Today, we're going to talk about habits and routines. Anyone who knows me, especially folks on this board, know that I am a person steeped in my routines and habits. Habits and routines can be very helpful to those of us who are trying to lose or maintain weight. They can also be a hindrance.
Your homework today:
1. List 3 habits or routines you have built that help you maintain a healthy lifestyle. I'm looking for big, cornerstone kinds of habits or routines that have largely contributed to your success. However, if there is a smaller/simpler habit or routine that you think yields big benefits, that would be great to hear about too!
2. Explain how those habits benefit you in your quest for a healthy lifestyle, for weight loss or weight maintenance.
3. Talk about one habit or routine that does NOT serve you positively, at least some of the time. Perhaps it is something that isn't fully conscious--that you do because you've always done it and not because you chose to make it part of your healthy living routine.
Personal Healthy Habits Challenge - 10/1 to 12/31/08: 1. Exercise: Get back to consistently working out 3-5 X week. 2. Food: Get back to consistently preparing healthy lunches for the week with increased veg servings. 3. Behavior: Reduce intake of sweets.
Posts: 7356 | Location: Rehoboth Beach, DE | Registered: March 12, 2004
1. List 3 habits or routines you have built that help you maintain a healthy lifestyle. I'm looking for big, cornerstone kinds of habits or routines that have largely contributed to your success. However, if there is a smaller/simpler habit or routine that you think yields big benefits, that would be great to hear about too!
Habits: 1. Getting my house for dh and I in a healthy state of mind. I know my limits with what I should and can keep in the house without going crazy.
2. Making a point to cook and shop for most meals to have at home. This makes SUCH a difference in our pockets and bellies because I can feel better about what is going in our bodies.
3. Keeping up with excerise. This is really a must with me. I just feel sluggish when I am not active.
2. Explain how those habits benefit you in your quest for a healthy lifestyle, for weight loss or weight maintenance.
3. Talk about one habit or routine that does NOT serve you positively, at least some of the time. Perhaps it is something that isn't fully conscious--that you do because you've always done it and not because you chose to make it part of your healthy living routine.
Well, I am a people pleaser. When it comes to food and exercise I do put myself first. I just have to remember that. For me I am going to keep this mentality if all goes through with this job opportunity. I do not want to let this go and I am expressing this for the first time.
"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is." Albert Einstein
Daily to do: Drink plenty of water & take vitamins
Posts: 1624 | Location: Georgia | Registered: March 24, 2004
I've found it very helpful to get guidelines regarding "eat this much lean protein, eat this much whole grains, eat this much fruits/vegs, dairy, etc." I usually use my “discretionary calories” for a serving of beans and nuts most days.
I find if I follow the recommendations for the 1,600 calorie grid on this chart MOST days… I have extra calories banked to be able to eat out once or twice a week or have a couple of high calorie desserts once or twice a week. If I eat just the 1600 calories a day, with no big restaurant meals… I lose weight.
It is much easier to follow these guidelines, rather than recreating the wheel and trying to figure out something on my own. Hey! it is my tax dollars at work in a positive way! I've paid the government to hire dieticians and people to devise a sensible and reasonable plan. I might as well follow it. I PAID for it!
Eating this way keeps my weight and cholesterol and BP in check. I recently went to the Dr. and my BP was 100/60 and I’m 48 years old. Many of my friends and relatives are starting on meds right now.
The biggest benefit is that I am not hungry eating this way, and it is just easier to stay on track when I’m not hungry.
2. Not eating dessert every day. I did not grow up eating dessert and will always be grateful for that. We had dessert on the weekends and holidays or birthdays… not every single day. I know that this has been an “unfair” advantage that I have had when it comes to losing and maintaining weight.
3. Getting a handle on emotional eating and depression. I’ve never solved any problems by eating my way thru them and I have actually made my stress MUCH worse by gaining weight. Gaining weight is gaining stress, for me.
Talk about one habit or routine that does NOT serve you positively, at least some of the time.
Too much computer time. It is a double edged sword. Reading and posting help keep me on track… but it can get out of balance. Staring at screens too much (either too much TV time or computer monitors) can make me feel blue, for no reason. Just a general blah and slightly less happy. And that is just not good for me! Plus, all kinds of screens can just suck up terrible amounts of time. It isn’t ALL “wasted” time… but I can definitely get the feeling that time (and life) is just passing by… as I sit on my rear basking in the cool glow of my computer monitor.
Denise
Posts: 8748 | Location: Silicon Valley, CA | Registered: March 17, 2004
3 habits: 1. Eating a good healthy breakfast 2. Eating 5x per day instead of 3 3. Coming here
Why: 1. This is a habit that really gets my day off to a good start and I can maintain this one on the road, when I'm stressed, when I'm sick, etc. I get at least one meal a day that is what I want to be eating. 2. I don't let myself get over hungry very often and therefore am less likely to overeat anything including bad choices. Interestingly last night I didn't get my afternoon snack and I ate the entire burrito at dinner that I normally only eat 1/2 of. I was starved! Not good... 3. I don't always post, I don't always fess up but I always read. I couldn't have done this without this support and even when I participate less, it keeps me focused and thinking about what I am doing.
Habit that doesn't serve: Have never gotten to a place where I could make a best choice off of a restaurant menu. Sometimes I'll make a better choice and usually make at least a good choice but I still don't eat as healthy as I could in the face of a huge menu of yummy food. Doubt I ever will so the focus for me is to have a menu plan at home and for lunches and follow through with it so that I limit my exposure.
1. List 3 habits or routines you have built that help you maintain a healthy lifestyle. Very simply, EXERCISE. When I first joined this group, I crowned myself as the "Queen of I hate exercise". But over the last four years, I have come to not be able to live without movement. It is the biggest step in my healthy life changes.
2. Explain how those habits benefit you in your quest for a healthy lifestyle, for weight loss or weight maintenance. I never exercised, never played sports in school. I am a sit person. Partly because of my arthritis and partly because I hate to sweat. I had to find something that I loved deeply enough to keep it up, investigate it and find it's benefits for me. That's the ONLY way, I would have stuck with it. I got two cortisone shots in my knees yesterday, which I could kick myself for not doing sooner, I can walk now...what a blessing. Another method to add to my schedule of exercise. AND the dogs LOVE IT!
3. Talk about one habit or routine that does NOT serve you positively, at least some of the time. I am a procrastinator in preparing food. It is sometimes a chore to find something that we can all eat, or want to eat. So I don't. I would rather eat out, or not eat. I have had to make my lunch as if I were going to work...which I work at home and would often skip lunch because of time. I now fix lunch, put it in the refrig and it's ready when the lunch bell rings. As far as dinners, I have learned to plan on Sunday or Saturday, what we will have as main courses, h unt for recipes that will fit ou eating plans...and then stick by it. But it wasn't easy, and I am still not on top of it weekly. What I really need is a wife, a housekeeper and a cook! Anyone applying for work that is non-pd?
It's never too late to get it right.
Posts: 3473 | Location: Central USA | Registered: March 11, 2004
1. List 3 habits or routines you have built that help you maintain a healthy lifestyle. I'm looking for big, cornerstone kinds of habits or routines that have largely contributed to your success. However, if there is a smaller/simpler habit or routine that you think yields big benefits, that would be great to hear about too!
1. Meal planning, making grocery lists, shopping weekly.
2. Keeping my kitchen neat and clean.
3. Throwing away food.
2. Explain how those habits benefit you in your quest for a healthy lifestyle, for weight loss or weight maintenance.
I used to decide around 4:00 what I'd be making for dinner that night and quite often did not have what I needed so I would then be standing in line at the store with all the other 1,000 people buying last minute items for dinner. Having what I know I will need and having a weekly menu has not only saved me time but also prevents impulse shopping. A trip to the store for pasta/sauce would end up being a $50 trip because there were always other things I would pick up along the way. As for the kitchen, I owe flylady all my gratitude! Simple kitchen routines keep the space organized and ready when it is time to cook. And throwing away food(which I was taught as a kid is wasteful) has become quite easy. If I do have something in the fridge that is too tempting(like leftover chinese, or something I know will be a danger, in the trash it goes). Denise-I thank you for this-it took a lot for me and when I would first read your posts about throwing away food I would cringe and think-she's crazy-she's going to throw away a whole cake? But now I do see that you are right. If it is too tempting and not worth the calories get rid of it! I don't always stick to these habits/routines 100% but most of the time i do.
3. Talk about one habit or routine that does NOT serve you positively, at least some of the time. Perhaps it is something that isn't fully conscious--that you do because you've always done it and not because you chose to make it part of your healthy living routine.
Going out to eat. This is one habit I find very hard to break. Even with planned weekly menus I still find myself ordering takeout or heading out to a restaurant more often then necessary. It costs me a lot of $$ and a lot of calories. I'm not exactly sure why I do this. Perhaps just plain laziness? Or a lack of preparation on my part. As I mentioned above I don't always stick to my routines and there are still times when I don't have ingredients on hand for dinner so instead of trekking to the store and preparing dinner at home we head out and let someone else deal w/cooking dinner for us I would like to cut back to dinner out once a month and may make that one of my goals.
Jill
Summer Challenge Goals: 1) Walk 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week 2) Plan weekly menus
Originally posted by Sandy: I can relate. I have generally stopped this. I find that the only way not to crave the bit of chocolate or cookie is to start not eating it. Sounds simple, but it is so hard.
I have STARTED to not eat it a lot of times, but I always end up giving in. If there's one place where my toddler wins out more often than I do, it's here. I have tried substituting fruit but most of the time it just doesn't do the trick.
I need to apply more focus and discipline to "starting to not eat" sweets after eating. I have an incredible gift for focus, which I think was honed by the job I do, which requires a great amount of focus. In my work, I am talented at focusing on one thing. Outside of my work, I am much more scattered and find it difficult to focus on one thing (unless that one thing is playing The Sims LOL).
Thank you for your post, Sandy, because it reminds me that I have the focus and the strength to beat this...I just have to keep trying and trying and trying until I am winning more often than the toddler.
Personal Healthy Habits Challenge - 10/1 to 12/31/08: 1. Exercise: Get back to consistently working out 3-5 X week. 2. Food: Get back to consistently preparing healthy lunches for the week with increased veg servings. 3. Behavior: Reduce intake of sweets.
Posts: 7356 | Location: Rehoboth Beach, DE | Registered: March 12, 2004
1. List 3 habits or routines you have built that help you maintain a healthy lifestyle.
1. Making exercise a non-negotiable part of my day. This evolved from being a chore to being an essential part of my day for my overall well being. I honestly miss it when I miss a workout.
2. Journaling - this was so valuable for me to see what I was putting into my body, how my calories, and what emotions I was feeling. Plugging the info into fitday for nutritional info really helped me to identify areas where I could improve even further so that was good too.
3. Weighing and measuring the calorie dense foods. This saved me tons of calories/day and really helped me get a better sense of portion sizes (which was a shock at first).
2. Explain how those habits benefit you in your quest for a healthy lifestyle, for weight loss or weight maintenance.
These three big things help ensure that calories in don't exceed calories out which in the end, is what it's all about.
3. Talk about one habit or routine that does NOT serve you positively, at least some of the time. Perhaps it is something that isn't fully conscious--that you do because you've always done it and not because you chose to make it part of your healthy living routine.
Hands down it's stress eating. I fall back into that old pattern very easily. I've been doing better this month with is since going back to counting calories and writing everything down but it still is a real challenge for me.
Out of our beliefs are born deeds; out of our deeds we form habits; out of our habits grows our character; and on our character we build our destiny.
Originally posted by SheriaVa: I have a bad habit of craving something sweet (usually chocolate) every time I eat. Not breakfast, thankfully, but nearly always for lunch and dinner. It has really been a stumbling block for me and it is a bad habit that I continue to struggle with after 3 years--perhaps even more now because the blush of fresh passion for the weight loss is gone and it's harder to keep plugging away.
I can relate. I have generally stopped this. I find that the only way not to crave the bit of chocolate or cookie is to start not eating it. Sounds simple, but it is so hard.
The way I broke myself was to do a combination of postive affirmations and white knuckle behavior. After I finished my meal I would repeat something like, "I, Sandy, am finished with my heathful meal" or "I, Sandy, am lsoing weight now." and I wouold MAKE myself wait 20 minutes for the "treat." Sometimes the intense craving would pass- mostly it did, but other times I'd give in and eat the sweet. Eventaully, though I seem to have a much easier time letting go and most days don't even think about it.
1. I cook- a lot- I love it and have become quite good at cooking in a healthy, flavorful way.
2. I make and follow shopping lists. I'm not an impulse buy kinda gal.
3. I weigh myself nearly every, every day. I read an article in USA today about 2 weeks ago that mentioned that daily weighing and 30 min./day exercise are the two biggest factors in weight loss maint. Portion control was a closely followed 3rd. Daily weighing also takes lots of the anxiety out of getting on the scale. I generally know where I will be. When I Was gaining I avoided the scale. "Scale avoidance" is the number one clue that I am off in some way/s.
A habit that does not serve me well and seems to be up right now (it comes and goes) is tasting too much. Last night I made pb, oat muffins for dh's breakfasts. I normally portion them out and he's got them for 4 days. Last night I HAD to taste. I ended up eating 50ish extra calories that I did not need.
(Sheri---- thanks for #3 especially today as I needed to verbalize what I've been doing with extra tastes in order to get a grip on it today.)
1. List 3 habits or routines you have built that help you maintain a healthy lifestyle.
a. Cooking/packing healthy lunches for work.
b. Exercising first thing in the morning.
c. Regular grocery shopping and meal planning.
2. Explain how those habits benefit you in your quest for a healthy lifestyle, for weight loss or weight maintenance.
a. Cooking and bringing healthy lunches from home is not only a huge benefit because it helps me control my intake of fat, sodium, etc., but it replaced a really bad habit of eating out in a restaurant every day, which is what I did before July 1, 2003. So the combination of dumping a really bad habit and starting a really good habit has been one of the cornerstone changes in my healthy lifestyle.
b. I used to say "I can't get up any earlier than I already get up for work! I just CAN'T!" And then I took a challenge from the folks on the board here and I did it for 1 month. That was in early 2004, I think, and I've been doing it ever since. I can't even begin to express how beneficial it has been. From the mental attitude of knowing my exercise is done for the day to the physical benefit of just getting in more exercise because I was blowing it off at the end of the day and not getting it done plus the extra energy I have all day long thanks to my morning workouts.
c. For years, I grocery shopped once a month. I lived on frozen, canned and processed food and ate very little fresh food. Now, I grocery shop twice a week. Once on Saturday for staples and meat (regular chain grocery store) and once on Monday for produce, bakery and a few specialty items (Whole Foods). I now eat primarily fresh food, some frozen, very little processed and little out of a can except beans.
3. Talk about one habit or routine that does NOT serve you positively, at least some of the time.
I have a bad habit of craving something sweet (usually chocolate) every time I eat. Not breakfast, thankfully, but nearly always for lunch and dinner. It has really been a stumbling block for me and it is a bad habit that I continue to struggle with after 3 years--perhaps even more now because the blush of fresh passion for the weight loss is gone and it's harder to keep plugging away.
Personal Healthy Habits Challenge - 10/1 to 12/31/08: 1. Exercise: Get back to consistently working out 3-5 X week. 2. Food: Get back to consistently preparing healthy lunches for the week with increased veg servings. 3. Behavior: Reduce intake of sweets.
Posts: 7356 | Location: Rehoboth Beach, DE | Registered: March 12, 2004
I couldn't have done this without this support and even when I participate less, it keeps me focused and thinking about what I am doing.
