So. Today was going well…I’ve been uber busy at work, Christmas chocolates flying around all over the place and a massive Christmas cake sent down to our office courtesy of our colleagues in the trading team, but I’m happy to report I resisted them all. Still firmly in the sweet spot, and in control. Arrived home with plenty of points in the bank, and my boy had popped a chicken kiev in the oven for me so I did what I often do and opened up the Weight Watchers’ website to check out the points value….ah. Houston, we have a problem.
It seems that Weight Watchers have decided to swap pro points for something called smart points. WTF? I mean I knew they’d been messing around with their website because for the last two weeks it’s taken me five times as long to find anything. I kept seeing a message saying you are seeing the new format, click here to return to the original, so I kept clicking. And shouting at the screen, like that was going to help. Then they stopped offering me the option to navigate familiar pages so it seemed I was stuck with the new format. Right then.
What I didn’t see, anywhere, was any mention that they were changing the actual diet. I mean just a small detail that, you know, I might have been interested in. Way to go Weight Watchers. I pay my subs every month for the on-line service, and you can’t even bother to drop me an email to let me know that you’re pulling the rug from under my feet, two weeks before Christmas, by changing the diet. I noticed by accident when I read smart points and thought what the hell are they..?
Not only that, but the website doesn’t appear to be working properly. Lovely! I don’t have any info at all about the new diet. I’ve figured out that a lot of the points values have changed, so since the change I didn’t know about, I’ve been tracking my food choices using my points calculator (pro points) at the same time as using the on line listings (smart points) so who knows how many points I’ve actually had over the last couple of weeks. Or indeed how many I should be having since all the values have changed.
If I wasn’t so deeply dug in to the sweet spot, that could have spelled disaster. It would have done in times gone by – I’d have been into the hob-nobs faster than the speed of sound thinking well that’s it, diet blown…might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb right?
Change makes me twitchy at the best of times…I mean, I always come around in the end but I’ll freely admit I’m a stubborn old mule who will resist for as long as possible. I’m sure the intent behind changing the diet is sound, and I’m sure the diet will continue to work well, once I know what I’m doing. But I’ve got to say, their execution of change has been utterly crap and they have let me down badly. I’m frustrated and beyond mad.
So. My only option is to pay them more money to get a new set of books and a new points calculator. What’s that you say..? They’ve sold out of points calculators..? Awesome.
You couldn’t bloody write it could you 🙁
Yay for you not letting the curve ball break your groove! Change is constant and that’s something that we former binge eaters can have a problem with. You don’t know that you’ve done anything “wrong” with following the plan you’ve been following; in fact, you’ve done really well. So march on victorious one! You will manage Smart Points, Einstein Points, whatever points. Don’t worry so much about messing up; you will mess up. Something that has always helped me when I screwed up is I say to myself: “I will not let a screw up become a give up; not this time” and “if I had a flat tire, I wouldn’t go slash the other three tires.”
Yey! I know you’re right…I had a tantrum this morning but I’ve pulled my big girl pants on now and I’ve gone into solution mode. The world didn’t end!
Sorry they’ve thrown you this loop at the worst possible time of the year. They should have waited until February or done it last month, either way it would have missed messing up the hardest season of the year to get through.
Ha ha yes Mimi…it’s fair to say I’d appreciate 10 minutes in a locked room with their strategy director right about now. I doubt he’d feel the same 🙂
Ouch! Nice timing, rolling it out now. I read posts on the LoseIt forums from other WW people who are pretty pissed off. You will need to knock-wood-and-whistle, Darlin. -good luck! Fleury
Ta Fleury…asshole’s been in fine fettle all night advising me to chuck the towel in but it’s falling on deaf ears thankfully 🙂
I attend a weekly meeting and the leader gave us warning that things would be changing but not how. My app automatically changed to the new points the day of my weigh in but I know other people have had issues. The new points values make sense – foods with fat and sugar generally up and lean protein down. For example 1 slice of turkey bacon used to be a point, you can now eat 3 slices for 1 point! I know leaders and WW employees have been testing this for over six months now and apparently some great results so I think once they get the technical issues sorted it is worth sticking with. Today is only my second day on smart points so I will wait and see!
Hi Claire…it’s funny because I’ve been toying with the idea of cutting out refined sugars for a while so I guess I’m less frustrated with what’s changed than the way they’ve handled it…as an ‘on line’ member I’ve had no comms at all and found out by accident, against the backdrop of a website which is still having issues, which is pretty bad! I mean all will be forgiven if the new diet gets me to skinny town at warp speed of course, but for now I’m still wearing my diva sulky face! D x
You missed me going insane last week – writing horrible messages and being furious. Don’t change it over till it works for pete’s sake!
That said, now that it’s working again here, and my phone app works too mostly Julie so I’m sorry you’re struggling still, and it actually holds on to my foods instead of reloading, deleting, putting back [now I’ve got it twice blah blah] I actually am very happy with the new plan.
It makes more sense.
After going through a lot of things [I’m halfway through my first week] it’s clear that instead of endlessly villainizing all carbs and making fiber a magic wand, they’re all switching to lower saturated fats, lower sugar – which helps ME because butter and sugar can fill my life, this forces control. Also another thing I REALLY like is that lean proteins have less points than they used to have – so I’ve definitely been eating better this week than last – we’ll see what the scales say on Monday 🙂
But first off yay you avoiding all that holiday junk at work! And for surviving the shift – I agree that they have handled it abysmally – and if I thought there was a better game in town I’d give it my money – but time and time again I’m seeing that for me, ww is the only way to do this without crash and burning . . . sigh – wish they were more responsible about it!
Hey Cherie…do you go to class or are you doing it on line? I just wish I’d known…I feel like I messed up for the last however long, I don’t even know when it swapped over.I usually use my calculator to work out points for my lunch, but for dinner I usually get the points from the website seeing as my computer lives in the kitchen, it’s easier…or so I thought.I’ve been having a mash-up of both apparently which is why I’m so mad!
I feel your pain with this terribly bumpy changeover. Bad timing, the website is difficult to navigate and I still can’t get the ww app to work on my cell phone even after three ww people told me it SHOULD work. Let’s hope things improve quickly so we can settle into this new plan.
I’m surprised Julie, you’d think a company the size of Weight Watchers would have managed this properly wouldn’t you. Bet they’ll lose a lot of custom, I’ve had a look at a couple of on-line forums and everyone’s up in arms!