Airy-fairy mysticism?

I hope this helps. I started using SP with a very specific reason: to use the Nutrition Tracker to help me track my diet and control caloric intake. As I progressed with using the other parts of the SP, I was introduced to looking into my motivation. That stumped me at first. When I finally got it, I realized motivation is what drove me to start using SP in the first place. Around this time, I was getting tired of tracking and started "winging it" on the food intake. I continued monitoring my weight though, when my weight started to deviate from my goal I started back on using the Nutrition Tracker.

What does this have to do with the article's point/s? My experience got me from step 1 and back again, ie using the Nutrition Tracker. The article points to me that understanding the other factors that influence my action/decision to act helps me to keep at it. That to me is the difference between the diet mentality (tracking for its own sake) and the lifestyle change mentality (using tracking as part of my lifestyle change).

Hope that makes sense.

Der?

Naw, you're just greatly misunderstood ;)

Our task is complete! The whole ideas is to slow evolution down so we don't get left behind! :)

Don't pay 'er.

There's the sounding it out in real time which will slow me way down, and then there's the putting my mind in the gutter to actually recognize what I'm hearing- perhaps I need to remind you I've never been a jr high age male, so my mind doesn't just go there automatically!

LOL

(I've been reading since about 3 or 4, and can blow through the entire Tolkein trilogy plus Hobbit overnight. So I don't generally process anything phonetically anymore)

lol .. you're kidding, right? When all else fails, read it out loud.

Yeah but geez, it's like a whole other secret language I was unaware of.

You do realize this knowledge is now going to slow down my processing of English? By a factor of at least four, while I play and replay words in my head, searching for alternative phonetic meanings?

Dammit, y'all have succeeded in stoopifying me!

hahaha ... it's all just word play. It didn't go over your head, it went under your radar. We're much too simple of creatures to go over your head.

*whooosh*

that's the sound of those jokes going way way over my head, as in wow, I actually needed that explained!

:-0

yah, if there wasn't any other evidence that I'm not a guy, that's it. LOL

next you're going to say you actually 'get' the 3 stooges...

Oh no, this is turning into the redneck dictionary thread. Asinine! I'll give her face a 2 but her asinine. All right, now this is starting to sound like the guys lounge, we should probably get back on topic.

Allow me to use it in a sentence.
I don't mind if the hormones as long as she doesn't wake the neighbors. :)

LOL.

Um, you do understand that heredity goes one way? From parents TO offspring? hahaha

(Sorry y'all, I just had to take the bait. Too many years of training not to jump. Pavlovian-type response. Ok, as you were.)

One of my stronger memories from my teenage years: a several-month period during which I noted that mom would just rip my head off for no reason when I arrived home. Always seemed to happen in the early 20s of the month... by the third month or so I knew what was going on.

THIS insanity was NOT hereditary... she was definitely NOT getting it from her kids.

Ask my teenage son if hormones exist and he'll probably rip your head off :) Ha.
The guys' lounge - ohweh! All yours my friends.

Ya, it's cool by me as long as the world doesn't revolve around them. They exist, right?

Hey! We can say hormones here? I thought that was reserved for the guys lounge. I like hormones, never have resented it :)

Oh man. And I suspect that i'm probably heading toward that TOM myself.., Which might explain some of the recent urges to binge.., LOL

(but for real, actually. I deeply resent my hormones. Always have, ever since they reared their ugly little heads at puberty. So inconvenient. Like going through pon farr monthly. I always did admire Spock. But not THAT part!)

Oh there is definitely a lot of that around here. Obviously, it's a majority, you can just look at the "Message Board Hot Topics" for proof. That's the point of this group and I also find comfort in the guy's lounge where the only thing that makes you feel uncomfortable is the smell.

I'm getting to a point where I don't want to read blog posts either. If I read another opening sentence of "So it's my TOM", I may be done for awhile. LOL.

But ya, I shouldn't pick on them too hard. It was really more a pick at Dan and GL.

How cheesy is this?
Definitely geared towards the emotional diet crowd. And guys there are a whole lot of those folks out there (and not just the female kind).
I can understand where this is coming from but I cannot identify with this.
(Thank you...)
Can't let this stuff sneak in. (Sniffle, boohoo)

I've been sitting here imagining myself taller, younger, handsome, and ripped... Hey! As long as I don't look in the mirror this BS works!!

No comment. NO COMMENT!!!

Yep, Airy Fairy Mysticism at it's ABSOLUTE finest!

Hmmm Maybe if I imagine I'm reading that, I will forget to go to Hooters :)
Yep, no more EE problem, lmao.

Nice attempt to get my head to explode though :)

Edited by: DANSTOUT at: 6/9/2010 (19:39)

Getting?

Oh, ya, I didn't even finish reading it. I knew it was Dean, which automatically means GL would love it ... and it talks about imagining yourself on a rainbow or something ... which I thought would help you with your EE, Dan.

Holy smokes! I had to keep pinching myself to finish reading this drivel.

Pure torture, I didn't even click get your points for reading this. Thankfully I'm getting old and will soon forget I ever read it.


I gotta go with GL now!

Edited by: DANSTOUT at: 6/9/2010 (19:28)

My view of it says, "points earned on 8/27/2009"

*sigh* I'll take help anywhere I can get it!

Maybe I should rename my userid to "GRASPING-4-STRAWS"

I found an article today that made me think of GL and Dan. It applies to both of them.

www.sparkpeople.com/resource/motivat
io
n_articles.asp?id=871

(snicker)

Fair enough, I suppose. And yes, I don't really bother looking for any articles here anymore either.

[post deleted for beating a dead horse]

I'd kind of like to go through the article and discuss it all, but that feels like paying negative attention to an unruly child. I'm just putting Coach Dean on my big turd list and moving on.

I think Bill's hit the nail on the head on this. The entire SP site is designed for the "greater good". Get as much general info out there, and individuals can pick and choose what info they find applicable to them and their situation. I understand the point of this article, and I'm certain that someone out there in SP land finds it helpful, but for me and my situation it's not very helpful at all. I disregard about 3/4 of the articles I read here for this very reason. I just forget it and move on.

Hrm, you're following along closer than me. I couldn't name one author of these articles. Admittedly, I rarely read them. This isn't the site for general information for me. Specific, tailored information based on my situation from fellow members is outstanding. The general content is a little empty. But I come here for the former, not the latter.

I have a fairly extreme dislike for Coach Dean. Based on this, other things I've read, and other things he has written of which I've been accused (wrongly, I believe, of course *grin*). Not that I felt ill will toward him before, but reading through this article finished the job. I think I'll even skip seeking sparkpoints from his drivel. I wouldn't want to improve his popularity metrics.

Oh and WTF is wrong with his photo? It scares me. I even seeked out a bigger one and it still looks like he has a tracheotomy or something, I guess. I wouldn't know, never seen anyone with one, but there's something scary going on under his chin for sure.

Edited by: GRACEFULIFE at: 5/25/2010 (01:07)

That article, it's not designed for us (we, the people in this group) because we get it already.
It's designed for that other group of people. The people who are looking for diets and suddenly find themselves confronted with what seems at the start an insurmountable obstacle...themselves. They look at all the things they need to change within themselves in order to succeed and they balk, like OMG I have to track what I eat, and exercise and restrict my calories and change the kinds of foods that I eat and when I eat and how I eat and with whom I eat and I have to blog and spin a wheel and READ(for some reason this seems to be the worst offender of all, most Americans just don't seem to want to do it) articles! It overwhelms them if it's presented as a 'diet' because it's really not, it's a change to their mentality, their wants and desires, their plans...their lifestyle.

Well thanks for your opinion. Because I was starting to wonder if I was somehow missing an important magic point.

When I don't understand something I usually assume it's my failure to "get it", not a failure on the part of the writer to A) have a valid point, or B) state it clearly.

Brother Dan nails it for me.

To add, it's just nomenclature. I'm not shacking up with this girl, we're life partners. I'm not a janitor, I'm a sanitation engineer. Fact remains, I still clean toilets.

Author says:
"Many factors that are out of your control—your genes, age, medical status and previous weight history— will affect your weight and appearance."

This to me, is very insignificant and it is made out to be like there is all of this crap going against you. This and "starvation mode" are some of the most overused excuses I've ever heard.

But I'm with you, I don't think this article does a service to most of its readers. However, it could help someone who is new to this and is stuck in all the negative aspects. Diet = suck, exercise = not on my life. Diet + exercise = never gonna happen. So it attempts to take the edge off of that.

Does it succeed, I don't know. I try to ignore the aspects that irk me because there are a lot of pieces to this place and people that are really quite amazing, inspiring, smart and knowledgeable. And I intend to suck every bit of information out of them that I can. LOL!

I think thats why we are in this little group, Airy Fairy lifestlye change is not what works for us. We like math, we like numbers, we know for a fact that tracking the numbers works, we also (for the most part) don't freak out if we jump on the scale and see a 2 lb bounce. We know it's just the rubber bag.
I, for one never was on a "Diet" I was and am "In training" :) Call it whatever you like, the end result is the same. It really doesn't matter if you are "Changing your lifestyle" "going on a diet" "In training" or "Insert what works for you here".
To a lot of people a "diet" means denying yourself the food you like and being hungry and miserable.
A Lifestyle change is easier to swallow :)

Thanks, that does help.

Hmm. OK, if calorie tracking and weight tracking can be considered part of the "lifestyle" mentality, then I'm OK with that.

It just seems so confusing when we're told that going by the numbers isn't desirable or sustainable. Because going by the numbers is the only thing that has ever worked for me.

I'll try to make this as concise as I can...
Dieter: "I need to track my calories to lose 200 lbs."
Lifestyle Changer: "I need to make healthier food choices and track my calories to get down to and maintain a healthy weight in order to life a normal life."

Dieter's Favorite Phrases:
"I can't do this right now" (what, live a normal life?)
"I can't wait to stop tracking" (because that's worked so well in the past?)
"I gained a pound this week, this diet is stupid, I quit!" (yes, of course, blame it on the diet)
"I've been at this for two weeks and all I've lost is 4 pounds, this is taking forever" (because it took you 10 years to put on 100 lbs. and you expect it to come off in 10 weeks?)

See, that's where I have the problem with the "diet" / "lifestyle" dichotomy - because that's what brought me to SP, too. The nutrition tracker.

And while I don't use the SP nutrition tracker any more, I do use Lean Me Pro on my iPod. And it's still the single most important tool I have for managing my size. For tracking calories and keeping them under a certain number.

So I just don't understand how this is or isn't a diet mentality, because it sure *sounds* like a diet mentality. It's just one that I'm prepared to live with for the rest of my life. Because I've lived the alternative and prefer not to go there.

Our stories are not all that different. I lost a bunch of weight looking to make a lifestyle change but the plan I was following had little follow-through and the first set of roadblocks I hit made me stop. What we wanted, what we intended to achieve, was a 'lifestyle change', what we ended up with were diets.

This time around I had already achieved the lifestyle change (this was the easy part, the moment I chose to put my health/life over my desire for Twinkies was the moment I made the lifestyle change) before I joined SparkPeople, I think you did too; I already knew what I had to do to eat healthy, I already knew plenty about nutrition... this time I just figured I'd bite the bullet and actually track my calories, I just needed a tool to help me put it all together. Ironically enough what I honestly wanted when I joined SparkPeople was a Diet!

LOL.

I'm not sure yet that it IS different from how it was in my 20s. I need to punch the 10-lb regain back down to make that true.

Actually it IS different in one significant way. Last time I thought all I had to do was get the weight off "the right way" and everything would fall into place. It seemed to be the conventional wisdom that everyone fed me.

The hair style analogy is actually pretty apt. I *did* get bored of the novelty of being slender and athletic. It took effort. More than I was interested in expending.

The difference now is that I've experienced what happened in my 20s and I know first-hand how insidious regain is. I am not taking it lightly. I am Not Going There Again. Not without putting up a massive fight with all my resources. I will beat this thing this time, and I will Hold The Line.

I guess I don't understand what a "dieter" mentality is in the first place - every time I tried to lose weight I did it with the same motivation and intentions. I wanted permanent change. Who doesn't?

It's just that some of those times I managed to stick with the procedure better than others, and I suspect that had to do with where I was internally and externally at that particular time.

Edited by: 4A-HEALTHY-BMI at: 5/20/2010 (14:08)

I'm trying to answer but I'm having a hard time finding the angle from which to approach, so I whined up asking myself questions like:
Does she still think she's on a diet?
Is she happy with what she has accomplished?
Is she losing weight for the right reasons? I mean, if she's as happy as she says she was then she probably wouldn't have started on this weightloss journey, otherwise I'm liable to think it's like a hair-style for her... just something she doing for a while until she gets bored with it.

And I don't really think any of these questions apply. You don't come into this with the 'dieter' mentality, you knew that certain things in your life were not working and you chose to correct them.
But tell me, how is what you're doing now different then what happened to you in your 20's - why is this time different then the last time? Why did you stop trying before? And don't tell me it what grad school, plenty of people leave grad school and not everyone gains 100+ pounds.

www.sparkpeople.com/resource/motivat
io
n_articles.asp?id=620

Is anyone else perplexed by the above article?

I am, for a number of reasons (no pun intended)

1) The numbers EMPOWER me, they don't discourage me. They provide an objective measure for telling me if I'm staying on track and/or how well.

2) How can you separate the "technique" from the process? It absolutely IS my technique (I prefer to call it my "procedure") that causes results. Or rather, it's my implementation of it. I've worked hard over the past year and some to find a procedure that works for me. But it only works if I actually follow it.

3) I don't believe there is a magic "aha" that I'll discover about why I turn to food when I'm bored or anxious. This is a habit. It is not a reaction to life. It is simply a well-worn rut in my mind and if left on autopilot, I'll go back there, because it's what I do. It has been a habit for a long long time. It will take a long long time to wean myself of it.

4) Even if there were some kind of actual touchy-feely "reason" for eating out of boredom or anxiety, the article does not give any helpful advice about HOW to go about eradicating said reason. I suppose therapists come to mind here, but honestly, shouldn't he have said something about that? Or given examples of WAYS to deal with it? Instead we're just told to deal with it.

This is the kind of thing that just really annoys me about weight loss and weight management advice. The rubber hits the road at the numbers. Period. You're either holding the line at your preferred % body fat, lifting max, weight, clothing size, etc. or you are not.

Anyone can rationalize themselves into believing that they're satisfied at some higher weight if it's less effort to maintain, but it just does not ring true to me when I read posts like that around here.

That kind of thinking got me to the 335+ lb mess in the first place. I WAS pretty happy and accomplished. Other than the fact that I had some mobility issues and embarrassment issues about traveling sometimes, it wasn't a big deal. I could do lots of things I liked (glass blowing, origami, travel, reading, board games, etc.)

Yes, now I can do new things like whitewater kayaking. Which I love. Yes, I like the way I look in my clothes, for the most part. Yes, I like the way strangers and shopkeepers treat me. Yes, I like getting attention from the opposite sex.

And those things will go away again if I gain back the weight. So I choose not to. But my method is using the NUMBERS. I just don't understand how this is bad. I don't understand what they mean by "lifestyle" versus "diet." My procedure IS my lifestyle, and it hinges on numbers, ala Hacker's Diet.

Comments? Explanations?

I'm asking you all, because I know you GET IT about using the numbers.