Living The Lifestyle Thursday 11/2/23 (Late Edition)

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

Today's Topic: Focus/Focusing vs Thinking and Acting.
Weight watching holds many variables. Do you tend to focus on short term daily goals like each meal or do you focus on results either short term or long term. What gives you the motivation to produce your desired results.

imastar2

This topic as simple as it may seem requires considerable thought and preparation for a desired result just like anything else in life.

What brought this topic to my mind was every week I weight in on Friday. I compare it to the previous Friday. Today I thought I'd look back at November of 22 and found I was up 5.6 lbs. From January's first Friday of this year I'm dead even @ 345.4 so far this year. We still have almost 2 months left in this year. So it's difficult to measure the frustration over a long period of time but easy to realize short term everyday frustrations as in dang it why did I eat tat cookie or chocolate bar or whatever is the culprit.

I think for me I have to focus on the one meal or the one snack and make it as healthy as possible and the portion as satisfying as possible.

So the motivation to achieve my desired results should be to focus on the next meal period and stick to it.

crewahl

I think those are two sides of the same coin. It’s really about strategy and tactics. (Careful, I’m gonna wander into corporate-speak for a minute.)

If my mission/vision to to live a long and healthy life, then the strategy question is what approach to use for that. For me, that approach is the core idea of WW - eat a bit more healthy, and move my body a bit more. So my strategy, therefore, is to limit my intake to represent fewer points consumed than I burn over time. I use WW for that. I can measure the effectiveness of that strategy by the trend at the scale, and by health metrics like BP, heart rate, blood work, etc. if those metrics are on track, then overall and over time, my strategy is being effectively implemented.

Tactics are at a lower level of detail. Strategy doesn’t change, but tactics are selected specific to a given situation. For example, the food choices I make while traveling aren’t what I would select at home, but they're the right choices for that situation. Sometimes it’s tactically appropriate to cede to a craving, and sometimes it’s more important to make a more constrained choice. So each meal or food choice represents a tactical decision about what best supports my strategy and accomplishes my mission and vision.

It’s corporate-speak, but it’s not BS. The key is keeping in mind as I select a tactic whether and how it fits into my strategy. Having that connection to an objective that I recognize is of more importance than the immediate food choice gives me a context to make decisions that are better for me in the long run.

misterhub

Charlie said it. I might have used a few different words, but my response would be very similar to his.