Weight Watchers has an undeniable place in Irish society. We hear about the encouraging meetings and the weight loss euphoria. More likely than not your mom, auntie or friend has at one time been a member of WW. Indeed some of us in Her.ie are frequent visitors in an effort to shift some of those unwanted pounds and although the scales may be daunting after a bad week we think the programme is fantastic for women who want to lose weight healthily.

Jean Nidetch set up Weight Watchers in 1963 because she wanted to provide the women in her community with a healthy weight loss programme. She could have never imagined the phenomenon that became Weight Watchers.  The whole ethos of her company is for women to support one another throughout what can often be a long and difficult journey. Weight Watchers now holds millions of meetings each week in over thirty countries around the world.

We were delighted when AMC decided to feature a vintage 1960’s Weight Watchers’ meeting on this season of Mad Men. As Betty Draper stood up on an old rickety weighting scale we realised that although they are electronic now, the experience hasn’t changed at all in more than fifty years. This fact is comforting.

Weight Watchers has received much media attention in recent weeks with the announcement that Jessica Simpson is determined to lose her baby weight with the slimming company. Simpson, who was heavily criticised for her size throughout her pregnancy, has tweeted about being the new face of Weight Watchers.

 "I think anybody who's gone through a pregnancy, after they have the baby, it's like, 'I need to do something about this'. There's not a goal weight - I just want to feel normal,” she said.

The singer gave birth to her baby girl Maxwell last month and said that the company has not put pressure on her to lose weight quickly.

She tweeted: "Just so everyone knows...Weight Watchers hasn't put ANY pressure on me! I'm trying to be as healthy as I can be for myself and I feel great!"

We’re happy that she has chosen to lose weight healthily and at her own pace. We think she is setting a great example for all of you new moms out there. If you’re feeling blue about your weight our advice is to lose it sensibly with the support of other Irish women in the same boat at Weight Watchers.