I quit you, Weight Watchers!

It lost me with PointsPlus.

I lost weight on Weight Watchers. For the most part, it was easy going, a simple formula of calories, fat, fibre, that made sense and was easy to guesstimate when you were out.

Points were what I knew, and it was a good thing.

And then came the PointsPlus. Stupid stupid PointsPlus. Demoralizing PointsPlus.

And then I went gluten-free and the PointsPlus became even more frustrating!  Gluten-free breads and pasta are ridiculously high in points! RIDICULOUSLY HIGH! Even when not so high in calorie.

It came to the point (ha!) that I had to face facts, burn more calories than you eat.

Don't just burn more calories of the types of food that take longer to digest in your system so they are lower in PointsPlus and therefore 'good' to eat.

Don't just eat fruit bc it's zero PointsPlus even though that smoothie had 400 calories in it.

Just don't do Weight Watchers anymore.

So I quit. Today, I cancelled my online membership and deleted the app from my phone.  I am counting calories using the fitbit food log and seeing the calories I burn against the calories I eat. And it makes sense.

During the PointsPlus rollout Weight Watchers often said something along the lines of 'We developed PointsPlus because we thought it was ridiculous that a bag of 100 calorie cookies had the same points as an apple'.  While you still need to burn the same number of calories, we are going to value the food that you eat and 'reward' you for 'good' choices and 'penalize' you for 'bad' choices. But wait, we're a diet where you can eat anything, as long as you don't mind docking a million points for your 'you're so naughty' 100 calorie bag of diet cookies. No calories are calories.  Don't make a moral judgment on my food choice.

Not to mention the frustration I have long felt with Weight Watcher's reliance on low-fat foods and other franken things to help keep points low. Ridiculous. Reading through the message boards, etc., there are a plethora of weird recipes crafted out of scientifically engineered low-fat foods so you can eat chemical laced sweets for low points.  What?  That's not healthy living.

So yeah, again, today, I quit you Weight Watchers. I believe that I need to burn more calories than I eat and I need a program and lifestyle that supports me. You don't anymore. So goodbye and thanks for the memories.