Lose for Good and Save a Buck!

As most of you know, I'm a Weight Watcher. Ok, so I'm more of a semi-practicing Weight Watcher. It's kind of like a Catholic who only goes to church on major holidays. But I'm really trying hard to find a work-life balance amidst the chaos that is my life right now (which is a bit of lingo I'm not a big fan of, but it exists whether or not I like the term) and want to recommit myself to being more diligent about my Points and activity.  I could be losing weight at a much more effective rate and I think I may have found the kick in the pants to do so.

Each year, Weight Watchers sponsors an event called Lose for Good to help fight world hunger. If you join Weight Watchers or are already a member, the pounds you lose from September 5th through October 23rd will help generate up to $1 million to feed children and families dealing with hunger, both around the world and here in the United States. There are various ways to help, in addition to pounds lost, including redemption of coupons and participation in social media.  Here is how the contributions will be tallied, per the fine print on their website.

Weight Watchers will donate up to $1 million as follows:

(1) For every 1 million pounds lost during campaign period, Weight Watchers will donate $225,000, up to $900,000;

(2) For every qualified “Visit a Meeting for Free” coupon redeemed in meetings locations during the campaign period, Weight Watchers will donate $1.00, up to $10,000;

(3) For each approved “Lose-A-Palooza” social media activity on 9/14/10, Weight Watchers will donate $1.00, up to $60,000; and

(4) For each approved activity on each of six “Action Tuesdays” during the campaign period (except for 9/14/10), Weight Watchers will donate $1.00 up to $5,000 per Tuesday.

Pounds lost by members will be determined by average weight lost per meeting attendance during the campaign period multiplied by total number of attendances during campaign period. Pounds lost by Weight Watchers Online subscribers will be determined by total weight loss recorded in the Weight Tracker during campaign period. All weight losses are subject to our healthy weight loss guidelines. Donations will be made 70% to Share Our Strength® up to $700,000 and 30% to Action Against Hunger up to $300,000. To learn more about the participating charities visit www.strength.org and www.actionagainsthunger.org.

If that's not enough of an incentive, Smart Ones will also make a donation. If you buy Smart Ones anyway, here's a coupon for $1 off of five frozen Smart Ones meals. I really like most of the stuff they make, but they have a few new ones that look promising like this Mini Rigatoni with Vodka Cream Sauce or the Pasta with Spinach and Ricotta.  Yum! I need to get some of those...

So what do you think? Have you considered joining Weight Watchers but never got around to it? Now's as good of a time as any, I think.  I know I'm going to make an effort to track my weight and my Points more diligently so that my efforts can help someone else in addition to myself.

(I'm not a WW rep or a salesperson, I just know the plan works if you work it.)