Hi Deborah and welcome to LWL! Don't feel lost -- just ask away and someone will be glad to help, I'm sure.
I'll take a stab at your WW question since I did WW for many years and am fairly familiar with the program. I think you can combine WW and weight training
IF 1. you make sure to use enough points for protein
AND 2. if you avoid using your points on processed diet "junk food".
See, WW is basically a shorthand method for counting calories, right? Each point is worth roughly 50 calories, tweaked up or down a little for fat and fiber content. So if you use your calories (points) wisely, you should do just fine. Maybe you've seen bodybuilder type diets that are expressed in ratios? Like 40/40/20? What that means is that 40% of the calories come from protein, another 40% from carbs, and 20% from fat. You could divide up your points in a similar way -- spend 40% (or whatever percent you pick) of your daily points on protein, 40% on carbs, and 20% on fats. My opinion is to keep your protein points above 30% of your daily total.
You may have heard the phrase "eating clean" -- it means eating a diet composed of lean proteins, complex carbs and good fats. The reason that protein is emphasized by bodybuilders is that it's essential for building and repairing muscles. That's why we eat much more protein than the food pyramid or some diets might recommend. Carbs are important too, but the good kind of carbs -- low-glycemic, complex carbs like oatmeal, brown rice, sweet potatoes, veggies, low sugar fruits etc. Good fats are oils like olive, peanut, sunflower etc. In addition, eating clean means avoiding sugar in all forms and eating foods that are as minimally processed as possible (the way it comes from the ground or is grown on trees). So you can see that you can fit this style of clean eating into WW points with a little thought.
I actually was following WW when I joined a gym and started lifting weights three years ago. Unfortunately, I was doing WW the
wrong way for muscle building -- I was spending my points on way too many carbs and too little protein. And I was eating all sorts of processed diet junk food, like WOW chips and FF hot dogs and Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches instead of nutrient dense foods. After about two weeks of trying to combine lifting and WW, I gave up on the points and just starting tracking my calories and protein/carb/fat ratios in Fitday (
www.fitday.com) which I still do today.
But I think it's possible to combine the two if you focus on getting really high quality nutrition and lots of protein for your points. I sure hope your meetings are better than mine were -- unfortunately, mine were devoted to discussing how much junk food coiuld be squeeeeeezed out of a day's points.
One more thought -- you might find that you need to eat more than your alloted points/activity points. WW doesn't emphasize exercise to any great degree and isn't really designed to sustain intense weightlifting and cardio. If you find yourself starving or not losing, you may need to eat a few more calories (points) than they recommend.
Hope that helps a bit! Please come over and join us on our main weekly thread if you'd like and tell us some more about yourself.
Can I follow weight watchers and build muscle?
) And size 12s at 187 pounds! Woo hoo -- gotta love that muscle! 
)
