About Fooling Ourselves

knittygirl52

So, I've been going to counseling for my food issues. One of the things I've learned is to watch out for "fooling myself" thoughts: like, "If I eat the cookie crumbs off the platter, that won't count." Or, "Well, I'm at the party, obviously I MUST eat dessert. It won't matter."

Well, as I look at this website, I see some of us fooling ourselves in the exercise category. And I confess to doing it myself! Because we all have the opportunity to add exercise, we've added some silly things. For instance, listed under cardio are some things like "typing" or "playing classical guitar" or "cooking." Well, I can't answer for the rest of you, but I sit at a computer and type all day. I played guitar long before I started working on my weight, and I cook dinner every night. Those are things that are considered in our daily activity level -- and frankly, they're all pretty sedentary activities, not likely to raise our heartrates--unless we're cooking in "Hell's Kitchen" with Gordon Ramsay.

We all need to pay attention to "fooling myself" thoughts. When we try to say that these things are "cardio actvities" who are we hurting? The MFP site? The people we have friended on the site? No. We're hurting ourselves. And then we will say, "Why can't I lose weight? Oh, this website doesn't work." No, the website works fine.

Please, please, please, don't fool yourself today. If you didn't exercise and so went over your calorie allotment, so be it. It was a mistake and we can learn from those. But if we lie to ourselves, then we can't learn.

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."

Dawn_2013

Amen and amen! I have to say, no matter what great tools are in front of you, if you are inclined to ignore them, they are no good :ohwell: :ohwell: So...I love this site because I am using it. It takes some courage to put down those cookie crumbs but well worth it. :bigsmile:

4lafz

Brava!

jrich1

Yeah I dont count things like cooking and shopping as exercise. Everything I enter is verified with my HRM

jrich1

Amen and amen! I have to say, no matter what great tools are in front of you, if you are inclined to ignore them, they are no good :ohwell: :ohwell: So...I love this site because I am using it. It takes some courage to put down those cookie crumbs but well worth it. :bigsmile:

The cookies I make the crumbs have no calories

Peridotite

Amen to that! Someone had to say it!

Precious_Nissa

amen, amen and amen.....I do not add things of that nature either...i type 9 hours a day and I know thats already in my counted seditary lifestyle but I agree wholeheartedly....I see that same thing and I just smh....some people are fooling themselves; however, some also use it as protective nets to make it seem as if they are truly doing something...

thanks.

lisalynn35

Very well said.

knittygirl52

Ooh. Good for you with the Heat Rate Monitor. I need to start doing that!

AlannaPie

Those exercises are seriously there? Hilarious!

riveraphx

i know i know....let me tell you about something that's been on my mind a lot about fooling myself.

sometimes I will underestimate how much I ate on the tracker. but then I say to myself: why log inaccurately, why underestimate, you still ate what you ate. Just b/c the tracker says you have 50 calories left it doesn't mean you actually do if you feel you may have underestimated something and you're only lying to yourself.

that's how I have fooled myself and played games with myself and I don't want to do it anymore.

LotusF1ower

So, I've been going to counseling for my food issues. One of the things I've learned is to watch out for "fooling myself" thoughts: like, "If I eat the cookie crumbs off the platter, that won't count." Or, "Well, I'm at the party, obviously I MUST eat dessert. It won't matter."

Well, as I look at this website, I see some of us fooling ourselves in the exercise category. And I confess to doing it myself! Because we all have the opportunity to add exercise, we've added some silly things. For instance, listed under cardio are some things like "typing" or "playing classical guitar" or "cooking." Well, I can't answer for the rest of you, but I sit at a computer and type all day. I played guitar long before I started working on my weight, and I cook dinner every night. Those are things that are considered in our daily activity level -- and frankly, they're all pretty sedentary activities, not likely to raise our heartrates--unless we're cooking in "Hell's Kitchen" with Gordon Ramsay.

We all need to pay attention to "fooling myself" thoughts. When we try to say that these things are "cardio actvities" who are we hurting? The MFP site? The people we have friended on the site? No. We're hurting ourselves. And then we will say, "Why can't I lose weight? Oh, this website doesn't work." No, the website works fine.

Please, please, please, don't fool yourself today. If you didn't exercise and so went over your calorie allotment, so be it. It was a mistake and we can learn from those. But if we lie to ourselves, then we can't learn.

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."

Good post! Fully agree with you.

I add my treadmill workouts and long walks that are done specifically for exercise that day, everything else I just forget about and do not log, what's the point, they are in my day-to-day living and I was doing those before I started my weight loss programme.

Lots of people will fool themselves regarding exercise, adding every single "calories burned" so that basically they can add it to their food allotment which means they can eat more. However, sticking stuff in the counter such as "walking 100m to the shop" shouldn't even be in the equation and you are spot on when you say, they are fooling themselves :flowerforyou:

valeriebpdx

This was a great post, and so true! I have been thinking about this lately, since I read some other MFP'er refer to her calories burned for childcare activities. The few people who mentioned something along the lines of "you've been doing that all along and not losing weight" are right on target. When my kids were small people always used to say to me, "You must get all the exercise you need chasing those guys around" and I always thought "If only!" Even if your HRM shows some calories burned for cooking or playing with kids, note: you burn calories just for being alive. Your HRM would show you burning calories if you were lying on the sofa--not a lot, but some. My rule is if I am doing purposeful exercise or if I walked, ran, or biked somewhere I would ordinarily have driven the car, I count it. Otherwise, it's just life! Again, excellent post.