I have the 1988 silver anniversary edition of the WW "quick and Easy Menu Cookbook," which has an 8-week plan of daily menues completew/ optional calories noted. It contains also 12 months' worth of menu plans by week, offering some specific recipes of interest. Post any questions regarding this book, & I will try to answer them. The old WW was, I think, a bit easier to follow instead of counting so many different points in recent WW programs.

I had to laugh at this! Thanks for the truth; I have to write this down.

I first joined WW in 1988 and got to lifetime under that program in 1990. Without question, calculating points plus is much easier than it was to count exchanges. Maybe if you cooked everything from scratch it was easy but for people eating out or buying packaged food in the grocery store it was not easy. You also got optional calories for things that either weren't part of the exchanges (sweets for example) or where you went over your exchanges. For example, you could have 2 fat exchanges a day. If you went above that, then you had to use optional calories for the amount you went over. Knowing how to calculate that for restaurant meals, for example, was anything but easy.

Nowadays if the restaurant posts nutritional info, calculating points is pretty easy. But it would still be a challenge to do the calculations for the 1988 program.

I actually do think that exchanges are a better program because it teaches you to eat a more balanced diet. But, it is not nearly as easy to calculate as points.

I cannot imagine not having tomatoes in a healthy diet. ..... and now I want a tomato sandwich. LOL

I just bought the book for $1.97 at Amazon. I go to TOPS where they use an exchange system so this book is awesome because of all the recipes. It is worth your $2 and $5 shipping to get it if you really like this sort of plan.

I am searching for the program materials for the 1986 WW Quick Start Plus Program. I lost 65 pounds effortlessly on this program. Over the years I have gained back the weight and have tried and failed at the WW Points Programs. I want to get back on the Quick Start Plan. I got the quick start plus cookbook; but, I am looking for the food lists and any other supplemental weekly pamphlets..... I saw something on here, but it is a Microsoft Works document, and I don't have MS Works. I need a pdf. to be able to download. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also would like to connect with others who are following this program for moral support. Thanks.

I have part of the program that you get at meetings except step 3 and 7. Step. 7 in the intro books says you will learn how to bank 300 calories for special occasions, does anyone remember how to do that?

I took the liberty of converting the doc files to pdf format. I will use this in conjunction with this android app called CheckOff Diet Tracker.

Thank you so much for the Weight Watchers documents! I am so grateful. I have searched long and hard. I can't believe you still have that stuff! Wow! I could remember some but not all. The exchanges are structured and worked better for me. Phoey! on the point system . I say don't fix it if it ain't broke. I lost 100 lbs. in 1992.
Thanks a million,
Cynthia

I originally joined WW in 1988 and got to goal in 1991 and used the exchange protein. One thing that was different that isn't on those PDFs was that we got one floating exchange each day which you could use for whatever you wanted (except, IIRC, not a fat exchange).

At the time I always used mine as a bread exchange, occasionally protein.

One issue that I have now looking at that program is that it is a bit antiquated from a nutrition standpoint. That is, it is very much a higher carb, low fat program from the time when fats tended to be demonized.

Does anyone know how quinoa fitted into the old ww exchange program? I am not familiar with the points program.Thanks in advance

1/3 cup quinoa = 1 bread exchange

The old WW exchanges were identical to diabetic exchanges, which are still commonly used today, so whenever you need to find a food's exchange value, you can type the food item and the words diabetic exchanges into Google or any other search engine, and you'll usually find the exchange value, even for restaurant items.

That is the one I would love too. The weight just fell off me.

There was a fast start one around that time too.

Thanks Kaplods for the great info