Sunday, June 14, 2015

Weight Watchers 'Filling & Healthy' - Review

I've been on weight watchers now since October last year, where I was given a three month free referral. Before that, I lost a little at home following (on and off), the old Weight Watchers 'Discovery' plan. I am leaving my meetings soon, purely for financial reasons and the timings of my local meetings, but I wanted to share with you what I think is a great start to a lifestyle change and healthy diet. This plan is suitable for everyone and particularly great for busy parents that are not always able to spend a long time weighing out foods or worrying about portions and pointing throughout the day.



I haven't exactly had the biggest transformation, as I still have a long way to go - but I have dropped three stone 9 pounds since last August and thought I would write this, as I keep getting asked how I have made these changes. It's been pretty simple, easy and I honestly haven't felt hungry. If anything, I have felt fuller and I am eating much nicer food now!

The plan I follow (pretty loosely to be fair) is the Filling & Healthy plan. This plan basically gives you a huge list of foods that you can have unlimited amounts of. No weighing or pointing or restricting yourself. If like me you have a sweet tooth, you also get 49 points to use over the week for treats. I never looked at points, but used it as a rough guideline and knew that the exercise I was doing would technically have earned me extra points too, so I knew I had a little room for a cheat day pizza and the odd weekly treat. The reason I prefer this plan to the traditional 'point' based plans, is that it forced me to change my lifestyle and choices, instead of just pointing for bad things, I instead opt for fresh filling and flavoursome alternatives.


The main thing to consider with the Filling & Healthy plan, is portion control. There are lots of tasty things on the 'free' list but you obviously still need to eat a sensible amount. The best thing to do is to think of ways to make the food you love fit, instead of trying to eat a new diet entirely. That said, I have a big love for salads now (big beefy ones!), that I never had before, so it shows that your tastes change along with your habits!

Talking of habits, I had a monster one for crisps, chocolate and cake, which I have under control now. I never thought this could happen. Some days I struggle for time to prepare things during the day, but I find with this plan there is still plenty to choose from easily enough and you get in the habit soon enough of choosing healthy snacks while out and about and sometimes, if I'm really organised, even taking something out with me!


I am going to continue the filling and healthy lifestyle and I plan to be sensible, plan, prepare and enjoy my food and treats, which are now actually treats and not a daily occurrence!

I have a separate post on the way with some of my favourite F&H meal ideas, but I just wanted to introduce you to this plan and explain the flexibility of it. I don't know if it's me that's changed or whether this really is just a great plan to follow, but I can guarantee if you follow it you will feel better!




Thanks for reading,

Wafflemama




See also -

Easy Summer Smoothie Recipe
How to love your salad!
Top 10 weight loss tips


Weigh, Lose or Stay - Laura's Lovely Blog