was not losing as fast as I thought I should with all that walking. And they suggested that we get used to those sport drinks which contain calories and I'm not sure how they'd work in the LAWL plan.
At the risk of being subversive, can you put your plan on hold until the walk is over? Go on the red plus portion plan as suggested by Mandy and see if that gives you enough food to keep you going. It sounds like it is not the plan itself that is giving you problems, just the mixed messages given by the staff. And I would contact corporate about this.
At my center, the last time I went to WI, the counselor I met with said that she was going to work on a training program for our area. I said that was terrific, since I got different rules from each counselor that I met with.
And yes, about the Carb Enders - obviously, you do not need them to lose weight. They don't suggest that we take them with the LC/HC dinners, do they? This is one of the mixed messages.
Hi I'm not to keen on weightloss and the correct way to loose it and all, so can someone explain to me whyit is important to eat more to lose weight if you work out?
Because to lose weight, it is done with a balance of calories in (via eating) vs. calories out (daily "existing" and exercising).
Everyone's daily calorie intake should be a little bit different-for instance, you have two women who are both 22 years old and the same height, and the same activity level. One weighs 140, and the other weighs 240-the one who weighs 240 burns more calories per day JUST EXISTING than the 140 pound woman. This is because her body has to work harder doing everyday things like walking, breathing, and so forth. So, this woman can lose weight eating more calories than the smaller woman.
Say you have 2 women who are the same height, age, and WEIGHT. One walks a mile a day for exercise-the other strength trains for 30 minutes 3x a week, and runs 3 miles every morning. The much more active woman has a higher calorie requirement than the les active woman-so she needs more calories per day.
You want to consume less calories than you burn per day, but your body also has certain caloric needs that must be met, and that varies depending on your current weight, age, and exercise/activity level.
I want to leave LAWL, maybe this is the wrong place to post
)
What you are doing is wonderful for your body. They SHOULD be putting you on a higher calorie plan because of your nursing and exercise however. 
