Lifelong, Permanent Attention
robingmurphy
Posts: 349 Member
I've been trying to copy quotes or information that I want to remember and remind myself of in the future. Today, I got this from The Hacker's Diet:
"The stark reality is that permanent weight control requires permanent attention to what you eat. Life long, permanent attention. The monumental pile of nonsense, mysticism, and bad advice associated with dieting stems from the all-too-human tendency to deny this simple fact. But fact it is, and like most unpleasant facts, it's best faced squarely and treated as a challenge to be overcome."
That's one of the things I'm trying to teach myself. When I've fallen off the wagon and gained weight in the past, it's because I was in denial about this fact
"The stark reality is that permanent weight control requires permanent attention to what you eat. Life long, permanent attention. The monumental pile of nonsense, mysticism, and bad advice associated with dieting stems from the all-too-human tendency to deny this simple fact. But fact it is, and like most unpleasant facts, it's best faced squarely and treated as a challenge to be overcome."
That's one of the things I'm trying to teach myself. When I've fallen off the wagon and gained weight in the past, it's because I was in denial about this fact
0
Replies
-
This content has been removed.
-
THIS! Totally need to embrace this! Thanks for posting!0
-
Very true... I basically eat now like I will eat in maintenance. All I have to do then is add in 2 snacks and I'm golden.
it's so much easier to keep the weight off when you develop lifelong habits. 0 -
Calories in and calories out. Very simple, no detox necessary. 0
-
Here's a link to The Hacker's Diet, in case your interested. It's free online. I'm enjoying it. Especially good for engineering, data-nerd types.
https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/welcome.html0 -
I love it, and also hate it. Haha. Of course I know it has to be lifelong but now as I'm still struggling to get under control the idea of a life sentence of calorie counting is an exhaustive thought. But I'm going to save this quote for my own collection, it's important to remember. After all, when I stopped paying attention I gained 40lbs back so I know I won't be doing that again.0
-
I view calorie counting as management of disease. It's no different from the other maintenance medications that folks take to keep themselves heathy: sinthroid or glaucoma drops. Whatever makes your normal normal. You just do it.
This also helps rob the scale of its power. Which I need!0 -
Yep, this is the difference between me keeping weight off and gaining it all back as I have years ago when losing. I have come to accept that I will forever have to be mindful about my diet and activity level.0
-
That is a really good quote. I like it.0
-
-
100%
0 -
The way that this time is different for me is that although of course I want to lose weight and achieve goals, I'm much more focused on developing the HABIT of monitoring what I eat calories-in-calories-out every damn day forever whether I'm motivated to or not. I'm focused on developing the habits of planning what I will eat, and tracking what I do eat, every day, no matter what, no excuses.0
-
I view calorie counting as management of disease. It's no different from the other maintenance medications that folks take to keep themselves heathy: sinthroid or glaucoma drops. Whatever makes your normal normal. You just do it.
This also helps rob the scale of its power. Which I need!
Yup. I agree. I once read someone saying that many formerly overweight people have "obesity in remission." That's how I feel. I have a chronic condition that I have to manage. I don't feel sorry for myself, and I don't think the management of the condition is that difficult. It's just a fact to accept.0 -
The challenge for me is finding the boundary between "attention" and "obsession." I'm willing to be "mindful" or "attentive"; but I don't want to be "obsessive".0
-
Another good quote from The Hacker's Diet:
"A person with a broken feedback system will always tend to gain or lose weight. In the Food and Feedback chapter we've seen how Oscar and Buster, victims of incorrect feedback, gain weight simply by heeding the deceptive message of appetite. When Oscar or Buster go on a diet, the diet tells them what to eat and when. And, for reasons we now understand, it works! As long as they follow the diet and don't cheat, they lose weight as rapidly as promised and arrive at the end of the diet thin, happy, and feeling in command of their weight.
Then they put the diet away and rely, once again, on their built-in feedback system to tell them how much to eat. But it's still broken! Sure enough, their weight starts to creep upward and before long all the progress of the diet is erased. People with a tendency to gain weight need continual guidance about how much to eat. Withdrawing this guidance at the end of a diet, or couching the need for ongoing feedback in a manner that implies, “You're a fatty, and to be slim you'll have to spend the rest of your life on a diet” is as deplorable as lending a pair of glasses to a nearsighted person for six weeks, then removing them and saying, “OK. You're on your own.”
If your eyes don't focus, you need optical correction to live a normal life, and you need it all life long. The fix that lets you see as well as a person born with perfect vision needn't be obtrusive nor prevent you from doing anything you wish, but you have to continue using it. If you happen, instead, to lack a built-in eat watch, you shouldn't feel any more guilty about technologically overcoming that limitation than your friends do about wearing glasses. Gotta problem? Quit whining, fix it, and get on with yer' life!"0 -
HappyCampr1 wrote: »I love it, and also hate it. Haha. Of course I know it has to be lifelong but now as I'm still struggling to get under control the idea of a life sentence of calorie counting is an exhaustive thought. But I'm going to save this quote for my own collection, it's important to remember. After all, when I stopped paying attention I gained 40lbs back so I know I won't be doing that again.
Lifelong, permanent attention doesn't necessarily mean a life sentence of calorie counting. Many people in maintenance only count calories when /if they reach the top of their weight range. Then they count calories to take off those few pounds. Rinse and repeat. This just means that you may have to count for a month a year, or something along that line. If you get good at maintenance, it may be less than that. It's an individual thing.
The issue really is that we're going to have to pay attention and be mindful for the rest of our lives. This is why it's so important (imo) to stick with a plan you can live with and make habits that you can sustain.
I am speaking from a place of having never been able to maintain, I just have a lot of fears over it. I'm one that will likely have to count always just to be sure, I don't know though. I have a long way to go before I have to worry about it too much.0 -
robingmurphy wrote: »I've been trying to copy quotes or information that I want to remember and remind myself of in the future. Today, I got this from The Hacker's Diet:
"The stark reality is that permanent weight control requires permanent attention to what you eat. Life long, permanent attention. The monumental pile of nonsense, mysticism, and bad advice associated with dieting stems from the all-too-human tendency to deny this simple fact. But fact it is, and like most unpleasant facts, it's best faced squarely and treated as a challenge to be overcome."
That's one of the things I'm trying to teach myself. When I've fallen off the wagon and gained weight in the past, it's because I was in denial about this fact
QFT0 -
It's a life sentence. On the one hand, that's sounds really grim and bleak, but on the other, it's sort of freeing to know that watching what I eat is just the way things are. No choice about it, just have to embrace it.0
-
Yep. I priced that to myself when I lost 60 lbs at 19, (225 - 165) then let the weight creep up slowly over the next 17 years so that at 36 I was far worse off (270).
14 months later In down to 199. When I reach my goal weight, I will have to mind my eating for the rest of my life.0 -
I don't think there's anything wrong with using a food scale for life, but I think that most of us can learn other ways of portion control, too, if we choose to. Unlike poor vision, portion control is a skill you can work on.0
-
I just read the Hacker's Diet and it makes a lot of sense. I'm not sure I'm up for logging for the rest of my life - but I'm willing to use trendweight for the rest of my life. The author pointed out that you don't necessarily have to log tediously forever. He suggests paying attention to your trends and once you hit "the brick wall", it's time to haul out all those techniques you used to lose weight (weighing, logging, etc) to get back to maintenance and then continue on. For some people though, this means logging forever.
I love the quote you posted though - it's so true that I need to look at this as a lifelong thing. I read something here on these forums sometime last week that has stuck with me - something along the lines of "I need to eat like I imagine a thinner me would eat". I want sustainability. I have no interest in being a yo-yo.
0 -
Once you reach your goal, its easy to slip back into old eating habits if you are not vigilant. This happened to me the 3 previous times I lost weight. I know this time I can not go back to eating potato chips and cheese cake. I will be eating pretty much the same food as I do not but just enough more to keep from losing. Maintainence also means weighing yourself regularly, too0
-
PlaydohPants wrote: »Good quote!
I've often thrown a pity-party and said to myself "I'll have to be this meticulous the rest of my life? It's so time consuming!". Then I think of the time wasters that it will replace. Like crying in the fitting room
:P
Hahaha you win this thread!
0 -
I've been maintaining going on three years and I don't log. I disagree that logging or keeping a diary is necessary for maintaining a healthy lifestyle and a healthy weight...but I would agree that maintaining said healthful lifestyle is necessary to maintaining a healthy weight given that the healthy weight is a bi-product of that good livin'0
-
I've only been doing this for 2-3 months, and I'm certainly putting a lot of effort into monitoring my calories, but already it's taking less attention than it did at first. I'm getting a feel for how much food fits into each day and how hungry I should be between meals. I'd like to think that after a few more months it will become even more automatic. Also, once I get to maintenance (knock on wood), I'd like to think that I can spot a resumption of weight gain while it's still small. Why wait until I've gained it all back again, as I read about people doing every single day when I come to these forums? Why not relax a bit, gain a pound or three, and then count calories again until it's gone? Eventually there should come a time when the number of days of relaxing exceeds the number of days when I have to go back to counting, assuming I'm capable of learning from experience. The one thing that's clear is that there's never going to be a magic time when I can stuff my face to my heart's content, as I basically did for the last couple of decades. But that doesn't mean I have to feel deprived forever, either. It's not all-or-nothing.0
-
I needed this thread. The Hacker's Diet is one of the most meaningful approaches out there (in addition to MFP's o course
). I'm in my 16th month of maintenance and my thoughts and feelings about "the future" shift from day to day. Just a few days ago, I decided to go for the "monthly mini-yo-yo-diet" - but right now I feel that I'm capable of keeping my weight more stable than that. I know that I need to be both vigilant and relaxed, but it's hard to find the middle ground. I realised I can choose areas to be vigilant about, and let other areas take care of themselves. I don't count calories anymore - I've gotten a grip on regular meals, portion sizes and smart food choices. I don't have to be accurate anymore, I just have to eat mindfully. So, I'm going to continue to weigh myself daily, plan my meals, weigh the foods that are difficult to eyeball but easy to portion out, and just count the rest. Well, this is my plan for now, anyway 
0 -
Attention? Yes.
Strict calorie counting? No.0 -
That's very true. I don't think a lot of people realize that... if I hadn't changed my activity, I'd still be eating the same 1700 calories that I was eating to lose, just in order to maintain.0
-
robingmurphy wrote: »The way that this time is different for me is that although of course I want to lose weight and achieve goals, I'm much more focused on developing the HABIT of monitoring what I eat calories-in-calories-out every damn day forever whether I'm motivated to or not. I'm focused on developing the habits of planning what I will eat, and tracking what I do eat, every day, no matter what, no excuses.
I am experiencing the same thing. I'm focusing on staying on the plan every day and my metric is more about how long I've been eating healthy and in moderation than on the umber of pounds I lose. The habit of staying mindful to how you treat your body .... This is what I hope will sustain me for s lifetime.
0 -
My grandmother died in 1994. She was 93 years old.
When she was in her 50's she was a round butterball by her own telling. She lost weight by....counting calories.
She did it for the rest of her life. She had a notebook in her kitchen. she showed it to me when I was a teenager. It was just the way she lived.
Once I decided to take control of my life and lose the weight, I remembered her example.
In part, what I am doing now is a tribute to a good grandmother. I named my youngest daughter after her - Pearl.0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.6K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.3K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.5K Recipes
- 232.6K Fitness and Exercise
- 431 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.6K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.8K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions