Where to Turn If You’re Trying to Shed Some Pounds Before Beach Season Arrives

From time to time, everyone needs a friend. When you are trying to lose weight, the friend you need is one who can help you along to your weight-loss goals.

With beach season fast approaching, now may be the time to engage in an intelligent weight-loss program.

For many dieters, that means a support group like Overeaters Anonymous or TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly). No medical advice, no exercise regiments or food products, just plenty of plain-vanilla support at weekly meetings with folks who share the pain because they too, are trying to lose. So, you encourage one another, and together work toward achieving a target you and your doctor have set.

Another path to slimness may lie through meal and snack plans like Jenny Craig or Nutrisystem. This type of program works best for people who hate to cook or can’t stop eating once they step into the kitchen, and provides nutritious packaged meals and snacks built around the carb-based low-fat food pyramid.

But that doesn’t get you off the hook because you have to come up with a good vitamin and mineral supplement plus proper servings of dairy foods, fresh fruit, and veggies, The programs also offer lifestyle and exercise advice. At Nutrisystem’s website, a virtual exercise instructor runs the routine.

So, which of all the programs and options to choose? There’s no magic bullet that works for everyone. Each person has their own needs and preferences. For example, do you like to make you own decisions? Your best choice may be OA or TOPS. Hate to cook? Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem. Are you somewhere the middle? Aha! WeightWatchers.

Weight Watchers combined a little from Column A (weekly support meetings) and some from Column B (frozen meals), a formula so successful that way back in the ‘90s the US Department of Agriculture named it one of the two best diet programs in the country (the other was the American Heart Association’s), and all was gold. Until it wasn’t. The new weight-loss drugs have eaten into weight-loss programs, especially WeightWatchers, which early in April prepared to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a move that would allow it to continue to operate while coming to terms with its creditors. A tough move for a company that once had Oprah Winfrey as its point person. The GLP-1 drugs—including Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Wegovy—are dramatically changing how some people approach weight loss.

The introduction of those meds has introduced a new friend into the mix: The dieter himself or herself. And that means a whole new way of approaching the work. Happily, Psychology Today’s website has five tips to make it work.

First: “Improve awareness of negative thinking.” Negative thoughts are obstructive. A real friend (including the dieter) talks a positive prescription to increase self-worth.

Second: “Picture how your best friend might respond.” Would a friend, hearing what you’re thinking or saying, agree or roll his eyes and say, “Give me a break”? If the first, the dieter is on the right track. If the second, nope!

Third: “Focus on the type of relationship you want.” Are the dieter’s words and thoughts aimed at being friends or frenemies with themselves? Psychology Today’s advice: “Be your own buddy, not bully!”

Fourth: “You can fight and make up.” If the day’s words were not the best, it’s okay for the dieter to say, “I was kind of a jerk to myself through that. I don’t want to do it again.” Best friends forgive, which means moving forward with the intention of trying a different way next time.

Finally: when in doubt, pick up the phone. Nobody’s perfect, and one’s own best friend takes time and practice. So, at those moments when failure looms, Psychology Today says it’s perfectly okay to text or call a real-life best friend for words of encouragement to keep in mind for the next inevitable time when things are, well, not perfect.

Net Friends

American Heart association. https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/losing-weight

Jenny Craig. https://www.jennycraig.com/

Nutrisystem. https://www.nutrisystem.com/how-it-works

Overeaters Anonymous. https://oa.org/about-us/

Psychology today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-adjustment-adjunct/202110/5-ways-be-your-own-best-friend

TOPS https://www.tops.org/home

WeightWatchers https://www.weightwatchers.com/us/