Living The Lifestyle Late Edition Thursday 9/15/22

imastar2

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: Regardless of how a day goes as far as eating unhealthy what is your strategy for getting right back in the groove.

imastar2

Since getting a grip this past July 15th I do my best to get right back in the saddle and start riding. Recently the last of August we picked our son up at rehab for a 3 day pass. I took the opportunity to enjoy a few meals with him and didn't pay any attention to my diet. As a result I picked up 5 lbs. As soon as we returned him to rehab I jumped right back in the groove and lost that 5 lbs plus a couple more.

To me this is pretty much the only way for me to do it and don't hang out there waiting to get back in the groove. At least that's my current strategy.

Al_Howard

Yup! Yesterday evening was a bust, but I'm already planning "the groove" for today.

steve0mania

I view each meal as an independent event. If I have overdone it at one meal, that doesn't derail me for the next meal. With that said, then, it's amazing how much damage I can do in one sitting (sometimes)!

crewahl

True confession time - I am oddly and embarrassingly motivated by blue dots.

For those who haven’t recently been using the WW tools directly, they still assign a “daily points target” - essentially, how much food you can eat in a given day and still lose weight over time. Several years ago, they added a “healthy eating range”, which is a range that’s capped at ten points over and eight points under your daily target. If you stayed within the range, you got a blue dot for the day.

Wow, a blue dot - what a reward! They couldn’t even make it a gold star, or an explosion of fireworks or something. And yet . . .

I don’t like to deprive myself, but do try to stay within daily points. (“Rollover” points is a topic for another post.) I recognize that won’t always happen, nor do I want it to. When I do go over my daily points target, I still find I’m trying to stay within the healthy eating range. In other words, I’m not completely off track, but I’m still staying on plan. I don’t try for large streaks of blue dots as some do, but I generally try to stay there five or six days a week.

I’ve mentally adapted to this with a driving analogy. The daily points target is like the lane markings in the road. You want to stay between the double yellow line on your left and the white line on your right that defines the breakdown area. Of course, in the event you wander further, there are rumble strips and guardrails to help keep you from hurting yourself too much. I think the daily points are like lane markings to keep you on track, and the healthy eating range is there to keep you from going over the edge.

How does this relate to Derrick's question? I may bump into the guardrail sometimes, but the next day is a new opportunity to get a blue dot, or stay in the healthy eating range. Since generally that damage occurs late in the day (I rarely binge on breakfast), I’m effectively following Steve's “next meal” approach.

Flintwinch

The saying, " You can restart your day any time" let's me know that if I got off track the rest of the day is not a failure. Restarting any time is a good motivator. And I've learned. not to engage in useless rumination. Move on.