Quote Originally Posted by Lolo76 View Post
A diet includes daily food plans, counting/tracking calories, NEVER eating certain things, adding points (Weight Watchers), and basically depriving & monitoring yourself 24/7. My "lifestyle change" is not anything hard-and-fast, and doesn't require any real thought on my part. And with the way I did it very gradually, my eating habits changed before I even realized it. So there is a difference, it's just hard to explain... LOL.
I would argue that Weight Watchers is also a lifestyle change and not a diet. Yes, you do count points, but there's no "forbidden" food. When I was doing Weight Watchers faithfully, (and I really need to get back to it, I've just lost my motivation completely right now) tracking points was very similar to keeping a check-book.

When you make decisions on the "value" of an item you want to purchase, you usually weigh that against the amount of money in your checkbook and decide if you really need or want that item.

The same thing with the Weight Watcher's points. You start off with a "bank" of points. Say I want a Burrito Supreme from Taco Bell because I'm craving it. I know it's 8 points, and I have to determine if I want to "spend" that 8 points that badly. Is that Burrito Supreme "worth" the 8 points. Some days, yes - it was worth the 8 points, most days - nope, it wasn't - and that was ok. Because it WASN'T a forbidden food, and the points gave you tools to make decisions, it was easier to walk away from.

Had it been on a list of forbidden foods, and the Weight Watcher's plan was treated as a "diet", with very rigorous, black and white lines drawn in the sand, then it would be much harder to walk away from (at least for me and how my mind works).

Just my $.02. Although I've personally lost my motivation, I know that Weight Watchers is a good lifestyle change and that it works - I lost over 80 lbs on it without even trying (or so it felt). I got lazy and thought I could now make smart decisions without counting points. Bad choice - and I can make all kinds of "excuses", but it comes down to me getting back to that place mentally where I'm ready to take up that challenge and make better choices for me again. Haven't quite gotten there yet. But I'm working on it!