Just got back from my first Weight watchers meeting

[callmeovercautious]

It was awful

The place was packed as they have an offer on atm. The leader was the most annoying person I have ever met and was really condecending to everyone she spoke to.

Now I am looking at my pack and don't know where to start. I was so excited about making this commitment and now I feel really negative again.

Come and tell me how easy it is going to be - or give me a slap

[Furball]

If you don't like your leader - check the weight watchers website for another class near you that you could join.

I am doing slimming world so can't offer any WW advice as such, but my top tip would be meal plan for the week and buy accordingly, so you know what you are going to the cupboard for.

I'm sure there must be a weight watchers thread you could join here for ideas and support etc. GOOD LUCK! remember my motto, think thin.

[callmeovercautious]

I have now read all the leaflets I was given and am calculating my points. I still BF 2/3 times a day - do I get extra points then or is that meant for BFing in the early days? - DD is 19m.
Anyone?

[Jahan]

I just joined ww too and didn't really like the meetings.
Our leader is nice and friendly but fat. Its a bit uninspiring but I need the weekly weigh-in threat to try to keep me on track.
(she also went on and on about the ww products trying to sell them)
I think you get 5 points extra points if you are 'supplementing bf with solid foods'.
Good luck!

[Jahan]

Sorry, I just realised your question wasn't about ponts if your bfing.
Hopefully someone with more knowledge may come along and help.

[callmeovercautious]

No it was I was a bit annoyed by her in general but she made an assumption that I was not BFing DD (who was there) so I suppose I got a bit peed off straight away

Perhaps you should not join WW when you have PMT

[ingles2]

callmeovercautious...why don't you come and join us here
We're quite nice and doing quite well.

[callmeovercautious]

Thanks Ingles2 - I may need a week to read the thread though

[ingles2]

Nah... don't bother reading it just me moaning about lack of wine and chocolate

[confusedmamma]

I have also had bad experiences with WW leaders. I've been a few times and I just thought they were useless, patronising and one was a real cow. It put me off completely and it took me ages to work out the point system too. I'm not a big fan, although I know if you do it properly it must work. After Xmas my leader had put on half a stone. I felt she looked like a pissed teacher lecturing kids about binge-drinking. But ...... good luck !

[confusedmamma]

I have also had bad experiences with WW leaders. I've been a few times and I just thought they were useless, patronising and one was a real cow. It put me off completely and it took me ages to work out the point system too. I'm not a big fan, although I know if you do it properly it must work. After Xmas my leader had put on half a stone. I felt she looked like a pissed teacher lecturing kids about binge-drinking. But ...... good luck !

[bran]

If you don't like the group leader then either change or do it yourself online, otherwise it's virtually impossible to keep motivated. You also don't have to stay for the meetings if you don't want to, and if it's quite busy they may have two scales in operation for the weighing in which case you could be weighed by her assistant.

Good luck with it. I did WW for about 6 months and I found it really slow, only losing between half and 1 pound a week, but that's because it's not really the best sort of diet for people with PCOS.

[lavenderbongo]

I have been doing ww for about 5 weeks online and lost over a stone. I live abroad so cant go to meetings - but i dont think i would get on well with them anyway. I am not very good when people start telling me what i can and cant do - i immediately want to do the opposite.

bran - why is it not the best diet for people with pcos? I have this but didnt know it had an impact on weight.

[nikkid21]

lavender - I have pcos and have lost almost 2 stone on slimming world after my doctor reccomended it. With pcos the weight loss is slower and it's taken me since October to get this far.

Apparently with pcos you should have lots of low gi carbs - basically it's the opposite of Atklins. The green days on slimming world with unlimited pasta, couscous and jacket potatoes work really well for me.

Dr also said that pcos makes you more prone to binging on high Gi carbs such as buiscuits and cakes. Explains a lot as I was bulimic in my teens and it was always the cakes and biscits that I went for.

[lavenderbongo]

Thanks nikkid - this has never been explained to me but it makes a lot of sense. Binging on biscuits and cakes has caused all the weight I carry - they are my downfall .

I love pasta couscous and potatoes so I think i will try more of those in my ww diet. Thanks. Mumsnet explains things once again!

[bran]

I found when I was doing WW that it was quite difficult to count the points and consider the GI value of everything. I was very, very strict about sticking to my points, but sometimes that meant that I made odd choices in order to keep within my points. For instance if I bought lunch when I was working then a low-gi choice would be lentil soup with pitta bread and some salad but without being able to weigh the soup or knowing what the ingredients were it would be quite hard to calculate the points so I would often go for a sandwich that had the nutritional values printed on the front so I could calculate the points. I also exercised a lot and in general the whole thing was a bit of a struggle and I had to be very obsessive about it.

Interestingly PCOS is increasingly being treated as a metabolic disorder, rather than a gynae disorder as it was when I was diagnosed about 15 years ago. A lot of consultants are prescribing Metformin which is a drug used for people with type 2 diabetes. I have been taking it for about 6 weeks now (for diabetes) and in the first 3 weeks without changing my diet (which has been essentially low GI for quite a while now) or lifestyle I was losing nearly 2 lbs a week. So it does have quite a big metabolic effect. After the first 3 weeks I have kept my diet the same except for cutting out my morning glass of juice and the occasional biscuit and increased my exercise and the weight is still coming off steadily.

Jacket potatoes aren't all that low GI though, boiled new potatoes are better. But if you combine the jacket potato with some protein (like tuna/pulses) or some high fibre vegetables it reduces the GI of the whole meal. My favourite meal is indian dahl and rice (mixed brown and white basmati rice) with yoghurt, which is very low GI and also delicious and filling.