Living the Lifestyle, (LTL) Friday 18 August

Jimb376mfp

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 -- imastar2 (Derrick)
Tuesday -- bwmalone (Brett)
Wednesday -- minimyzeme (Kim)
Thursday -- misterhub (Greg)
Friday -- Jimb376mfp (Jim)

Today's topic: What Does it Take to Lose Weight?

I saw a discussion on the 80/20 adage for Weight Loss. The idea being that WL is based on 80% diet and 20% exercise.

Yesterday at my WI I was the same exact weight as the week before. I was expecting a loss so I immediately had feelings of anger,disappointment,frustration,and I was POed!

After four years on WW I KNOW the fallback attitude is "your losing inches not just pounds", stick with it and results will come, you will NOT lose weight every WI etc etc. Then I start reviewing THE LIST: did I drink enough H2O? Did I walk as much (no), did I really measure and count my SPs accurately?

The bottom line is there are THREE components to WL (IMHO):

1. Mental (51%) The motivation, discipline, sticktoittiveness, mental mindset to reach a goal
2. Diet (30%) What you eat and how much you eat.
3. Exercise (19%) Moving and not being sedentary.

How much of your WL success or struggle is related to the Mental aspects of WL?

Jimb376mfp

I see a lot of posts on WW Connect from people asking for help in finding motivation, wondering IF they will be able to do the WL things needed, people wanting to quit because they are not getting the results they want (Expected).

Complaints about comments from family "friends" coworkers that are not helpful.

Lots of mental angst that comes with the territory of trying to lose weight. If it was JUST a matter of eating right and exercising it would BE EASY!

I really think winning the mental challenges are key to success. My attitude must be positive in order for me to succeed with the other two.

Al_Howard

Mental is a big component. Right now, my mind is very happy with my weight. TOL and the doctor...not so much.
However, until my mind comes to grips with my current weight being too high, I see no better results in my future. That said, if I don't continue vigilance, and the WW meetings, I know I'll gain.

Rachel0778

My breakdown is:

50% habits
30% dietary changes
15% accountability
5% exercise

Movement for me factors very little into my weight. More important are habits, healthy food choices, and tracking. I've quickly learned I can outeat any exercise, so while it's still a factor it's a very small one.

88olds

How much of your WL success or struggle is related to the Mental aspects of WL?

Well, in a sense 100%.

I was aided by a few good habits that I already had. I didn't have to deal with a "move more" strategy because I was a gym regular. I did have to deal with the fact that the honest way to deal with my "fit points" (whatever we called them then) was to ignore them. My modest exercise being cancelled out by my desk job.

But deciding that my WW "test" was going to be 13 weeks, that every twinge of hunger wasn't a crisis, that WL was not linear, that a .2 loss was indeed a sign of success, that positive thinking only required that I neutralize the negatives, that gong around telling myself "perfect is the enemy of good" and "I am a just and worthy cause" helped, that a guilt free daily treat was a "good" thing- that was all work in my head.

I found that I could make tracking sort of interesting with all the calculations, research and little experiments I did. I told myself that WW was my new hobby. I was able to stick with that until tracking became a habit that lasted 5 years.

I was able to change my thinking by changing myself talk. I started to view ideas as helpful or unhelpful. Telling myself I loved pizza didn't help. Telling myself "a donut is just a fried wad of goo", helped. Changing my thinking changed my behavior.

Or in a sense it's 100% diet. If you never change what you eat, it doesn't matter what you think. I don't think the losses have much to do with exercise except for young folks and people who train. I see training as very different from exercise. Benefits of exercise are mostly brain chemistry I think.

myallforjcbill

I don't think I will try and do the math but I think Mental is the "canvas" so to speak that our efforts play out on. I think it has to be extremely important to you for you and you have to believe it is possible. Otherwise the dietary changes, exercise etc will ultimately be meaningless because you will not sustain any significant success.

gadgetgirlIL

I had to work on the stuff between my ears before I was ever going to be successful long-term with weight management. This means I really had to think why I was reaching for food if it wasn't for obvious physical hunger. Too often I was eating to soothe anxiety, to try to avoid dealing with a difficult situation, or to try to boost my mood.

Eating a more balanced diet (not subsisting on junk food/fast food all day) helped improve how I was feeling and reduced the fatigue I'd often feel in the afternoon.

Regular exercise is an incredible mood booster/stress reliever for me which helps me to reduce the non-hunger related food encounters.

So for me, the breakdown is:

80% mental
10% better diet (better choices, more appropriate portions)
10% exercise

DavidKuhnsSr

At the risk of sounding a bit like Yogi Berra, I'll say it's 10 percent exercise, 90 percent diet and 100 percent mental.

imastar2

What Does it Take to Lose Weight?

For me it's 100% Mental. I say this because its a decision. If I don't decide to eat less and eat the right foods then the diet part won't matter. I can see that it must be said that dieting must be part of the percentage of the equation but if the decision hasn't been made to make a change then I'll be in the position I'm currently in. Giving in to the weakness of the mind. So just to summarize for me I have to reinstitute the following or reingage.

Willpower
Decision to follow a plan.
Decision to execute the plan.
Take Action every meal.

Yes exercise for me would be to get out of my chair and get to walking even if it's just a few laps. So there's that Willpower and decision coming in to play again.

For me there is a lot at stake here because of my age and weight I have to be 100% sure I decide to get the 120+ lbs off on s daily basis.

minimyzeme

I'm somewhere between @gadgetgirlIL and @DavidKuhnsSr . In hindsight, the biggest change for me has been mental. As I consider the path leading up to the weight loss vs actively doing it, I sometimes shake my head and wonder why it took me so long. But I think that was mental too. For whatever reason, I wasn't ready...'til I was.

Once having made the decision, the gears switched. I was willing to make the necessary tradeoffs that would actually help me move onward and downward. I fully understood and accepted that I couldn't have it both ways. It was not a fight; it was a series of tradeoffs. GOAD advice helped me settle in for the long haul and suggested the strong focus on behavior rather than scale-watching. As I became more mindful, I learned about myself and my evolving relationship with food. I became much more active in my choices by being more mindful of when I was triggered to eat (and drink), why I was, and what my choices were along that spectrum, including when to quit.

The mindfulness and tracking led to smaller and better portions. That worked for me to bring my weight down. I'm beginning to enjoy a bit more focused and dedicated exercise but being able to live, move and breathe in a smaller body has been a wonderful and worthwhile benefit of making the mental shift.

I've heard it said the best time to plant a tree is 30 years ago and that the next best time is today. I'm not kicking myself I didn't plant my weight loss tree long ago, just grateful I did it when I did. Hopefully, there's still plenty of time left to enjoy the benefits!

podkey

Well it depends on how you look at it. I am always conscious about what I am eating so 100% in that sense but hey we all eat every day anyway so not a big change that way. I purposefully (OK really more unconsciously) do not put weight goals etc on myself or have more angst about losing and maintaining than what comes with my daily living anyway. Hard to explain but if I had hard core goals and an all or nothing "tough mudder" approach to eating and moving I would wear out my mind with mental exhaution.

I prefer to think of it more these days as a habit trail as much as anything. I move daily but don't think of it as formal "exercise". Still it amounts to a daily habit of walking with a family friend and biking for fun and errands. Usually about an hour or more of walking and another hour-ish of biking.

I know I am very lucky that way that I don't put a lot of pressure on myself to diet harder,run harder,climb under the barbed wire fences,scale the walls of dietary restriction.

OK as I have said too many times I joined with friends by accident and without mental forethought during a morning bike ride.
I don't discount that having "failed" (I didn't think of them as failures) on other diet schemes I found something that works for me. I think in some way being older helped too.
Motivate me??? Huh??? Still waiting for that come to (fill in the blank spiritual leader) moment.

Jimb376mfp

@minimyzeme you wrote:

"I've heard it said the best time to plant a tree is 30 years ago and that the next best time is today."

Thirty years ago I lost 80# on WW and got down to 202. But I let the tree die :-( From that point my weight went up and up til I reached 376!

I now weigh 203.8, after four years and eight months on WW. I'm planting a tree in Onederland SOON!

minimyzeme

Awesome, @Jimb376mfp --your determination is downright inspirational! You are living proof this can be done. When you plant that tree, you've gotta take care of it--but you know that now. I'm "rootin'" for ya!

imastar2

@Jimb376mfp Awesome! WTG! See you in Wonderland some day. Got to get back in Twoterville and stay there first.

goldenfrisbee

minimyzeme wrote: »

I'm "rootin'" for ya!

Ha, You're killing me, Kim @minimyzeme

lowbar31

Losing weight is simple. Consume less calories than you burn. Ignorance and cravings make it difficult.

minimyzeme

@goldenfrisbee