WW Meetings. A Bit Of A Rant.
88olds
Posts: 4,603 Member
Unlike a lot of folks, I didn’t stop WW meetings when I made Lifetime. I attended regularly until we moved to Florida. Only left the WW system after we evacuated Key West for Hurricane Irma. I had just about 11 1/2 years of meetings.
I’ve taken to thinking of the meetings as the School Of What Not To Do. I was alarmed to discover the WW revolving door. I vowed not to get in it. I listened to the stories at the meetings and started to see the picture of WW fail.
Disappointed at a small loss- But I was good- Went over Points- Quit tracking- I’ll start over- Quit tracking again- Disappear from the meeting- Crawl back heavier than ever.
So I didn’t do those things. Well, I went over points. But that’s inevitable. Mistakes happen. Like I said, what not to do was right in front of my face.
The much touted WW support? Aside from MLs and the folks who worked at WW, not much. The women at the meeting were not very supportive of a guy who lost regularly. Just how it was.
I’ve taken to thinking of the meetings as the School Of What Not To Do. I was alarmed to discover the WW revolving door. I vowed not to get in it. I listened to the stories at the meetings and started to see the picture of WW fail.
Disappointed at a small loss- But I was good- Went over Points- Quit tracking- I’ll start over- Quit tracking again- Disappear from the meeting- Crawl back heavier than ever.
So I didn’t do those things. Well, I went over points. But that’s inevitable. Mistakes happen. Like I said, what not to do was right in front of my face.
The much touted WW support? Aside from MLs and the folks who worked at WW, not much. The women at the meeting were not very supportive of a guy who lost regularly. Just how it was.
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I continued to attend WW meetings as well, but I missed one month and that cost me my free eTools. I've successfully maintained my goal weight almost 8 yrs, but they want me to pay a months fee to get back my "free" eTools.
I know its probably not much ($$), but its the principle of the matter.
Customer service says I'm still lifetime though.
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@jasper60103 I think Lifetime is forever. Even the folks who gained it all back plus more would come to the meetings and identify themselves as Lifetime. Usually “I’m a Lifetime member, so I know what I have to do.” I didn’t think they did but never said so.
They told me I would have to pay for 6 weeks to get back in the system.
Won’t happen.0 -
@jasper60103 I think Lifetime is forever. Even the folks who gained it all back plus more would come to the meetings and identify themselves as Lifetime. Usually “I’m a Lifetime member, so I know what I have to do.” I didn’t think they did but never said so.
They told me I would have to pay for 6 weeks to get back in the system.
Won’t happen.
@88olds - Yep, I'm still lifetime so they say.
When I step on the scale, the red flags go up and they want me to pay for that delinquent month. Ain't happening.0 -
Sometimes it’s difficult to tell if it’s lifetime or a death sentence. I think I’d rather lose my lifetime ‘status’ if I regain the weight. Only because I’m not sure it’s helpful to be lifetime when you’ve gained everything and then some back.
I found a couple of things beneficial about the meetings-
1. At lifetime it was 30 minutes once or twice a month that I could spend focusing on managing my weight. So even if I didn’t find the content of a given meeting specifically helpful, I’d find something else to focus on.
2. I found the nonsensical stuff- everything from the whining about food pushers to the unfairness of it all that you have to walk past the doughnuts in the break room to the struggles dealing with all the neat foods on all those essential celebrations and holidays- helpful. Because it reminded me regularly of my own prior reliance on the same nonsense as opposed to just taking some responsibility for my being overweight.
3. At the same time, sharing some of my own success was helpful in reminding me of principles that can still easily get lost (I remember a very vividly discussing the ‘if you trust and follow the plan, you *will* get the results you want one month with a member who was really struggling with not seeing the results. And then the next month having her tell me she followed that advice and, though excruciatingly difficult, she gave it another month only to see the results show up dramatically at the back end. ). Or like “if it’s fat free it isn’t cheese and if it’s cheese it isn’t fat free.
So why did I stop going? Mostly, time. The meeting time became less convenient due to a work schedule change so I decided to see if I could manage without. So far, I’m doing okay. But I do miss the meeting a little.1 -
I was very regular attending meetings on Saturday mornings even after attaining lifetime. Then I started to get more active (running, biking) and the events that I do often conflicted with the meeting times of my favorite leader. Eventually I just stopped going. There is a much closer center where I do my monthly WI but I can't stand the leader there so I never stay.
Also coinciding with the ramp up of my outdoor endurance events on Saturday mornings was my friend's decision to stop going when she regained weight. She didn't want to pay the meeting fee after losing her free status. She was going through some hard financial times. I don't think she has regained all of her 80 pound loss, but probably half of it. She had been the inspiration for me to get WW at Work a try back in June 2011. When the WW at Work folded, then we moved to a regular meeting location.
I do miss seeing my leader as well as my friend on Saturday mornings.0 -
I still go to meetings after 12 years!. I have never made lifetime so I have paid for it the whole time. (I do not do the math on that amount of $, I don't want to know.) I have changed meetings recently because I became uncomfortable with the group dynamics of the meeting I was in. (being the only guy in the group can sometimes take more mental & phsycological energy than I have to give) I plan to continue to go to meetings because that is my personal definition of "lifetime" I find it helps keep me grounded and focused on what I need and want to accomplish.
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I achieved lifetime after about a year and a half, attending meetings the whole time. After LT, on recommendation from some of the GOADies, I continued going to the meetings weekly. I slowly dropped back to ~every other week up until this summer, when I've been on-the-road a lot but often otherwise busy during the out-of-town meeting times. I still appreciate the meetings when I go (we'll see with the new version of WW...), but often for the same reasons @88olds mentions: it shows me what not to do (thus my question about "the fight" in another thread).
In my home meeting, I'm often one of two guys there. I feel accepted by most of the women in the group and certainly the WW staff. In fact, they often tell me they're glad I'm there to call BS as I sometimes do (in the nicest possible way
). In the out-of-town meeting I sometimes attend (suburban area), there are several guys in the meeting. Feels a bit foreign but I've noticed the overall tone is a bit different as they often participate as much as the women.
At the end of the day, I think both genders share similar struggles and I feel a lot of empathy for the women. Their role in the family and responsibilities (especially with meal prep, many on top of working full-time jobs) are significant and I can appreciate their challenges. That said, I still hear a lot of the same excuses, week after week. If I'm not calling BS, I just keep my mouth shut and work my plan, and wish them luck working theirs. To each their own...0 -
I wouldn't go to meetings except that I do like my peeps and leader. If I moved I doubt I would go. We have several guys in our meetings these days.0
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I use to so meetings. What drove me away was the fact of people talking on their phone and not respecting the class. The other reason was it was like the same thing wk. after wk. My leader would always have life-time members be like spokesmen and not allowing others to talk about their journey. When you needed help there wasn't time.
To be honest I get more support from Goad. then I did from the class.0 -
I'd like to chime in on this thread as a non meeting attendee or an online member only since 11/11. I decided back in 2010-2011 not to attend in person meetings. I had my reasons at the time and still to this day stand by my reasons which are largely work related. I too have seen WW meetings come and go in my town etc; and at the time besides work related reasons for not attending it was also s financial decision for that decision.
What I'd like to ask of the posters here in this thread is if you had to make a decision to begin going to a WW meeting knowing that there has been several changes to the program including a new prominent WW stockholder and also knowing the name will be changing its name to WW instead I'd Weight Watchers.
SW 400.8
CW 352.8☹
Next GW 300.0
Final GW 185.0
48.0 lbs Total Loss0 -
I still go to meetings, as well as online. Being the only guy doesn't bother me at all. Of course I have TOL with me, but I "like" women, and usually they like me also. We have some good natured jabbing, but we all listen to whoever is speaking. They really respect one another.1
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I’d do meetings again. The meetings worked for me. Continuing in the meetings saved me when my weight poked its head over my GW. The system worked.
But what went on in the meetings really was the school of not what to do.0 -
I attended my first "home meeting" under the new program this week. Despite everything's name being changed (e.g. the 'leader' is now a 'wellness coach' and the receptionists are now 'wellness bar attendants' (or something like that)), there wasn't a whole lot of change to the meeting itself.
That said, I wonder if WW is prepared and able to deal with the things that might come up under the overall umbrella of "wellness" compared to the historic realm of eating / diet / behaviors. It remains to be seen and I found myself also remaining to be seen how I would react. If it strays too far from my core program, I don't know that I'll continue but for now, I'm keeping an open mind.0 -
Biggest change I noticed today was the WW pledge at the end said "because WW works" instead of Weight Watchers. Even the leader laughed a bit.0
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I was curious about how the ‘change’ would play out, so I logged out of WW and then closed my browser and reopened the site. Now, call me cynical, but...
I do not for a minute believe there is much (if any) attraction for people who are not looking to lose weight. So, to the extent that its target audience is still overweight people looking to lose weight, nothing has really changed in terms the likely customer base.
What has changed is the Oprahfication. By which I mean they’ve just added a number of neat facets of success. So you can join WW, not lose weight, but still find some other way to feel good about your experience. “I didn’t lose any weight but I’m eating healthier.” Or, “I didn’t lose any weight but I’m fitter.” And so on. I’ve refered to this in the past as the participation medal approach to weight loss. So you can now go to meetings, pay the money, not lose weight but still feel okay about it because you derived some other benefit from the meeting. To the extent that it sells more memberships or renewals, great business model.
It’s not all bad for the costumer. There is benefit inured from changing eating habits or becoming more physically fit. And, as somebody who felt bad for many years over the state of his body, I say what’s wrong with a little self-esteem building? And it’s possible that keeeping somebody engaged has allowed them to not gain or not gain as much weight.
So long as the customers come to understand that the program will never cause weight loss to happen until the customer eats less, I’m okay with the approach.2 -
Interesting Steve. The Oprah response to the WW revolving door.
Having observed the chain of events that leads folks to quit, they haven’t broken the chain, just made it irrelevant.0 -
Just the type of approach that is designed to attract more men to the program!!!!!!!!0
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Interesting Steve. The Oprah response to the WW revolving door.
Having observed the chain of events that leads folks to quit, they haven’t broken the chain, just made it irrelevant.
I got a bit of a kick out of this. Seems like we live in the Golden Age of Irrelevancy, so why not WW, too?1 -
myallforjcbill wrote: »Biggest change I noticed today was the WW pledge at the end said "because WW works" instead of Weight Watchers. Even the leader laughed a bit.
What "pledge"? I went to meetings for 5 years and never heard one.0 -
Remember, Bill's on the "left coast".
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No pledges here whether east or west.0
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