Ok, this is something that we have heard many many times now in the short amount of time that the Cheat System has been out. People are consistently feeling "less restricted" and that they have "more wiggle room."
Some people are grumbling a little about the word "Cheat" but it is really designed to liberate you. It provides clarity. It is a more vibrant word than "Choices" which is a word that some people have suggested.
This is something that was just posted in the new Cheat System Team on PEERtrainer:
"the cheat system has really struck a chord with me. i love the idea of feeling i 'cheated' because i chose to have a hard boiled egg with tabasco with breakfast and the freedom to know that i can 'cheat' a little more throughout the day. mentally, it takes a load off.
i dont feel so restricted by any means. knowing my days and how some can be painfully long, i dont find if i go a little over the ten cheats, knowing that in the end, i made smart choices. maybe i snuck in a slice of whole wheat bread to tame my carb tooth.
regardless, i will make an attempt to log more and comment more as it feels a bit therapeutic and seems to keep me on track. good luck to all you guys on the cheat system!"
The other thing to keep in mind here is that people are feeling freer, because we are forcing people to make some choices. When you realize you can't have it all, you really end up enjoying what you do choose to have.
We have also been asked about the fact that Weight Watchers allows unlimited fruit, while our Cheat System restricts it to a serving a day. Our answer is that we really don't know their exact thinking. We would observe that it was a good step forward for them, because before a bag of chips and an apple counted as the same thing.
Which is crazy. People have traditionally eaten a lot of junk on Weight Watchers, and now, hopefully, they will get people to at least replace the junk food with fruit.
The PEERtrainer audience is pretty different than the WW crew. We have people doing their Points Plus and logging on PT. Some of these logs make our head spin. I know that WW wants people to eat better, but man, it is possible to eat the same old crap on their system.
It is not on ours. Which probably limits our appeal, because we do make people shift a great deal. WW really is a master of the mass market. However, one very very important service that they provide is that they teach people how to learn portion control. This is such an important skill, and we see that it is very hard for people who don't know it, to learn it.
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