Hello All!!
Thank you to everyone weighing in and checking in this week. I hope you're all having a fabulous weekend. We're celebrating a birthday in my home and did all sorts of birthday things like hosting a BBQ and going to a movie.
It's been a day full of fun and laughter and situations rife with temptation. I felt a bit like I imagine a boxer on the defensive would, circling around the ring just trying to avoid the blows.
Read this in your best Don Dunphy voice:In the match between
Amy VS Potato Chips, Amy came out the winner by a huge margin! This fight wasn’t even fun to watch it was over so quick.
Next was
Amy VS Movie Popcorn.** She used her signature move of buying soda water and sneaking in cut fruit. Another win. Woo hoo! She's on a roll!
Tired from those matches, Amy was just not at her best for
Amy VS Ezekiel WW buns. She had thought she could eat her
curried sweet potato burger with some lettuce, but alas somehow the bun came out victorious.
That was a bit hokey, LOL...what can I say, it's late.
Overall I'm happy with how my eating went for the day. Social gatherings can be tricky situations and this one was tough because we served a lot of food that isn't on the McDougall menu. I managed to stay regular program adherent, but not MWL. My mom made a special dessert full of nuts and seeds and dried fruit, called
vegan crack (I hope that name doesn't offend anyone, since it's making light of a terrible addiction). It lived up to its name in my case. I'm going to have to convince everyone tomorrow morning that the
party food has to be gone by the end of the day. I can handle tonight - it's late and I'm tired and I have this message to write which has been helpful to keep my mind focused on not screwing up. I know, however, that my
self-control has its limits.
Dan Ariely, a professor of behavioural economics at Duke University, whose books I enjoy, has a great little TedX talk on self control.
Dan Ariely: Self Control TedxEast 2011It's 22 minutes long and he discusses his thoughts, observations and research on what he calls the conflict between now and later. Why is it that most people eat a little more than they think they should, exercise less, text while driving, spend more and save less?
What I appreciated about this short lecture, in addition to the fact that Dan's an engaging speaker, is that he poses possible solutions, much like the ones we are always discussing here. Strategies to keep us focusing on our long term goals of good health and weight loss while battling the immediate desire to eat all of the foods in the house...hahaha. He proposes these strategies for
the problem of self control:
A)Reward Substitution. B) Self Control ContractsWhat is
reward substitution? He explains this process by talking about his battle with cirrhosis of the liver caused by Hepatitis C. He was told that he could die horribly of liver failure or try the then experimental drug Interferon and only suffer 14 hours of nausea three times a week for a year and a half to, hopefully, get well. It was all still experimental, so no one was truly sure it was going to work. How does one motivate themselves to do that when the outcome is uncertain? Why was he one of the few people able to put himself successfully through this program? It was not due to having better self-control than others he surmises, but a process he put together on injection days. He would get up and go rent a few movies that he really wanted to see and at the end of the day grab his blanket and his bucket and watch the movies while feeling all of the negative side effects of the treatment.
Pair something you enjoy or look forward to with the necessary thing that you don't. We can call it skewing the cost/benefit ratio a little more in favour of the long term desire (get well) over the short term one (not feel nauseous). I've talked about doing this kind of thing too with regards being consistent with the food prep necessary to be successful in the long term eating a MWL diet. I set up my schedule to listen to a podcast or watch a webinar while doing my chopping. Preferably something live, that can't be changed by my own momentary whims or lack of motivation.
Dan also suggests something called
Self-Control Contracts, which is to create a mechanism that eliminates temptation or ensures compliance of something that you know is good for you in the long run but isn't necessarily fun in the moment. Consider going for a walk: what we know is great idea the night before can feel quite differently from the vantage of being snuggled warmly under our covers, still groggy with sleep...LOL...he mentions a fun little device called
Clocky.
Dr. Lim did a presentation about this very subject at an ASW that I attended. He had historically struggled to stop fiddling with his presentations right up to the last minute and decided he wanted to be done with them the night before. He used an app to incentivize this decision. It's similar to an app mentioned in this Dan Ariely video, so if you are curious be sure to watch it.
In the end he thinks its possible to figure out strategies in our own lives where we face temptation and want to improve our odds of success.
This is exactly what we talk about here (which is why I thought of this video)! Reflect on both your successes and failures in the arena of compliance to the MWL style of eating. What are the little situations that are keeping you in the pleasure trap? When are you least likely to be prepared? Or tempted?
With a few of those identified, now its time to dream up situations where you can succeed.
Have a lovely week! I look forward to seeing all of you in the May group! Let's hope those April showers bring May flowers.
Amy
**Sadly the movie was too scary for one of the children so I spent the second half at the arcade. Please, no one tell me how the new Avengers movie ends. I imagine they somehow save the galaxy from Thanos while teaching us about friendship and respect and sacrifice or something along those lines.
(Based on the faces of everyone coming out of the movie, it didn't end the way I have imagined...now I'm so curious!!)
Here are the results for the fourth week in April:Next Weigh-In is on Friday, May 4th, 2018Total group loss reported in 2018: 183.4 pounds
April 2018 Weight Loss Group :: Monthly Weigh-In Results
Total group loss in January 2018: 54.7 pounds
Total group loss in February 2018: 49.3 pounds
Total group loss in March 2018: 52.5 pounds
Total group loss in April 2018: 26.9 poundsWeek ending 04/27/2018: 10 participants reported a total loss of 0.3 pounds
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Galooop - 2.8
Victw - 0.6
Jobet - 0.8
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Total gains: 4.2
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Rosey - 1.8
Landog - 1.5
Sundog - 0.2
Kirstykay - 1.0
Svenja - 0.0
Moonlight - 0.0
amandamechele - 0.0
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Total losses: 4.5
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Total group loss in April 2018: 26.9 pounds
Week ending 04/27/2018: 10 participants reported a total loss of 0.3 pounds
Week ending 04/20/2018: 8 participants reported a total loss of 1.7 pounds
Week ending 04/13/2018: 10 participants reported a total loss of 12.9 pounds
Week ending 04/06/2018: 11 participants reported a total loss of 12 pounds