Ideas for "feedback" on my exercise/eating regime

cprobertson12

Good morning ladies and gentlemen! Been a while since I've been on the forums here!

Last year I started swimming a lot and it was great - I wanted to get myself fit enough to pass the scuba diving swimming assessment to allow me to start training - and I did!

But, then I lost motivation... I went swimming less and less, and my weight started to creep back up - see, I changed my diet so it had less crap in it - and I've managed to keep a lot of the crap out of my diet.

However, all I did was let different crap creep* back in! Whoops!

*Not to be confused with "crap creek" - which is where those folk keep ending up without paddles.



SO - I've came up with the idea of using clipboards and recording what I'm doing. To be fair, I was already recording what I was doing, but in a very fragmented manner: some days I would forget to record, I was only recording my weight once per week or every couple of days - my food intake was mostly unrecorded... etc etc etc... and so I was recording less and less and less.

So, I've bought some clipboards which I will pin to the walls of my house in strategic places so that I simply cannot ignore them.

I have one in my bedroom, right above a set of scales - you see, I want to track my weight daily - because I'm interested to see how much my weight varies from day-to-day (I want to see how much "noise" there is in my weight-signal! )

Extending from that, I wanted to keep track of all the food in the house - and plan out meals. I was going to make a list of meals I can make, and just tick them off as I do so - that way I not only know what I'm eating, but I also know what's left to eat!

Finally, I wanted to keep track of my exercise - sure I can do it on here... but then I won't have a graph, and every house needs a graph or two or three or seven or twenty-five or...I KNOW! I will make a graph tracking how many graphs a house should have!

So - "tracking" is all fine and dandy - I find it helps me not only keep track of where I am, but it reminds me when I stagnate, and it serves as a constant reminder of what my goals are.

So, I was preparing some printouts so I can record things - my most important table is my "weight" table, which has "Date", "(caloric) intake", "weight", and "Exercise (calories burned)".

That is sufficient to chart my weight vs intake, accounting for exercise if required - and will give a nice plot after a while

But, I would like to add an element of feedback to this - and this is where I need help. I want some way of saying "Good job" to myself - some way of saying ::thumbs up:: when my intake is in the right region, some way of saying "good man!" when I exercise.

I thought it might be as simple as attacking it with a highlighter - green for the "good" values, and maybe red for the "bad" values - but I don't want to focus on the negative (rather, I want a positive feedback loop - things not being highlighted in green is negative enough for me without having to use the colour RED in it!! How will my dog know which days are good and bad if I use red and green!? Oh that will never do!)

So, what are your thoughts on this?

DO bear in in mind that this approach of logging everything isn't for everybody - but I find it's been working for me and I want to expand on my method a little. It just it could do with a little fine-tuning is all!

kireler

I do like your take on this. One thing that comes to mind is making yourself a jar and putting a quarter or dollar for everything "Good" you accomplish. That way it's rewarding to see it grow and once it's full you can get yourself something with it.

TavistockToad

having that positive feedback is why i have pals on here - simple yet effective!

cprobertson12

kireler wrote: »

I do like your take on this. One thing that comes to mind is making yourself a jar and putting a quarter or dollar for everything "Good" you accomplish. That way it's rewarding to see it grow and once it's full you can get yourself something with it.

Now, I do like this idea! I can see a few problems (with myself) in implementing it: it seems open to "ooh! Money for chocolate!" abuse - which I can solve by making it difficult to get money out of (for instance by glueing the lid on); the bigger problem might be that I never seem to have any change on me!

I like the thinking though - you might be onto something here!

TavistockToad wrote: »

having that positive feedback is why i have pals on here - simple yet effective!

That is a very good point, actually - but I might have a problem with this as a plan in that part of the reason I was clipboarding/physically tracking everything on paper was because I was forgetting to do it on here in the first place!

Why was I forgetting? Haven't a clue - it's not like it wasn't there on the home screen of my phone waiting for me to put things in... Yet I find that having the clipboard right there in my field of view every day works - though it might have something to do with my physically tripping over the scales sitting in front of the clipboard every day...

Food for thought!

mrschwarten

Great job on finding what works for you!
For me, if I reward on too frequent a basis, it becomes less of a reward and more of a habit. So I do rewards on a weekly or monthly basis (ever changing - no hard rules here!) For example, if I set a goal to work out 4X a week and I succeed, I will reward myself with a new song downloaded from Amazon or iTunes to add to my workout playlists. Or if I set to and lose 2 pound in a month, say, I'll buy that magazine I've been eyeballin'. I think a lot of people (over time, of course) can kind of forget the purpose of a reward for motivation. Having them less frequently works great for me.

Positive feedback, on the other hand, is always where it's at! All the time, all the time! I literally cheer after a workout and high-five my husband, the gym attendant (if they're down), my cats, whoever and whatever is available! For food, I guess it's a form of accountability, but texting my husband, "I made a good food choice!" (with more emojis than letters, of course) is 'cheering' myself on even. I'm my own hype-man It used to feel really awkward! Like, who's that crazy lady cheering in the middle of the gym??? But after a while it just feels so right and it makes me proud of my accomplishments. And it's free, no materials or equipment needed. Be your own positive feedback!

cprobertson12

Okay, I like that!

mrschwarten wrote: »

Great job on finding what works for you!
For me, if I reward on too frequent a basis, it becomes less of a reward and more of a habit. So I do rewards on a weekly or monthly basis (ever changing - no hard rules here!) For example, if I set a goal to work out 4X a week and I succeed, I will reward myself with a new song downloaded from Amazon or iTunes to add to my workout playlists. Or if I set to and lose 2 pound in a month, say, I'll buy that magazine I've been eyeballin'. I think a lot of people (over time, of course) can kind of forget the purpose of a reward for motivation. Having them less frequently works great for me.

That is a very good philosophy regarding "rewards" and how to separate them from positive feedback.

I think I may have been drifting towards the "rewards" philosophy, but hadn't realised until you said that - so thank you! Very much appreciated

mrschwarten wrote: »

Positive feedback, on the other hand, is always where it's at! All the time, all the time! I literally cheer after a workout and high-five my husband, the gym attendant (if they're down), my cats, whoever and whatever is available! For food, I guess it's a form of accountability, but texting my husband, "I made a good food choice!" (with more emojis than letters, of course) is 'cheering' myself on even. I'm my own hype-man It used to feel really awkward! Like, who's that crazy lady cheering in the middle of the gym??? But after a while it just feels so right and it makes me proud of my accomplishments. And it's free, no materials or equipment needed. Be your own positive feedback!

Okay, there are so many good ideas here - I love it!

Food accountability is one of my bigger problems at the moment - I love the idea of texting my partner when I make a good food choice!

I have always wondered... see, I'm a glutton for takeaway food - that salty, fatty, greasy goodness - dangerous stuff! - do you reckon it might be worth providing myself some positive feedback when I specifically resist ordering out?

I'm totally stealing borrowing your texting-my-partner-when-I-do-good idea!