Are you just going through the motions of being a Weight Watcher?

Sometimes when we've been doing something for a long time we think we're still doing it with the same intent and gusto as when we first started but are we?  If we're no longer getting the same results, are we still really putting in the same efforts?  Or are we just going through the motions?

If you find you are stagnating perhaps it's time to take a good honest look at your efforts.  And really, if you have been doing this for a long time there is a good chance your efforts have dwindled or at least changed.  I've had to re-evaluate my efforts more than a few times over the years!

Never mistake motion or for action: 

 how can we examine this when it comes to being a Weight Watcher?

-Do you faithfully go to your meetings but have hit a plateau in your weight loss?

-Do you consider yourself a good food planner but in reality find that several days a week you have to order in or take a frozen something out of the freezer?

-Your consider yourself a walker/swimmer/gym person but in the past few months your usual 4 to 5 times a week has dropped to 1 or 2 times a week?

-You were a tracking star when you first started but now track less than half the time because you eat the same food all the time so "know" how much you're taking in?

-You used to work all sides of the plan: food, fitness and fulfillment but when you think of it very little new effort is aimed in their direction?

If some or all of the above apply to you, perhaps you are just going through the motions but without true action.  If this is you, welcome to the club, because all of the examples from above are from my own personal experience!  

And if you're not moving forward,

 perhaps it's time to re-evaluate and see what are 

truly actions and what are just motions.

The trouble is, you think you have time. Buddha

Last week my dear friend Donna had a bad headache which turned out to be an aneurysm and she died.  That is the short version of the story.  Her death has left us all reeling and I can't help but search for the meaning of it all and I keep coming back to this: stop wasting time.

Here's my personal "Stop Wasting Time" to-do list:

Stop wasting time worrying, if you can do something about it, do it, if not let it go.

Stop wasting time on people who don't value you, and by this I mean stop trying to change them into the person who gets what a fantastic person you are.

Stop wasting time on what you think other people think of you, they don't really think about you all that much, they're too busy thinking about their own shit.

Stop wasting time being fearful of trying something new, the worst thing that can happen is that you don't like it or you're not good at it and neither of those things will kill you.

Stop wasting time measuring yourself with someone else's stick.  I guarantee when you die no one with talk about your thighs or your stomach.

Stop wasting bucket list time:  if there is something you'd like to do or somewhere you'd like to go that requires you to be be under the age of 80 because of the possible physical limitations, do it now. 

Stop wasting time hanging on to past pain which when you think of it encompasses most of the above so we must consider this one a super time waster.

Stop wasting time setting a goal, making plans of how to achieve it and then never actually put those plans into action.  If you're not going to act then planning is a waste of time.

Stop wasting time thinking you have more time, you don't.  You just have now.

And for those of us who say we don't have time....

One thing I know for sure is if I live to be the grand old broad I aspire to be, I really don't want to fill my time thinking of all the time I wasted. 


 

What a difference a day makes.

As much as I like to write about how emotions and thoughts can influence our chance of success, every once in a while I have go back to some hard truths about daily behaviour.  Does your daily behaviour represent a true desire to change? Are you doing what is necessary daily for lasting change or are you doing the hokey-pokey?  You know, "Right foot in, right foot out, right foot in, then you shake it all about"....the hokey-pokey, you're shaking your leg but you're not moving forward. 

I've seen it time and time again (and I've lived it time and time again so I'm not pointing figures here!) where members get all fired up for change and have 1 or 2 successful weeks and then right back to their old habits: not tracking, not exercising, not planning, missing meetings, etc.  Why?  Why does that happen?  I think if you are truly honest with yourself you will admit that you are not willing to do what it takes to change daily.  You want to change, would like to change but when it comes to actually doing what it takes to change on a  daily basis, you're not there yet.  

This may seem daunting but really, from my experience, living in limbo is much, much, worse.  Living with the highs of a few days or weeks of success and then living with the crippling lows when is all falls apart yet again is exhausting and breaks down our already fragile psyche. 

One final thought about the hokey-pokey, 

                                see you at the next meeting!

How I indulge but not overindulge.

Indulge: to allow oneself to enjoy a particular pleasure

Overindulge: to indulge in a particular pleasure to excess

Eating a normal amount of sweets or bread has always been almost impossible for me, hence, my no sugar habit since last July.  I'm fortunate that bread and other dough foods do not agree with me so I gave them up long ago.  One could make the point (that one being my husband) that I've not lost a pound since giving up sugar and I will agree the point.  But here's the rub (the rub: a difficulty, especially one of central importance in a situation): even though I have not lost weight because of no sweets, I know without a shadow of a doubt if I had continued to eat sweets my weight would have gone up!!  And I would've had to suffer through my weekly sugar-binge hangovers...not pleasant. 

But I'm off topic. How to indulge but not overindulge. I still have plenty of indulgences and the only way I can keep from crossing into overindulging territory is to control the amount purchased.  So for me the means indulging at a restaurant or buying a very specific amount at the grocery store to enjoy at home.

Every one is different and you may be one of those lucky people who can portion out a dessert and keep/freeze the rest for later, buy a big bag of chips and divide it up into portioned baggies, get those cookies on sale and have just 1 each day with your tea, or buy the gallon of ice cream because 1/4 of a cup is plenty for you.

OR...you are exactly like me BUT hope, wish and dream you're not!  So you keep bringing your "excess pleasure" food into your house telling yourself this time will be different.  This time you're going to get those baggies out and count out 21 chips. This time, although you've never done it before, that big honkin' cheesecake is going into the freezer for next time.  Wrong, they all go into your mouth, 'cause you're just like me.  And if for some reason you do not eat all of the cake/chips/ice cream/cookies, having it call your name until you do is agony and soul destroying (soul destroying may be just me, I tend to be high drama).

There's nothing wrong with you, or me, we're just not equipped with the portion control gene.  So for us portion control must be taken out of our hands.  And that's okay, in fact, it's wonderful!  Imagine how you'd feel if you enjoyed a lovely piece of confectionery heaven knowing when it was finished there wasn't anymore to torture you?  I'll tell you how you'd feel: in control and on Plan.  I guess that's why for now I will continue to not eat desserts.  Ribs on the other hand, bring 'em on!