Living The Lifestyle - Wildcard Tuesday 10-12-2021

steve0mania

We meet here to explore, share, celebrate and (sometimes) agonize over how we do (or don't) incorporate weight loss guidelines into our daily lives. "It's a lifestyle, not a diet" is easily and often said, but sometimes not so simply put into practice.

This is a thread for everyone. If you're new to GoaD, or to weight loss, your questions and comments are always welcome. If you're maintaining, or a long-term loser, your thoughts on the topic may be just what someone else needs to hear. If you're reading this, join in the discussion!

Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion.

Monday - crewahl (Charlie)
Tuesday – Wildcard
Wednesday - misterhub (Greg)
Thursday - imastar2 (Derrick)
Friday - Flintwinch (Tim)

Today's Topic: Wildcard Tuesday!

What's your greatest strength?

We've had a number of discussions recently about challenges. Let's refocus and talk about strengths. What is your greatest strength in a general sense (not weight-focused)? How does that strength impact on your weight management?

steve0mania

I'd say that my greatest strength is a love of immersing deeply in a topic when I first get interested in it. Whatever that topic happens to be, I will read a lot about the subject, think about it all the time, and if it's a physical activity, I'll be highly motivated to practice/participate as much as I can. It's easy for me to deeply immerse in a topic for months at a time, or even sometimes a few years!

A general example of this is flamenco guitar. When I decided I wanted to learn to play flamenco, I took lessons. I practiced a couple of hours a day (probably). But, I also developed a large collection of flamenco music and I listened to it all the time. I watched YouTube videos of folks playing flamenco songs-of-interest. I read books on flamenco. I watched movies about flamenco. Flamenco, flamenco, flamenco!

This same approach was how I initially tackled weight loss. I signed up for WW (i.e., took lessons). I read all of the WW materials, but then read many books on diet approaches (e.g., Volumetrics, which remains a favorite). I read articles about metabolism, and I tried to understand what the "science" says about weight loss. I read the WW patents and "reverse-engineered" the Points system (or was it Points Plus? Who can remember anymore!). I made my own spreadsheet to better understand how various macronutrients were related to points. I tracked diligently. I spent lots of time looking up restaurants, trying to figure out the points of various meals, etc. I spent way too much time on GOAD!

I really stuck with that level of intensity for at least a couple of years, and it really paid off. I lost the 50 pounds I needed pretty quickly, and I maintained at a low weight for a long time.

However, the down-side is that it's hard to keep that level of intensity up, especially when the next thing-of-interest comes along. For flamenco guitar, I was finding it harder and harder to find a couple of hours a day for practice. For WW, as GOAD slowly faded, and then WW did away with the message boards, there wasn't as much of an anchor to keep it constantly in my mind. Other things became more important, and that intensity got focused elsewhere.

As with all things, there are good sides and bad sides!

crewahl

Words.

I grew up in a rural area, and books were some of my closest friends. I think that early exposure to words and language helped me build a vocabulary and see different ways of making a point. In college, I majored in English - a lot of reading, but also writing paper that articulated and defended a position.

So what do you do as an English major? I went to work for an insurance company, oddly enough. The ability to describe what I understood to different audiences helped me to distinguish myself from my peers, and the ability to defend a proposition (not a preposition) helped me in project management.

Here on the message board, I enjoy using words - lots of long-winded, tiresome ones, perhaps -to convey things that are going on, or to describe how something has worked for me.

If I had to choose a second strength, I’d say it’s curiosity. I’m in the “nothing is true unless I’ve experienced it myself” camp. That’s not a way to win popularity contests, but it helps with things like Covid. I don’t rely on headlines or sound bites; I read underlying articles, do my own research, etc. I used to describe myself as a rock-turner by nature - I needed to know what was under there.

But my first reaction to this question was, in fact, to question whether any of us could truly answer it. Who among us is sufficiently self-aware to understand how their strengths are perceived? Would my wife come up with the same answer for me? Probably not.

podkey

Greatest strength?? Endurance, whether on a 200 mile one day bike ride or other challenges.
Intuition is also a strong point which helped me a lot in science. Sadly I have not done flamenco guitar for quite awhile. I liked playing with some local student dancers and their teacher, a wonderful singer and dancer from Spain

steve0mania

crewahl wrote: »

But my first reaction to this question was, in fact, to question whether any of us could truly answer it. Who among us is sufficiently self-aware to understand how their strengths are perceived? Would my wife come up with the same answer for me? Probably not.

Interesting point. I might argue that defining something as a strength or weakness is really how a matter of a given personal characteristic is applied.

As I noted in my own case, my personal characteristic is deep immersion in topics. That's a strength if I'm trying to learn something new. That's a weakness if I need to change directions but am still in deep dive-mode and can't make the shift.

imastar2

Not quitting or giving up I'd have to say is my greatest strength. I mean that in the sense when I determine something is worth while and I acknowledge it has worked for others then it should work for me. With that determination and either a little bit or big success along the way I'll do anything to continue.

Then comes the test of my greatest strength when I must exhibit the action needed to sustain success. Example of this might be checking in here on the board daily. That's the easy part of the action process as well as tracking may be a good habit as well. However if I don't do what it takes to lose weight then something has to give. A different strategy maybe or protocol has to be changed.

The overall strength to not quit is still there but the action needed to succeed is lacking. There's the old saying that continuing to do the same thing over and over with the same result is insanity.

So relating that to my weight loss journey tells me that perhaps my greatest strength mindset to hang on should be focused on my correct daily action of what works best and not giving up on that. Well that sounds simple enough. Not! 😄

@crewahl - Charlie I bet you could have written that in one paragraph. However I've been waiting on DW at eye appointment for 2 hours. Yikes!!. She's fuming.

Flintwinch

Perseverance and a sense of competition. Competing with myself or others to reach a goal. My wife and I often laugh at how competitive we both are....but I laugh more.

88olds

Tenacity. I just kept at the weight loss thing until I finally got it.

steve0mania

Flintwinch wrote: »

...My wife and I often laugh at how competitive we both are....but I laugh more.

This is so funny! I think you win the thread.