WW Wellness that Works (Weight Watchers review)

Some things are so great they don’t need a time frame on them. For me, that’s the 21-day Health Challenge I recently did. For me, it was so ‘doable’ that I decided to commit to the challenge (also known as WW) for life.

WW, Wellness that Works

I’m talking about the WW, Wellness that Works, the new Weight Watchers.

Of course, just like any other person on the planet I’d heard about this program before, but I never tried it. I thought it was just another program that count calories (I’m against that), and leaves you fat and hungry after you’re done.

But when I looked in to the program, I realized they don’t work with calorie counting. Here’s how WW works:

Based on their science-backed  SmartPoints® system, WW Freestyle encourages you to eat more fruits, veggies, lean protein, and less sugar and unhealthy fats. As you know, I eat gluten free and lactose free all the time and try to eat as less sugar as possible (really hard!), so the zero point system is my go-to area when I’m hungry.

ZeroPoint foods

The program also has over 200+ ZeroPoint™ foods you never have to portion or track (!), which is great because I try to eat mostly these. And that’s how I still can eat glutenfree wholegrain bread in the weekends with avocado or some chocolates at night (every night if you want for that matter).

Spend your personalized SmartPoints Budget on any food you like. With rollovers, you can transfer extra SmartPoints to another day, keeping the program flexible and livable.

You need to track the food; and that’s the only part you can go wrong: if you’re not tracking right, if you forget to track or if you track everything but don’t stay within your ‘budget’.

The most livable program for everybody: WW Freestyle

I don’t always want to track my food. That’s why I think WW works for life: when I don’t track I eat zero point foods just to make sure, and if I want to add some olive oil or dressing on my salad, I know how much points that’d be roughly. So even when I don’t track, I kinda track, because the points are just higher on things like processed food, the more calories and less satisfying food groups (we all know what I’m talking about).

Easy counting

WW has a large webshop with many different products to help you with counting points. I always make sure I have a few bags of their candy: popcorn, chocolates and caramels at home, for those ‘I need to snack something now’ moments. This way, I’ll never take ‘too much’. All their products are numbered, often my snacks are 2 points each per package. So that’s pretty good for a small package of sweet popcorn right? You can order online OR get the products at the WW Workshop. I’m extremely happy with the WW water bottle, I would definitely recommend it. And also the wholegrain bread, as it fills up pretty good and isn’t a lot of points. It’s great to have on you when you travel and have a packaged snack on hands.

WW Workshop

I got the workshop + digital plan, so when my schedule finally allowed me to visit the workshop, I had to go. It might feel scary to visit the first time but it actually shouldn’t: it’s actually a lot of fun. I mean, who doesn’t want an accountability coach? And a group to support you on your journey. Especially right before summer, it’s so motivating to hear stories of (women in this case) WW members who have shred a lot of weight?!

A small note: how mean to have the WW workshop space right next to a Dominos pizza? That’s a massive test….

Each week there is a set program, like a short session given by the WW coach. There’s only one theme every week, so it only makes sense to go once a week.

One of my favorite things about visiting the WW workshop each week is making a little ritual around it, like for me, that’s I get to purchase a few bags of popcorn or chips. Because… it’s also a shop! You can get ALL the WW products and they have new promos every week.

When I went to my first workshop it was a bit of a weird moment, because it was Friday 3pm, one of the first sunny days of this summer and the last day of the coach. So she brought homemade cake and knew exactly how much points it was per piece, how awesome! Unfortunately I was the only visitor of the workshop with just one other person, who had lost 25kg, very inspiring but not really the group dynamic I hoped to find.

WW Workshop experience

So the week after I went to a morning meeting and I found the group feeling, with about 10 members (all ladies!). We talked about gratitude, which is something I practice every day, so I loved the workshop. It wasn’t only about dieting and food, to be honest, not at all. We talked about the healthy lifestyle and ALL of it, not only food but also gratitude and doing the daily mind work! Absolutely loved the workshop that week, loved the group and I will continue to go to that workshop when possible.

Losing 25+ kg’s

On my first visit I got the ‘intro’, a brief history and explanation of the WW lifestyle, and the coach showed me these keyrings. One for every milestone. It reminded me of AA, but in a good way, a visual to work on and to do your best to ‘earn’ them. A small notice about the keyrings: you only get them on the weight you lost during the digital + workshop plans, so make sure you start with the workshop (I would recommend that to tackle your beginner questions!). Because, the girl who lost 25 kg did it on the digital plan and could have earned a gold (I think?) keyring, but because it wasn’t during the workshop plan she didn’t got a keyring at all because she would have to start at her first 3 kgs…

The numbers…. and the shame?

Okay… so to end, I got one important thing to discuss about the workshop, which is the wellness check-in. It was the thing I feared the most, and I bet you do too. But to be honest, it’s so discrete, the coach even told other members to stay away from the scale when I was on it to give my privacy. The coach will never SAY the weight, and you’re completely free to talk about it during the workshop (or not).

Get Started [edit: giveaway = now closed]

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If you’re confident enough to start now, make sure you sign-up for the workshop + digital plan! And also, make sure you get some of the goodies that they offer, like the diary/meal planner, recipe book, water bottle and some 2 point snacks to get you through your first week(s)!

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