Thread: The Discover Plan - basics

Got this off Ivillage messageboards where a class helper has been allowed by the leader to post the info from weeks 1 to 3 on the new plan today, thought you would like to see it:

The first thing you will notice with your new plan details is that you get a little ring-bound folder to keep things in. Much more practical I think than lots of individual leaflets and books which get lost easily. Your weekly trackers and subsequent weekly booklets also clip nicely in to this folder so that all your WW info is to hand when you are planning and tracking. There's even a slot in the back for your weigh-in card and an equivalent in the front for your Monthly Pass.
The second thing you'll see when you open your folder is that WW have done their level best to make it easy for any newbies with a section at the front called FAST START. This gives you a week's worth of meals, planned and pointed so that if you are completely new to WW all you have to do is select breakfast lunch and dinner from the available list and you're away! (It's a bit like 'kick start' used to be!)
For the more experienced of you who follow POINTS, you will be pleased to know that points are still with us, that they are still calculated in EXACTLY the same way and your daily allowance will be the same as it has always been. Page 9 of the "Food in Full" section gives the calculation and it looks just the same, but the main difference starts to be introduced on page 12, where we start finding out about what WW call "Filling Foods".
This is probably the single most important difference for us points girls in that WW recognise the importance of choosing foods from what was essentially the CORE list even when you are following the points plan, to ensure that you don't end up going hungry (especially when you have a low points allowance) and that you get all the vitamins, nutrients and minerals that your body needs. Page 24 gives more details about why Filling Foods are so important and you will notice that on the "Full Food List" booklet just behind this section all Filling Foods are highlighted in green. IMO, choosing most of your points from the Filling Foods categories will give you the best chance at weight-loss success, but this is just my opinion!
So having mentioned the CORE plan, you CORE ladies will want to know where that fits in with the new plan. This is where I have to break it to you that I'm afraid your days of eating as much as you want without weighing or measuring are over. The CORE plan as you know it does not exist on its own, but you WILL see that it is in fact represented as the "Filling Foods" list on the Discover Plan. That's not to say that those of you who love and enjoy CORE foods can't go on eating them. Of course you can, it's just like the rest of us on the points plan, you will have to weigh and measure what you have, track your eating and take what you consume from your daily allowance.
In this way you can see that the Discover Plan is an excellent combination of all the best bits of the CORE and POINTS plans and in this way I think will give some of us who have been following WW for some time (and in fact who may have lost our way, by not always making wise food choices) a new lease of inspiration about choosing alternative foods to eat to give ourselves the best chance at eating healthily AND losing weight.
An extra dimension which I haven't seem WW employ before (and which I am very impressed with) is "Predicting your Weight loss". There's a blank graph on page 5 of the Goal Setting section where you can work out how much you want to lose each week and how long it will take you to get to goal. This is SUCH a common question on this board, and not something I have seen WW tackle themselves before. I wonder why it took them so long! lol! The bit I particularly like is on page 6 though, where it says:
"As you lose weight, plot your loss alongside your prediction to see how they compare. You may need to adjust your eating or expectations."
I love this bit as it sets out so simply that over-eating WILL have consequences, but not necessarily DIRE ones. Yes we MAY not lose weight as quickly as we thought, but we can see how far we have come and ADJUST our expectations rather than giving up altogether. OR we can choose to do more exercise or eat different things to get to our goals. Well done WW for addressing this issue and for reminding us that we have choices.
You will also see that they have introduced 5% goal as an intermediary step for those of us in it for the long haul. Again, just MHO, but I'm not sure that this will help people's health as much as they claim and help people's commitment more than the silver sevens already do. I don't know, maybe I'm cynical, but I wonder if they have found a huge drop-out rate early on before people get to their 10% goals and have introduced it to maximise their business returns..... your thoughts would be interesting!
Weeks 2 and 3 (as many books as I have at the moment) show you how further how important filling foods and daily activity (respectively) are. Indeed old hands may recognise some of the diagrams from the old CORE plan like the "Satisfaction Scale" and you will also get your exercise points booster calculator on week 3.
If any other class helpers would like to add to this list please please do (I have tried not to go on too much about every little detail to begin with as I could waffle on for England given half a chance! lol!) and I am more than happy to answer any specific questions anyone has (within the scope of information I have of course!).
It goes without saying that as ever, we all want to know what YOU think so please add your thoughts (for and against) to this thread! Don't forget, that where I have expressed an opinion, this is just MY opinion so feel free to disagree with me and tell me where I am wrong and why! lol!

I was afraid of this. I think they are at risk of losing people who like Core to Slimming World. One of the things I always liked about WW was that you could choose to weigh and measure OR eat unrestrictedly from a list of healthy food.

Glad I didn't waste any money rejoining to find that out. I'll be continuing doing Core. I wonder what will be said in the Core food forum on the WW site? I don't think they'll be happy.

No I don't think hard "core" corers will be happy at all. But theres nothing stopping you sticking with what you do now if it works. Although Core and Slimming World are very similar I found the main difference being the breakfasts, you can't have as much Core breakfast as you want, for example porridge its 28g plus one of those terrible cracker/biscuit things, well 28g would fill me for about 10 mins! I need a goo 50g of porridge! But yes I think some people will definintely leave to go to SW, but saying that I'm going to give it a go and see how I get on, I often think a new plan is great for motivation.

I really dont understand why people would leave WW and go to SW just because Core has gone. SW & Core are similar but quite different. The basics to SW are totally different, in that they encourage you to snack on free food, totally the opposite to Core.

If WW had gone to Core and abandoned points, Id just have stuck with them but done points regardless.

I think if you find a diet that you like and works why stop doing it?

I think the new plan is a huge disappointment. I cant really see it making any difference to the way I eat. Much ado about nothing really isnt it. I think there will be a lot of very disappointed people this week.

No, maybe I wasn't being clear. I'll happily carry on doing core regardless and I'm sure other people will as well. I was thinking more that, when WW was offering Core as well as Points, they had something that was broadly comparable to SW and people who might have been struggling with points would have something else to try, rather than leave to go to SW. I would think that more likely now as it's points or nothing again. Does that make sense?

Honestly Sandy people over on the WW messageboards have got themselves into such a state over the new plan, loads threatening to leave if they get rid of Core, well whats stopping people carrying on with Core, they know all the principles already? Absolutely nothing, theres people that are still following No Count and 123 Success (what I first started on) and they are doing fine!

My view is if you don't like the sound of the new plan, stick with what you are doing now.

It hasn't got the big changes I was hoping for (ie weekly instead of daily points) but it will still make me focus on starting again from scratch reading all the literature etc so hopefully will give me a new sense of motivation and determination.

Originally Posted by Karenlou

No, maybe I wasn't being clear. I'll happily carry on doing core regardless and I'm sure other people will as well. I was thinking more that, when WW was offering Core as well as Points, they had something that was broadly comparable to SW and people who might have been struggling with points would have something else to try, rather than leave to go to SW. I would think that more likely now as it's points or nothing again. Does that make sense?

Ahh right gotcha now. I think it will put people off joining WW if they dont fancy points right enough.

I have to say that, if I were going to a class I would leave and do Core on my own, but that would be more to do with the fact that I wouldn't want to pay money and not get the advice and support on the plan I want to follow.

Originally Posted by lydia150970

Honestly Sandy people over on the WW messageboards have got themselves into such a state over the new plan, loads threatening to leave if they get rid of Core, well whats stopping people carrying on with Core, they know all the principles already? Absolutely nothing, theres people that are still following No Count and 123 Success (what I first started on) and they are doing fine!

My view is if you don't like the sound of the new plan, stick with what you are doing now.

It hasn't got the big changes I was hoping for (ie weekly instead of daily points) but it will still make me focus on starting again from scratch reading all the literature etc so hopefully will give me a new sense of motivation and determination.

If people are threatening to leave because Core has been scrapped then that obviously is an indication that they really like Core and it works for them SO as you say why stop doing it??? I know theres nothing and no diet that works for me as well as Points does. If WW closed tomorrow, Id maybe join SW for the weigh in etc but I wouldnt stop pointing. Why cut off your nose to spite your face?

Exactly! Ive tried every diet in the book but always come back to WW because IT WORKS, even if it ceases to exist, I have all the info will just carry on my own. I honestly believe its the only diet that fits in with any lifestyle, eating lifestyle (ie veggie, vegan), food intolerances, religion and special occasions - oh I should become a leader - if I ever get to goal that is!!

Karen, you are doing great on Core, you know the principles, you know what you are doing so if you don't fancy the new plan then you are right to stick with what you know works, I just wish people over on WW messageboards understood that its that easy!

I have been thinking for a while that I should be cooking more Core meals so this plan fits in with my thinking in any case.

I am also thinking that I might just do weekly points (off my own back), might stop me thinking that I NEED to eat all my points every day and stop me eating for the sake of it on occasions.

If it works for you, Lydia, then why not give it a try?

PS Thanks for the nice comment about my progress on Core - tried to give you rep but apparently I have to spread it around a bit first lol.

Originally Posted by Karenlou

tried to give you rep but apparently I have to spread it around a bit first lol.

That always sounds SO rude when you get that message doesnt it

I am really looking forward to the plan,i think myself this will help me stick to it,as at least i will still be able to have somethng to eat like my fruit,i am hoping the fruit will be free like sw as i love my fruit and if i didnt have to count this i would eat more fruit

You'll still have to point fruit. You will have to point all food and weigh it was well but the emphasis will be on eating more foods from the old core list of foods.