Your Past Experience with GOAD?
Jimb376mfp
Posts: 6,236 Member
Kim @minimyzeme posted this on Monday's LTL.
"Fortunately, I found GOAD early on. The straight talk (and the archives) helped to wise me up shortly after I started WW. So much sage advice from those who'd already walked the walk. That collective wisdom led me to a couple 'ifs', I guess."
I read it and realized how important GoaD has been to my WL journey. The GOAD group on the old WW Community BB was a no nonsense, straight talk, tell it like it is forum that taught me a lot.
Now when I read posts on WW Connect people whining about stuff I just think how that would have been addressed by GoaDies.
I realize I know "stuff" but some things are best left unsaid on a open WW forum.
Do you try to pass on "lessons learned"? I think most times it's a case of
"You can lead a horse to water but..."
If and when a person is really ready to face it and wants to lose weight they will seek out a way and follow it.
How much knowledge about weight loss have you acquired from GoaDs?
What gems do you remember and abide by?
Do you share your WL knowledge, wisdom and insights with others?
"Fortunately, I found GOAD early on. The straight talk (and the archives) helped to wise me up shortly after I started WW. So much sage advice from those who'd already walked the walk. That collective wisdom led me to a couple 'ifs', I guess."
I read it and realized how important GoaD has been to my WL journey. The GOAD group on the old WW Community BB was a no nonsense, straight talk, tell it like it is forum that taught me a lot.
Now when I read posts on WW Connect people whining about stuff I just think how that would have been addressed by GoaDies.
I realize I know "stuff" but some things are best left unsaid on a open WW forum.
Do you try to pass on "lessons learned"? I think most times it's a case of
"You can lead a horse to water but..."
If and when a person is really ready to face it and wants to lose weight they will seek out a way and follow it.
How much knowledge about weight loss have you acquired from GoaDs?
What gems do you remember and abide by?
Do you share your WL knowledge, wisdom and insights with others?
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Replies
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Well hard to put a number on GOAD. I looked at Connect 1X and it seemed like ANTIGOAD.
When I started GOAD was the only way I could get a fast answer to my questions and I had a lot of questions.
My three favorite GOAD insights have been:
Someone sneezed on those donuts.
If you aren't losing you're eating too much.
It's just about living with some limits.3 -
GoaD was hugely important for me my first go-round. In addition to the straight talk, I appreciated the humor and the "hang in there's ".
"Don't give up anything you don't want to give up for the rest of your life. Just find a way to include it as part of an overall healthy lifestyle."2 -
How much knowledge about weight loss have you acquired from GoaDs? All of it! Though I have a great WW leader and have heard most of it in meetings as well, GoaD was a crash course!
What gems do you remember and abide by? All of them! But maybe the most important is that there is no finish line!
Do you share your WL knowledge, wisdom and insights with others? If you mean in general (like in the 'real world'), only when asked, and then, sparingly. At my meetings, yes, but I try to pose it gently or as a question or as my own experience. I find that even when somebody asks a question with a hard answer, they don't always really want to hear it. I also find that there are just as many myths taken as truth today as in the old days of newbies on GoaD in January.1 -
Have enjoyed GOAD since I started on WW, 4 or 5 times ago. Straight talk. No fluff. Insightful. With humor mixed in. Like Gavin, the most impactful advice I have received is "Don't give up anything you don't want to give up for the rest of your life. Just find a way to include it as part of an overall healthy lifestyle." I think MamaCin posted it the first time I saw it. Coming off of Adkins and South Beach, it was exactly what I wanted and needed to hear.0
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The one that sticks with me, all these years later, is "there is no finish line." Its helpful for that mindset that wants the weight gone now, Now, NOW! Because, really, what's the big deal with time. Its not like anything spectacular happens at the "end", because there is no end. So better make this something you can sustain and manage for the rest of your life. Because that's the deal.
Another is 'progress, not perfection'. Or stated another way, just because you trip on the stairs is no reason to throw yourself down the rest of the flight. ("Well, I've already blown this day, I might as well eat an entire bag of doritos")
But probably the most important thing, although its not a pithy saying, is the clear-eyed honesty I encountered at GoaD. The calling-out of double-speak for what it is: abdicating one's responsibility and agency. Examples:
- I ate more than I wanted to. (Not possible, unless someone force-fed you. It may have been more than you PLANNED, but you definitely wanted to eat it.)
- Having a cheat day. (Really? Who are you cheating, exactly? Your body knows what you ate)
- X, Y or Z made me fat. (No, you put that food in your mouth. YOU made you fat.)
Murple
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Everything Murple said. And also that sometimes other things are more important, and that ultimately, it's all about health and living.2
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I started WW and discovered GOAD at the same time, so the things I learned from the GOADies and WW were very similar. The most important to me are:
Don't do anything you can't sustain for the rest of your life
There is not finish line
Raging against the injustice of being a person who has to be mindful of what he/she eats is like raging against getting old. It simply is. You have to learn to deal with it on your terms.
Weight loss happens in the kitchen, not the gym
I don't really share any of this, other than to caution someone who is planning to exercise to loose weight1 -
I think Murple pretty much summed it up. I would add MTBC "Make the Better Choice" and not giving up when healthy options seem limited or unappealing in the moment, there is generally a better choice out there than just saying oh well and tanking it.2
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goldenfrisbee wrote: »Raging against the injustice of being a person who has to be mindful of what he/she eats is like raging against getting old. It simply is. You have to learn to deal with it on your terms.
I absolutely love this! I wish I had realized this sooner. Also, that even thin people are mindful of their intake, just in different ways
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Yup I ain't finished yet. We were fairly no nonsense but not mean spirited. It is hard to find value in validating un-useful behavior over and over again. Empathy sure. Many of us have been there. I like make the better choice as long as I make a lot of good to better choices. I found that I could have a couple of not so great choices/meals per week and still lose but try to follow the habit trail more.2
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I like "persistence not perfection" and that is a good mantra for me. Murple says it well.3
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I enrolled in WW online and the same day started checking some of the message boards. Most were pretty easy to breeze right on by but GOAD caught my attention for the strikingly frank talk from both genders. Of course, the archives were still there so I really dug in. The more I read, the more I learned. Some of it was real eye-opening, in places I wasn't really ready to have my eyes opened, but I knew I'd come back to some of that content later.
I went to a meeting once a week (still do, most weeks) and liked the leader. Now, three years later, I really like her. She's wonderful and I get a lot out of the meetings. But those are once a week for a half-hour at a time. I zeroed in on GOAD and really considered the discussions, weighing them against my own beliefs or behavior. I learned a lot and came to put serious value on having all the participants as a resource almost any time I needed it. I found GOAD and the meetings to be quite complimentary for where I was in the process. And the combination really has been for me ever since.
It's hard to think of any real nuggets besides what's been mentioned already. Many of those one-liners are keepers for me too. But I will add this: it is a real source of support to know there is a group like this comprised of newbies and oldbies and some in-between willing to do what we do: to share wisdom, lessons learned and provide a KITA when needed. I don't care who the current spokesperson is for WW; I'll put my money on the collective wisdom and camaraderie of GOAD any day. That's why it's so important for me. I wouldn't die without it but it's great to know we're all here working and learning from each other.
When asked, I share--not to the point of being a PITA but if someone wants to know what's worked for me, I'll give it to 'em straight-up. I have participated on Connect a bit and do sometimes get pretty blunt about the advice (telling those who seek good luck that they don't need luck, for example). I see Connect as a very different space / place. It's certainly not my chosen format but I figure it's probably more relevant for those who've grown up with the dynamics of social media. I prefer this but I guess as they say, that's why there's more flavors than vanilla...
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Oh -- on the issue of sharing, I generally don't. Even when people ask, they don't really want to hear the answer. I generally just say that I'm counting calories and exercising more. But I am quick to admit that there's nothing magic about counting calories. The magic is stopping eating, i.e., accepting that there are limits. People really don't want to hear that.
I share more with friends, of course, but I always add the YMMV caveat because what works for me doesn't necessarily work for a friend. Even a good friend. They like different foods than I do, or have a different schedule, or physical limitations, etc. So the only advice that fits everyone is, "You have to figure out a way this will work for you."
Murple2 -
To me GoaD was and still is a very important area of my life. Now I'm closing in on 70 in July and I'm busier in my work than I've been in over 10 years. So my participation with alot of the post has been sparse for that reason but I do make an effort to get here every day and read the post.
So I'm alittle sad that so many members don't post any more. They may be lurking and not joining in. NTW it's good to see your post Murple. It's late for me and I almost a 1000 miles away from home on a business trip and I have to come up with the LTL post for first thing Thursday am. So I will sign off with that.2 -
< mostly a lurker these days
GOAD was the coolest board. No BS. No kumbayas. Sometimes a little snarky with flybys from other boards. Lots of humor.
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Another note: just another habit
I had gotten so far out of the habit of posting from being busier at work, etc., that I only thought to check in at really inconvenient times. I tend to do the same in regards to returning phone calls, emails, etc., unfortunately!0 -
Thanks for the shout-out, Imastar2! Like Lily, I had gotten out of the habit of posting on GoaD, too. I'm not a WW member any more and with some health issues (perhaps I'll detail in another post) it just seemed like I had less and less in common with WWers.
I think I've reached a new normal, though, so I'm less concerned with the immediate day to day issues of managing that condition, and focused more on weight loss again. So I thought I might dip a toe back into the GoaD waters.
Glad to find GoaD's still here!
Murple
P.S. Hi Lily!0 -
I joined MFP last summer and was doing well for a few months and then fell back again. But I continued to check in daily just to acknowledge to myself that there was something I needed to pay more attention to, and I needed to return to mindful eating.0
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Hi, Murps!
And EXACTLY.0 -
I really enjoyed the old GOAD board. It was a nice mix of education/learning, lack of bull, digging hard to get to honest truths, plus a lot of fun on-occasion!
I guess that part of turning this all into a "lifestyle" is becoming less dependent on having a group of weight-watchers that you interact with all of the time, and instead, finding other things in common with people. That's not to say that I don't still enjoy spending some time here, but when the primary discussion points are weight, it's hard to stay deeply interested because my own weight has been relatively stable for a few years now.
I float in-and-out of other groups as well. When I was brewing beer regularly, I interacted with beer-brewing groups. When I was running a lot, I interacted with runners. When I was weight-lifting a lot, it was weight-lifting groups. Etc., etc., etc.
It's probably just a natural evolution of communities.1 -
Whatever happened to Charlie? He was a GoaD regular that added a lot to the group.0
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I stalked Charlie when I came back and he's been missing since mid-February. I wondered the same thing!0
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Yeah I miss Charlie a lot.0
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Charlie's before and after picture was enough to motivate anyone. It was proof the plan works if you work the plan. Miss him as well. Great to see posts from fellow music lover Lily and Murple. Always looked forward to what you had to say on GOAD. I am much more of a lurker than poster, but learned so much from GOAD. Even when I would go "off the reservation" to South Beach, always checked in on GOAD, and eventually returned to WW based on your success.1
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Hopefully Charlie will wander in the door one day. You are right about that before after picture he had. He's a good one.0
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I miss Charlie too. He's the reason I joined MFP and reconnected with GoaD.0
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When I was then WW. sight I found Goad and kept with reading the posts every day but mostly lurking but now I have gotten involved with more posting. I like this sight because everyone is so inspirational and open minded and has great advise.
Thanks to everyone !!!2
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