Interesting quiz: What's your Habit Personality?

segacs wrote: »

A little about how each habit type can find success on MFP:

Upholders probably have the easiest time sticking to weight loss and exercise plans if they simply decide to make these things part of their habits. They're the ones who likely respond best to "just do it". If you're an upholder, deciding to schedule calorie tracking or workouts into your routine, and focusing on the how, probably work best for you. External support is helpful for upholders, especially at the beginning, but they're likely fine without it too because once they decide to lose weight, they just do it.

Questioners probably need to understand the 'why' instead of the 'how'. They will lose weight not because their doctor tells them to or because of any external expectations, but because they understand the reasons -- the health implications, or the logic. They also are the people who do best by taking control of the process by understanding why it works; the science or math behind CICO, the ability to manipulate calories based on diet or exercise choices. If you're a questioner, you're probably also a skeptic, and less likely to accept all the fad diet or quick fix ideas out there. Once you understand why it works, you'll probably do fine, with or without external support.

Rebels are probably the ones who are most likely to avoid wanting to lose weight if they feel pressured by the people around them or by society's expectations to do so. "Screw you, I'm not going to turn into some skinny media ideal just because you tell me to" might have been their rebel-minded reason for not doing it sooner. The best way to motivate yourself as a rebel? Set yourself a challenge. Get someone else to say (or say to yourself) "hey, I bet you can't lose the weight / deadlift 100lbs / run a half-marathon". Then prove yourself wrong, because nobody -- not even you -- is gonna tell you that you can't do something, amirite? Finding exercise you love is another great way for a rebel to do something because you want to run / lift / train / dance. If you're doing it because you enjoy it, not because anyone expects you to, you're more likely to stick with it. Rebels often do best when they have a lack of support, or even negative support, since people doubting them tends to motivate them more than people supporting them.

Obligers are usually the ones who find the most success by creating external accountability. Saying "I'm going to lose weight so I can be there for my children" or "I'm going to the gym because I made a commitment to my friend that we'd go twice a week and I don't want to let her down" can be powerful motivators. If you recognize that you're an obliger, you probably want to seek out as much external support as possible. Obligers respond well to diet bets, team sports, or anything where failure to stick to their MFP plan would let someone else down.

UPHOLDER
Upholders respond readily to both outer and inner expectations: they meet deadlines and keep New Year’s resolutions without much struggle or supervision. Upholders take great satisfaction from moving smoothly through their daily schedule and their to-do lists. They meet others’ expectations—and their expectations for themselves. However, Upholders may feel uneasy when expectations aren’t clear, when they’re worried that they’re breaking the rules, or when they feel overwhelmed by expectations they seek to meet. They enjoy habits, and form habits fairly easily. If you want to learn more about the "upholder" tendency, please go to Gretchen Rubin’s website for a full report and to add your email to her mailing list.

segacs wrote: »

Upholders probably have the easiest time sticking to weight loss and exercise plans if they simply decide to make these things part of their habits. They're the ones who likely respond best to "just do it". If you're an upholder, deciding to schedule calorie tracking or workouts into your routine, and focusing on the how, probably work best for you. Fitbits and trackers and convenience meal plans are useful for upholders, since these things help them with their habit forming. External support is helpful for upholders, especially at the beginning, but they're likely fine without it too because once they decide to lose weight, they just do it.

HappyCampr1 wrote: »

I've seen several Upholders with scores of 4. I was a score of 6 Upholder. I wonder what the difference is. It would be nice to have a scale or something.