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Post by 76trojan on Aug 3, 2018 22:39:47 GMT
My meeting today was on some features relating to the recipe builder and the scanner on the app. The leader was using the tv!
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Post by fullmahina on Aug 3, 2018 23:10:10 GMT
Okay, so I've read through this whole thread and come to a personal conclusion.
I had been waffling between WW online and WW meetings. I attended meetings for a while recently and enjoyed them at first, getting inspiration and liking the personal interaction aspect. As past experience would have predicted, I eventually found the meetings repetitive, boring, and full of overbearing personalities that had me thinking "Why God why?"
I liked the leader---I sensed that she was a bit of a rebel, complete with tats and snappy attitude. She was also pregnant and close to bursting and would be gone for a while.
So I went back to online only. After reading about the recent developments I am done with meetings. "Breathing exercises"?? I have been breathing for over sixty years. I have my own Zen moments with my garden, my chickens, my dogs. Not interested in a what-I-perceive-as-a-phony-attempt-at-relevancy routine at a money-making corporate entity.
I have no idea where WW is going with this but I suspect that WW is going into the crapper. Oprah is obviously not having massive success with FreeStyle (yes, we all saw her at Harry and Meghan's wedding....). I see WW as directionless and floundering.
I think people would welcome a more rigid approach, some real guidance and not some pie-in-the-sky crap. Give us parameters, guidelines, a smack in the ass that will set us straight. Make us meet requirements and see real results.
People want to see results. I think they'll be okay with a little whip-cracking as long as they see progress.
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Post by zazzles on Aug 4, 2018 0:09:54 GMT
At my meeting today lines were belong, although it is the first of the month. The poor receptionist that I know the best have me the *eyeroll* when she said it is about the whole journey. She knows that I worked years ago for WW and and laughed when I said full circle I stopped in at a center today to ensure that their Monday meeting is not being closed (as the one at my center is). It was almost the end of the meeting, the receptionist was still weighing folks in, and a member ran up to her in a panic and said, "The meeting is almost over; WHERE ARE THE AWARDS." The leader was ready to close the meeting but the receptionist hadn't had the time to take a break and give the leader the list of awards and the total weight loss figure. This should be fun—not!
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Post by diva49 on Aug 4, 2018 14:23:34 GMT
Saturday 8/4, 8 AM meeting in NJ WW center:
Substitute leader. We never got to the Weekly, although he did mention pages 3 & 4 and suggested that we review them.
The no-Bravos, no-awards, no-stickers thing sort of whipped past. I did have a question about how my next 3 weeks of August would be handled - is there a way for me to check in and no-weigh (which is my current Lifetime-under-goal practice)? How will THAT be recorded, both for total body count for the group and in my book? I'll find out next week, LOL.
We had an early question about "motivation" (and how to re-kindle it) that turned into a discussion about Freestyle that turned into a discussion about "making the Program YOUR OWN" - which is what Frank (leader - overall good, IMO) says we should all be doing.
HOWEVER, one of the gals struggling the most is Lifetime/under goal and having difficulty making the shift to being self-directed as opposed to PROGRAM-directed. She originally made sure that she was using all her dailies (to earn her Blue Dot) but also consumed zero-point foods (because she likes/uses them anyway) and finds that she is having a problem keeping her weight where she wants it to be.
I mentioned that IMO WW is send up "opposing and contradictory messages" for success at the scale. Yes, the zero-SPs list can be advantageous. Yes, those are healthy foods. But if one chooses - quite naturally, because they're favorite foods - a menu that has a lot of those foods and at the same time wants to earn that Blue Dot, one may end up consuming way too much food (really, wtm CALORIES) for wtLoss/maintenance to take place.
My GF was finding herself with a sh!tload of SPs left at the end of the day and was consuming them - with a resultant wt gain. She is a Rule Follower with many years' tenure in WW, and has always been able to FOLLOW THE PROGRAM AS WRITTEN. But now AS WRITTEN (i.e., earning that Blue Dot) doesn't work because many of her choices "don't have SPs" in her tracker. And while yes, she can adjust her daily points allowance to reflect that, or quick-add all those 0-SPs with the prev SP values, her brain rebels against "rebelling against the Program as written". She's in a tough place - she's been struggling since the first month Freestyle came out.
Also, IMO, it's all well and good to say that we should be making BETTER choices - but can someone please tell me where, in the CURRENT program materials, there is ANY guideline/structured plan that explains what they are - what, and how much of it, constitutes a BALANCED menu? Just asking...
It was a good meeting. I heard from GF that the Thurs meeting stuck to the script (the NSVs handout) and that the Friday meeting went rogue with a rampage against the loss of the tchotchkes.
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Post by NatureLover on Aug 4, 2018 15:36:27 GMT
I went to my meeting this morning. Alright, I can live without the bravos. It aggravated me to see the receptionists writing the info in the books with a computer and Dymo label printer right in front of them. My leader said "that is to encourage more interaction at the scale." I had less interaction while my receptionist was busy looking from her screen to my book to fill in the data by hand. We had a better flow of communication before this little piece of ridiculousness.
A lady who always attempts to dominate the meetings was blathering on about how we're all grown ups and don't need little gold stars and clapping like kindergarteners, and she is happy to not have her "integrity insulted." Go #### in your hat!
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Post by zazzles on Aug 4, 2018 15:48:03 GMT
I went to my meeting this morning. Alright, I can live without the bravos. It aggravated me to see the receptionists writing the info in the books with a computer and Dymo label printer right in front of them. My leader said "that is to encourage more interaction at the scale." I had less interaction while my receptionist was busy looking from her screen to my book to fill in the data by hand. We had a better flow of communication before this little piece of ridiculousness. A lady who always attempts to dominate the meetings was blathering on about how we're all grown ups and don't need little gold stars and clapping like kindergarteners, and she is happy to not have her "integrity insulted." Go #### in your hat! I'm LOL at the loudmouth who thinks she speaks for everyone else in the room. But it takes another loudmouth with an opposite opinion to put someone in his/her place. He who shall remain nameless (leader of the Save the Banana Foundation [STBF]) stated earlier that the real reason they stopped pasting labels in books is that the Dymo printers give them lots of problems and are unreliable. And that makes sense to me because I own a couple and they are NOT intended for the kind of commercial use and abuse they get at WW. And that brings me to the top of the staff's explanation: I wish WW would stop inventing excuses for their actions that they think will be palatable to members. I wish they would prepare a PRINTED statement giving the real reasons for their decisions and just have staff hand them to members, perhaps including a statement that "If you do not understand or disagree with this statement, please call 1-800-XXXX to discuss the issue. The meeting staff do not set policy and have no control over this change."
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Post by linda72 on Aug 4, 2018 16:00:06 GMT
I wish they would prepare a PRINTED statement giving the real reasons for their decisions OR - since WW wants to go green and save paper: print the full statement on their website, the on-line tracker and on Connect so that everyone gets the same message at one time. We're getting different messages in all the meetings which doesn't instill confidence in their program.
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Post by bbbearsmom on Aug 4, 2018 16:51:11 GMT
HOWEVER, one of the gals struggling the most is Lifetime/under goal and having difficulty making the shift to being self-directed as opposed to PROGRAM-directed. That is my problem I need to be program directed. If I wanted to do this on my own I wouldn't have joined WW. Also, IMO, it's all well and good to say that we should be making BETTER choices - but can someone please tell me where, in the CURRENT program materials, there is ANY guideline/structured plan that explains what they are - what, and how much of it, constitutes a BALANCED menu? Just asking... Last fall some of us got access to the WW staff materials from Britain. In there they were specifically saying not to give direction, people were to figure it out for themselves. I remember reading that the leaders were not to even mention portion control.
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Post by diva49 on Aug 4, 2018 17:00:24 GMT
HOWEVER, one of the gals struggling the most is Lifetime/under goal and having difficulty making the shift to being self-directed as opposed to PROGRAM-directed. That is my problem I need to be program directed. If I wanted to do this on my own I wouldn't have joined WW. Last fall some of us got access to the WW staff materials from Britain. In there they were specifically saying not to give direction, people were to figure it out for themselves. I remember reading that the leaders were not to even mention portion control. <thhhbbbpppttt> to a weight-management money-collecting enterprise that fails to guide its members in managing weight. Leaders who can't lead... priceless.
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Post by zazzles on Aug 4, 2018 17:52:50 GMT
So I went back to online only. After reading about the recent developments I am done with meetings. "Breathing exercises"?? I have been breathing for over sixty years. I have my own Zen moments with my garden, my chickens, my dogs. Not interested in a what-I-perceive-as-a-phony-attempt-at-relevancy routine at a money-making corporate entity. You made me LOL at this, I, too, have been breathing on my own for almost 70 years. And MY Zen moment would be a meeting that takes its direction from the attendees and discusses at least what SOME of them want to discuss, not these canned topics that don't actually give direction on how to make the food program work for successful weight loss. This whole Beyond the Scale claptrap made me suspicous to start, especially when Oprah came on board and started representing the program. Meaning no disrespect, O seemed to finally "get it"—that you can't NOT change your lifestyle forever more if you want to reach and maintain a goal weight. And changing lifestyle is HARD—near impossible according to WW's own long-term statistics on recidivism. And I guess why I suspect they came up with the whole Beyond the Scale campaign and all of the ongoing changes to try to defocus people on the goal of losing weight—they must think they will be more profitable if they help people accept themselves as they are by giving them a psychological tune-up.
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Post by lavonm on Aug 4, 2018 18:18:58 GMT
This whole Beyond the Scale claptrap made me suspicous to start, especially when Oprah came on board and started representing the program. Meaning no disrespect, O seemed to finally "get it"—that you can't NOT change your lifestyle forever more if you want to reach and maintain a goal weight. And changing lifestyle is HARD—near impossible according to WW's own long-term statistics on recidivism. And I guess why I suspect they came up with the whole Beyond the Scale campaign and all of the ongoing changes to try to defocus people on the goal of losing weight—they must think they will be more profitable if they help people accept themselves as they are by giving them a psychological tune-up. Beyond the Scale is all well & good BUT the reality is if you want to make Lifetime, you better get that scale to cooperate. If WW wants to go that direction, then they need to have a different way of defining success. Obviously, I never bought into the entire campaign.
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Post by borntexan on Aug 4, 2018 19:24:35 GMT
Now I get why I have had such a problem with freestyle.I haven't made the program my own.Oh that's how I used to eat when I ate anything and everything I wanted to.
IMHO There needs to be some common sense and portion control.If I eat all the 0 point foods I want to plus the 23 or with maintenance 28 points I'm going to lose or maintain???I don't think so.Maybe some people can but I know I can't.
I have lost weight through the tools WW has given me while I have paid them for 5-6 years.They didn't give me step by step directions online only for sure or anyone else who does online only.I have had the support of these message boards which has nothing to do with WW who I consider my dear friends.
If we now need to make the program our own what the he** have we been paying WW for whether we are meetings members over goal or online only members.I know it's partly my fault for not going to meetings to get my free e-tools but I'm not making a 45 minute round trip once a week or once a month for that.
Don't take me wrong.I like WW or I wouldn't still be paying them but I don't believe in freestyle or the direction WW is headed.
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Post by fullmahina on Aug 4, 2018 19:38:13 GMT
This whole Beyond the Scale claptrap made me suspicous to start, especially when Oprah came on board and started representing the program. Meaning no disrespect, O seemed to finally "get it"—that you can't NOT change your lifestyle forever more if you want to reach and maintain a goal weight. And changing lifestyle is HARD—near impossible according to WW's own long-term statistics on recidivism. And I guess why I suspect they came up with the whole Beyond the Scale campaign and all of the ongoing changes to try to defocus people on the goal of losing weight—they must think they will be more profitable if they help people accept themselves as they are by giving them a psychological tune-up. Beyond the Scale is all well & good BUT the reality is if you want to make Lifetime, you better get that scale to cooperate. If WW wants to go that direction, then they need to have a different way of defining success. Obviously, I never bought into the entire campaign. I think "The Scale and Beyond" would have been a more meaningful slogan than "Beyond the Scale." BTS makes it sound as if WW was past all that scale stuff and was moving on. Hardly. The little award for milestone weight losses were still there and the exclamations and applause still rang out when a phenomenal weight loss was announced. That's the SCALE, WW, and not anywhere near beyond it. Polite applause was given for NSV's and accountings of exercise routines but really, it's always been the dropping of pounds that gets the crowd roaring. The reason people go to WW is to lose weight. In the process one would also be learning the importance of portion control, how to make wise food choices, how to handle eating in social situations, etc. All related to getting those numbers on that SCALE to move down and stay down. If I want to connect with my inner downward dog there is a great little yoga studio in my town that I could go to. When I went to meetings it was to get inspiration from the leader and others and bolster my resolve to make it through another week and yes, to see the number on the SCALE get smaller.
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Post by diva49 on Aug 4, 2018 21:04:46 GMT
This whole Beyond the Scale claptrap made me suspicous to start, especially when Oprah came on board and started representing the program. Meaning no disrespect, O seemed to finally "get it"—that you can't NOT change your lifestyle forever more if you want to reach and maintain a goal weight. And changing lifestyle is HARD—near impossible according to WW's own long-term statistics on recidivism. And I guess why I suspect they came up with the whole Beyond the Scale campaign and all of the ongoing changes to try to defocus people on the goal of losing weight—they must think they will be more profitable if they help people accept themselves as they are by giving them a psychological tune-up. Beyond the Scale is all well & good BUT the reality is if you want to make Lifetime, you better get that scale to cooperate. If WW wants to go that direction, then they need to have a different way of defining success. Obviously, I never bought into the entire campaign. One of our members suggested that if WW is training us to be more SELF-accountable... we won't need WW any more. My side of the room broke up in raucous laughter... because we recognized that the result would be that NO ONE WOULD EVER REACH LIFETIME/FREE and the income stream would be never-ending.
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Post by bbbearsmom on Aug 4, 2018 22:46:26 GMT
One of our members suggested that if WW is training us to be more SELF-accountable... we won't need WW any more. My thoughts exactly.
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