Living the Lifestyle (LTL) - Wed., March 1, 2017
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minimyzeme
Posts: 2,708 Member
Everyone says it, but just how do you do it? How do you take the guidelines of the WW program and turn them into a lifestyle you can live every day...from now on? That is what we are here to explore. Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion. Newbie? Join in! Veteran? Join in! Your thoughts may be just what someone else needs to hear.
Monday -- 88olds (George)
Tuesday -- spospo1 (Steve)
Wednesday -- minimyzeme (Kim)
Thursday -- imastar2 (Derrick)
Friday --Jim376 (Jim)
Today's topic: Let’s talk self-control
It may be said that much of the weight loss challenge comes from using more self-control around food and drink. What’s your experience with it? Have you noticed any change in your self-control since starting to lose weight? If self-control is a challenge for you, are there particular situations or is it a general thing to contend with all the time?
Monday -- 88olds (George)
Tuesday -- spospo1 (Steve)
Wednesday -- minimyzeme (Kim)
Thursday -- imastar2 (Derrick)
Friday --Jim376 (Jim)
Today's topic: Let’s talk self-control
It may be said that much of the weight loss challenge comes from using more self-control around food and drink. What’s your experience with it? Have you noticed any change in your self-control since starting to lose weight? If self-control is a challenge for you, are there particular situations or is it a general thing to contend with all the time?
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Like many things before WW, I blindly went along stuffing my face all through the day. Generally, if something looked good or if it was available, it was fair game. Sure, I ate when I has wanting food but I also ate a lot of the time when I really wasn’t. Much of what I ate was just for instant gratification. Portion size rarely limited my intake. Whatever was served was a portion. I’m exaggerating a little bit, but not a whole lot. If I was out with friends, I’d often get caught up in the moment and just keep going ’til the food and drink were gone. In general, I used very little self control with food or drink.
The point structure offered by WW has helped me be more mindful and at the same time, increased my awareness of self-control and its place in my weight loss. Of course, it’s obvious now but it really never was even on my radar until I started counting points. Early on, I realized I would be much better off to be very mindful of when I started to lose self-control. What was going on, and why did I go astray? I noticed a few different situations.
The first was stressful or emotionally tense times. These were often triggers for me to eat and in those times there was really no self-control until I had to be accountable. I also realized my sweet tooth had led me astray far too many times. Lastly, even though I’m somewhat of an introvert, when I was out with friends and the beer started flowing, it was real easy to just keep going, eating and drinking long into the night. These weren’t the only situations that challenged my self-control but they were the main ones.
These days, because keeping the weight off is important to me, most of the time, I am pretty good with self-control. But I have to think about it each step of the way. I haven’t gone off the deep end in a long time. I’m a big believer in taking this one day at a time. Paying more attention to self-control around food and drink has been a big part of what’s gotten me to this point and it’s obviously something I’ll have to pay attention to from here on out.
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I don't think my level of self control has changed much at all. I still have a weakness for desserts of any kind. I do best when there is nothing around to tempt me.
What is different from my pre-WW days, is the level of self awareness. I pay attention, when I have a weak moment with the cookie jar. Corrective action is taken to balance out the consequences.0 -
Portion control helped give me the habits for consuming right amount. I still eat too fast. Planning and habits help me more than stàring down the devil. I still eat too many cashews if you plunk a bowl in front of me. I do better by managing my environment ahead of time.For sure I need to be mindful. I guess habits lead to better self control in a sense. I do hustle past the girl scouts and their cookies which may help0
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I am not much of a believer in primarily relying on self control and have the track record to prove it. I think keeping in touch on why I need to get to and stay at a healthy weight, understanding what my triggers are and being alert to them, along with being aware of what I am eating and how it is adding up are more helpful. Otherwise I can spin out of control. But awareness will also help me get back on track to minimize the impact. Overtime these become the new norm or habits. Self control or will power I think has a lot of will but little power.0
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First I had to get it in my head that I needed control. I was another guy just bouncing from one thing to eat or drink to another. I stated WW because I thought I was going to have to count something to get control. I read somewhere that WW involved counting of some kind.
Then one day our fellow GOADie Charlie, (MIA?) wrote a brilliant post about limits. It wasn't that I was fighting the Devil for self control. I didn't need to channel my inner drill sergeant to beat discipline into my head. I only needed to accept a few limits. Like it or not, life comes with limits.
So at the summer cookout, I get a cookie from the desert table, move away, and don't go back. Lest I wind up diving in head first. There's gotta be some limits.0 -
Self-control is much easier when you have measures of your behavior and accountability. So, the weighing, measuring and tracking all make it much more difficult to deny errant behavior.
Easier, but not a given.
I have a deep affinity for black jelly beans. They're tough to find (in all black) other than Easter season. Which, where I live, starts on February 15th. I started back to tracking earlier this week. I noticed that I am eating far fewer of them now than I was last week, when every pass by the break room seemed to include a 'small' handful of those luscious licorice delights.
The challenge has been having the 'control' to implement tracking when I notice things aren't going the way I'd like. As I've said before, it's not always that the weight is up. Mostly, I notice changes in my eating that I know, if left unchecked, will lead to nothing good.0 -
For me it is always after dinner when I'm watching TV. The habit of snacking all night while watching TV is embedded deeply. This is the major place where I have to exercise self control. This is the place where I have to tell my inner child to stop whining when I've hit my calorie goal for the day. And I have to be ok with saying I've had enough.
I realized the other day that I use food not only for comfort and for good feelings(temporarily), but I use it for entertainment. I catch myself saying to myself "what can I find that is fun to eat"0 -
Self control is a hard one for me because I tend to get into perfectionist mode (which then leads to the restrict, restrict, restrict, binge cycle). When I first dropped the weight, learning self control around food was paramount. However, I started to control too much and stopped eating out with friends/family.
This time around I've had to learn how to lose weight while loosening the reigns. My coworker brought in Insomnia cookies yesterday (which are a 10 in my book). I made room in my budget so I could indulge. It's all about balance this time around.0 -
I have very little self control when faced with sweets, especially "free" ones in the break room. Fortunately, those situations occur randomly, not regularly.
On the home front, I just don't keep things in the house that I have trouble resisting. If I really, really want something, then I'm going to have to drive to the store to get it. That is usually enough deterrent.
I also very rarely make brownies because of all the sweet treats in my life, they seem to be the top offenders in terms of overcoming any good intentions or portion control that I might have.
I do indulgence in some chocolate every day, but it is portion controlled and planned into my budget. That regular indulgence does a lot to keep me from going out of control.0 -
What day of the week is it? What time of the day is it? What kind of a mood has overtaken me?
One day, I am good at self-control; another day not so much. Same with time and mood. That's why I am working on building habits and good practices...so I don't have to depend on self-control.0 -
Pre WW I ate what I wanted and seldom tried to exercise any self control. After four years on WW I am proud to say I have learned both portion control and select healthy food. I have not "binged" but have made choices knowing the "cost" in SPs.
Self control is one area that I have greatly improved upon. I never lived the "moderation in all things" pre WW. I'm thankful for learning how to have self control when it comes to quantity and quality of food.0 -
Like someone else said, it's the awareness for the need for self-control that is currently driving me. Over time, I'll get to the point where I'll be aware of the need for self-control maybe 25% of the time, but at the moment, I need to exercise self-control with all foods 100% of the time. So for me, self-control is situational. It might be about the type of food I'm staring down, or it might be where my head happens to be at any given time. As I practice self-control, it becomes less in the forefront of my mind, and I resent less the need for it.0
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For me it's always been about self control or portion control and it's still a concern or focus of my daily life. I stay really busy many days in my work and if I don't just stop and drive up a stob I would work right on through a meal time knowing I feel hungry and stomach sometimes growling. It's not always that bad but I like to have time to at least prepare and figure out things. I'm working on this mentally as I post.0
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It certainly involves self control. However, WW mostly has helped me be mindful of food selection and quantity. Mindful decisions relate to self control, in my opinion. Counting influences me to be mindful, such as considering the number of SP's in one cookie vs. a box of cookies. Yes, I can have one cookie and be satisfied. Before WW I may have been satisfied after one cookie, but rarely if ever stopped at one, or two, or three.0
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I think of it more as disciplined vs. self control...I'm pretty good at it in general, but a lack of sleep is what can destroy it.0
