Living The Lifestyle Thursday 6/9/22

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 – Flintwinch (Tim)
Wednesday - misterhub (Greg)
Thursday -imastar2 (Derrick)
Friday - Wildcard

Today's Topic: Accountability or (Accountability Partner)
There's WW Apps also meetings (if you attend) & MFP Apps and groups of other vwhich are GOAD sites for us to participate but do these apps and group meetings really challenge us as to Accountability or do we use them more for record keeping.
Do you have an Accountability person? To keep you on the straight and narrow path. Do you think it's a good idea?

misterhub

As folks know, I use Noom, and the app is very good at keeping me accountable to myself. But, I also make use of personal coach on Noom, who, while she is not an accountability person per se, does ask me challenging questions. I also report my high points and low points to my wife.

Flintwinch

I've never used an accountability partner to keep me on travk

crewahl

I think I have two forms of accountability resources to help me - my weekly WW meeting, and Goad.

As I said when I returned to this forum f rom my sojourn in the desert, I stopped posting here when I felt my actions (eating with abandon) made my words here feel like hypocrisy. I resumed posting when I felt I was committed to losing the weight I had regained. So continuing to post here is, for me, a way to hold my self accountable to the group. Essentially, I’m saying “I’m still standing” every time I post.

My weekly meeting is also a form of accountability partnering. I represent myself to be a particular person at the meetings, and feel I need to both show up and speak up to be accountable. After a while with a particular group, you do start to get invested in the successes and challenges of the members of the group.

At the end of the day, though, the only person who can hold me accountable is me. When I track poorly, my body stills tracks accurately. If I’m making poor choices, I’m the one who pays the price at the scale. If I’m not doing my exercise routines, I’m accountable for those choices.

steve0mania

I don't mean this to sound snide, but I'm not accountable to anyone except myself when it comes to weight. I think it puts friends/family into an awkward position to have them serve as the accountability police.

With that said, I use GOAD to remind myself that I want to be engaged in a healthy lifestyle. I find it useful to get on here (nearly) every day and participate as it keeps "healthy lifestyle" high on my list of things to pay attention to.

Al_Howard

Accountable? Well, myself, first and foremost. TOL second (don't tell her, LOL). I go to our FTF WW meetings for the camaraderie, insights (always learning from others), and some accountability, weighing in to keep my free membership going.

88olds

I guess I was accountable to my meeting. Similarly I think I’m accountable to GOAD. But I’m accountable because its what I’ve chosen.

We all draw red lines. And I’m sure we’ve all crossed them. Here’s a story about a red line. It’s the WW Lifetime goal weight +2lbs line. I think I’d been on Lifetime status about 6-7 years. I still went to the meeting most weeks. Nearly everyone at that WW location knew who I was. I was the nut who kept coming. And the people at my meeting sure knew me. Because I had decided early on that if I was going to go to the meetings and usually be the only guy, I wasn’t going to just hide in the corner. I spoke up when it was called for.

But then I got in a bad phase. I’d been in bad phases before. Maintaining I was usually hanging around 178-180 lbs. But now I was over that and climbing. 182, then 184, my goal weight. And then I kept going. All the time I vowed to take some action to reverse the trend. I never backed it up with action.

Finally came the last meeting day of the month. I had not weighed in as required for Lifetime. I was not sure I was going to make the 2 lb cutoff. Now, no one would know but ML and myself. But that seemed unacceptable. If I blew my Lifetime status, I would have to own up. I considered skipping the meeting. I could just disappear like I’d seen 100+ other people do. But everyone would know. They’d say to themselves, “Ha, finally got him.”

So I went to the meeting, did the WI, hit 186 exactly, went home and started tracking and turned things around. So the meeting accountability worked but it only worked because I believed in it. I decided it was important to me.

imastar2

I agree that the person I am accountable to first is me. To thine own self be true and when I'm not true to myself then that's when the train can go off track. On the recommendation of my family physician I've been counceling with a psychotherapist for weight issues for over 3 years every other week. It's a form of accountability but the conversations are not designed for that purpose exclusively.

I've always used the GoaD board as a sounding board for over over 12 years and we have some great discussions. I check into the GoaD board everyday to make sure I do my best to keep my head in the game. This year, for some reason has been extremely challenging for many reasons but in any case I've been busy on all fronts both personal and work wise. It seems difficult sometimes to figure it all out so I just have to get up every morning with a start new attitude.

crewahl

88olds wrote: »

So the meeting accountability worked but it only worked because I believed in it. I decided it was important to me.

Like George, I was in the exact same spot in 2014. I made a different choice - the “I’ll fix it myself and then come back” option - and spend the next six years wandering in the wilderness. Eighty-nine pounds later, I did come back.

That George is a smart fella.

88olds

@crewahl

Charlie, I still remember starting WW in 2006. Every week people were coming in and telling the same story of how they made Lifetime, quit the program and were now back. They had regained a significant amount, or everything they had lost, or everything plus. And they all said the same thing- “I know what I have to do.” Maybe not I thought but kept that to myself.

I called it the WW revolving door. It really made an impression. One reason being that most of those people soon disappeared. Many of the people who did stick around awhile struggled. They couldn’t understand why they couldn’t get in the old groove. I never thought and still don’t think I could muster the psychic energy for a large scale WL project a second time. Scary to me.

That meeting helped me a lot but not how WW thinks. I came to see it as the school of what not to do.

crewahl

@88olds George,

Yeah, I saw the same thing in meetings, and certainly saw it on GoaD. I knew I was better at this then those “I’m back” people. Turns out I’m one of them after all, and admitting that was a big hurdle to overcome become my return to GoaD. And I agree that it’s a push to regroup for another weight loss effort - 135# the first time, and 89# this time. But God bless the pandemic, because it was clear to me it was taking the elderly, the infirm - and the overweight. That gave me enough push to get started.

Now, I’m enjoying life as an object lesson . . . . 🤯

Flintwinch

88olds wrote: »

@crewahl

Charlie, I still remember starting WW in 2006. Every week people were coming in and telling the same story of how they made Lifetime, quit the program and were now back. They had regained a significant amount, or everything they had lost, or everything plus. And they all said the same thing- “I know what I have to do.” Maybe not I thought but kept that to myself.

I called it the WW revolving door. It really made an impression. One reason being that most of those people soon disappeared. Many of the people who did stick around awhile struggled. They couldn’t understand why they couldn’t get in the old groove. I never thought and still don’t think I could muster the psychic energy for a large scale WL project a second time. Scary to me.

That meeting helped me a lot but not how WW thinks. I came to see it as the school of what not to do.

Those who say 'I know what I have to do" are proof of the pudding that they don't know what they have to do. I'm sure that the same principle applies to other cases of knowing what to do. Cardiologists, for example, confirm that only 5% of heart patients who know what they have to do, the "Simple Seven" heart-healthy behaviors, actually follow them. The revolving door is a common phenomenon. I think the problem with "the groove" is that the groove is not limited to a week or a month or any other short period where you now say, "I got this!" "Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom"