Month: December 2010

It’s that time again – the time of the year when 93% of Americans (I am totally making that up) make the New Year’s resolution to lose weight. Again. If you’re in that category (and I have been 93% of my life!), I highly recommend checking out Weight Watchers.

As you may know, I am a huge fan of Weight Watchers. As a lifetime member, the program worked for me and I recommend it to everyone. So, I was thrilled when I was asked recently to become a “Weight Watchers Insider,” which means I will be helping to get the word out about the new Weight Watchers PointsPlus program.

The PointsPlus program was just launched in November, and it is the first time in many years that Weight Watchers modified their points system. Needless to say, it has taken the WW community by storm – some people were initially worried about having to learn new points values, and others were in the “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” mentality, but from what I can tell, the majority of people are really happy with the changes, especially once they find out the reasoning behind it.

Weight Watchers has long focused on portion control, and the PointsPlus program is no different, but it also encourages making solid nutritional choices and encourages choosing whole grain carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables.

The biggest change? ALL fresh fruits and most vegetables are zero points. ZERO.

I personally think that change is huge for a number of reasons. First of all, it just makes sense. No one ever got fat eating apples! There have been times when I’ve seriously debated eating a piece of fruit because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend the points, which when you think about it is pretty silly. Also, I think it helps mentally to know that if you’re hungry, you have all sorts of options to choose from that won’t count against you. The reason WW decided to make this change, though, is that they’ve discovered that the way the body responds to these foods is different than the way it responds to empty calories. It takes more energy to digest a high-fiber food than it does to digest simple sugar. Not to mention that those kinds of foods keep us full much longer!

With the change in points values of the foods come changes in daily point allowances as well. Though fruits and vegetables have decreased in point values, other food has increased. To balance that out, the daily point allowance has increased as well. My allowance, for example, went from 20 to 29 points per day, and even if that roughly equals out to the same amount of food, it makes a difference psychologically. To me, at least, managing 29 points a day SEEMS so much better than limiting myself to 20.

Over the next few months, I’ll keep you posted on the latest Weight Watchers news, as well as how it’s going for me personally. One thing I’m particularly interested in sharing with you is their new iPad app. I haven’t tried it out yet, but I think it’s going to be a great addition to the Weight Watchers tools.

Until then, if you’d like to learn more about Weight Watchers and their PointsPlus program, check them out on Facebook or on Twitter (search #weightwatchers and #pointsplus) and make sure to join in the conversation!

Disclosure: I was provided with an ipad and accessories with which to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own, and are in no way influenced by anyone else. Weight Watchers earned my undying love and devotion long before the iPad, I promise.