Living the Lifestyle (LTL) - Friday, December 2nd

gadgetgirlIL

Everyone says it, but just how do you do it? How do you take the guidelines of the WW program and turn them into a lifestyle you can live every day...from now on? That is what we are here to explore. Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion. Newbie? Join in! Veteran? Join in! Your thoughts may be just what someone else needs to hear.

Monday --Jimb376mfp (Jim)
Tuesday -- misterhub (Greg)
Wednesday -- minimyzeme (Kim)
Thursday -- leeless511 (Lee)
Friday -- GadgetGirlIL (Regina)

Today's topic: What will it take to change course?

Let’s loop back to @goldenfrisbee and his closing question from Tuesday "So, what keeps you moving down the highway without crossing the solid white lines and driving over the cliff?”.

When you realize that you are on the rumble strips, what does it take to get you back into your proper lane?

gadgetgirlIL

I've been on the rumble strips for the past couple of months but haven't seemed to be able to muster the effort to get back into the traffic lane in spite of watching my Happy Scale average weight continue to creep up. During this time I never stopped weighing myself, I continued to track, and I continued my normal daily exercise. But still I was consistently eating more calories than I needed. Much of that was comfort eating as the fall semester is stressful. But to be honest, there will always be stress of one sort or another to deal with, so that is a lousy excuse for my behavior.

For me there seems to be a switch in my brain that gets flipped and then I can be more diligent with staying within budget, which in turn leads to my desired weight range. I've never been able to figure out what trips that switch, but I've observed this phenomena many times over the course of my life.

I thought about Tuesday's topic long after I posted my response. I was feeling like a popped can of biscuits all day as my dress pants were snug. I kept asking myself "what will it take to get back on track?". I took some time to review what I did last January when I found myself in a similar predicament. I looked at what I was eating back then as I was successful in staying within budget without feeling deprived from January through May and got back to my happy weight zone. I've made some tweaks to this week's food items and am starting to feel like I can be more consistent with staying within my budget. I've got a 3 day streak going, longest I've had in a while.

steve0mania

Good question, and I'm not sure I have a real answer. Managing one's weight is not actually complicated, as we all know. However, remaining mindful, making the better choice regularly, and occasionally fighting through those random urges to "reward yourself" is certainly an ongoing challenge.

All I can say, for now, is that it's easier to get back on-track when other aspects of my life are also on-track. When I'm feeling particularly stressed, I find it much easier to justify my bad choices. When I feel in-control of other parts of my life, I find it easier to control the weight aspect too.

goldenfrisbee

Well, I feel like I am back on track right now. I'm tracking and trying to stay just a little under my daily allotment of calories. But I was off track for about 5 weeks. And I know this because of this handy little website called MFP that shows you a graph of your daily calories. I had about 3 months of daily bars and then this huge gap where I stopped tracking.

What it takes for me to get back on track is to keep telling myself that this is a lifestyle and I must maintain it in order to have any quality of life in the foreseeable future. I'm not going crazy, just trying to take this a day at a time like @minimyzeme always says.

podkey

Coming back home helps me. I eat the foods that "brought me to the dance" with weight loss and maintenance success and am in control of my cooking and eating without deprivation.

I suspect my weight has drifted up about 1 LB on average after a week in Minneapolis and less control. I am OK with that. I do NOT have seasonal issues except maybe a bit in summer time with the extra daylight and extra opportunities for foods. My mindset doesn't go off the cliff for extended periods of time. I am OK with rumble strip to rumble strip and don't do overhauls . I don't take my maintenance for granted or believe that I am immune to vagaries.
I think belonging to my WW group helps a bit to keep my mind in the game so to speak.

myallforjcbill

Well I think Regina's "feeling like a popped can of biscuits all day" experience is very much like hitting the rumble strip for me. Especially when you realize there are no larger sizes in the closet. I also think this experience brings up old feelings of being fat and all the baggage that goes with it. It is a pretty good motivator for me. And yes I am there right now as is my wife as she told me last night it was time to get back on WW.

But that isn't always going to be enough to keep me in the right lane. For me this issue of "mindfulness" and "mindfulness fatigue" is the core. It is easy enough to just start tracking your meals, to start measuring not estimating, and do some planning. But sustaining those lifestyle habits through life's seasons is not always easy for me and at times it feels like an awful burden, though it really isn't. So for me the question is how do I stay mindful and not hit those rumble strips, not how do I get back into my lane. But that would be another topic.

Rachel0778

I agree completely with Regina's "popped can of biscuits" feeling. It's usually that feeling coupled with an unflattering picture of me that finally brings me back to reality that those extra desserts really do add up...

Holidays are actually a good trigger for me. I joined MFP after Thanksgiving last year due to that "popped can of biscuits" feeling and I recommitted to my weight loss goals after another indulgent week this year.

Life will always come up and I will continue to hit the rumble strips at different points, but my goal is to stay accountable and to keep trying to veer back into my lane.

podkey

Yeah great comment about the popped biscuit can. In my case I have a great pair of bike shorts that are just about right in tightness but no room for "biscuit spillage". Uh gaining just a few pounds might just turn me into a Soprano or at least a counter tenor a la the ole "castrati" of old. YIKES!! Yeah and at about $150+ list price a pop I don't run out and buy new ones with every whim.

Jerdtrmndone

I have been on the rumble strips for Months Gaining wkly. When I do find myself in the driving lane something immediately pushes me back on the strips. I contribute this to stress and anxieties which I have spoken to the doctor about. I start to journal and then fail. I do weigh and measure mostly every thing so I do ok in that area. I do not eat large portions but I do eat more often and some not so good foods. I know if I would eat 100% good foods things would be different I am sure.

88olds

My line in the sand is 2lbs over goal wt. Its real for me, been tested a couple of times. Last time i went back to tracking i had to learn Points Plus. As in actually learn it, like starting day one.

lilybbbbb

I'd gained about 20 pounds since last year and went ahead and put 15 more on in the past three months. I hate Smart Points and I'm not feeling enthused about calorie counting right now, so I'm just doing the best I can do, which right now has me at MTBC.
I've been feeling like such a weight loss failure recently that I really have to set myself up for success. Since I started doing that last week, I'm feeling much better than when I was feeling all panicky and letting perfection get in the way of good.

Jimb376mfp

My rumble strip is that annoying drip drip drip of small gains after a loss. I was doing fine but then I got into that yo yo thingy. I'm determined to earn some losses in a row and NOT gain back the next week. I'm 2.4# above where I was in Oct.

It seems it helps me to keep reading LTL and keep focused on what it takes to be successful.

imastar2

I also have been on the rumble strips since we this board made the move over here. For me that has become nothing but an excuse for overeating or eating the wrong foods. So gaining about 20 lbs in the last 4 months or so is enough to shock me back on the road. I'm still having my ups and downs every week. Best thing for me is to stick to the plan and get back on course.

minimyzeme

I have a wonderful, fantastic meeting leader who has covered this topic frequently. She stresses two points: (1) get right back on with the next meal (no need to wait) and (2) if it's too much to do it all, at least do one aspect of being on-plan.

Why does it matter that she's such a great leader? Because she has a wonderful sense of humor and can 'make light' of being normal, of getting tired of staying on-track, etc. And because she lost 40 or 50 pounds with WW. She's been there / done that. It's the right combo such that when I'm wandering or tired of the whole thing, I can see her smile, hear her laugh and appreciate that she's been down this road.

In a bigger context, I ate the way I did for decades and ballooned up accordingly. I'm very wary of the term 'gone forever'. While I'm grateful to have lost the weight, I don't kid myself to think it can't come back. So far, that reality has helped keep me between the rumble strips.

Persistence, not perfection...

leeless511

If I am hitting the rumble strips that means I am seeing a change, either scale or clothing. My changes in direction are usually subtle, I stop tracking small items or I guesstimate a recipe point value because I don't feel like logging in and creating the recipe. These subtle changes are a mind game, I think I am on plan but I'm being lackadaisical and I don't admit it and unfortunately I don't pick up on it until there is some physical evidence.

Once I realize it, I am pretty good at getting back to what I need to do. Since the habits are pretty ingrained I can make the shift easily.

I actually feel like the new WW program (SmartPoints/Beyond the Scale) has given me a better understanding of how to eat. For me the sugar points penalty has helped me keep steady or even losing a few pounds.

When I look at history of when I had bump ups in weight, typically the culprit was chocolate consumption and since I could have a bag of M&M's for 6 points, I did not think it was a bad way to go. But once I had one it became a daily event and much harder to pull it in. About a month before WW changed, I said to my husband "I find it interesting that WW does not seem to mind that we eat sugar" -- then SmartPoints hit and that all changed...for me for the better.