Living the Lifestyle Tuesday May23

podkey

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) & 88olds (George)
Tuesday - Podkey (Biker Bob)
Wednesday - GadgetgirlIL (Regina)
Thursday - misterhub (Greg)
Friday - TimDumez (Tim)

Today's topic: How do you hop hop hop along the habitual hobbit trail?? What has helped you create the habits and turn them into "this is how I do things now"??

podkey

My trail has of course had some rocks to trip over and some unsuspecting slippery spots but somehow "this time" it's going ok much to my befuddlement. How about you and how does it happen?? I too was visiting my son and DIL who do like to eat healthy stuff. Had a bit more than necessary at the hotel breakfast. True. Weight up a pinch? True but back home now which helps.

Rachel0778

Repetition. Creating new habits always sucks at first, but as long as you keep doing it soon it will be second nature. Example: I wake up every morning at 5:30 to either walk the dog or get a workout in. At first, 5:30am is an ungodly hour and I was dragging, sleepy, and crabby. But soon my body was used to it and now it's just what I do. I know myself well enough to know I won't workout when I get home so this is how I make sure I get it done. Some people bribe themselves to stick with habits early on, I usually just get through out of sheer stubbornness.

podkey

We had for example at the esoteric vegan gourmet restaurant" Wild ramp romanesco urfa bieber soup topped with truffle herbed popcorn
served with a shaved fennel pickled radish smoked sunflower seed mixed green salad dressed with a wild huckleberry basil vinaigrette."

Not being from East Coast I had no idea about "ramp" being a wild member of the onion family. I will let ya gooogle "urfa bieber" and no no rock stars were eaten.

goldenfrisbee

Tracking has been my most effective tool, but I'm not always weighing and that is starting to allow for portion creep.

88olds

Just read an article about this. Didn't put it in these terms at the time, but I made exercise a habit by queuing.

I wanted to go from a couch potato to "the kind of person who works out every day." My first workout was 8 min on the stationary bike/clothes rack in our basement. That was the most I could do.

But then came day 2. Same time 5:30pm. Had a goal (don't recall). Had to put on my "workout" clothes. Regular plan was 5x per week stationary bike right after work, long walk Saturday afternoon. Sunday off.

But then came the inner push to ramp up time and intensity. I caught myself talking myself out of my "workout" that may have been up to 15 min at the time. What to do?

Dial back. Went for 12 or maybe 10 min. Defending my habit was more important than any particular workout.

podkey

I wasn't allowed to drive a car to high school and didn't own one. I think Senior day students could drive to school but few did. I got into the habit of riding my bike to school. In college I drifted away altogether from riding a bike around. Big mistake along with excess pizza and beer etc. Late in grad school I picked it up again and with my first pay check bought a nice bike to start doing medical research in Portland OR. I lived close enough to walk to work and as I moved further out I started riding to work. It became a real lifestyle for me. I still managed to out eat my legs and had my weight creep up to the border of obesity much to the surprise of my Dr. He was amazed at how I lost over 50 LB on WW when I went in for an annual physical.

I also now walk early in the morning as a habit too with a friend of the family. Started walking for rehab and just gradually increased it. Walking and biking daily are one piece of the lifestyle for me. WW gave me the right portions etc for the food part which I have adopted pretty well. Yeah repetition breeds habits.

Jimb376mfp

What has helped you create the habits and turn them into "this is how I do things now"?

Today I was a little off usual Tuesday AM schedule. I got up late, helped DW with a chore making me leave late for my 8:00 AM aqua aerobics class.

I considered not going BUT I went! Why?
Because I enjoy going, it's not just exercise but also a social outing for me.

I told one person it was "better late than never". She said yes it takes three parts to get to class. Find something you like to do, add a social aspect and DISCIPLINE! I find having the first two makes having the discipline to go much easier.

GavinFlynn1

I'm in the "creating habits always sucks at first" phase of my journey again. I remember one thing that helped me the last time was treating today like the only day. This morning, I went for a morning walk. That's a good start.

Al_Howard

The only "habit" I have is tracking. That and a pretty boring round of our favorite meals.

MurpleCat

Signing up for classes or sports leagues with friends has kept me exercising in a way that hiring a trainer or just relying on my own motivation would. Not because I paid money but because other people where counting on me to be there.

It also helps to enlist other people in the process. I used to spend my Friday nights at the bar, with lots of food & drinks. I enlisted the core group (who all have weight problems) to find alternatives -- so we started meeting for dinner and games at someone's house, rotating hosting duties. We could bring healthier snacks & focus on the game. Video games in particular don't work well with alcohol, FYI. When some of those folks had babies/moved/got divorced, the remaining few of us joined a Friday night tennis league. So that's been most of my Fridays for over a year now.

As far as food habits, weighing/measuring my food has been key to my success. The only trick I had there was to remove all inertia-based impediments. So I keep my scale and measuring cups on the counter right in the area where I prep/plate meals. I don't even have to take a single step to use them -- so how lazy would I have to be not to use them?

In the past year, I also had to develop some dramatically new habits due to an unanticipated health issue (Type 1 Diabetes). While establishing those new habits sucked, I have to say they sucked less than dying. I just got through it by telling myself, "This is just what you do now. This is your new normal. This is how it is, now." I didn't leave any room for thinking about whether it sucks to count carbs. I need to do that so I know how much insulin to give myself. This is my new normal.

Out_of_Bubblegum

I think I'm still working on my habits... but some things I'm doing to try to keep them moving forward:

1 - Routine. I try to do the same things at the same time.
2 - Discipline. If I want to reach my goals, I need to do the things.. whether I feel like it or not.
3 - Choices. I have tried to work on habits that I enjoy - so as not to make life a grind.

gadgetgirlIL

I think this was already mentioned, but I've adopted a "something is better than nothing" approach to activity. This is what helped me develop my daily activity habit that I finally got established in May 2001. My first goal was just to walk in the doors of the gym. Didn't matter how long I stayed or what I did, but just getting there was the key.

minimyzeme

As of now, it's highly focused on the food. I've been weighing, measuring and tracking for just over three years now. Most of the time, I'm doing it from our slow internet connection tied into my phone. I figure if I can do it here, I can do it most anywhere. And I do. Without it, I probably stand a good chance of getting derailed. It works for me, thankfully!

Right up there in habit-forming is participating on GOAD. When I first started, I wondered about the value of signing in every morning, but now I get it. It helps point my compass the right direction, a daily reminder of a choice I make and the fact that I won't get there unless I do my part. I try to participate in the discussions, finding balance in how much time I devote to something I just must do but also learning from the rest of you. Sometimes I find you make me rethink something I thought I know. Sometimes it's just fun or funny but as I've said before, GOAD has been an integral part for me living the lifestyle from Day 1.