The definition of insanity.

banks1850

Just wanted to give a short diatribe on this topic.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as thus:

"doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

I actually see that a lot on MFP. Don't get me wrong people, I commend everyone on here for taking the steps they have, and I'll be the first one to admit, this stuff isn't a cake walk.
BUT,
I guess it just frustrates me when I see people doing something that isn't working, then becoming angry or frustrated when it doesn't work, THEN CONTINUING the same course without re-analyzing, and adjusting it.

Common sense dictates that if something isn't working there should be a process to fix it. I'm a left brain, my whole life I have been very numbers, and scientific minded. I approach issues with a sort of detachment. So when it came to my diet and nutrition I took the same approach. I chose to do lots of research, start with proven techniques, and then adjusted my routine to fit my body, and kept what worked, and changed what didn't.

I hold back a lot, I'm actually a much harsher person than what I give off in these forums. People who know me at home would call me a "no Bull$h*t" person. I say it like it is, and sometimes that get's me in trouble, but more often then not (I hope), I'm right.

I guess I have no real point here, except this, if it isn't working, adjust. The human body is complicated, you could be just a little tiny bit off in one aspect. Make small adjustments, test them, and then make more adjustments until you find the right ones. I know this takes time and we all want progress NOW, but sometimes you just have to be patient.

My one piece of advice is before you get frustrated, find out why things do or don't work. Do research. Google is a great tool. Read up on the human metabolism, the basics of the muscle system, the cardio-vascular system...etc. These systems play a HUGE roll in weight loss, and trying to change your body without knowing how they work is like trying to rebuild a transmission in a car by eyeballing it beforehand and putting it back together from memory. You MAY get lucky, but usually you'll just screw something up.

that's my opinion atleast. I had to get that off my chest, I'm sorry if this bothers people, I know that everyone out there is just looking for a good way to do it. But this is MY issue, I love helping everyone, but sometimes it just get's me crazy that some questions are asked that have either common sense answers, or ones easy to find if you just stop and look before you ask.

-A man who is a little ashamed at his own intolerance

Banks :embarassed:

banks1850

Just wanted to give a short diatribe on this topic.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as thus:

"doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

I actually see that a lot on MFP. Don't get me wrong people, I commend everyone on here for taking the steps they have, and I'll be the first one to admit, this stuff isn't a cake walk.
BUT,
I guess it just frustrates me when I see people doing something that isn't working, then becoming angry or frustrated when it doesn't work, THEN CONTINUING the same course without re-analyzing, and adjusting it.

Common sense dictates that if something isn't working there should be a process to fix it. I'm a left brain, my whole life I have been very numbers, and scientific minded. I approach issues with a sort of detachment. So when it came to my diet and nutrition I took the same approach. I chose to do lots of research, start with proven techniques, and then adjusted my routine to fit my body, and kept what worked, and changed what didn't.

I hold back a lot, I'm actually a much harsher person than what I give off in these forums. People who know me at home would call me a "no Bull$h*t" person. I say it like it is, and sometimes that get's me in trouble, but more often then not (I hope), I'm right.

I guess I have no real point here, except this, if it isn't working, adjust. The human body is complicated, you could be just a little tiny bit off in one aspect. Make small adjustments, test them, and then make more adjustments until you find the right ones. I know this takes time and we all want progress NOW, but sometimes you just have to be patient.

My one piece of advice is before you get frustrated, find out why things do or don't work. Do research. Google is a great tool. Read up on the human metabolism, the basics of the muscle system, the cardio-vascular system...etc. These systems play a HUGE roll in weight loss, and trying to change your body without knowing how they work is like trying to rebuild a transmission in a car by eyeballing it beforehand and putting it back together from memory. You MAY get lucky, but usually you'll just screw something up.

that's my opinion atleast. I had to get that off my chest, I'm sorry if this bothers people, I know that everyone out there is just looking for a good way to do it. But this is MY issue, I love helping everyone, but sometimes it just get's me crazy that some questions are asked that have either common sense answers, or ones easy to find if you just stop and look before you ask.

-A man who is a little ashamed at his own intolerance

Banks :embarassed:

rheston

Hear, hear. Well said.

I agree with you wholeheartedly. I would add that we're all so uniquely different and that for the most part the information, calculators and such that we find on MFP and other sites is based on some level of performance or general health and that we should all be aware of what our bodies are and are not doing and pay real attention to that and adjust like you say.

Because of our unique make up and individual health conditions there's no simple cookie cutter approach that we can emphatically point to and say, "this is the only way". We should absorb what we read and, LIKE YOU SAY, adjust ourselves accordingly.

Thanks for taking the time to put this together. :drinker:

sindyb9

I agree and I love your directness. The I CANT gets me. I feel if you want it YOU CAN sometimes you mess up and that is ok just get back up and DO IT. I cant count how many times I have had to do this.

Thanks Bank :drinker:

johmapri

I agree 100%. Well said!

Poison5119

AS I have said on another post, you have to WANT XX worse than you want YY, and it takes work and choices. The body is a wonderfully complex city/machine. No two people are going to operate exactly alike.

This has to be a long-term committment. I plateaued (or so it seemed) a month ago and it was driving me crazy til I started mini-HIIT workouts to my routine, and increased my time and resistance in all my other workouts, and BAM, I'm losing MORE than the half pound a week than I'm set up for on MFP. But then again, I have one of those genetically 'average' bodies and my weight loss is mere mathematics. Eat less, move more, the body responds accordingly. I'm lucky. I know there's another plateau out there, lying in wait for me, but NOW, I'm armed and dangerous!!!!

It didn't take any of us OVERNIGHT to get as big as we did, and it's not going to be OVERNIGHT to lose it. Banks, right ON, and keep writing. Thx for the kick in the Azz!! You're the best. :flowerforyou:

cp005e

I think it's a hard balance for people. One the one hand, you're telling them to be patient, and on the other hand, you're telling them that they shouldn't just keep doing the same thing if it's not working. While these are both true, it can been hard to figure out when you need to 'wait it out' or 'give your body time to catch up' or whatever, and when something really isn't working and needs to be tweaked. And some people have more patience than others.

I think the most important thing is to really get to know your own body. The early weeks and months are the hardest, because you probably got overweight by NOT paying attention to your body, what you were putting into it, and what it was capable of. Logging the food helps on the former point, and exercise helps on the latter. Eventually, things start to fall into place, and you begin to see the harmony between eating well and exercising in how you feel and what your body is able to do. But it can take a little while before it all starts making intuitive sense. And during that time, it is easy to thrash about for 'the answer' or what you're supposed to be doing.

It really boils down to seeing what works for a lot of people, trying it out, and tweaking it. Things that work for most people are: drinking enough water, eating breakfast, getting some cardiovascular exercise, and doing some strength training. But the details of what your own routine should be takes time, commitment, and trial-and-error. And, of course, figuring out what you can live with and keep up for the long haul.

:flowerforyou: Chris

jlwhelan1

Oh, Banks, I Einstein. So this is a Bump


Bump

Collected Quotes from Albert Einstein

* "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
* "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
* "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."
* "I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."
* "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
* "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
* "The only real valuable thing is intuition."
* "A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
* "I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."
* "God is subtle but he is not malicious."
* "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
* "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
* "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
* "Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
* "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
* "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
* "Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."
* "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
* "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
* "Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."
* "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
* "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
* "God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."
* "The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
* "Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."
* "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
* "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."
* "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
* "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."
* "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
* "Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."
* "Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity."
* "If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."
* "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
* "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
* "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
* "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
* "In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep."
* "The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead."
* "Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves."
* "Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"
* "No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?"
* "My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
* "Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever."
* "The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."
* "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."
* "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."
* "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
* "The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."
* "Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
* "You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."
* "One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year."
* "...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought."
* "He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."
* "A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
* "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton)

Copyright: Kevin Harris 1995 (may be freely distributed with this acknowledgment)

shorerider

Oh, Banks, I Einstein. So this is a Bump


Bump

Collected Quotes from Albert Einstein

Add my favorite Einstein quotes:

“I thought of that while riding my bike.” Albert Einstein, on the theory of relativity

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”

banks1850

I guess this probably merits a bump or two.

JennyGetsFitness

Banks! Great topic!

Anything could be done if you use no-bull approach. A lot of people are either in denial about their weight or stack in the analysis-paralisis state or wishful thinking stage. They want to have that perfect body without any sacrifice. I see this a lot.
Any change is hard and does require an intelligent/ itertaive approach. It is not simple for anyone, it requires tweaks and adjustments along the way. And yes, there is no magic bullet, no "one size-fits-all", that people seem to be looking for. Those are the people that would rather buy a diet pill ("magic bullet") than a proven exercise and diet program. Well, it's their money One can just hope they will see the light one day

food_junkie

Great post banks!

PrincessLaundry

I don't want to bump this up because you're scaring me!!! :sad:

Awwww crud...I just bumped it... :sad: :sad:

2day4ever

Missed this post on the w/e. Thanks for the bump. Could not agree more! I think the whole weight/diet/nutrition industry is inherently frustrating. We all have tried various methods that promise quick and painless results. I appreciate MFP b/c there is soooooo much reinforcement for core issues like knowing this is a long-term process; knowing that numbers are the guide to watch; knowing that choices have to be made. Sometimes choices feel like a compromise and sometimes like a sacrifice and those things (generally speaking) are hard for people to do. So, the MFP Community is key for supporting that fundamental change in thinking.

For me personally, I learned in my 20s that I could cut my calories and up my exercise and weight would slide right off me. Three kids and a couple decades later, that is no longer true. I used to try (desperately) to go back to what used to work. I FINALLY (through all the repetition on MFP) learned and accepted and integrated the idea that what USED to work does not work anymore and I have to change it up.

So thanks for reminding us, Banks et al. You all serve as an inspiration ~ many of you have reached your own personal goals but still hang out here to remind us of what we need to remember. Thank you thank you thank you.