written by northern lass on 23/05/2015
I have lost weight in the past with Weightwatchers, but I've let things slip and put a stone back on. I joined SW this time only because I've moved house and there isn't a convenient WW meeting. I have to admit I only went to SW meetings for a few weeks before I decided it wasn't for me. The eating plan makes sense, and there are certainly lots of things that are 'free food', however, there is little scope for 'treats' as everything that makes life pleasurable (eg chocolate, cheese, wine) has a lot of Syn values. Exercise is not taken into account at all and seems to have little mention, at least at the meeting I attended.
There were five new members the week I joined, we had an introductory talk with the consultant in a separate room to the main meeting, we were then taken into the very crowded meeting room and sat down to await the 'image therapy' session. We weren't introduced, and no-one spoke to us. I''m quite an outgoing person and over the next few weeks I persevered but never felt part of the group, which I thought was rather a 'clique', lots of people who had obviously been going there for ages and knew each other well but had little interest in making new members feel at home. I didn't feel comfortable and found the meeting very tedious and extremely long, as we had to 'celebrate' every weight loss, however small.
The consultant was very young - not a problem in itself, but I don't think she was very experienced, I found her boring and uninspiring. She sent a ridiculous number of lengthy group texts in between meetings but I got no support from her, she didn't seem interested in my progress and In fact didn't speak to me at all after the first meeting so in the end I decided to stop going to meetings. I've de died it really isn't worth spending 4.95 a week to step onto someone else's scales and waste an hour of my life at a boring meeting. I emailed the consultant And saidI I wasn't going to attend any more, but she didn't reply, which I thought was strange - surely she should at least have wanted to know why I've left? I'm sure there are good SW meetings out there but this isn't one of them.