Living the Lifestyle (LTL) - Thursday, 12/15/16

leeless511

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: Other people, the people around you…

As it relates to your weight loss journey if you are currently losing or maintaining, how do other people in your life impact your ability to succeed?
Give examples of how people have helped and how people have hindered your efforts.
Let us know what you did/do when either of these happen.

leeless511

I'll be back later to post my answer...back to back meetings coming up in a few minutes.

DavidKuhnsSr

The only other person with an effect, at all, is my DW. She has been supportive for the entire time I have lost/maintained. She helps with food preparation, she nudges (I didn't write nag) just enough to help keep me on track, without being annoying.

My DS and his wife are incredibly fit people, who eat a very healthy diet; visiting them is never a problem.

Everything else is just on me.

misterhub

There are not a lot of people who influence what I eat. I rarely have an issue with someone else affecting how I approach food. This is all on me and my own discipline.

Rachel0778

I think if I lived closer to my in-laws it would be an issue, but we currently see them 3 times a year so I just count it as special occasions. My SO used to gain 10lbs over Christmas week since their family treats Christmas like foodapolooza.

My SO really struggles with food and his weight, so he's supportive of whatever I need to do to maintain mine and vice versa. It makes the home front a lot easier to navigate since I don't have any food pressure.

88olds

DW has been huge supporter of my efforts. Has done 98% of shopping and food prep and put up with me through the whole process. Has made me gallons of zero point soup.

On the downside, I've never been able to convince DW that junk food is not part of the food pyramid.

When I was still working, I just took myself out of the out to lunch crowd. There was some resistance but I kept being surly and unfriendly until they were happy I wasn't around.

GavinFlynn1

This is something I'm working on again. During my past success, I had gotten to the point where I only let my own goals/discipline affect what I ate. But over the past six years, I reverted to letting other people influence what I ate (whether they were aware they did or not).

I do believe other people have an impact; too many studies show that. But ultimately I get to choose what goes in my mouth.

All that being said, DW and DS have recently been consistent in their own desires to lose weight and be more active, so having the whole family united in that goal makes it easier on all of us.

podkey

It is more like my influence on others around me. After many years my DW doesn't buy ice cream in big tubs on sale. Actually she doesn't buy them in small containers of late either.
DW eats what I cook and may add her own extra slatherants to them. I have been fortunate that DW does not hinder my losses or maintenance. I did put on a pound of average weight by being in Minneapolis for 6 days during Thanksgiving. Some world class pecan pie was involved in that. I had been down maybe a pound of average weight going there so I am fine with it. I was about 4 LB up stepping off the plane between excesses and salt.

I am fortunate that as a teenager I spent an entire summer cooking all my own foods in a cast iron skillet in the wilds of this wild country tracking down elusive dinosaurs and more. We were assigned our own cast iron skillet to care for and cooked breakfast (always pancakes and bacon) and dinner (90% of time steak) along with a pot of rice and peas. I got use to the idea of cooking for myself which actually started with my mom and dad too. Have always done a lot of cooking at home.

Al_Howard

TOL and I are in this together for a long time, and now, she's reclaimed her Lifetime status. I've got a ways yet to go.

beachwoman2006

Since it's just me, not many people have an influence on my weight. That wasn't always so when I first re-started WW in 2002 though. At the time I was engaged and he was NOT supportive at all. I could go into all the gorey details but I won't.

I'm pretty stubborn so once I made up my mind that I was going to lose weight I just did it. I'm not heavily influenced by people around me. That said, I *am* sometimes my own worst enemy! LOL

leeless511

In general other people don't influence me too much. But I will say that when someone who does not know me from when I was heavier makes a comment about my fitness etc. it does give me a little extra push to keep on keeping on.

I did have a challenge about a year ago when my DH wanted to do WW, I volunteered to build his database by tracking for the first month on his behalf and he would just review so he knew what to eat and how many points he had left etc. I ended up doing it for months in hopes of him adopting the behavior. By doing this I focused less on my journey and gained a little bit, this was not the only thing that caused the gain, but when I looked back, I realized it did impact me so I told him he's on his own and today he still does not track. But he has lost some weight and goes the intuitive route.

While I was losing some folks at where I worked would goad me with "oh you can't eat that donut" or something of that sort while in meetings etc. In that case once in awhile, if I new it would not wreck my day and I had a hankering, I would intentionally eat the donut or pizza etc. sort of as a passive/aggressive behavior I guess but to make a point nothing was off limits. I was a pretty consistent and successful loser and it drove them crazy I think.

Jerdtrmndone

I am my own problem. DW lets me go for a little then she gets on me about having enough when she knows I am binging recklessly. I really should be grateful for her concern.

Some times I get an attitude but she is right!

Reading these posts have helped me some what be more mindful than the past so thanks to all for this. I have been able to control my weight loss journey much better.

myallforjcbill

In the end its all on me. My DW is supportive and talking about getting back on plan. Since I now do the meal planning, it should get easier as I adjust to a new schedule post retirement. These message boards are still impactful for me. Hearing the struggles, victories and lifestyle approaches of others helps with accountability and motivation.

gadgetgirlIL

I don't really have anyone in my life who influences what I eat. I'm my own worst enemy as my perpetual weakness is free food in the breakroom. Usually I can resist its siren call, but given the right combination of stress and sleep deprivation and all bets are off.

I guess I could blame the people who put the food there in the first place! But I've also been guilty of getting rid of extras by putting them in the breakroom myself.

Jimb376mfp

Family:
Youngest DS got my attention in Nov 2012 with a talk about my weight.
I thank him for getting me to realize what I was doing to myself at 376#!
DW joined WW with me, for moral support, she made her goal weight in a few months and has been a role model for me. She is supportive w/out being a nag. She is below her GW and about thirty pounds lighter than when we met in 1966!
DIL Motivates me by making me sit on a strong IKEA chair instead of her good dining room chair. Next Thanksgiving I plan to be under 200# and refuse to sit in the STRONG IKEA chair! LoL
Friends:
Dog park group of friends has seen me shrink and one guy still is amazed after four years! He has complained about how he wants to lose ten pounds for the entire four years, while I have lost 148#
A lady was always asking me how are you losing your weight? Then she got insulted when I offered to take her with me to a WW open house. I won't make that mistake twice! She still "wants" to lose weight but I just listen to her latest fad diet or her plan to lose "ten pounds a month"!
Water Aerobics friends, I still get compliments there and one lady joined my WW group. It's a class of over weight seniors all trying to keep active. Our instructor is 92yo and is amazing! One other guy is 86 yo, of I keep going thinking I'm ONLY 68!

minimyzeme

My partner does our shopping and food prep / cooking. If I had to do it without her, I could and would but truth be told, she makes my life so much easier. My joke is that I bang my fork, the food shows up, measured and 'pointed' and I wonder why people say it's so hard...

I have a couple sisters that are very good support, both having lost weight with WW also. Neither of them are active in the program now but we're still very supportive of each other.

That's really about it for the influence of others on my weight loss. I do my thing and try not to make a big deal about it. Because a lot of my work is from home, I don't often have pressure to do lunches or dinners out. I've cut way back on my eating & drinking socialization but that's OK. 'The price of participation', as a friend of mine used to say. I'm more than willing to do so for the benefits I've gotten with the weight loss.