I have had success losing weight in the past with the Weight Watchers Core plan.

I lost about 50 pounds with this plan before getting pregnant. On Core, there is a list of foods you can eat “until satisfied”.

Anything else, you can eat, but you have to count points.

This plan worked well for me because I never felt tempted to starve myself, then binge on junk later.

It also motivated me to exercise, since workouts helped me earn points I could then use for non-Core foods.

I also like Weight Watchers because of the accountability involved. Each week, you have to show up and weigh in with your leader.

After a few weeks, you feel like your leader is becoming a friend, and not losing weight would disappoint her.

So when I would think about overeating, I would think about how I would feel at weigh in that week.

Unfortunately, this can backfire if you overeat anyway and then just don’t go to the meetings. As for exercise, I mostly walked.

Then I got a reality check. I went to the doctor and heard that I need to make some changes. For a while I was in denial and continued enjoy every sweet and salty thing I could get my teeth into.

I guess I never saw the real me when I looked in the mirror until one day I was shopping with my daughter and discovered that I couldn’t fit into a size sixteen anymore and was going to have to go to the plus size department.

I am only five foot three inches and much too short to be wearing a size eighteen or larger. I went home that day and began my weight lose journey.

At first I tried to cut back on the sweets. I lost a few pounds. Then I joined Weight Watchers and began to see some changes in my body. I began to see signs of the girl I once was. After a friend joined Weight Watchers we began to walk a few days a week.

Before I knew it I was purchasing a treadmill and was walking three or more miles a day and even running at times. I can’t believe how good I felt.

I lost forty three pounds and went from needing a size 18 to buying a size 8. That was two years ago and I have let ten pounds grab a hold of me again.

I have had a great deal of stress in my life in the past six months and have the tendency to eat during stressful times. But I am hopeful this time.

I am back to Weight Watchers and I am continuing my walking routine and recording everything I eat so I have to be accountable otherwise it is too easy to go back to old habits.

Whenever I feel the urge to indulge, I find an activity to keep me busy, even if it is cleaning the bathroom. Those ten pounds will be gone before you know it.

On this plan you purchase their food (about $130.00 a week for each of us) and then integrate your own foods into the plan.

The diet was easy to follow because it is extremely structured. We tried to do a walking plan as well and stuck to it for about 3 months.

We both lost the weight that we wanted to but my husband’s weight came off quicker. He had great success in cutting most of the sugar out his diet (in coffee, soda, etc.) and I am still trying to follow his lead on this for myself.

I feel that this is the key in long-lasting weight loss.