Erika, you are a goddess. I couldn't have even come close to putting my thoughts into words like that, and I couldn't agree more.
I think WW is a great program. I have considered switching to it many times, but calorie-counting works for me. It works for me because I am anal to a fault, research the living crap out of everything, and love math and puzzles and formulas. To me, this is all like a game, and it helps keep me on to try to figure out the best way to play it.
Plus, even though I can be a junk-eating fiend and LOVE me some cheese fries, I really do want to be healthy, and read and research and try to make sure that I am getting a good nutrient balance.
One of the reasons I was okay with Mr Kat's decision to try low-carb, is that I thought, and was right, that it would push us to find healthier choices and avoid junk. We, and especially him, had gotten into ruts of choosing easy, quick, not very healthy but still low-calorie choices.
However, you HAVE to buy things in their unprocessed state on low-carb the way we are doing it, because I am only allowing subtraction of "net" carbs from real plant fiber (from a vegetable that is still in the same form that it was when it was living). And we have made a commitment to get in our 5 veggie servings a day every day, and not do high-fat all-meat all-cheese low carb because, well, that just can't be healthy.
It makes life harder, but in the long run I think it will be better. When we go off the strict low-carb program in March, we will have an arsenal of good low-calorie foods to turn to that we are accustomed to shopping for and cooking.
I like to think I maintain a pretty healthy balance of healthy food and junk in my life... Like Kat I too believe calories are the way to go... Going completely low carb is not something I can do because I have a very skinny husband and I enjoy eating with him which is hard enough with me being on a low calorie plan... In the end you have to do what works for you and gets the job done...