Living The Lifestyle Thursday 4/7/22

imastar2

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: Failure, Failing - In the opposite vain from Greg's topic of Success yesterday does Failure pull you down? Not necessarily referring to a short term weight gain but rather failing and gaining weight before you get a grip and come to your senses.

Al_Howard

The last time I was around this weight (2014), I threw caution to the wind, and ended up with a 30+ pound total gain before I "got a grip". Been working on the down slope (for the most part) ever since. Took a LONG time, but I believe the slow and steady got me here and will help keep me here.

Flintwinch

I look at failure as an experiment that didn't work and will lead me to success later. Words that often lead to failure for me are "I've got this". Vigilance but not rigidity seems to work ok.

crewahl

I had to mull this one over for a bit. I guess the definition of “failure” is what I’m struggling with. Perhaps I’m with Humpty-Dumpty, who said, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean.”

For the most part, when it comes to WW things I’m at the far end of the spectrum with “the only way to fail is to give up.” In that definition, I haven’t failed so far. Even as I regained, I hadn’t abandoned all hope - or intention.

There are many times that I have failed to live up to my intentions, failed to act in a way that is consistent with what I know is better, or failed to act in a way that’s consistent with how I prefer to think of myself. I guess, in full Humpty-Dumpty mode, I’ll refer to those as “performance gaps” rather than failures.

Those performance gaps are generally a slap upside the head. They push me to change something such that I adjust my actions to be better aligned with who I think I am and what I think I should do. They’re a wake-up call, because I don’t like the cognitive dissonance of not acting like the person I like to think I am. To that extent, I would say that recognizing those performance gaps leads to an inflection point in my performance on this journey. In short, they lead to a change in direction.

Pompous much? 😉

88olds

My only episode of backsliding was Zoloft related. It was terrible stuff. I guess it worked as intended, at least I started sleeping. But if I knew going in what I know now I wouldn’t have touched it. When I mention weight gain to my Dr he said weight gain wasn’t indicated as a side effect. Then I looked online and found loads of people gaining weight on Zoloft. I think the biggest issue was I didn’t care much. I cared enough to complain, but not enough to take any action. Such is the nature of Zoloft I think.

Funny but it didn’t feel like failure. Didn’t feel like much of anything.