Living the Lifestyle Friday 4/21/2017

Al_Howard

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 -- RedSassyPants
Tuesday -- 88olds
Wednesday -- goldenfrisbee
Thursday -- imastar2
Friday -- Al_Howard

Today's topic: All or Nothing?
If you track, exercise, do it all right for the week, and the scale shows a gain, do you chuck it? Or say, “it’ll show up next week”?
If you fall off the rails over a day, a weekend, or a two week vacation, do you say “forget it, I’ll never be able to do this”? Or just forget it, and move on?
If you move on, how do you do it?

myallforjcbill

I think most of us who have been around the block a few times on this have learned to take the long view. If I allow myself to get any WI get to me I doubt I would last long. A similar core lesson learned on this rode is resilience. As the saying goes, "it isn't about perfection, but persistence". Lastly, it comes down to priorities and just how badly I want this for myself. I was reminded this January in a discussion with a nurse about all my back problems that weren't responded to various procedures. My weight was one thing I could do to improve my health and help improve things. It was one thing I had some influence over. How much did I want to improve things? Did I want to try setting some goals and get going again? I did and I have. There have been some rough patches but the overall trend is down this year.

goldenfrisbee

I say, "I'll show up next week" The only other option is a miserable life. It's nice to feel a sense of accomplishment after so many years of not trying to reach goals. I had a defeatist (sp?) mentality about a lot of things in my life. In the back of my head I know I was thinking that if I tried and failed, then I was a failure, so I didn't try. This applies to more than weight loss for me.

Jimb376mfp

"IF you move on how do you do it?"

Thanks to my early days on GoaD I learned:
1. WL is NOT linear.
2. Do not set up time frame goals that cannot be met. Like losing 2 Lbs a week to lose 30 Lbs before ( fill in the blank wedding, anniversary, reunion etc)
3. There are a LOT of things that impact those thirty seconds I'm on the scale for my weekly WI. (Fluids, sodium, lack of exercise, poor choices I made, metabolism)
4. I move FORWARD because I told myself THIS TIME I am not gaining back the weight I have lost. I always gained back what I had lost, PLUS more for the past thirty years. Not this time.
5. I found I like other things better than eating!

88olds

I can honestly say since I started WW 11 years ago this month, I never chucked it. Not a single chuck.

I kept my focus in the losing phase because I always kept my food journal. I joined WW because I read somewhere that research had shown writing down what you ate was the #1 tool for WL. That, and I thought I needed to count something. So I joined WW, went to the hokey meetings, kept the journal and counted points.

After I saw what was going on at the meetings, the revolving door, I saw I had to be different to succeed long term. The story I heard every Sunday meeting was people who would eat more than planned once and then quit tracking. Some would then disappear from the meeting.

So at some point I made a mistake, don't recall exactly what but I remember this exactly. I had a routine. Part of my routine was to go out for lunch on Saturday. In the face of my midweek blunder, I couldn't finish my week as planned. I could eat my dailies until Saturday but needed WPA to cover Saturday. I was really unhappy.

So I gave myself 10 more WPA and kept going. So I fudged, but did not chuck. I had heard stories of the chuck, seen the chuck reflected in the empty seats, I feared the chuck. So go on and call me a fudging "off plan" phony if you want but you can't call me a chucker. No chuck.

leeless511

I move on. Since this last WW journey when I hit goal, I never had an attitude of "oh well, let's forget all this WW nonsense" I think part of why I did not fall into that mode, is I never really went off program. I may have had more points than planned or gone over into the negative for a week, but no matter what...vacation, holiday, or day to day I always want to track and eat mindfully. I think if I went on vacation and said I will be off plan and not track that may lead me to a bad place. I am not perfect by any means when socializing or during holidays/vacations or sometimes just a "bad" day...but I still try to do the best I can. When I have gone into the negatives, often it was a conscious decision to eat something that I knew would take me beyond my allocated points. That consciousness is what keeps me on plan.

Rachel0778

My journey follows the same quote as @myallforjcbill "it isn't about perfection, but persistence".

The one thing I'm great at is tracking. Even though I haven't been meeting my weight loss goals, at least I have been owning up to what I have been putting in my mouth. And every day I continue to try to meet those goals. Because of this persistence, I look a hell of a lot better than I would if I threw in the towel all together. I also continue to keep up with my fitness activities which I believe is a big part of my long term success and consistency of weight. I know that as long as I keep trying, I am not failing. It is when I quit altogether that I fail

gadgetgirlIL

Since I made the commitment to always track the good, the bad, and the truly ugly, I can't say that I've ever really thrown in the towel in nearly 6 years. That doesn't mean that there haven't been meals or snacks where way too much food was consumed or times when I ate my feelings as opposed to fueling my body. But breaking out of the "all or nothing" mindset has been very empowering, not just in terms of weight management.

Al_Howard

I guess I’m an ALMOST all or nothing person. Usually I can get back on program quickly enough, but still over indulge almost every weekend, so the net is a null. Definitely a work in progress.

imastar2

Happened to me this week with yes lots of disappointment but after nearly 7 years I know this too shall pass and I am chunking it and moving on. Now that also being said since I am on a program working with a dietitian I am going to go back and really review this past week and really scrutinize my daily diary of when and what I ate and what time I ate and the amount of sleep I got this week. All of these factors go into the reasons that I believe I had a gain this week.

Discouraged ? No ! Disappointed ? Yes ! Will I continue on you betcha. In fact it gives me more determination to get this figured out more than ever. I spend at least twice each week going to a buffet once for a Tuesday Civic club luncheon and once on Wednesday evening at my Church. I blew it Wednesday evening at my Church and ate too much and DW and I had or Friday evening Steak dinner on Thursday evening instead on tonight. I ate late and ate probably too much although did only eat half of a baked potato.

We'll see what this week holds but my prediction is I'll be back under 300 soon.

podkey

All or nothing?? No. I move every day and then I don't have to think about it so much. I don't move to lose or maintain weight but realize if bedridden I wouldn't do so well.
Buffets can be challenging. I "survey" them first. I didn't do my best at Easter Sunday breakfast buffet but could have been worse.
I have moved on from other restrictive ciet schemes but WW is flexible and livable for me.

minimyzeme

I fuhggetaboutit snd get back on track. 9 times out of 10, I'm on plan. Whether the scale shows it or not, i know it will eventually.