What is the best / most consistent habit that you have incorporated into your daily routine?

What is the habit that still needs work? What baby step can incorporate today to help eliminate this one?



I would have to say that my most consistent habit is that I walk everyday. I won’t say that is a particular cardio workout, it all dependents on my dogs.

What needs work is my diet soda habit. It’s much better than is used to be but still needs some improvement; all that artificial sweetener can’t be good for you. Today I will have a bottle of water when ever I want a soda, then if I’m still thirsty, I will have the soda or maybe just ½ of one.


Kim

quote:

Originally posted by SheriaVa:
The irony is that I could say the same thing about myself...except that I'm still not at goal weight.

I think that the fact that I really didn't have a set number in my head really helped me. I also think that it hurt me.


There is a WW Article on Expectations.

"The relationship between expectations going into a weight-loss attempt and subsequent success is an interesting one. Described as curvilinear, both those who begin weight loss with a very accepting attitude (i.e., would be happy with minimal weight loss) and those with unrealistically high expectations lose the least amount of weight. The most weight loss is found among those with moderate expectations."

This pretty much describes me, in Oct 2001. "those who begin weight loss with a very accepting attitude - i.e., would be happy with minimal weight loss” - have less “success”.

Actually, I figured any day I wasn’t gaining was a good day… and that probably helps explain why it took me 40 months to lose 37 lbs… and I wasn’t losing 1 lb a month or .25 lb a week. Most weeks I was just trying not to gain.

When I weighed 150, I don‘t even think I KNEW about the BMI chart or a healthy weight range... (I’m 5’2” and officially a healthy weight range for me is about 109-136 lbs). I was so happy not to weigh 160... And I’d get hit with waves of, “Oh man, I need to lose some more…” but I wasn’t posting on a weight loss board or really in touch with the weight loss world at all… so I didn’t feel this sense of “I should be ________” (fill in the blank with exercising, eating 5 servings of vegs, losing weight, be a healthy weight).

At that time, I was reading band director boards… and weight is really a non-issue there.

And I remember my doctor saying at one point, “Do you want to talk about losing weight?” and I said, “No, not right now…” and my mom used to encourage me to go to WW and I know that I would say, “I’m just not ready… I don‘t want the scale pressure.” So I guess, somewhere in the back of my head, I knew… I’m not ready… so what’s the point.

And then I got hit with a wave of enthusiasm and lost 5 lbs in Spring 2003.

And even when I joined KD’s board… my “goal” was to lose 5 lbs… and I weighed 145ish… I must not have known about BMI then (I must have heard about it on this board)… because that wasn’t enough to get me to a “healthy” weight. I just wanted to lose 5 lbs for ski season. It never occurred to me that I’d lose 20 that year or end up joining WW.

Can’t really remember my point…

I guess… in a way, I was “lucky” because I wasn’t terribly frustrated by my lack of progress… because I had no expectations of really losing… but my whole focus was on, “I’m not going back and gaining what I lost…” THAT really drove me… but it may have hindered my losing… because I didn’t lose for months and years at a time. But it went the way, it went…

I feel bad for your frustration… I was sort of fortunate. Ignorance is bliss sometimes.

quote:

What is the best / most consistent habit that you have incorporated into your daily routine?

Probably a toss up between eating a good breakfast (I even generally pull it off traveling) or walking.

quote:

What is the habit that still needs work? What baby step can incorporate today to help eliminate this one?

Oh, gosh...the list is long. I think the most important one I am going to have to get back to is weighing in weekly. I've been avoiding the scale and I fool myself into thinking I'm getting away with my less than ideal eating. My clothes aren't totally tight so I don't think there's any major disaster going on but I need to get back to it. I've been trying to eat clean and NOT restaurant/high sodium stuff this week so I can convince myself to step on the scale Friday morning.

Peg

quote:

Originally posted by GoingSkiing:
But today, I just want to maintain my weight and keep up with the good habits I’ve already established. And if this is as good as it gets… I’m ok with that.

The irony is that I could say the same thing about myself...except that I'm still not at goal weight. I really don't WANT to make any more changes--I've made SUBSTANTIAL changes in the past 3+ years and my health and blood tests reflect that--but I know I HAVE to make more changes if I have any hope of losing the rest of my weight. That is damn depressing. But hey, it's my reality.

Best: Following the WW Good Health Guidelines (well the food part, I don't take vitamins, and it doesn't bother me if my "water" has a tea bag sitting in it.)

http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=21901

It is pretty close to the DASH plan or MyPyramid.gov...

Worst: I hope this doesn't sound conceited… but it is sort of my reality right now. I feel like I’ve changed enough and don’t have anything that I want to change right now.

I used to exercise “none” and now I exercise “enough”. I eat healthy “enough”. I drink “enough” fluids. I eat “enough” desserts and other empty calories that I’m happy, but am still healthy. I’ve gone from eating fast food 10-15+ times a week, to a couple of times a month. I’ve dropped my total cholesterol… like 120 points. My blood pressure is good. My asthma is gone. I used to have “zero” stress coping skills, and I’ve worked on that a LOT and almost never stress or emotional eat anymore. I’m happy with my body.

My exercise isn’t perfect… and realistically… it never will be. Ditto with stress eating

Of course, life is always changing… and next month or next year or next decade… asked this question again… I could have a big long list of stuff I want to work on… And Lord knows it takes me about 21 minutes to get a bad habit firmly entrenched and 21 months to establish a good habit...

But today, I just want to maintain my weight and keep up with the good habits I’ve already established. And if this is as good as it gets… I’m ok with that.

My best habit so far is to drink water. I don't drink the required amount every day, but if I'm thirsty, I drink water and not soda or juice.

I still need to work on eating veggies and exercising. Veggies are very tasty but it always feels like such a lot of work to prepare them

The exercise thing is probably the hardest. When I get home after work I'm pretty tired, and after I fix (and eat) dinner, going for a brisk walk on a full stomach is the last thing on my mind.

Unless I'm under unusual circumstances (sick or traveling or something) I would say I'm most consistent with eating a MINIMUM of 5 servings of fruit and veggies per day. Many days it is much more.

About the only time it is less is if I'm sick and I don't have much of an appetite or can't eat or sometimes traveling and I'm not as much in control of food as I would like to be.

Ditching "All or Nothing" thinking and exercising when I can even if it is only 10-15 minutes is what I need to work on.

Dawn

skedwards

Any advise you can throw my way on ditching the diet soda habit would be greatly appreciated.

Kim

I have broken my diet soda habit. It took a while and I wondered it I could but I don't even crave one any more. DH still drinks them and gets perturbed when we run out. I just don't want them and don't think to check them when I am making my grocery list now.

I need to still work on getting my strength training in at least 2 or 3 times a week. It is a bit of a struggle because it isn't something I enjoy that well. I also need to change my all or nothing attitude about it (see Cobismom thread). The attitude change and not thinking that I need to spend an hour on every weight work-out is probably what will help me the most.

Probably my best/most consistent habit is cooking and bringing a healthy lunch to work 3 of my 4 workdays. It helps me save money (I used to eat out in a restaurant every day) and allows me to know what is going into the food sodium-wise, fat-wise, etc. so that I know I'm getting a healthy meal.

The habit that needs work is snacking, especially my consumption of sweets. When I eat, I crave sweets after. Not breakfast, but nearly always lunch and dinner. My sweet treat after lunch has always been 1 bitesize dark chocolate Dove Promise and that usually works. But after dinner I want something too.

I am trying to baby step my way to replacing sweets with fruit but it isn't going very well. At this point, I'm having the fruit but still having the sweet too because the craving continues after I eat the fruit...so I just need to transition to the next step of eliminating the sweets.

Eating sweets is a lifelong habit and I have a monstrous sweet tooth as well as being a major chocolaholic. So this is a TOUGH challenge for me.

What is the best / most consistent habit that you have incorporated into your daily routine?

Exercise - I feel lost when I miss a planned day.

What is the habit that still needs work? What baby step can incorporate today to help eliminate this one?

Stress eating. I still struggle with this greatly.

Keeping a pen and paper food log/calorie counting really helps me stay more focused.

My most consistent habit is eating a fruit or vegetable with each meal. And I have started doing the same with snacks. My second most consistent habit would be exercise-and I cannot even believe that I am writing this. I go to the gym almost every single day. And I actually enjoy it!

Worst for me is bagging my planned dinner and ordering take-out because it is easy(but also expensive ) I have gotten much better with this because I don't want to waste the food I've purchased for specific meals.

Jill

My most consistent habit is counting and tracking my points, which incorporates being very mindful of portion control. I amaze myself that I am doing so well in that area.

What I need to work on is exercise. Why is that so incredibly difficult to maintain? I know that pain is part of it, yet, the warm pool water really does help that part of my life. I just don't get up and go. I've tried going to bed earlier, and then I lay awake all night, because I am just NOT tired at 10:30 enough to sleep.I hate the changing clothes five times before noon, and now we have the cold weather. Excuses one and all, I know. This is what I need to work on.

My most consistent habit is exercising in the morning. I have a very good track record at getting up early enough to get my exercise in early in the day. The later in the day I wait, the less likely I am to exercise at all.

I am also pretty consistent about eating at home, or taking home cooked food with me. I have only eated park food twice during the six months I've worked there.

I need to keep working on getting back into the swing of exercising during the week. After putting in 36 hours of walking in less than 3 days, I have to make up for the lack of sleep during the week. (Only two more weekends of this phenomenon.)

I also need to keep working on my planning because I pretty much know when I'm not going to want to cook. I have tons of food in the freezer, but I still manage to give into my inner toddler more than I should and just eat out. (Even better choices out are not as good as the best choices I have in...especially since I keep them in the freezer ON PURPOSE for this exact reason. )