 Hi friends. Welcome back to my channel and welcome if you're new here. My name is Jen. I'm a certified weight loss and nutrition coach and I follow the WW or the Weight Watcher's Blue Plan. Today I'm here to talk to you about whether or not it's time for you to quit WW. As a nutrition coach and talking with my clients, I get this question a lot. Should I continue on WW or is it time for me to make the switch? So today I'm going to be sharing with you some things to think about. A little bit of food for thought when it comes to whether or not the WW program is the right program for you. So if you're excited for today's video, please give it a big huge thumbs up and don't forget if you're new or you're not yet subscribed. I'd love to have you hit the subscribe button and don't forget to click the bell next to it so you don't miss a single video. I do upload most days of the week so you definitely don't want to miss out. Check out the description box down below for nutrition coaching. I do have a meal planner that's available. We're running low on inventory so pick it up while it's still available and also personalized macro and calorie calculation, which is essential to lose weight, especially if you are considering giving up the WW program. Calories is program proof, easy to follow, never changes and may be a good alternative to the WW program for you. I can do your macros and calories personalized to you and then I offer one-on-one coaching sessions in both 30 and 60 minutes increments so that I can help you more one-on-one reach your goals. Links, discount codes to my favorite things and my Facebook group are also down in the description box. We'd love to have you join that community as well. So let's jump right in because we have an important topic to discuss today on whether or not it's time for you to quit WW. I want to give you a little bit of back history for those of you that are new to my channel or don't know my entire history. So over a year ago, following the WW program, I decided to switch to a cleaner approach, basically eating more whole real food versus a lot of the processed fat-free sugar-free foods. And this was just so that I felt better overall. And I also knew that eating all of those foods wasn't sustainable to me. That I might eat that free cheese to lose weight, but do I want to eat that free cheese after I've lost my weight? So I made that transition about a year ago over to the cleaner approach to the program. Since then and since receiving my nutrition and weight loss coach certification, I've also made some other changes and that is tracking calories. I do still follow the WW blue plan, but it is secondary to me reaching my calorie and protein goal every single day. That is my number one focus because I found myself under eating on WW and I didn't want to do any more damage to my metabolism than I already have being a chronic dieter. So I decided to put a heavy focus on calorie counting with a secondary focus on the WW blue plan. So that's a little back history on me and why this video was something that I felt that was needed to be made in addition to getting this question a lot in my coaching sessions. Before I jump in, I want to remind you that you have to do the program that works for you. A lot of people have long-term success on WW. They're able to keep their weight off long-term, maintain and never have to make a transition to another program. And if that's you, congratulations. You are a model for the WW program. But there are a lot of people who struggle to not only lose weight on the program, but when they get to maintenance, it is a huge struggle to keep the weight off. So if you're struggling or if this has crossed your mind on whether or not WW is right for you or maybe you love the program and you just want to hear what I have to say, then this is the perfect video for you. So one thing to think about on whether WW is right for you is do you want to attend the meetings or are you able to attend the meetings? Let's be honest, paying 45 or $55 a month to attend a weekly workshop is a large amount of money. And we really have to think if we're getting the benefit out of that weekly workshop. Now, don't get me wrong. I love all the friends that I've made. I love my leader, but it's just not beneficial for me to drive into the workshop, sit there for a half of an hour to 45 minutes, drive home when I could be using my time a little bit more productively. I've actually been working out on Friday mornings instead of going to the in-person WW workshop. Now, as we know, there's virtual meetings as well. That is about $20 a month. So this may be a more economical, affordable solution, but is it benefiting you? Are you getting anything out of those virtual meetings or would your time be better spent elsewhere? A lot of my clients have said that they would rather spend 30 minutes with me every couple weeks on a nutrition coaching call than go to a virtual workshop where they really don't get that one-on-one support or that personalized support. So really think about whether or not you're utilizing your WW membership. Reason number two, maybe the point system just isn't really working for you anymore. And I want to start this portion of the video off with reminding you that the point system is basically putting you in a calorie deficit. A calorie makes up a portion of a point. So Weight Watchers is a calorie restricted program because the only way to lose weight is to be in a calorie deficit. And Weight Watchers just chooses to call this calorie deficit a point system. So what I want to really focus on when we're talking about whether the point system works for you or not is how these points are made up. Now, I understand WW's approach and leaning us towards choosing healthier options. By giving us zero point fruits, vegetables, lean meats, chances are that's what we're going to reach for when we're wanting to build a meal or a snack. But they do heavily penalize healthy things with high point content. Things like avocados, nut butters, and really real whole food. And we'll get into the real whole food in the next segment. Although I understand how the point system is made up, I struggle with making certain foods certain point values, which leads us to choosing those items. For example, fat free or sugar free items. I also find that the point system does not lend itself at all to intuitive eating. You're constantly thinking about food. There's days that you're starving. There's days that you're content. And it just really doesn't set you up to get to maintenance and be able to intuitively eat effectively because you're always thinking about the points in food. I also find that the point system makes me think about food all the time. And honestly, I would rather put my energy in my mind somewhere else a lot of the time. So if you're someone that struggles with the points values of healthy food, if you struggle to be satisfied and full, or if you just don't understand or think that the point system works for you, this may be another reason to not be a WW member. So the next topic is real whole food. I really want to talk about this because I think that this is one of the main reasons that I chose to move into calorie counting as my number one priority and WW as my second priority. Like I mentioned, I found myself eating a lot of fat free sugar free foods. I was getting stomach upset. I was not full or satisfied. And it really dawned on me one day that the food that I'm eating to lose weight should be the same food that I'm eating when I'm at maintenance. And I don't want to eat fat free cheese for the rest of my life. I don't want to eat sugar free this and sugar free that I wanted to have a holistic whole food approach to the program. And I wanted to see if I could stay in my points by eating real whole food. And this leads me to one of my main issues with the WW program and something that you should think about if you also want to steer clear of that free sugar free and you really want to focus on whole foods. Unfortunately on WW we only receive a certain number of points every day. So we're automatically going to choose lower point foods so that we can have more volume of food throughout our day. It's human nature. Who doesn't want to eat as much as we can and still lose weight? The problem with that is we find ourselves choosing fat free cheese because it's zero points versus full fat cheese. That's two to three points. We're choosing sugar free syrup that's made up of chemicals versus pure maple syrup. That's a great natural sweetener. I didn't want to do this anymore. I didn't want to have to feel like I had to choose these unhealthy process options to stay within my points. Let's be honest. A bank of chips is less points than hummus. Now tell me how that makes any sense at all on whether or not you should be choosing a bag of chips over hummus. So if you're struggling to stay in your points eating real whole food maybe it's time to take a look at the program. Another reason you may want to consider dropping the WW program is if weight just isn't the most important thing to you anymore. If that number on the scale isn't the be all end all then maybe it's time to put your focus into something a little bit more beneficial to your body like strength training, eating healthy foods, non-scale victories, taking your measurements, seeing how your body changes as you lose fat and honestly the weight on the scale isn't a direct link to how healthy a person is. As you know bodybuilders due to their weight can be considered obese by the BMI chart and we all know that when you have less than 10% body fat you're not obese but the chart tells us that. So we can play a little bit of a mind game on us and it can become something that we obsess about. I know a lot of the clients that I coach say that they are obsessed with the scale it's time to put the scale away and not make the scale the be all end all. I recommend weighing yourself no more than once a week even longer if you can do it two weeks maybe once a month maybe even better for your mental health maybe you don't want to step on a scale in front of a coach at a WW workshop or maybe you don't want the whole world to know whether you were up or down at your workshop. Don't let the scale affect your mood don't let the scale allow you to throw in the towel and don't feel ashamed if your weight doesn't go down one week and I found myself when I was weighing in at this workshop to start feeling a little bit of embarrassment if I was stepping on the scale and it wasn't going in the right direction and we should never feel that way because a lot of times we can do everything right and our body just has a mind of its own. So maybe it's time to put the scale away and focus on some other pieces of your health journey. The next thing to think about is how much fat are you eating on the WW program? I know it can be a scary word but healthy fats and fat in your diet in general is essential. You'll find yourself feeling a lot more hungry if you're not filling up on protein and fats and the WW program the point system actually penalizes us for fats. Prime example of that would be avocados. You can find yourself having low blood sugar levels because you're just not eating enough you find yourself extremely hungry between snacks and meals because if you're not choosing protein and healthy fats the food that you're eating isn't going to sustain you from meal to meal or snack to meal and let's be honest the low fat diet is kind of out. There is so much research that's been done and proof that having healthy fats as part of your diet is essential but I will tell you that most of the people I talk to on the WW program eat low fat everything because the higher fat or the full fat option is too many points but there are a lot of benefits to eating fat other than just being full and satisfied it makes your hair shiny it makes your skin look good it helps your nails grow it helps regulate your blood sugar levels and honestly eating fat helps you lose fat. Since I focus on calories I find myself eating a lot more full fat everything full fat dairy I'm putting oil on my vegetables instead of Pam spray I'm using real butter instead of fake butter I'm eating nut butter instead of PB2 it's very freeing and eye-opening and I definitely can tell you that I'm much more satisfied when I'm incorporating fats into my diet and unfortunately because that affects the points a lot of people on WW eliminate or restrict their fat so if this is you maybe it's time to make a change and the last thing to think about is WW a lifestyle I know they talk about it being a lifestyle not a diet but is it truly something that will transition over into a lifestyle do you want to count points for the rest of your life do you want to skip the cake at birthday parties or skip beers out with your friends because you don't have the points for it or are you somebody that just doesn't count your points on the weekends or vacations or maybe you throw in the towel for an entire week and just decide that counting points and tracking just isn't something that you want to do there are a couple pieces to this to think about number one is counting points every day realistic probably not we are busy people and there are days in our life where we're just not able or willing or wanting to track points so because it's not realistic isn't something that's considered a lifestyle change something that you can do for the long term and secondly when you don't count points you tend to feel guilty do you tend to feel that you screwed up whether or not you ate unhealthy during the day or not maybe you stayed within your calorie deficit maybe you made good food choices but because you didn't count points and track your points you feel like a failure and when we feel out of control or feel like a failure we tend to eat a bunch of crap food and now we're putting ourselves outside of our calorie deficit and we're making it so that we fall off the wagon so to speak and sometimes it's really hard for us to get back on i know for myself i'm an all or nothing person and when i was strictly counting points if i would go over my points say on saturday or sunday then i would just throw in the towel until my next way in the following friday and what i'm finding with other lifestyles especially calorie counting is you really can't screw it up if you have a high calorie meal or treat you just compensate for that the rest of the week now yes you can use your weeklies for those high calorie meals or treats but a lot of people are scared to use their weeklies which please use your weeklies if you're on ww or they go over their weeklies and that's when they throw in the towel so with ww you really need to think about is this something that is sustainable and is this truly a lifestyle for you are you going to count points for the rest of your life now like i said there are a lot of people who do ww forever and are very successful there are people who do ww to lose their weight and then transition into another way of maintaining their weight whether that be calorie counting or intuitive eating we are all different so we need to think about what works for us but i always say whatever you're doing to lose weight you should be able to do to maintain and sustain that same weight loss so maybe it's time to really dive deep and take a hard look into ourselves to see if the ww program is the right program for us and if it's not just be aware that there are a lot of other programs out there and if it is then continue doing what works for you i hope that this helped open your eyes a little bit gave you a little bit of food for thought things to think about when it comes to the ww program so if you enjoyed today's video don't forget to give it a big huge thumbs up and if you're new or you're not yet subscribed to my channel of course i'd love to have you hit the subscribe button and don't forget to ring the bell next to it if you'd like to talk about this a little bit further or maybe dive into what may or may not work for you when it comes to ww or switching programs you can take advantage of my one-on-one coaching sessions which are on my nutrition coaching website along with macro and calories now whether you're on ww or not it's very important to have your macros and calories done because you need to make sure that number one you're eating enough but number two you're also in a calorie deficit in order to lose weight links discount codes to all of my favorite things are also down in the description box in my facebook group head on over and join us we'd love to have you thank you for hanging out with me today i really hope this video helped you and if you have any other questions please leave those down in the comments i'm happy to help and i'll see you in my next video bye