I was using the PointsPlus system last year and LOVED it. I lost 30 pounds in about 5 months, but then "took a break" and gained it all back. I'm now trying to get back to it but am absolutely annoyed with this new system. All of my favorite go-to items now have a new point value (e.g., my morning coffee was always 1 point but is now 3!) and every recipe I've collected is essentially obsolete without spending the time to figure it all out again.
Has anyone else made this transition? Do you have any tips to make it a bit easier? The new website is awful, and I can't believe they completely eliminated the option to continue using the old systems; I feel like I'm starting from scratch on this program.
I returned to WW about a month ago after taking a couple months off, so I went from Points Plus to Smart Points. I welcome the change. When I left my leader tried to keep me in by mentioning there was a new program coming soon, but I had decided I needed a clean break because I just wasn't doing WW at all at that point. I wanted to come back with a new perspective. So yes, it is like starting from scratch, but I don't mind that.
But, honestly, it took about a week of looking things up and you realize you eat a lot of the same things most of the time, so once you know the SPs for those it gets a lot easier. I mostly just track the numbers at this point (on paper, not online). So a tip I learned is to just dig in and look up your common foods, save them as favorites and/or write them down for easy reference.
When they make a change like this, they always cut ties with earlier programs. A lot of it has to do with how they calculate points differently and make allowances for things (like free fruit, which wasn't free before Points Plus).
I suggest just digging in and giving it a try. If you still hate it after a week, some people hold on to old materials and track on paper when they really don't like a change, so you could always go back to Points Plus if you had to.
I have been through several changes in the WW program.
This last one was the hardest, because I had been doing points plus since it was rolled out, and was successful, and maintained.
"deep sigh"
It took me awhile to get with it, with the new program. Had to re scan food, change this, change that, etc.
Have patience, WW does not make changes without the research to back it.
It took me a bit to get on board, (I had the info in advance).
After a bit of "I don't want to do this" I finally had a talk with myself and told myself, "just do it".
I know a learning curve. But the new plan is so much better.
Have patience with you and the new plan.
Anytime, anything in life changes, we can choose, to roll with the change or not.
Get a new car, they moved the controls, move into a new house, where is my stuff, change jobs, get new SO, break up, get a pet, get married, have a baby, put your Mom in the nursing home, and sell all her stuff, whatever, things change.
Life will always throw us curve balls, it's up to us, to choose.
I have been a WW member since 2006. My latest success, maintaining for, in September of this year for 4 years.
This summer was tough, my mother fell, at home, no one found her for 2 days, she almost died.
Then, me and my sisters had to put her in the nursing home and clean out her hoarding house, and I took her dog. This took 5 months, and lots of fussing with medicare and medicaide.
And then, our 97 year old gramma in the midst of all of this had to have her first surgery ever in her in entire life, 200 miles from home, and a week and 2 surgeries later, all 80 pounds of her. It was a damn long summer!
Here is what I learned from WW. Some days will be good, some not so good.
There were a lot of days this year, I could only pick one thing. Would it be food, or would it be exercise, or 5 minutes of "ME TIME!"
Each day I made a choice to choose one thing that I knew that I could succeed at, for my over all health!
And I knew that all my buds at my WW meeting, knew what was up, and they all had my back!
WW is much more than food, or workouts, it's about all of us, helping each other!
And in my meeting, it is a no judgement zone. It is a help each other place!
Thanks ladies. After I wrote this yesterday, I spent a bit of time re-uploading some of my favorites WW recipes into the system to get myself back into the hang of tracking, although I have not yet started eating the right foods again. I'm using this final week to eat and say goodbye to all my favorite foods: goodbye Applebee's appetizer sampler, goodbye meat-lovers stuffed-crust Pizza Hut pie, goodbye chinese food... lol
I did become a bit more comfortable with the new system as I moved around it, and I'm still a bit sad that some of my go-to WW recipes are now more points, but I read a lot of other threads where people were saying the pounds are just melting off on this new plan which was motivating. I was losing an average of 1-2 pounds per week on the PointsPlus system so, as long as that continues to happen, I'll be happy. Last time on WW I started at 182, got down to about 150 (almost my goal), then fell off and am now back up to 190
I think what frustrated me was the difficulty I have changing the way I think about food (we should "eat to live, not live to eat"), and I finally got into a good rhythm with PP, but now I have to start over again. As you said though shcirerf, I've gotta roll with it.
In June I am graduating with my masters degree, going on a two week trip to Europe, and attending a good friend's destination wedding... I'm going to be in a LOT of photos and wanted to lose the weight by then, but I kept putting off the start date. I know that I won't be able to hit my goal of 40lbs by then, but hopefully I'll have lost enough to feel comfortable.
Thanks for the motivation, ladies. I love this forum. I do WW by myself online so it's nice to be able to come on here to talk with others once in a while
Yes, it is very motivating to see pounds melt off!
I had a nice big loss my first week back (to be expected) and smaller losses (less than a pound) the next few weeks. But I have really been slacking the last couple of weeks and I was so happy to see a loss instead of a gain! I think that's because of the times I was following the plan. (It used to be I would just give up for the week once I got off track but I kept trying anyway, and that helped). Yesterday was weigh-in so I'm back to faithfully tracking everything.
When I rejoined I definitely had to sit down and have a chat with myself. I really didn't want to track, I just wanted to cut back on my food and go to meetings. I was going to do Simply Filling (but you know, with low fat stuff instead of fat free, etc.) Then I thought if I was going to do that I might as well save my money and not rejoin, and I committed to following the new plan and I really like it!
Good luck, come back and share your progress! And congrats on finishing your degree!
I like the new SmartPoints. It's made me reevaluate my relationship with food. I used sweet treats as rewards. Many of those went up in points and so are no longer worth the points on a regular basis. It gave me that push to go outside my comfort zone and finally find rewards and comfort in things that are not food. I've really cut out the added sugar in my diet which feels great. My cravings have reduced and I found that many old favorites are actually kind of gross like Oreo cookies are too sweet and greasy.
Coffee was a struggle for me. I loved my creamer. For Dec and January, I stuck to just using half the amount of creamer that I once used. A few weeks ago I cut it out completely. if you had told me in Dec that I would be drinking black coffee I would have told you you were crazy.
Last edited by RetroSewist; 02-25-2016 at 02:04 AM.
That's so great, ladies! I had intended to eat all of my favorite bad foods this week and begin WW on Monday, but I accidentally found myself starting yesterday instead lol. I went to the grocery store with my boyfriend and had my WW app/scanner all ready to start checking the point values on my favorite WW foods, but I couldn't get any service in the store and I have no idea what the new formula is. With the old system, I knew to compare fats and carbs (mostly) to estimate the points.. but I was completely lost yesterday not knowing the new formula. Do you all happen to know the new formula or a calculator app I can use even when I don't have phone service?
I started by only making minor changes, such as eating salsa with Special K chips instead of cheese dip with regular chips, but hopefully I'll be fully on track within a couple of days once I go food shopping and swap out all the unhealthy stuff in my kitchen
I've seen a few people complaining about the new website. I absolutely love it.
Trust me when I tell you've I've been on virtually every Weight Watchers plan over the last 30 years, and this new SmartPoints plan is my favorite by far.
What so many people hate about it, I love. I have never quite understood how people can think they are going to lose weight eating their points in cookies, and chocolate, and cheesecake, no matter how small of a piece they say they are eating. It's eating those things that got us overweight in the first place. Why would I want to continue eating them? Not only that, but I could have quite easily eaten all my points in white bread and butter. It's wrong, yes, but technically I was still sticking within my point range. It makes no sense. But this new plan does.
This new plan teaches you how to eat properly. Yes, you can have that morning coffee that is going to cost you 3-5 points, or your can have a slice of rye bread toasted, a poached egg, tomato slices and a source yogurt for the same amount. I know what I'd rather be having in the morning...and it's not the coffee.
Just my 2 cents.
Good luck. Don't be too discouraged. It does get better and easier.
I like the new plan. For me, it hasn't been a huge adjustment as I was already eating low sugar and low saturated fat. For me, I do sometimes still eat chocolate, or whatever but just in small portions. I have a small piece of dark chocolate a few days a week and I enjoy it. But, I like that this plan does encourage us to eat in a healthier way. I do think the plan is more of an adjustment for some people. WW changes plans because more information about weight loss and nutrition is learned through the years. I've been a WW member since 1988 and have seen a lot of plans. It has always been an adjustment to go to a new plan. But, I'm glad the plans have changed over the years and I honestly feel that SmartPoints is the best plan they have had.
I live in the DC area, and my favorite go-to restaurant is Cava. (Think Greek-style Chipotle.) Old plan, my salad was 8 points. Now, it's 14 points! Thank heavens I didn't get any juice or eat any pita.
I'm slowly getting on board and am even somewhat excited to officially start the new WW plan. I realized it's a good thing that this new plan discourages poor eating habits. I am in the process of writing a new shopping list of items I should pick up (I'm happy to see that some of my favorites actually haven't changed much!) and plan to be 100% back on track as of Monday.
I'm still struggling with cheese though. One of my favorite WW meals/snacks is a big sandwich: Pepperidge Farm Soft Wheat Bread (1 sp/slice), Dietz & Watson Maple & Honey Turkey (1 sp/2 oz), Dietz & Watson Gourmet Lite Ham (1 sp/2 oz), some form of cheese, and a ton of veggies on top. It was usually a total of 5 pp. I loveee cheese. For a while, I was eating the Borden Fat-Free American Cheese slices on my sandwiches but have since decided I only want to use fresh cheese on anything I make, but wow the points for one slice make it rough! I often use a wedge of Laughing Cow to get the taste, but sometimes there's nothing like a slice of melted cheese on top of your sandwich. I'm having a hard time finding one that's not too many points :/
Other than that, everything seems to be doable. Thanks for your support, I may have not followed-through with this new plan if it wasn't for the encouraging words from you ladies
Suz - I find that some of the reduced fat cheeses aren't bad. Also feta is usually not bad since you can use very little even if full fat (of course you have to like Feta.
Shan - I have been surprised by that too when I assumed and didn't check beforehand.
I love cheese too. I drop other items as needed; such as opting not to have a glass of milk with breakfast so I can use those points for regular sharp cheddar cheese with lunch. I weigh the cheese with a digital kitchen scale so that I know I am getting the entire ounce. lol. I just make it work somehow or I decide okay I'll have that cheese today and use some of my weekly points because it's worth it.
I actually bought one of those handheld weight watchers points calculators that they sell in the meeting centers. it was worth the cost which I think was under $10. It fits in my purse but mine usually resides on my kitchen counter.
Suz - I find that some of the reduced fat cheeses aren't bad. Also feta is usually not bad since you can use very little even if full fat (of course you have to like Feta.
Shan - I have been surprised by that too when I assumed and didn't check beforehand.
My own fault -- I had it favorited in my Tracker as a meal and didn't realize it had gone down to zero with the new plan.
The meat is the problem there, so I have to tinker a bit to figure out how to get it down to 12. That's my fast-casual limit.
(Incidentally, my favorite from Chipotle -- salad, no dressing, steak, fresh tomato salsa, and tomatillo salsa? 8 points)
Koshka, I love feta cheese! I usually put it in my salads
Retro, I loveee my digital scale! I squeeze every single ounce I can out of my food lol. I'd like to get one of those handheld calculators, as I often lose service in stores when I'm trying to figure out what I can get with my WW app. Would I be able to buy it even though I'm only an online member?
Shan, I remember how happy I was when I discovered I could get a burrito bowl from Chipotle. I haven't checked it again with the new SP system, but I was able to eat half of the bowl for 8 PointsPlus and it was the perfect amount to fill me up and still have leftovers for dinner! *drool
I just checked, it looks like it's now 6 points for half of my burrito bowl! I went to the nutrition page of Chipotle and entered all the values individually for what they say is the typical serving size. For half the bowl it's: barbacoa (2 points), pinto beans (2 points), fajita vegetables, lettuce, tomato salsa, tomatillo salsa, and cheese (2 points). It'd be even less if I didn't get the cheese... but I can't do that lol.
SmartPoints... very frustrated! Advice?
lol
