I've had Fibro since 1991. Over the years, a constant truth is that once you stop moving or even slow down, you will gain weight. In the late 1990's, I started using Weight Watchers. The first time I went for about two years and lost 42 pounds. One of the great things about WW is that it teaches you how to eat. No food is forbidden, not even doughnuts, if that is what you want. It teaches you about portion size and what to do if you have a really bad meal, day or week. You can plan ahead for holidays or those times of year where you normally pack on the pounds. Also, you attend weekly meetings where questions are asked & answered and you build relationships with the people in your roup. It has the potential to be a wonderful experience if you you it correctly.
I tend to be an emotional eater and after a few years, I put those pounds back on, so I joined aain. After a year, I had lost 33 pounds and felt I know enough to be on my own again. I was not. I gained the weight back over the course of two years. In the meantime, I transferred my favorite recipes to "points-plus" and started the whole thing again. This third time, I was more successful. In a little over eighteen months, I lost 82 pounds. I met and fell in love with a woman in my group and damn, we were cute as hell. Having someone to be responsible to and for helped our situations. That is until last March 3 when I woke up unable to stand straight or walk. No movement = weight gain. Despite the fact that I know how to eat and what to eat, no movement = weight gain. I have steadily put the weigh back on - all 82 pound plus another 35.
At this point, I have more than 120 pounds to lose and I do not know if Weight Watchers is the answer. My doctor recommended Medifast so I will look into that as well into some other similar type of programs where food is delivered. Part of my problem is that since I cannot stand up straight, I can no longer prep meals or cook. I was a gourmet chef but for the last 16 months, I've been eating Healthy Choice or Lean Cuisine crap and it's killed my taste buds. I used to eat a honking big big salad every weekday for lunch that contained a combination of the following - lettuce, tomatoes, Avocados, anchovies, tuna packed in extra virgin olive olive, scallions, red onion, celery, low-fat cheese, fire-roasted peppers, Capers, gourmet olives, grapes, mango slices, Other proteins like leftover steak, Hard boiled Eggs, chicken, or fish, clams, crab meat (hey, I live near the Chesapeake Bay), (even) mussels, balsamic vinegar and first-cold-pressed-Extra-Virgin-Olive-Oil.
Think about it...it took you more than a few minutes to read all the ingredients. Now try prepping them when all you can do is stand a for two minutes. Siting is even worse and it promotes poor posture and leads to worse problems. i need to figure how to make this work for me again. Oh, yeah, on top of this salad, I would always accompany my BIG salad with a Weight Watcher Smoothie- not a huge deal, but, but another four minutes standing up/cleaning up.
I hope some of this looks good to you. I wholeheartedly recommend at least trying WW to see if the group idea has merit.
Marc