Big Mommy Weight Watcher

I'm a big fan of Weight Watchers.

Eleven months ago, I purchased a "Gold Card." It was good for twelve months of weekly meetings. I knew I had to make a long-term commitment if I was going to stick with it. It was a very good move on my part. I have attended a Weight Watchers meeting every week since I signed up.

Six months ago, I signed up for eTools. I don't track or plan the way I should so I'm probably not getting as much use out of eTools as I could, but it's a good reference. It's harder to use now that I'm on Core, but I'm learning to make it work for me instead of stymie me.

I'm a big fan of Weight Watchers.

Complaint coming? You bet!

I spend a lot of time at weightwatchers.com on their message boards. As is common with active message boards, there is a lot of help to be had there. I got a lot of help yesterday, as I recounted earlier. That help included a link to a thread with lots of whole-grain recipes and a description of the once-a-day rules. I was having trouble understanding why brown rice can only be eaten once a day on Core (after reading the nutrition info on packages of barley, quinoa, and bulgar I now know that it's probably because brown rice doesn't have a significant amont of fiber).

I'm a big fan of Weight Watchers.

Fortunately, I printed the threads with the recipes so I could refer to them later while making out my grocery list. Why was that fortunate? Because when I went back to the thread to find the link this morning, the post with the link and once-a-day rules was gone. It took me a while to figure out that, no, I wasn't losing my mind, I really had read the post. Instead, Big Mommy Weight Watcher had "poofed" the post (as some posters put it).

Hmmm, why would that be? I've seen links to other threads in older posts so it must have been the once-a-day rules. Oh, please. I know that Weight Watchers fiercely guards its copyright and its plan details. Fine. Deleting the post with explanation, though, is patronizing and dumb.

Have I mentioned that I'm a big fan of Weight Watchers?

The messages boards are open to the public, so Weight Watchers obviously doesn't want non-paying people to show up, get the details of the weight-loss plans for nothing, then leave. Ahem. How many times have I heard that success is greatly improved by attending meetings? How many times have I read that success is even greater when eTools are added to the meetings?

This tells me that the message boards are nothing more than a promotional tool to get people to sign up for meetings. And once signed up for meetings, to sign up for eTools. If people can't get to a meeting, then they can sign up for the online program, which I believe includes eTools.

Looking at the message boards from that perspective, it's no wonder the boards are so hard to use (for starters, they're difficult to search and they default to the latest thread). I'm looking forward to the time when I don't need help from the message boards because I'm frustrated by them every time I use them.

And maybe by then, they'll have improved eTools enough that I won't have to keep switching my plan from Core to Flex and back to get the information I need.