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My Letter To Weight Watchers(A must-read!!!)

FuzeBox

FuzeBox

To whom it may concern,

I would like to request a moment of your time to express my sincere frustration with the Weight Watchers program and it's effect on personal relationships. I feel that there is another side to the Weight Watchers program that is quite undesirable and that remains unseen and I feel that it is my duty to inform you of the type of thinking that you have changed in the human evolutionary process.

My very beautiful girlfriend of soon to be two years is involved in Weight Watchers just as is her daughter. It is a life-long program designed to not only keep one's weight in check but to continue a series of positive eating habits aimed at generating a healthy lifestyle. It is a program designed around a point system thereby allowing those following the Weight Watchers Points Plus program the ability to eat what they want just so long as it falls within the numerical guidelines of the Points Plus program.

Now, don't go thinking that my Goddess-half is over weight nor obese. She has been under “goal” throughout the duration of our relationship having only been over goal twice in two years time if only by 2 pounds. She has subsequently raised her daughter paying very close attention to the Weight Watchers system and she too follows the program diligently.

Let me take a moment to tell you a little bit about myself. I am a forty year old male chef of many years and I am not talking a line cook. I am established in the preparation of both raw, vegan and vegetarian food specialties. I am also very well skilled in the creation of what I call “fusion” dishes be them Mexican, Italian, Asian, Greek, BBQ, Tex-Mex, what have you. I am no stranger to the kitchen nor am I indifferent to low calorie, low fat cooking and cold food preparation.

I am an off and on cyclist, an avid runner of five days a week and I do indeed pay attention to my own weight and diet but without the use of a program.

Despite the millions of people that the Weight Watchers program has helped the problem that you have created is a whole new generation of people whom are dedicated to a numerical system to the point of fault.

Whereas I once installed a cyclometer on my titanium mountain bike I realized that I knew that from the parking lot the trail-head started at .07 miles and that the peak of the ride would top-out 7.12 miles at an elevation of 4439 feet above sea-level. The natural spring where I could refill my water bottles was at 5.03 miles from the start of the trail-head which was 1.82 miles from the peak. I knew that my average speed on an ascent was 6.45mph whereas my average speed on the downhill was 17.63mph.

Of the many in my cycling group whom also purchased cyclometers we each began to realize one by one that the simple joy of getting on the bike and going for a ride had become something numerical. We were no-longer riding to see who would get to the top first or for our own understanding of the limitations of our bodies. It wasn't even for exercise anymore because our focus had been turned to our cyclometers for distance, cadence, altitude, average speed, top speed, etc. and what was the result? We ripped the connecting cables off and chucked our cyclometers for all the right reasons!

Likewise, as a partner to my beautiful girlfriend, a Weight Watchers Points Plus program advocate, I have found that your program has created the same travesty. Cooking and eating have now become a challenge. Everything has a weight. Everything has a portion. Everything ingredient that I throw into the mix of any dish that I create I am required to keep track of by the teaspoon, tablespoon, quarter-cup, half-cup, whole cup etc. Vegetables are considered “free” with the exception of potatoes and other straight “carbs” and the use of oils, butter or other fats all need be not only measured and weighed but incrementally written on paper so that my beautiful girlfriend can “calculate” what the meal represents according to your point system and don't go thinking that it stops there.

When on vacation or when eating out at a restaurant near our home in Hayward, California, my Goddess-half knows that I am more than capable of piecing-out what the chef at the restaurant used to create the meal. I am also required to list for her the oils, butters and other possible additives that might be contradictory to her program despite whatever points she may have left in the day or are afforded her.

I personally want to thank you Weight Watchers for creating a population of eaters that are dedicated to your program that make lives like mine a living hell in the kitchen as well as at restaurants abroad. Congratulations! Your organization is solely to be held responsible for the break-ups and divorces caused by your program. For if this has become my reality then it has also become the reality of many others like myself.

It may very well be in your companies better interest to also create a “Singles of Weight Watchers” website to accommodate those whom wish to live the Weight Watchers lifestyle with others of like mind. You have taken the simplicity of eating out of our own human instinct and modified it to a modern day calculation system.

Life is too short.

Much like myself there are others whom also live an active and healthy eating lifestyle who's lives are also too short for calculation at every turn. What you have created is in all honesty a “high maintenance” partner for those involved in relationships whom do not share the same program.

Thank you. Thank you.

Yours truly(my name and address omitted for privacy reasons)
 
Although I do get your desire to bring the passion back into eating, it is also that passion that has lead most of us to our doom. We who are that desperate to watch our weight (most) are the most passionate about our food. We would love to eat every little thing our hearts desire, without calculations or knowledge of what is inside the food we are eating. Just pure simple enjoyment of whatever foods we want. The reality is, that is what made us fat in the first place. Even if one doesn't get fat from indulging in whatever they want, they could possibly pay the price internally (clogged arteries, blood clots, stroke, diabetes, etc.)

I think a middle ground needs to be formed. I myself have found a middle ground which includes counting calories and watching what I eat but at the same time giving myself the freedom to enjoy some evil, delicious foods at the same time. I've been on a raw/meat less, food diet for a month now. I love it. I set a goal of 3 weeks and then at the end of it cooked myself an amazing smoked, bbq'd corned beef brisket and I didn't count any calories nor did I feel the least bit bad for eating as much of it as I wanted. Having that one day was so much more an experience of flavor and juicy delights but it was enjoyed to the fullest extent because I didn't do it all the time.

This is my true happiness when it comes to food. Otherwise eating whenever and whatever I want, just leads to unhealthy body and mind. Although I will say there are some vegan/vegetarian meals that can make your mouth sing like a t-bone steak.

After saying all of this, I can feel your pain dude. lol. It's probably hard to handle. But if it is what makes your significant other happy, then it should make you happy to do it. Her health and happiness should be your happiness.

I did see a Weight Watchers right next to a pizza joint at the strip mall the other week and laughed at the sinister placement of the two :hell:
 
I always wondered if people counting points were any better at estimating that than those counting calories. I've seen plenty of people on weight watchers still drastically overeating, but with a new method of rationalizing the amount consuming, while driving everyone around them nuts.

I've noticed something recently as I've gotten into eating more hot sauces and other spicy foods since discovering some yummy new foods through this site...I eat less. The spice slows me down, and I just feel satisfied sooner.

A friend of mine recently lost a lot of weight without avoiding good restaurants and without any silly program. Her approach was quite simple...she exercised more and during the work week, ate less. She packed small lunches for work, and ate similarly small meals at home, but then she allowed herself to indulge on weekends. Her reasoning is that it would be miserable to give up everything good.
 
I thought that i was extremely verbose, that's a lot of words! i am not really sure where you were going with this, was your intent to praise WW or knock them?

my wife is on WW, prior to that Jenny, at least with WW, you can go ahead and make meals and honeypie(not really a pun but i forget what inserting a phrase with like, is called) can pick and chose her servings or opt for something completely different. with Jenny is buys their food and that is her meal, so you would be cooking for one all the time.

i plan every meal.... for myself... then for the kids, if wifey wishes to join me, she may but no way would i wait for her before deciding if this will be the night that she chooses to join me. tonight, supper for big daddy(you can tell i don't visit WW or Jenny's websites), baked chicken breast with bone attached. pasta and vegetable salad and a caesar salad. i may swap out the pasta salad and make a mixed bean salad with chopped vegetables and a hint of balsamic vinegar. wifey can grab and measuring cup and dip into the salad if she wishes or take a scoop of caesar salad - she can't touch the chicken because i just make 1 portion serving size. a vegan could live of my non meat side dishes and i make enough to last for the next day lunch and possibly as another complement during the week.

if we go out to eat, which is very rare, she has a list of restaurants that she knows the menu or goes online and scouts the menu.

she is down to her wish weight and works out several times a week, teaching aerobics once or twice a week at the YMCA, then the insanity workout in the morning, at home, before going to work. she gets up at 5:30am for that privilege.
 
Thankyou for the responses all!

*BurningColon, I wasn't praising nor knocking them. My GF takes their program to the extreme and I find that where dinner would otherwise take " " long to fix it takes nearly twice as long and my creations don't turn out as they otherwise would without spontaneaity(spelling?). Having to write down everything that goes into what I'm preparing(never the same thing nor ingredients twice) has slowed the process and left me wondering where I left off mid process.

*Mild Fire, I've seen some pretty interesting strip mall food placements next to WW myself. Kind of a crack-up with a Jack in the Box two doors down!

*3/5 King, I feel you. We each hold within ourselves the ability of instinct run riot be it with food, alcohol, sex, ((peppers)) etc etc. Anything in moderation is indeed a virtue. Some of us though aren't capable which is why such groups are in existence. It is a rather long-winded letter to the VP of Operations at WW but I needed to do that in order to gain the point that I was making.

I have previously weighed 246 and had a size 40 waist. I am 6 foot 2. Currently I reside at 196 with a 34 waist(loose) and this has come with running, cycling, and a 60/40 veggies to meat ratio of a diet but I didn't make an effort to get there. It was just a conscious decision and I know that some us want to eat everything in sight until feeling satisfied and full.

Not all brain chemistry is the same. We each respond differently to foods and how we choose to consume them. There comes a point when our bodies start recognizing only fats as nutrition and this is indeed a danger zone.

My Goddess-half isn't over weight. She's 51 and I'm not about to ask ANY woman what their weight is but in this case she's slender, goes to yoga 4-5 times a week and spent her childhood in ice skates.

What is driving me bat-sh*t f**king crazy is that the numerical principle of eating by the WW program has overcome my desire to continually surrender to it. When I don't cook dinner I hear... I HEAR about it. She likes my cooking. She's looks forward to it. Hell, I look forward to it! What I don't look forward to is making dinner when I have to stop every 5 minutes to weigh and measure everything and it makes for a mean headache.
 
FBS eventually you should be able to "calculate" what a dash of this is and a splash of that. The drunk chefs do it well. lol. But seriously estimation....knowledgable estimation, should work for small unnoticed breaks from the scale and measure..
 
How I wish that estimation were the case... in that I was indeed estimating and then writing it down. That didn't cut it for her. She wants physical measurements. See what I mean? It's high maintenance at its finest!
 
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