Foundation, foundation, foundation (Alternative title: In weight loss, I am the dog.)

wunderkindking
wunderkindking Posts: 1,615 Member
edited November 2021 in Getting Started
I'm a professional dog trainer and a dog sports competitor -- stick with me, I have a point.

One of the big principals in dog training is basically about laying a strong foundation, and only increasing the difficulty when you have success 80+ percent of the time. Another one is that you make getting it right as obvious and easy as you possibly can; you set the dog up in a way that makes it almost impossible for the dog to get it wrong.

In weight loss, I am the dog.

There is no big motivation or mindset change for me, really. I started with a very simple, easy, foundation behavior that I built upon. For me that was tracking my food before I ate it. No restriction, nothing else. Just inputting what I ate into MFP. Everything else - getting enough protein, getting used to a ceiling on my calories (at maintenance first), creating a deficit - built upon the previous steps and habits, a lot of which are individual to me and my psychology.

The basics are universal though, and they are still 'lay a foundation of easy behaviors, increase difficulty slowly, add new things only when successful at the previous'.

Everyone wants to results now - in weight loss and dogs, actually - but that old 'slow is fast' saying is accurate. You can go slow and lay a really good foundation - or you can rush ahead to try to get the results you want right now, and spend the next several years or decades fixing problems that result from the holes in your foundation.

Breathe. Relax. Look and think about what things you'd like to see your life look like in the future, and then take the smallest, easiest step toward that. Get that step ingrained. Then add another one. Troubleshoot how to make things easier if you find things getting hard.

LAY A FOUNDATION before you start building.
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Replies

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,300 Member
    edited June 2021
    But can you teach an old dog new tricks? :wink:
  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,365 Member
    406MamaBear wrote: »
    Thank you so much for this! Maybe I need a “clicker” every time I make a good food choice! :smile:

    Be careful with the “clicker”! My dog is terrified of it. Sends him right under the sofa, every time (although now that I think about it, hiding under the sofa could be it’s own sort of diet plan…).
  • wunderkindking
    wunderkindking Posts: 1,615 Member
    COGypsy wrote: »
    406MamaBear wrote: »
    Thank you so much for this! Maybe I need a “clicker” every time I make a good food choice! :smile:

    Be careful with the “clicker”! My dog is terrified of it. Sends him right under the sofa, every time (although now that I think about it, hiding under the sofa could be it’s own sort of diet plan…).

    I mean my 'clicker' is just the word yes, but the conditioned response being that you're gonna get a cookie might be a problem :P
  • KateEat
    KateEat Posts: 1 Member
    This analogy is incredibly helpful to me! I'm feeling defeated at the outset of this latest attempt to lose weight and keep it off because I'm older and bigger - so that creates a lot of challenges, especially mentally. Trying to approach this attempt smarter rather than harder.

    I'm okay with the being old part - I've earned every gray hair - but seeing myself as a dog could really work!
    During the tougest years when I put on the pounds with emotional eating my son converted me from being very, very afraid of dogs to being absolutely dependent on them to keep me going. We have gone from 3 dogs to one very sweet, VERY lazy Eng Springer and we both need to get ourselves moving and out of our comfort zones if we want to age happily.

    If I can be as encouraging to myself as I am my dog I'll be in good shape.

    Thanks for the anology and reminder to focus on the basics.

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