In this episode of the Simple Nourished Living podcast, hosts Martha McKinnon and Peter Morrison discuss the nuances of the Weight Watchers program, focusing on the difference between viewing your daily WW Points as a budget versus a target.
They emphasize the importance of mindset in achieving weight management goals and the significance of the eating experience itself. The conversation also touches on personal updates, meal prep strategies, and the psychological aspects of eating.
Key Takeaways
- The terminology in Weight Watchers can influence mindset.
- Viewing daily points as a target rather than a budget can reduce stress.
- Mindset plays a crucial role in weight management.
- Eating experiences can affect how food nourishes us.
- Repurposing meals can make cooking easier and more enjoyable.
- Tracking food intake can help understand dietary habits better.
- Zero-point foods are not necessarily calorie-free.
- Creating a positive mindset can facilitate weight management efforts.
- The environment in which we eat impacts our satisfaction.
- The WW program encourages a healthy relationship with food.
Mindset: WW Points Budget vs. Target Podcast
Video Transcript
Martha McKinnon (00:00)
So hi, welcome to the Simple Nourished Living podcast. I’m Martha McKinnon and this is my brother and my partner, Peter Morrison. How are you? Hi. How are you?
Peter Morrison (00:09)
Hi everyone. Hi. I’m doing well. How are you today?
Martha McKinnon (00:15)
Good, I’m really liking this podcast, you know why? Because I get to see you more often. It’s really pretty fun.
Peter Morrison (00:20)
Yeah. Well, if we lived closer, we could do it in person. Maybe we will one of these days.
Martha McKinnon (00:27)
I know. Maybe we will. Maybe we will. We did live close and we didn’t even think about doing something like this. So you just make do with your situation, right? So today we’re going to talk about Weight Watchers and the fact that the terminology, a lot of what we call it now, a daily budget. But actually, when you read the materials, it’s called a daily target.
Peter Morrison (00:33)
Right.
Martha McKinnon (00:54)
And we have to really think about the difference between a budget and a target because it can, I think it can be helpful. But before we get into that, what’s new and good in your world?
Peter Morrison (01:04)
I’m doing good in my world. We still have family in town, so we’re busy. We’re, well, we’re trying to pick an area, like a day trip, something that we haven’t done in exploring the area, which is good for us and a way to show people the area around where we live.
Martha McKinnon (01:14)
You’re busy. Huh.
Peter Morrison (01:37)
So that’s been good, but busy – that sort of changes your schedule. So there’s a lot of adapting and I’ve been having fun with some leftovers recently. I made a big ground turkey and veggie stir fry earlier in the week.
Martha McKinnon (01:49)
Have you?
Peter Morrison (02:03)
And then rather than just have the same thing for leftovers, and I know we’ve talked about this. n the past, not on the podcast, just personally, about turning favorite leftovers into soups. And it had a really good soup. It was so simple because the stir fry was just ground turkey and veggies and very lightly seasoned. So it wasn’t in any one direction and I just added, a can of diced tomatoes and some spinach. And what else did I put in there?
Martha McKinnon (02:03)
Yeah. Yeah.
Peter Morrison (02:30)
I can’t even remember. It was kind of like a clean out the fridge night. And it really changes the meal. So it’s a simple preparation and it’s something you’ve already eaten, but it doesn’t feel like you’re eating the same thing over again. So I really like soup, especially this time of year in the winter. And it’s fun. It’s just fun turning foods into soup.
Martha McKinnon (02:32)
Right? Mm-hmm. Right.
Peter Morrison (02:58)
And we’ve joked about that. It’s like, well, because there was a book at one point, you waffle it.
Martha McKinnon (03:02)
Can you waffle it? We talked about the book Can You Soup It? Right? We have so many ideas, right? Because yeah, because that was that that was a really, you know, clever book for a while. Everybody was putting was it called Will It Waffle? Yeah, I mean, everybody was putting all kinds of weird stuff in their waffle iron (affiliate link) for a while. So yeah, so Can You Soup It is pretty fun. And we’ve done some interesting things, right? We’ve souped tamales. We’ve souped leftover lasagna. We’ve souped
Peter Morrison (03:05)
Right, can you soup it? Yeah, can you turn this into a soup?
Will It Waffle. That’s what it’s called. Will It Waffle.
Mm-hmm.
Enchiladas turn into good soup leftover.
Martha McKinnon (03:31)
Enchiladas turn into soup. Yeah, that’s really fun. So it really does totally repurpose it. It doesn’t feel like it’s just old. It feels new and fresh. And I think that that’s something that I think can be really helpful for people, especially who don’t like to cook, you know, this whole concept of like cooking once and then eating two or three times, but not just the same thing, you know, figuring out ways to repurpose it and mix it up can keep things interesting, but also easy, you know. So I’m all about easy, the older I get.
Peter Morrison (03:39)
Mm-hmm. Right. Mm-hmm.
Absolutely. And for smaller families, it’s, you know, you’re out all day, like we’re out on the road or exploring a new area and to come home and you’re hungry and you know, it’s simple to pull out something that’s already, cooked.
Martha Mckinnon (04:01)
Right? So, right. Right.
Yeah. Right. Yeah, I think it’s just so much more practical because I mean, I know a lot of our folks ask for recipes for one and two and that has a lot of merit. But if you make something for four or six, you’ve got that to start with, it just makes the whole process easier. So you’re not like starting from scratch every day. So yeah, so we’ll explore that more. Yeah, that’s a great topic. Well, good. Good.
Peter Morrison (04:33)
Mm-hmm. Absolutely.
Martha McKinnon (04:43)
Well, what’s going on? Well, I just crossed over 900 consecutive days in Duolingo. Right. So I’m trying to learn Spanish and it’s, you know, it’s slow and steady process. But I’m proud of myself for just sticking with it a little bit every day. So slow and steady. It’s my motto.
Peter Morrison (04:43)
What about you? What’s new and good in your world?
My goodness. That’s incredible.
What’s been the main driver in your stick-to-it-ivness of your Duolingo do you think? Yeah, yeah.
Martha McKinnon (05:12)
I just you get alerts on my app, which you know, in my phone, which reminds me like, you know, you’ve got this streak and it’s just something about keeping the streak going, keeping the streak alive. I guess I have a little bit of that… I don’t want to let it go now. It’s been 900 days. So just keep, just keep it going. Don’t break the chain.
Peter Morrison (05:33)
All right.
Martha McKinnon (05:37)
That was like a Jerry Seinfeld belief that it was really when trying to accomplish something that you just got to stick with it.
And if you do break the chain, that’s okay. You just pick up where you left off. But I just want to keep it going. I do, you know, I spend the winter in Mexico. And being able to converse and get to that point where you actually could understand and speak a little bit, you know, so I have that motivation to make it a little more real. Yeah. Well, thank you. All right. So we’re ready to talk about budget versus target.
Peter Morrison (06:00)
That’s awesome. Congratulations.
Martha McKinnon (06:10)
So I think a lot of us think in terms of a daily points budget, which seems more in my mind limiting like that sense that if you go over it, you’ve somehow messed up versus a target, right? In my mind is just, think about the bullseye and playing, you know, shooting your arrow towards the target, suggesting that while you’re trying to get it,
Peter Morrison (06:23)
Mm-hmm.
Martha McKinnon (06:38)
You know, at the bullseye, you don’t have to to succeed. And that’s just a really, I think, an important point to understand because it can give you a little bit more. You can relax a little. think it’s important for us to relax around the whole concept of the budget because it can mess with our minds if suddenly we get to, you know, it’s lunchtime and we’ve exceeded the budget and we think of it as a budget and we somehow see that we failed.
The new Weight Watchers program with so many zero points food helps with that a lot too, right? Because if you’ve reached your target, you know, if you’ve got like, for example, with me on maintenance, I get 29 points a day, a lot of people get 23. It depends on your, weight, your height, your age, and other, you know, factors and knowing what your daily target will be.
So we have all those zero points foods now to call on, right? So if you’ve got your reach, your budget, now you can eat, there are many foods that you can eat to still stay within your, within that target. So that’s really helpful with your mind.
Peter Morrison (07:48)
So have a question for you.
Not being a Weight Watcher myself, when you said a lot of people feel that they’ve messed up if they’ve gone over their budget, does that in your mind or in people’s minds, does that equate to overeating? Like when you say messed up, like I feel like I overate because, okay.
Martha McKinnon (07:53)
Right. Mm-hmm.
Right. Right. I feel like, I’ve messed up for this day because like the one of the basic tenants, right? Of weight loss is that you’re trying to create a deficit, right? You’re trying to eat less so that you can, you know, lose weight that you and so the mindset is I’ve, I’ve screwed up, you know, I’ve exceeded my limit. I’ve blown it and that, I mean, and sometimes then you can say, forget it. I’ve ruined it.
I’ll start again tomorrow and you just allow yourself now to engage in, you know, it’s like, I’ve messed up. may as well eat a bag of chips. It’s a free becomes a free for all it can in your mind, right? Versus well, wait a minute, it’s just a target. It’s just something I’m aiming for. And I don’t have to be perfect. And I don’t have to meet it. And I can still lose weight. And with the Weight Watchers program, the way it is set up with the way points are allocated, I mean,
Peter Morrison (08:49)
It’s a free for all at that point. Mm-hmm.
Martha McKinnon (09:08)
there really is designed to get you to eat healthy nourishing foods. Consequently, foods that are high in saturated fat and high in sugar have very high points relative to their calorie count. So the target really does encourage you to eat a very wholesome diet because that’s going to help you feel more full and satisfied and give you all your vitamins and minerals.
For you to feel good. But you just have to not get psyched out, I guess. And I’m a, I’m a really great example because I, again, I said my budget on maintenance is about 29 points a day. I regularly, when I’m tracking, I’ll regularly be at 45, 42 to 50 a day. So if you imagine that target, you know, you imagine the bullseye at 29, but you see those arrows like I’m
Peter Morrison (10:03)
A day.
Martha McKinnon (10:08)
I’m outside, I’m still on the, I’m still on the bull, you know, the target, but I’m not hitting the bullseye, you know, I’m here and there and everywhere. But I maintain my weight. And I was curious about that. at one point, I took a few days and I just, I tracked both in the Weight Watchers app. And also I use, Lose It, which is another, it’s a free app that is calorie, it’ll track your calories and your macros for you. And so I just did a side by side comparison.
According to Lose It, my maintenance target is about 1700 calories a day. that range of 42 to 50 that I eat typically puts me right in around that 1700 calories. So it just made me realize that for me, because I’m not necessarily loading up on zero points foods.
You know, if I want something, if I want my glass of wine in the evening, even though it’s, you know, four to six points, I haven’t, I’ve been doing this long enough. know my body. And so I just want people to understand that you got to just step back and realize then think differently. You know, I think a lot of this is really mindset and understanding, all of the nuances of the program to have the most success and to not psych yourself out. So I just want people to help think.
I missed the target. I didn’t hit the bullseye, I could still maintain or can still lose this week for sure.
Peter Morrison (11:44)
So help me understand again, your points, you said you, when you do track that you’re in maintenance and you’re pretty comfortable with what you eat. So you’re not necessarily a regular tracker, but when you do track, you’re not surprised if you’re over what your plan was. how do you, like if people are struggling to,
Martha McKinnon (11:55)
Right. Right.
Peter Morrison (12:13)
to not go over their points. How do you reconcile that in your brain that you are still able to maintain if you’re so far over your points?
Martha McKinnon (12:24)
You might want to just, mean, for your own comfort, might want to just do what I did with tracking in both systems for a couple of days just to compare, just to understand the realities of the system because the Weight Watchers Plan really is targeting for you to eat a very, very, what I would say, very, very, very wholesome diet, you know? And so you might write or the foods, right? In order to stay within that
Peter Morrison (12:47)
Whole Foods? Do you mean Whole Foods?
Martha McKinnon (12:54)
within that daily target. Basically what that means. But again, could be overeating, you could be staying within your target, right? And be over your calorie limit if you’re really going excessive with the zero points foods, right? So, you know, if you’re if you suddenly get this mindset, again, you’ve got to remember that zero point food doesn’t mean free. It’s
Peter Morrison (13:12)
Zero point foods.
Martha McKinnon (13:23)
it’s healthier, more wholesome foods, but they still, I mean, can be very calorie dense. Like for example, if you’re eating, we talked about this, I think, and I think bananas is a good one for me just because, you know, I think of bananas having had a torturous life on, know, Weight Watchers, because, you know, way back when it was in the exchange program, you know, I think maybe really, really early, it wasn’t even part of it because it was seen as having too much sugar. And then like a half a banana was a serving of fruit.
when it was first introduced with the initial points plan, a banana had two points. Then eventually when fruits and vegetables were made zero, you know, it became zero. that, but again, a banana has, if you look it up, it probably has 80 to 120 calories depending on the size of the banana, right? So it’s good for you. It’s got a lot of nutrition. But if you, if you were suddenly eating a bunch of bananas every day,
That would be a huge amount of food. A huge amount of calories. zero points, theoretically. know, eggs, right? Eggs are great for you. But what’s a serving of eggs? know, one, two or three in my mind, right? Three would be a really big omelet in my mind and more than I could eat. But if you suddenly are thinking about eggs as being free and you’re making, you know,
Peter Morrison (14:25)
Yeah, zero points theoretically, right.
Martha McKinnon (14:49)
six scrambled eggs for breakfast. mean, you’re suddenly now eating sort of like a power lifter, right? I mean, like somebody. I mean, how many calories a day was it? I just suddenly I’m thinking about Michael Phelps, you know, back in his training days. mean, right. I saw some chart about like how many calories he was burning and how much food he could eat. mean, it was. So he can do that because he was training right for hours a day. But if you’re just.
Peter Morrison (15:03)
mm-hmm.
Martha McKinnon (15:18)
leading a typical life, know, getting your 30 minutes, 40 minutes, an hour of exercise, and trying to lose weight, you just, you just got to wrap your you just have to have your mindset in the right place. And so you can’t be using our gaming, sort of trying to game the system, nor can I think get discouraged and and maybe do what I did if you’re if you’re curious, to just there’s tons of free apps, you know, out there available.
You could just play with one of those for a couple of days just to understand where you are with the target.
Peter Morrison (15:53)
Do have any other
tips for helping with the mindset? You mentioned mindset a couple times. So if someone’s struggling, it’s going to be different for everyone.
Martha McKinnon (15:58)
Yeah, well, yeah. Right. It’s
interesting because I tuned in, I tuned in yesterday. It’s funny. We should talk about this. think mindset really drives everything. I’ve said this in the past and I think it’s something we’ll continue to explore that when you’re feeling good, when you’re happy, like when you’re when you’re sort of your head’s in the game, when you’re feeling capable and confident, then the whole process is easier. You know?
When you’re not, like when you’re really struggling, when you’re demoralized, when you’ve got a lot of stress in your life, when you’re feeling down, the whole process feels more challenging. And so in some ways, I believe it’s really important to really focus on, that’s why I talk about, always start this with, you know, what’s new and good. I mean, I think it’s really important.
to focus on and give a lot of consideration to your state of mind and your state of being and focus on that because the truth is the whole process, mean, I think there’s a post that I wrote years ago that I’ll continue to believe in strongly. It’s get happy. Don’t lose weight thinking it’s gonna make you happy. Figure out how to get happy and then losing weight is gonna be a lot easier.
Peter Morrison (17:16)
Mm-hmm.
Martha McKinnon (17:22)
So, and it’s funny, we were tuning into Tony Robbins, you know, the motivational giant is doing a free seminar this weekend and Rod had signed up for it. And so we just tuned into a little bit about that yesterday and he talked about the same thing. He was talking about, you know, change and the fact that a lot of people think strategy first, they go right to like, how am going to do this? I’m going to do Atkins, I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that. And he said, there’s two things that are important above that.
Peter Morrison (17:44)
Mm.
Martha McKinnon (17:51)
One is the story you’re telling yourself. Like if you’re telling yourself, this is too hard. I can’t do this. you know, I’ve done everything and it doesn’t work. That’s a, that’s a story you don’t want to be telling yourself, you know, when you’re trying to change, overcome that. then up from that, he was, said your state of mind, that whole concept of your, your, your remote, your emotions. I mean, that those things are critical.
Peter Morrison (18:06)
Really hard to overcome that.
Martha McKinnon (18:17)
And more important than your, you know, you’re, you’re at the how the strategy will get easier once you’re, you know, you’re on board and you’re wanting to do it and you know, you can do it, you know, I, and, and you’re feeling good. So, so that can be really, really helpful is to just consider like, sometimes you just got to step back and, and not be so focused. You know, I think we can get over-focused on the food, and just, you know, pull ourselves, pull ourselves back.
Peter Morrison (18:46)
When
you mentioned Get Happy, it made me think of something we’ve talked about before, which I believe comes from the Mindless Eating book, which I hope we read together and are able to talk about at one point. But the Get Happy made me think of…
Martha McKinnon (18:58)
Yeah, I think we should work our way through that. Yeah, there’s so much in there.
Peter Morrison (19:07)
taking a meal, whether it’s lunch, dinner, breakfast, whatever, and actually putting it on a plate and sitting down at a table and enjoying it versus, which I’ve done this many times because, I’ve got an appointment or you’re running out the door and you grab something quick, you throw it in the microwave (affiliate link) and you’re standing at the counter or over the kitchen sink and you just sort of inhale it because you’re in a hurry and that never.
Martha McKinnon (19:23)
Right.
Peter Morrison (19:33)
I’m thinking of those two meals, those two experiences and it never, I mean, you’re getting nourishment and you’re starving and it’s good in that respect, but it never feels good as the food settles versus the meal when you sit down and actually breathe and chew your food and have a nice conversation is totally different.
Martha McKinnon (19:47)
It’s like you’re.
Right.
It is totally different. and that’s something I think that we want to just sort of really focus on the fact that we can get so hung up on the food, even the eating of the self, but the way you eat and who you’re eating with, right is, is paramount too. And because, and a lot of the science is saying, well, we say we, we put the food in and it nourished us, but there’s a good chance because we didn’t really experience it with all of our senses.
Peter Morrison (20:07)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Martha McKinnon (20:26)
because our mind, we were disconnected mind and body, it’s a good chance that, that, that somehow we know from a previous podcast, right, where we talk about the milkshake experiment, which I’m still, you know, want to do more. And because I’ve been down that rabbit hole with that researcher and the things she’s done, I mean, so our beliefs, the whole experience, it’s part of the deal, right? And so
Peter Morrison (20:29)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Martha McKinnon (20:52)
So that’s your view. It’s a really important consideration. You know, you’re right. It’s not it’s not your body doesn’t receive it the same because we’re not just physical machines. You know, I love this concept of bio psych psychosocial or bio psychosocial spiritual, you know, beings. It’s complex. We’re complicated. And so, yeah, so that’s another big consideration is not just what you’re eating, but how how are you eating it? You know, what’s the environment like? Are you eating in?
eating in your car while you’re driving to a stressful appointment? Are you sitting down at a table with a nice place setting or in a park taking in nature? It makes a huge difference, absolutely.
Peter Morrison (21:36)
Mm-hmm.
Martha McKinnon (21:42)
Alright, so if you have questions, I’d love for people to share in the comments their experiences with the target, you know, mindset issues, what they’ve discovered with, know, with this whole concept of thinking in terms of target and realizing that you don’t have to be perfect, giving yourself grace around it and just coming really, I mean, the program is designed to help provide some framework for you to figure out how to have a healthy relationship with food and how to
tap into, you know, you want to get back to that point where you’re, you know, you’re tapping into your natural hunger and satiety. And that’s just going to take time and practice, especially if it’s something that you’ve, we’ve not been paying attention to, you know, or that we’re used to eating to the extremes. So, so share your experiences. And if you have ideas for other topics, other questions you have, please share those in the comments too. And we look forward to being back with you again soon.
Peter Morrison (22:29)
Thank you. This is.
Have a great day everyone.
Martha McKinnon (22:40)
Have a great day.
Take care. Bye bye.
