Weight Watchers core food list

March 4, 2005 · Comments

I put that as the title because it’s currently the #1 search term on my site and I want this entry to start to build up better pagerank than this one. I quit working for Weight Watchers last week.

If you came here just looking for that list folks have been begging me for, then go here. There, I’ve done it. No one can fire me over giving the link. If you think just having a list of foods will help you lose weight, then enjoy. It’s a great program and I hope you’re successful following it on your own.

Updated 10/30/06: PLEASE NOTE: IF THE LINK IS DOWN, I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO CONTROL OVER IT. I DO NOT KNOW THE PERSON OR PERSONS WHO POSTED THAT INFORMATION, NOR HAVE I EVER COMMUNICATED WITH THEM. I have stated many times that I do not believe that simply eating from a list of foods is an effective way of losing weight. I only posted the link so people would stop asking me for it. If the link is down or has been removed, then I’m sorry. I know of no other resource for getting the list other than at your local Weight Watchers Center or website and I won’t be looking for one. Thanks for understanding.

Why did I quit? I’m looking at my MasterList Pro file (more on that great application in another entry) and I currently have 14 projects going. Some are personal, related to the move in June or the kids or volunteer work. More than half are clients that are paying me far more than my Weight Watchers salary. There are just so many hours in a day, and Weight Watchers is as close as you can get to a volunteer job that pays. Let me explain something…Weight Watchers employees are all lifetime members. That is, Weight Watchers only hires people who have been successful on the program. That is good business sense. But Weight Watchers “sells” employment as a feel-good kind of thing. Do it to keep your weight down, do it to socialize and work in small 2.5 hour chunks. No one works for Weight Watchers in a meeting room for the money, unless it’s to pay for gas each week.

As a receptionist, you get paid a base rate for working a meeting, plus a cut of member fees and product along a scale that I could never quite figure out aside from the fact that it didn’t add up to much. Connecticut has a higher minimum wage than other states ($7.10 I think) and during slow months there were some meetings that my actual pay was so bad I was automatically bumped up to minimum wage rate. Come on, I’m nearly 40 years old. I haven’t worked for minimum wage since I was 17. Weight Watchers is not hurting. The stock is doing well and press has never been better. They just don’t invest a lot of their money in low/entry-level personnel that turn over the way theirs does. I could work in a grocery store for more money, and I wouldn’t have to be an armchair psychologist to do it. It takes some serious people skills to be able to handle the clerical work in a job where a calculator and a pencil are as high-tech as it gets, yet at the same time give each person standing in front of you loving and direct attention while they lay their emotions bare at your feet. Literally. It’s a big responsibility for a job where the last and definitely least reward is financial.

When you’re working on a project where your hourly rate works out to be close to triple digits, leaving to go earn about $7 per hour for 3 hours of your time (not including getting there and back) can get to be a bit of imposition on your life. I was beginning to resent the time I had to work for Weight Watchers, and that’s not good. That’s not good for me, that’s not good for the members and that’s not good for my co-workers that had to deal with me rushing to my cell phone every available minute (I tried to keep it on vibrate when I was actually dealing with people).

I’m still following the program. I certainly can’t afford to buy new clothes now so I have to keep my weight down. My version of Weight Watchers is to try and snack wisely, eat only when I’m really hungry and when given a choice, go for the core.

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