Living the Lifestyle -- Wednesday, October 12, 2016

beachwoman2006

Everyone says it, but just how do you do it? How do you take the guidelines of the WW program and turn them into a lifestyle you can live every day...from now on? That is what we are here to explore. Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion. Newbie? Join in! Veteran? Join in! Your thoughts may be just what someone else needs to hear.

Monday –- Podkey (Bob)
Tuesday -- Misterhub (Greg)
Wednesday -- Beachwoman2006 (Cindy)
Thursday -- Calvin2008 (Brian)
Friday -- Al_Howard (Al)


Today's Topic: Tweaks

There have been MANY variations to the WW program over the years and some of us have been on MOST of them at one time or another. What "tweaks" did you make to the program to make it work for your LIFESTYLE?

podkey

After a year at goal/lifetime on momentum/pointsplus counting and tracking everything I stopped journaling everything online (had my foods and program memorized). I eat mostly simply filling foods but needed that time to get the amounts down in my brain (I eat too fast).

I have gone back to counting when new programs have come out to see how they might impact me. I did the newest version for 2-3 weeks of counting.
My newest tweak on the new program would be to dip more into the weekly and activity/fit points to make up for the more severe carb/sugar penalty. I don't eat a huge amount of such things BUT they (WW) have gotten too carried away I reluctantly agree.

Early on I figured out how to add in some craft beer in moderation. I also eat some chocolate most nights too.

Glad to see you are OK Cindy and hope your house fared OK too.

Calvin2008Brian

I had success with the WW program as it existed in 07/08. I forget the nomenclature and timeframes, but I believe PointsPlus came later and then I lost track because I was only intermittently a WW subscriber.

No surprise, but I had my best success when I followed the plan the best that I could with minimal tweaks. I recall that (whatever it was called) the first version of WW I used greatly rewarded fiber consumption and this emphasis wasn't as clear in later versions.

Calvin2008Brian

Where is everyone today?

gadgetgirlIL

I march to the beat of a different drummer. Calorie counting is what is comfortable for me and what I've employed for every weight loss journey beginning with my first one at age 16. Just the technology has changed over the years.

The only tweak I've made over the years is to pay more attention to my protein intake as well as to strive to increase my vegetable intake.

WW provides support and accountability. I've never used one of their points plans.

Rachel0778

I have ended up having a lot more success calorie counting than I did with points. I miss the meetings, but I struggled with having treats penalized. I still try to implement the Good Healthy Guidelines in my day, but I like that I can choose to have 100 calories of oreos and it counts the same as 100 calories of a banana. It allows me to incorporate treats without feeling penalized, deprived, and bingeing.

Jimb376

"What "tweaks" did you make to the program to make it work for your LIFESTYLE? "

Are you asking what people have done in order to NOT follow the prescribed WW Plan?

I try to not "tweak" the Plan to fit my Lifestyle, rather I have been trying drastically to tweak my Lifestyle in order to follow the plan.

I have been on different WW programs in different decades since the 1970s. But I was never on one program for a long period of time. Usually went off WW after I dropped the pounds or when I got frustrated with lack of losing.

This time I started with PPV in 2013 and embraced BTS SPs in 2016. I don't think I'm tweaking it but maybe it's just doing what I'm comfortable with. As long as I keep losing I won't mess with it.

DavidKuhnsSr

My only "tweak" has been to drop WW altogether.

Back when I was losing, seven years ago, I followed the plan rigidly: i counted everything, weighed and measured, got in my GHGs every day, and never exceeded my daily allowances. As a result, I lost 60 lbs. in three months. Since then I have been on intuitive maintenance. I have made use of a calorie counting app on my phone to lose a few pounds, this year. I stayed involved with WW for the accountability, and friendship. They dropped the meeting I attended and I saw no need to attend with a bunch of strangers. Then they dropped the message boards and I moved over here. WW is in my past.

MICHGOLFER2

The only major "lifestyle tweak" that I have made to the program was years ago to an older version that allowed you to only use activity points (or whatever they were called back then) on the day you performed the activity. If you didn't use them, you lost them the next day. I was much more physically active back then, but I usually didn't want to eat more on the days that I was vigorously active. The hunger usually came the next day. So I would track my activity on the day that I needed extra points, not on the day that I did the activity. I didn't make sense to me to have that tight of a time limitation.

Right now I don't track activity since I am not active enough to need the extra food.

MICHGOLFER2

Calvin2008Brian wrote: »

Where is everyone today?

Busy day at work!

leeless511

I recently tweaked my approach about 6 months ago I added more healthy fats (avocado; oils; etc.) to each day so I was more satisfied with what I ate. And within the last few weeks, I began having more "real version" desserts if I was looking for a sweet besides fruit. For example, at a Artisan Craft Fair I went to, they made big Gingerbread cookie, I bought 6 to share with my hubs and I ate 1 whole one at the fair and 1/2 later on in the week and froze some. I felt great about it, planned it and enjoyed it. I have actually cut back on regular food to get more treats. Ha! And I am losing weight by adding more high calorie and high fat foods to my diet. Love!

beachwoman2006

Jimb376 wrote: »

I try to not "tweak" the Plan to fit my Lifestyle, rather I have been trying drastically to tweak my Lifestyle in order to follow the plan.

And that's exactly what I didn't want to do. I didn't want my lifestyle to change to fit WW. I needed to make WW fit into MY lifestyle. It's worked for me for 14 years now and I didn't have to give up the things I really liked in order to lose weight and keep it off. THAT'S the kind of lifestyle I wanted -- to be able to keep the weight off.

Weighing, measuring, counting and tracking points wasn't a lifestyle that I was going to follow the rest of my life and I knew it. How did I know it? Because I had reached goal twice before and hadn't kept the weight off either time. As soon as I reached goal I stopped doing all that. What I hadn't learned during the time I was losing was how to eat like a "normal" person.

How many people do you know who write down everything they eat throughout the day? If that's something you can do, my hat's off to you because that's just not a lifestyle that I'm interested in.

beachwoman2006

There were only a few tweaks that I made to the WW program and most of those were things that WW kept changing. When I switched to the Core plan, avocado was one of the Core foods. So was sugar-free fat-free pudding. Later, those two foods were removed from the Core plan. I never changed using them as Core foods. The only thing I changed was not eating avocado in the quantity that I did when I first switched to Core.

I watched WW change so many things over the years and some of them just didn't make sense to me. At one point I was given a range of points and that range was 18-23. Then all of a sudden it wasn't "healthy" for me to eat less than 20 points a day. Then it wasn't healthy for me to eat less than 26 points a day. So which was it?? Had I been following an UNhealthy program when I was following the one where I could eat 18 or 20 points a day?

Learning to recognize my hunger signals so that I ate when I was hungry and stopped when I was satisfied was the most important thing I learned from WW over the MANY years I followed the program(s).

podkey

Yeah not to mince but in the sort term 18 pts was the same calories as 22.5 pts on the subsequent plan. WW has since gotten very far a field from the x calories= x pts of the past. No it wasn't exactly that simple but close to it.
I agree with Cindy more and more that "what works,works". Simple as that. I see no reason for the latest draconian assault on sugars and carbs vs the "penalty" on pointsplus.
Really it is about a sensible diet and behavior changes.
True some folks are losing faster on the "new" plan (no surprise there) but WW historically has never been about speed of losing anyway. Slower and sustained is what I would want all day every day.

Oh and like Dave I would quit going to meetings if they cancelled my group. People who don't know me or my story would just sneer and say "what is THAT guy doing in our meeting". When you are lifetime and at goal you are not one of the usual newbies to a meeting group or welcomed as such.

minimyzeme

My first tweak was to not get freaked out by the structure and point-counting. While I definitely benefited from both, I decided early on to put myself on the 90/10 plan. That is, I would strive to adhere to the WW program 90% of the time. I enjoy some spontaneity in life, with friends, family, etc. Or hell, sometimes I just want to eat what I want to eat. Since my former plan was the 0/100 plan, I figured 90/10 would still get the job done while allowing me a little buffer. So far, it's worked.

I don't know that it's a tweak, but I also decided early on not to get tweaked by the scale. Many of my early lessons from GOAD focused on behavior and I figured if I did that, as per GOAD, the weight loss would follow. I decided I was OK losing at whatever pace came from that. Combined with the other guidance from GOAD that weight loss that takes time tends to stay off longer (or something to that effect), I figured I'd concentrate on my behavior and be OK if it took longer to lose the weight. It was good advice and I think it's helped me to stay in the game as long as I have.

My last tweak (related to the previous one) is that I dropped my original expectation that I'd lose X number of pounds, then return to my former life. I seriously thought that when I first joined WW. And it was a good thing I did, or I probably wouldn't have joined. The way it rolled out, where this reality came to light after I'd been on GOAD for a while, much as I hated it, it made sense. When goal day came, it was a passing thought and an opportunity for me to realize it was just Phase I. I knew the real challenge would be Phase II: keeping the weight off.

These are my tweaks for now. They have worked well but I don't think I'd have put them together without GOAD, or certainly not without a lot of trial, but mostly error. I've only been on a plan for a couple years. I expect to have more years ahead to put all this to good use--many more years than it took to reach goal. I intend to do it one day at a time...

linmueller

I really dislike the SP program! I'm tired of being penalized for sugar and fats. At my age, I should be drink 3 glasses of milk a day, but at 9 SPs, that's not happening. I'm tired of a piece of my favorite pizza for lunch leaving me with fruits and veggies for the rest of the day. On MFP, I still have plenty of calories for a healthy dinner.

I haven't tweaked anything ... yet ... but I'm deciding between tracking on MFP or going back to PP. Haven't decided what to do yet, but I need to do something different. And then I need to decide if I want to keep attending meetings. I would have been gone ages ago if the people weren't so awesome!

I reread this and considered deleting it because I sound whiny and frustrated, but the truth is, I am. I'm just irritated by the changes! After years of being told how important it is to eat according to the GHGs, they're just gone. And how about all the talk about being able to eat anything in moderation, but now, even a small serving can kill your points.

And there's more whining! Sorry, but thanks @beachwoman2006 for promoting me to get some clarity on this. I hadn't really stopped to realize that I really do need to make a change.

misterhub

I don't follow the WW, officially, any longer. I follow the general framework, however. I guess my entire approach is a tweak.

beachwoman2006

Lin, I don't think you're whining at all! I completely understand where you're coming from. I was in the same position as you when I was counting points. I also am in the age group where I need 3 glasses of milk a day whether it's in the form of milk or a combination of milk, cheese, yogurt, etc. At one point I was getting 20 points a day -- my milk took up 6 of those points (for either skim or 1%) leaving me 14 points a day. It just wasn't doable for me! And is the main reason that I switched to the Core plan as soon as it was introduced. Skim milk was Core and I had no problem drinking skim milk. In fact, I actually LIKED it. Knowing that I could eat things like eggs, grits, oatmeal, and lean meats (including red meat!) to satisfaction was a winner for me!

Currently, I'm following the original Core plan, but tracking calories via MFP. I hate tracking ANYTHING, but I'm doing it for now just to get an idea of how many calories I'm eating. According to MFP, I should be eating 1200 calories a day. I'm finding it pretty easy to stay within 1200 calories and be satisifed with what I'm eating. Eventually I hope to stop tracking anything again!

beachwoman2006

[quote="linmueller;37902371"I'm just irritated by the changes! After years of being told how important it is to eat according to the GHGs, they're just gone. And how about all the talk about being able to eat anything in moderation, but now, even a small serving can kill your points.

I hadn't really stopped to realize that I really do need to make a change."[/quote]

THAT'S the thing that annoys me the most -- the fact that GHGs were always a very important part of the program. Then, all of a sudden, they're "just gone". And forget the whole BS about eating anything you want in moderation. Eating 2 bites of cake/pie/ice cream isn't realistic. But there's such a points hit for those things, that it's almost impossible to have ANYTHING that's considered a treat.

goldenfrisbee

Lin, I really like the freedom of using MFP and counting calories like you mentioned. Now I can eat anything I want and just have to end up at or around my calorie budget for the day. It's still not easy for me to do this, but I like it a lot better than when I followed Simply Filling and had food items that were off limits.

linmueller

Thanks Cindy! It's good to know I'm not the only one feeling that way! It really is so irritating! And it's nice of you to say I'm not whining, but I was LOL But I felt so much better just getting it off my mind. And even better now that you've commiserated with me


And I think MFP is going to be the option I go with @goldenfrisbee . Glad to hear it's working for you! I figure since PP was basically 38ish calories/point, it'll be easier to just do that. I'm thinking seriously about trying to get the old GHGs too! I just think that's a great way to eat healthy and still have room for indulgences.

Thank you both for the support!