Before I go any further, I need to vent a little bit on a subject I feel very strongly about. All over the world many overweight/obese people have decided that it’s time for change. A lot of people turn to weight loss programmes, many of which cost a lot of money – for me it was Weight Watchers – for others it’s UniSlim or Jenny Craig or Aitkins or whatever. The problem is, while there are some people who lose weight in these programmes, many do not and for them it’s another failure to add to the list of things to knock their self esteem. The problem, I feel, is that while the likes of WW started out with a few women in a room swapping tips, it has now become a huge business and it operates as A BUSINESS and while there are a lot of well meaning people involved, I believe there is a big rip off going on in the background. The following is my experience with WW.
When I started going to WW meetings a year and a half ago, I was full of determination and zealousness. Nothing was going to stop me from making these changes. As I said earlier, giving up smoking played a big part in my leaving WW but it cannot be denied that I was becoming really disillusioned with it too – I was seeing the cracks in the system – I realised it wasn’t all that wholesome after all.
For a start, there were the meetings. As I said before, I never needed to be convinced of the merits of the meetings – I think support networks are fantastic and there is nothing better than having that solidarity from those who know what you’re going through. Having run similar groups for other issues, I know how these things work and can see the value. However, WW was nothing like I expected. From the minute I’d walk in the door, I felt under pressure and rushed. Time is money – I paid my money alright, but I didn’t really get QUALITY time in return. At the weigh in there wasn’t enough time to discuss the results because of the line behind you. If you were at the end of the line, you’d feel pressured because the leader would want to start the talk. (“Isn’t that right ladies!”) You’d think that there’d be time at the end of the meeting but no, the leader was too busy tidying up. The majority of the people who did stay on for the meeting would make a bee line for the door, so there wasn’t an opportunity to swap notes and tips. So why the hell was I paying a tenner a week?
Though I stopped going to the meetings, I did continue on the points system (I think I’d be a disaster if I didn’t – at least until I get the hang of “normal” portions etc) and was (and still am this time around) even brave enough to bring the points calculator to the supermarket. WW has its own brand of a lot of stuff, which would seem to make sense, because at a glance you know what points are contained in the product. Fantastic isn’t it? Eh, no actually, it’s not. One day, I decided to compare a can of WW low fat pudding rice with another (well known brand) low fat can of rice. Surprise surprise, not only was there less calories in the “well known brand” rice, it was flippin’ cheaper! And of course it doesn’t stop there, I’ve found that this is the case with a lot of WW products.
Then sometimes WW comes up with a great product – mayonnaise that is zero points for a tablespoon (1/2 point for 2 tablespoons). And it doesn’t taste half bad either, though I don’t want to even think about how many E thingys are in there. Anyway, I went to my local supermarket to get some of this mayonnaise as I’d run out and discovered that they too were out of it. So I pluck up the courage to talk to the lady in charge of that aisle (it’s not easy being overweight asking for the “special” mayo is it?!) if she could order some in for me. She says that she can’t. I ask why. She says that they take what they get from the sales rep and that’s it. I’m horrified – bloody horrified. Okay so I’ll live without the mayonnaise, that’s not the point. My gripe is, why run a company that’s supposed to help people lose weight, yet you selectively supply products to supermarkets? That, I have to say, drives me insane.
You might notice I said above that WW is to help people “lose weight” as opposed to “change their lifestyle”. I said that because it’s what I meant and this is one of the biggest problems I have with WW – weight loss is encouraged but sustainable, healthy lifestyle changes are not necessarily top of the agenda. Though I haven’t always practiced what I’ve preached or thought, I have known for a long time in my heart and soul that the only solution to permanent weight loss and a healthier lifestyle is improving your diet by eating a lot less of the wrong stuff and a lot more of the right stuff and equally importantly, getting more exercise. It’s a no-brainer really isn’t it? You wouldn’t need Einstein and a hundred other brains in a room to figure it out would you?
Yet on the WW plan you are not encouraged to be more healthy – yes there’s an incentive to eat more veg because the majority of them are zero points, but really there isn’t enough done to explain that E numbers and the wrong cholesterol and all their buddies can wreck your body. Nor is there enough done to encourage exercise – in fact, I think the one incentive offered is actually quite dangerous – you can earn bonus points for doing exercise – but what’s the point in that? Okay so it’s a good insurance policy in case you accidentally over do it, you can always do a bit of exercise to work it off, but surely that shouldn’t be the reason to exercise? To top it all off my WW leader actually said that exercise “wasn’t her thing” and she avoids it if she can! The thing is, she’s actually quite skinny and good for her if she can keep the weight off and not exercise, but I wonder how many people in the room thought “Jaysus, that’s great, she’s PROOF that exercise isn’t necessary!”
So, while I’m happy to use the WW points system to rein me in, I’m afraid that’s as far as it goes. The bottom line is, a healthy diet and exercise is the way to go and I dare anyone to argue with that – after that I believe the way to get there is down to whatever works for each individual. In fact, I have tailored the points system to ensure I eat healthily and in another post I’ll write a little bit about that and report on how it is working for me as I progress.
