Hi everyone!
I'm so happy to find a site about LA Weightloss. I joined last week and they've just given me such a bad taste. I'm hoping you guys here will convince me I didn't make a mistake.
I want to lose about 25 - 30 lbs and I had already decided to join before I even spoke to someone.
Then I found out the price, just over $500!! Well, I put $100 down with the idea that I could cancel after the first month if I didn't like it.
I got the trial pack of bars and they're DELISH! Then I found out how much they are, yeah right!!! I will never pay $1000 for any food, especially not for a year in advance! But they keep pushing and pushing. That alone makes me feel like I made a huge mistake. They're worse than used car dealers.
I do think the plan makes sense. I don't like the fact that I can't figure out my own food, like WW let's you. I would like to be able to have a waffle for breakfast instead of a slice of bread or at least be able to know why each thing on their list is considered 1 serving so I'm aware of how to calculate things. But if even mention this to them they go into this speech about hwo it's not WW where you can trade your lunch in for 3 cookies.
Then to top it all off, one of the girls was trying to get me to stop working out. I don't work out much, 20 min on my gazelle every day and 50 crunches.
But I NEED to do that or I KNOW I won't lose a thing.
I don't know, I know I've rambled forever. I just don't know if I should get out now and join WW or stick it out. I have lost 3 lbs already.
The program does work, but you have to be willing to follow it. They can increase your plan to compensate for your exercising. You do not have to buy the LA Lites in bulk. You can buy other alternatives, just don't tell them that, like Luna Bars. You don't have to do the lites at all, I didn't-don't! If you don't do the lites, they increase your food plan to compensate for the calories and protien. You can't do alot of exchanging of foods. If you want to loose the weight on this plan, you have to follow it--exactly. Everyone is going to have "life happens" or slip-ups every now and then, you just can't make a habit of it if you want to loose quickly. I lost 90lbs without LA Lites or exercising.
I'm sure you're right. Well, I know you're right. I lost 3 lbs in 1 week. I guess I just need to hear that although they're mainly sales people that the diet works. And by the looks of your tickler, it does!
About the plan, the first girl said I'm on the blue plan because I'm so active (I'm not really super active, but I guess kids and excercise is pretty active).
The other girl tried to talk me out of excercising cuz she said I "didn't need to".
I was reading around about the plans on here, is there a lower plan than blue?
Hi everyone!
I'm so happy to find a site about LA Weightloss. I joined last week and they've just given me such a bad taste. I'm hoping you guys here will convince me I didn't make a mistake.
I want to lose about 25 - 30 lbs and I had already decided to join before I even spoke to someone.
Then I found out the price, just over $500!! Well, I put $100 down with the idea that I could cancel after the first month if I didn't like it.
I got the trial pack of bars and they're DELISH! Then I found out how much they are, yeah right!!! I will never pay $1000 for any food, especially not for a year in advance! But they keep pushing and pushing. That alone makes me feel like I made a huge mistake. They're worse than used car dealers.
I do think the plan makes sense. I don't like the fact that I can't figure out my own food, like WW let's you. I would like to be able to have a waffle for breakfast instead of a slice of bread or at least be able to know why each thing on their list is considered 1 serving so I'm aware of how to calculate things. But if even mention this to them they go into this speech about hwo it's not WW where you can trade your lunch in for 3 cookies.
Then to top it all off, one of the girls was trying to get me to stop working out. I don't work out much, 20 min on my gazelle every day and 50 crunches.
But I NEED to do that or I KNOW I won't lose a thing.
I don't know, I know I've rambled forever. I just don't know if I should get out now and join WW or stick it out. I have lost 3 lbs already.
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks
I'm guessing from the context of your post that you were formerly on WW? I'm curious to know how successful you were on WW and why you decided to try LAWL instead. Anyway, RE: the cost of LAWL, how much was WW costing per week? I've never done WW so I don't know their program cost, but I've heard it's around $10-14/week which makes LAWL's $7-11/week very competitive. True, WW doesn't make you pay for everything up front or charge you up front for maintenance, but each program is what it is, and if you are willing to forfeit the program-end rebate (which I don't know how many people actually accomplish anyway) and can stand firm in the face of pushy commission salespeople, you can get out of buying the year of maintenance, too.
Yes, some of the sales staff can be very, very pushy - that doesn't make the plan bad, though. It DOES work. But only if you stick to it exactly, really. Using your example, one waffle is going to have way more sugar and salt than a slice of diet bread - it may not seem like a big deal, but do it often enough and you won't see the results as promised.
I hope that you've read through some of the July thread to see how successful you can be on LAWL if you give it your all! I think you'll be pleased if you come into it with a mindset of "different ways of eating," not just "why can't I have what I want."
Fiona
ETA: About the exercise, the amount you're doing won't affect the basic plan you are on. A lot of the centers are changing their tune about exercise since the release of the new "Free to Live" plan, but it sounds like yours is just still stuck in the stone ages.
Last edited by vibrantecho; 07-25-2005 at 02:23 PM.
I never joined WW (if you haven't noticed, I'm stingy with money) :-)
I just found out info on line and from friends about it. I did them last year, but I don't really count the weight I loss to their plan, I just ate healthier and I was breastfeeding, so on their plan you get to eat A LOT if you're bfing. I lost about 25 lbs in 3 months. Then Thanksgiving hit, my baby's 1st birthday, hubbys bday, christmas, new years and I forgot all about what the word diet meant. I gained about 10 back.
I just found this board, so I'll have to read thru the July post. I'm just so excited to find tons of people this is working for. I was more afraid that I just threw away $100.
The waffle was actually an accident. The first day I didn't get a chance to go to store like I planned so I didn't have any of the starches on my list.
I did have waffles and I remembered her saying to get 40 calorie bread and my waffles were 90 calories, so I had 1/2. But I was worried that was wrong and then I started getting paranoid about how often that may happen and freaked.
As I'm eating my salad, I have a question if anyone knows...
I'm allowed 1 fat a day, I'm supposed to have fat free salad dressing, could I have a low fat salad dressing and count that as my fat instead of oil and vinegar?
YES you can have a low-fat dressing (1 tbsp) and count it as your fat for the day. This was one of my first questions when I joined, since I'm not a huge butter or mayo person.
BTW, My understanding of the plans was that blue is for people who work swing shift or other odd hours - I dunno if chasing after multiple kids counts, maybe! It is 1/2 protein and 1 starch more than gold, which is what I would have guessed that they'd put you on based on how much weight you want to lose (if that sentence made ANY sense at all...)
If you really stick to the program you will lose weight. However, I have been reading some "weight loss philosophy" books - it isn't the diets that fail - it is sticking to a program. Money-aside, if you don't think you can stick to the program than maybe WW would be a better solution for you.
I recently had plateaud, so I changed plans and started measuring everything again - amazing how quickly portion sizes can expand. Seems like my plateau may be busted!
How many kids are you running around after? I have 3, live in a town (so I do lots of walking for day-day errands) and live in a 4 story house. I started wearing a pedometer to figure out how much un-intentional exercise I was getting... last 4 days I have hit 10,000 steps without any problem. (10,000 is considered a highly active life style). You might want to consider getting a cheap pedometer to get a better idea of actual amount of exercise you are getting. You might be getting more exercise than you think.
Last edited by henrygirls; 07-25-2005 at 03:26 PM.
First off, I have a question. If you just joined last week, why didn't they offer you the "Christmas in July" special which was 12 weeks of program for $199. It's a "bare-bones" package that doesn't come with any Lites, vitamins, or anything, but it sounds like it would have been right up your alley.
Many centers are having Open House this week and plans will be half price. call your center (without letting them know who you are) and ask if they are doing this and if so, when. Waltz in there on that day and ask them if you can get the special since you haven't completely paid for your services. You never know, they may do it.
I do hope you can get past the hard sales pitch you have been receiving, and you will if you just stand firm. Nothing is "required" unless you want to go for the rebate and the guaranteed 2 pounds per week loss they offer for using the Lites.
As for the exercise, I would like to hope the counselor was just expressing an opinion about how you can lose weight on plan without exercising. Exercise is very important and if you are already doing it, you are one step ahead in the game! Keep it up!
Initially we are limited as to what we eat so that we WILL lose weight. As we move on to stabilization and maintenance, we gain back foods we have given up to lose the weight. As for substitutions, a calorie is a calorie, and if you are eating 1/2 of a waffle that has the same amount of calories as a slice of diet bread and only doing it once in a while, I wouldn't have a problem with it. As long as it doesn't cause you to stall, what's the harm? After all, we are allowed to eat French Toast as a Carb Craver's meal. I've used my Egg Beaters, 1 slice of low cal bread, and part of my milk to make a slice of French Toast. It was yummy!
I went in today for my weigh-in and I'm happy to announce that I've lost 4 lbs in 8 days! Woohoo!!
You guys made me feel much better about the whole thing. I did buy a box of LA Lites today, just because I was craving a cookie and they're so darn good. I think that was enough to get the sales demons off my back for a bit.
She went on to say that I don't HAVE to eat 2 a day if I don't want to. (but I did today).
Thanks again, I think I may just make it with you guys around!
I got the trial pack of bars and they're DELISH! Then I found out how much they are, yeah right!!! I will never pay $1000 for any food, especially not for a year in advance! But they keep pushing and pushing. That alone makes me feel like I made a huge mistake. They're worse than used car dealers.
I don't want to upset any of the LAWL members here by saying this to you, but the counselors are trained salespeople that work on commission. Pain and simple. They are not dieticians, or nurses (even if some wear lab coats), or personal trainers. They are salespeople. For your future visits, you really have to keep that in mind, and it will help you see through their sales pitch. The salespeople are supposed to try and sell you something at every visit-bars, shakes, pills, vitamins, more weeks-SOMETHING. They are doing what they are paid to do.
It will be hard to go through their hard selling tactics at every visit, but you can if you stay strong and remember that they are doing their job-which is to sell. You just don't have to buy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by criki
Then to top it all off, one of the girls was trying to get me to stop working out. I don't work out much, 20 min on my gazelle every day and 50 crunches.
But I NEED to do that or I KNOW I won't lose a thing.
Once again, they are salespeople. Their goal is to get you to spend more money. If you don't exercise, and you are there for 10 weeks longer...well, then they have done there job. Don't listen to this advice. Exercise. For too many reasons to count.
Like I said, I don't want to offend anyone here, but I call it as I see it. I think that the LAWL eating plan is okay and that you will lose weight on it, but I don't like their company and hard selling practices. You will lose weight on their plan, but you have to deal with the high pressure sales pitches.
I have successfully lost 90lbs on LAWL, but what Aphil says is true. They are salespeople. I even looked up the requirements to work there and they were all SALES related not nutrition or personal training related. They do work on commission.
I have not bought alot of their products. If you keep telling them "No thank you," they will eventually either stop asking or at least lighten up. Now, the most I ever get is "Do you need anything?" I say no, and we both go on our merry way...
You can substitute lower priced compareable items for their products, and most of their products aren't even neccessary at all. I would suggest buying an EFA, not neccessarily from them, to ensure you are getting your omega fats in.
If it makes you feel any better about the counselors giving you their high pressure sales pitch-keep in mind that when you leave and they didn't make a sale, then they hear it from their managers.
I never buy anything (except for the 10 boxes of lites on my 1st day and they have all ran out) and every time I go in the say "Need more Lites?" and I say "Nope, I'm good" and that is that!
I have pretty much fully switched to lunas. I figure even thought I won't be getting my money back it still works out better in the end. I get my Lunas for $.99 at Trader Joes.
Also, I keep kosher so from the begining I let them know I couldn't eat most of the food they sell (the chips, soups, etc) so that also keeps them from nagging me.
I figure I keep losing so they have no basis for trying to force me to buy.
New and already bitter??
It is 1/2 protein and 1 starch more than gold, which is what I would have guessed that they'd put you on based on how much weight you want to lose (if that sentence made ANY sense at all...) 
