Today's WI and Fighting the Mind

Today's meeting topic was managing your thoughts, which is especially appropriate for me right now. Looking back, for the past couple months or so, it feels like I've been trying to talk myself into a plateau. So for this post, I've decided to talk about what I've been thinking/doing, and what I'm going to think and do about it now.

THE PAST -

First, in many areas of my life, I have had a tendency to want to "reward" myself with breaks from whatever it is that gives me success. An old girlfriend used to say "It worked so well, I quit doing it." That's me to a T. With WW and daily Goad/Family Man support, I've had awesome success. I feel great, and I look great. And my mind looked at all that, and thought "OK, time for a vacation from all that."

I have read some Goadies who have had long term success, and they talked about going through periods when they felt their body needed time to "get used to the new weight". My mind leapt on that. "A HA! See!! I'm SUPPOSED to take a break!"

So, while I didn't totally dive off plan, I did start getting very lenient with my portions and tracking. And looking back on my weight loss since starting in 2/08, I can see that it has been largely a gradual loosening of my standards over time, rather than a "last month or two" kind of thing.

Here's my monthly progress:
Feb 08 = -11.8 pounds
Mar 08 = - 7.0 pounds
Apr 08 = - 6.4 pounds
May 08 = - 6.2 pounds
June 08 = +1.4 pounds *
July 08 = - 5.0 pounds
Aug 08 = -3.4 pounds
Sep 08 = -1.2 pounds (so far)
Total Loss = 39.6 pounds

(* June was a "tough month" with my sister passing away and a vacation away from home. I give myself a pass on that month.)

THE PRESENT -

Looking at the chart of the past 8 months, it would be easy to buy into my old thinking of "See, it just keeps getting worse. I can't keep up anything long-term." But that's not the belief I'm subscribing to. The belief I'm subscribing to is: "I love this lifestyle! I can do this the rest of my life!!" Here are some things that happened today/recently that support this new belief:

For one thing, when I posted my WI on the online tracker, it suggested I review the materials for dealing with plateaus. Guess what? There is a solution for dealing with plateaus!! Actually, tons of solutions for dealing with plateaus. So, you mean I'm part of a big group of people with solutions for my problems? Sweet!! What a deal!!

For me, two of the suggested solutions really jumped out at me. First, back to basics. As noted, I've gotten pretty slack with tracking and food choices. One of the suggestions was to review your Daily Tracker to see what you were eating & doing when you were losing at a faster pace. So I did that and realized that I've really upped the amount of points I eat for dinner, all the while my DPs dropped along with my weight. Second, the Tools for Living. I don't think I ever spent much time thinking about them until a recent post, when I discovered I'd used many of them without realizing it. But I'd actually gotten pretty sloppy with those mental strategies too, so I'm consciously working on two of them, Motivating Strategies and Story Boarding.

Another thing that happened was simply going to the meeting and seeing all the people who are doing the deal, sharing what works for them, and what doesn't. It was a good meeting, and left me feeling re-energized.

And GOAD. I feel a part of this group, and I want that to continue. Not long ago, I posted a suggestion to a newbie that they share whether things are going well or not. Well, I hadn't been posting about how sloppy my habits had been getting, and I'd been acting like I was fine with losses of 0.2 pounds, when really I knew I could be doing better.

So, right now I'm feeling re-energized and committed to the lifestyle. I love this lifestyle! I can do this for the rest of my life!!