Wednesday, September 9, 2009

The Programs that Didn't Work

Last week's poll question had to do with the many diet programs that are out there. I asked, "What diet program(s) have you tried?" I received a lot of responses. Twenty-three people voted on the poll and they were allowed to select more than one answer. I ended up with more than 40 answers. Here's how it turned out:

Jenny Craig - 8%
Weight Watchers - 69%
Nutrisystem - 13%
Other (such as Atkins, etc.) - 34%
My Own Program - 52%

The reason I chose each of the answers is because I have had some sort of an experience with each. I thought I'd blog about why I chose to use or to stop using each of the programs and how they worked for me.

Most recently I tried Nutrisystem. For anyone that doesn't know, it's exactly like Jenny Craig in that they send you food monthly for a fee and you have access to coaches and online resources in order to stay motivated. However, you also need to supplement the food sent to you so it ends up being quite a bit more costly than it originally looked. I was on the program for a few months and dropped it fairly quickly. It became just too darn expensive, and it offered basically little to no leeway for eating out. I had to make sure a stove, oven or microwave was accessible to me at all times and that became impossible. More so, my doctor told me to stop using it because it was having seriously negative effects on my body (internally).

Before trying Nutrisystem I tried Weight Watchers. I think the process Weight Watchers encourages is fantastic and works. The points system, keeping track, etc. is exactly what works for me, but I absolutely hated the meetings. I really felt uncomfortable with them, and I felt like I wasn't gaining anything at all for what I was paying for. Once I had the "equipment" to keep track, I had no idea what the weekly fees were going toward. That sense of confusion eventually got to me and I stopped going to meetings. However, even though I then had the tools, I lost all motivation since I wasn't going to the motivating meetings, and I fell off the program. So -- maybe it does work after all, I just wasn't willing to give it the right kind of try.

I haven't actually used Jenny Craig, but I have signed up with them and started the process, only to stop when I realized it was exactly like Nutrisystem and wouldn't be my cup of tea. I've also tried various things over the years including eating as little as possible, cleansing diets, talking with an herbal nutritionist and my own versions of Atkins and South Beach. None of those worked for me because they weren't catered to me. After all, in this equation, the absolute most important factor is myself.

So, when the idea of catering a diet to me was brought to my attention, I knew it was definitely a step in the right direction. I'm not doing anything outrageous, ingenious or new, but I'm doing what works best for me and my lifestyle. When my coworkers go out to eat, I go with them and then make my decisions on food. When Mike and I want to have a dinner out instead of cooking at home, that's in the cards too! I feel like I'm still able to be me and live my life while taking part in this journey, and I think that's key. If I could offer advice to anyone, I'd simply say that you need to find something that works best for you. If you don't like public meetings then find something similar online. If you never eat out, but hate cooking, try something like Nutrisystem or Jenny Craig. There's something for everyone, you just have to find it.

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