How do you do?

1. How do you get yourself out the door to the gym or your walk/run, or off the couch to do your video, when all you REALLY want to do is snuggle under a blanket w/ a good book or the TV?

2. How do you stick to your food plan, when someone asks you out for lunch? Dinner? You're just plain pooped and dont' feel like cooking?

3. How do you say no to devilish little Girl Scout cookies (Thin mints...), or whatever the temptation of the season is?

4. How do you deal with family members or friends sabotaging your "best laid plans"?

5. How do you reward yourself, when you do accomplish all or some of the above?


Dawn

1. How do you get yourself out the door to the gym or your walk/run, or off the couch to do your video, when all you REALLY want to do is snuggle under a blanket w/ a good book or the TV?

I have to do mornings, and I have to do every day. I'm too weak to do it any other way-- I need a rut worn into my brain so that it's just part of my day, like eating and sleeping and taking a shower and going to work.

My morning goes like this: the alarm goes off, across the room, and I have to launch myself out of bed in order to go over and turn the stupid thing off. (This wrenching experience has been made less wrenching by the addition of a dawn-simulation alarm clock, so I'm almost never in REM sleep when the alarm hits.) Then I stand in place until my blood pressure adjusts to standing up, then I do a little stretch, and put on my exercise togs down to the shoes. I crawl halfway back in bed to rub DH's back until he wakes up, since he sleeps through every alarm clock known to man. Once he's up and moving, I go hop on the treadmill or start up the yoga DVD.

2. How do you stick to your food plan, when someone asks you out for lunch? Dinner? You're just plain pooped and don't feel like cooking?

Eating out used to panic me to no end. The only answer for me was learning absolutely everything I could about how food works, what's available at fast-food restaurants, and what I could get away with in fancier restaurants where there's a nice waitperson that I can boss around. I think of it as foraging for real food in a largely non-food environment-- what can I get that's "real"? I pester the waiter right away to find out what kind of latitude I have. Ordering things on the side, substitutions (particularly if a side dish I want is attached to an entree I don't), asking if you can get a half portion or if you can double the veggies and halve the meat, waving away the bread plate. And for all that, I make sure I'm polite and tip well; the next time I see that waiter I want him to think "nice lady, high-maintenance but worth the effort to get her what she wants!"

I also carry a little emergency kit, stocked with little packages of flavor-helping ingredients (minimus.biz is excellent for ordering this stuff) like lemon juice and malt vinegar and hot sauce and soy sauce and deli mustard. Face it, there are a lot of places out there that offer good options that are prepared horribly-- bland chicken breasts, soggy steamed vegetables, you know how it goes. Having a little flavor oomph available can make it more likely that you make a good choice, and gives you a chance to repair restaurant mistakes.

3. How do you say no to devilish little Girl Scout cookies (Thin mints...), or whatever the temptation of the season is?

The office lunchroom is dead to me. I don't go in, I don't go past it, because there will ALWAYS be stuff sitting out there and it's hard to resist free tasty stuff. Beyond that, it's the thought that it's not that I "can't" have this stuff-- it's that I DON'T.

4. How do you deal with family members or friends sabotaging your "best laid plans"?

With my group, the worst part has always been going to peoples' houses for dinners or parties, because they either don't think or they think wrong (a "healthy" veggie platter doused in olive oil, good grief). The first time in a situation, I do the best I can and plot out ideas later. The next time, I become Super Helpful Person-- offer to bring a dish (and even if they say no, bring something for appetizers anyway-- grapes, taken off the vine and washed, crisp apples cut into thin slices, that sort of thing). I have healthy snacks squirreled away in my purse because nothing sucks worse than making virtuous choices and having no alternatives on hand to fuel me on an endless evening.

There's always the tendency for the party to stay in the kitchen or dining room, with food endlessly on hand; if I can find any leverage, I get us out of there or turn into Super Helpful Guest again and help put away food and suggest games or hey, I'll be the one to go in the other room to entertain the kids!

5. How do you reward yourself, when you do accomplish all or some of the above?

The dawn-simulator alarm clock was a big reward. I'm trying to make the rewards into something that will help and make me more excited about the right things-- new classes, new running shoes, new exercise DVDs (belly dancing! salsa dancing! wheee!).

1. How do you get yourself out the door to the gym or your walk/run, or off the couch to do your video, when all you REALLY want to do is snuggle under a blanket w/ a good book or the TV?
I have not been as good about this, this winter (and now, beginning of mud season!) I do have a couple workouts TIVO'ed and do try and do those twice a week. I also bounce on my exercise ball when on the computer.

2. How do you stick to your food plan, when someone asks you out for lunch? Dinner? You're just plain pooped and dont' feel like cooking?

I don't really go out a lot, but when I do it will either be salad, or I'll eat half and take home the rest. For not feeling like cooking, which happens to me a lot, I try to have preprepped things, bags of lettuce, etc in the fridge. If worst comes to worst I can have a bowl of cereal

3. How do you say no to devilish little Girl Scout cookies (Thin mints...), or whatever the temptation of the season is?
Generally I'll have one or two, then move on. I'll buy small containers of things, there are never more than four "official" servings in a container of Ben and Jerrys anyway. I try to have fruit to snack on first, then if I'm still having cravings... usually my servings are less than the "official" serving on the box.

4. How do you deal with family members or friends sabotaging your "best laid plans"?
Mine actually sabotage in the other direction. They make comments about all the ice-cream/chocolate/etc that I seem to have in the house. They'd rather, in some ways, see me eating three apples a day, because in their minds, thats how you lose weight

5. How do you reward yourself, when you do accomplish all or some of the above?
I'm still somewhat hit-or-miss with rewards, but I have gotten better about treating myself well, a massage once every couple of weeks, that kind of thing. The massage also helps me see how much weight I have really lost...there is much less of me!

quote:

...1. How do you get yourself out the door to the gym or...

A.)I have a treadmill, an exercise bench, and a set of dumbbells, so I don't have the hassles of going to/from a gym, etc.

B.)I scaled back to only working out with weights twice a week. At that frequency, I can force myself to exercise, even if I am in a foul and/or lazy mood. In addition, I recently redesigned my weight training program for maximum variety, to combat boredom.

C.) In the summer, I have the built-in exercise of mowing our lawn. Grass stops growing for no one, and doesn't accept any excuses.

1. How do you get yourself out the door to the gym or your walk/run, or off the couch to do your video, when all you REALLY want to do is snuggle under a blanket w/ a good book or the TV?

I'm with Linda... sometimes I don't make myself... But eventually, I realize that I am going to lose all that I've worked for. I think back to that first ski season and the exhaustion of carrying skis from the car and putting on boots and shuffling over to the lift... and the day hadn't even started...

Life is just so much more fun when I'm in shape.

If I can get 2-3 days of exercise in... I kind of get on a roll and I'm good for the month.

I've also found that I have to make exercise as simple as I can... Belonging to a gym didn't work for me because schlepping back and forth with bags of shampoo and clothes and stuff didn't work for me... the driving, the packing of bags, made it complicated... and I exercised a lot less. I do better when I can run out to the garage in my underwear and do the elliptical machine...

2. How do you stick to your food plan, when someone asks you out for lunch? Dinner?

Maybe have one day when I go out to eat... and then you can tell a co-worker that you can't go out today... but how about next Wednesday...

You're just plain pooped and don’t' feel like cooking?

I try to have something healthy and FAST in the house and I tell myself over and over that opening a can of beans, a jar of salsa, a container of sour cream and heating a tortilla is going to be faster/healthier/less calories than Taco Bell...

3. How do you say no to devilish little Girl Scout cookies (Thin mints...), or whatever the temptation of the season is?

I used to HATE going into the teachers lounge because it is just one big food fest with cookies, cake, candy, doughnuts...

Something clicked in my head... and I want to be thin more than I want a cookie.

I also make sure that I never enter the Teachers' lounge hungry. I eat a banana first.

4. How do you deal with family members or friends sabotaging your "best laid plans"?

I remember saying to dh, “We have all been in the position of we have an apple planned for a snack. We’ve got the apple on our desk… but there are cookies in the lunch room… The thing is to EAT THE APPLE. We ALL would rather have cookies… and some days you can have cookies… but most days you have to eat the apple.”

Sabotage is a big issue this week because I am at the mercy of dh. I don’t think that it is sabotage as much as he just doesn’t pay attention.

I asked for ff half and half and he bought full fat. I didn't ask for hot dogs, but he bought full fat ones... (dinner tonight... with mac and cheese... )

I sat with dh this morning and said that we needed a PLAN... Dh doesn’t like to plan… but he is realizing that you can’t get home at 7:15pm and decide what to have for dinner and then go shopping and then cook dinner. We are going grocery shopping TOGETHER tomorrow AM.

We seem to have communications problems this week... I asked for a shower stool and he almost bought a stitz bath thing...

5. How do you reward yourself, when you do accomplish all or some of the above?

One time, I wanted to get off the exercise machine soooo bad, but I kept telling myself “5 more mins, 5 more mins”. I ordered about $50 worth of music just for finishing that one work out. It was worth it… because having music that I liked made the next 6 months of exercise much better.

1. How do you get yourself out the door to the gym or your walk/run, or off the couch to do your video, when all you REALLY want to do is snuggle under a blanket w/ a good book or the TV?

I have to admit that often I don't. I'm hoping that the coming Spring will help encourage me and then, having started a good practice, I will continue when cooler weather approaches.

2. How do you stick to your food plan, when someone asks you out for lunch? Dinner? You're just plain pooped and dont' feel like cooking?

For going out, I look for a meal-size salad with the dressing on the side. If that is not an option, I look for a grilled chicken or fish and choose veggie sides. I rarely do dessert. If portions are too large, I will bring some home. I do so little cooking, dh does most - he's the more finicky. I will veto or suggest if the meal doesn't measure up to my needs.

3. How do you say no to devilish little Girl Scout cookies (Thin mints...), or whatever the temptation of the season is?

No one knocks on our door. Don't have any GS relatives. Most holiday meals are back in Toledo or Columbus - don't bring anything home. If I don't buy it, it won't taunt me!

4. How do you deal with family members or friends sabotaging your "best laid plans"?

Just say "No!" I find if I don't say anything to give someone else an idea that I'm limiting myself, I don't have any problems. Often as soon as someone finds out that I'm trying to loose weight, she or he becomes a "pusher".

5. How do you reward yourself, when you do accomplish all or some of the above?

I usually don't. I suppose I need to work on that. I did notice some Oxford cloth blouses in the latest JC Penney catalog that I'd like to have

Linda

1. How do you get yourself out the door to the gym or your walk/run, or off the couch to do your video. This is my achilles heel in the healthy living program. I am way too easy on myself as far as getting out of the house, or even putting the video in the machine and working out at home. But how do I manage to do it....It is an app't. in my "bible" date book, and I keep it as such, no changes. I take my son to school, the bag is packed and in the car the night before, and he (my son) tells me to have a great swim. I can't be telling him to do well at school, and then ditch out on my workout...I have to remember that this keeps me centered for the day. It starts the "healthy" part of my day out....not going means I am setting myself up to do other "not" healthy things.

2. How do you stick to your food plan, when someone asks you out for lunch? Dinner? You're just plain pooped and dont' feel like cooking?
First, I firmly believe, and have proven it myself, that eating out is not a taboo when you are eating heatlhy. I say "YES, what time? Let's meet at......" If I pick the place, then I know there are foods there or at least cooks there that will work with me. When I am just too pooped, I dive into the freezer and pull out one of my preprepared meals and use it. I put a salad with it, and go for it. Planning is key, doing your homework is the second key.
Without those, I don't succeed.

3. How do you say no to devilish little Girl Scout cookies (Thin mints...), or whatever the temptation of the season is? First, I don't buy them, I give a donation === GS is one of the places I will put my $$$. If it's Christmas goodies, I stay away or bring a treat of my own. If it's Thanksgiving, I do the same, a birthday party, I have coffee and that's it. OR if it's a very, very close friend or family member, I take a piece, a very tiny piece and nimble for five minutes, and then toss. Sometimes, family and friends are important to participate and celebrate with, but you don't have to eat the whole cake.


4. How do you deal with family members or friends sabotaging your "best laid plans"?
Another tough one for me, cause I am a people pleezer...I have learned to stand up for me in most instances. I have learned to take what I can eat, bring something if I can't, if we are talking about a dinner. If they are on my case about eating and eating healthy I tell them about my health issues, I don't name them, but being FAT, is a health issue. I do have others, but I won't go into it with everyone. I am polite about it, but firm that this is my life and I am working on keeping it healthy. You have to stand up for yourself, cause no one is going to do it for you.

5. How do you reward yourself, when you do accomplish all or some of the above? I reward myself at 5 lb increments, I have over 100 pounds to loose, so small rewards are important to me....sometime with my best friend -- me; either window shopping, a mag/book and cup of latte'; a long, quiet, spa like bath; a manicure, a new hair color, a piece of jewelry or a new bag (I am a bag lady) maybe a trip to the craftstore. Something I LOVE to do that is special and important like I am trying to treat myself to be.

Really cool questions, and I'm enjoying all your answers.

1. How do you get yourself moving when you don't feel like it: For me if I don't do it in the morning, the chances are I won't do it at all. I really like my gym time, but I'm still getting into the habit of home excersize regimes. What works for me is that I journal first thing in the morning, and I make a point of positively affirming the good things that I'm doing, which motivates me to keep making good choices.

2. Sticking to the food plan when I go out to lunch is hard! For years eating out meant gorging on something cheesy or creamy, and I'm teaching myself how to investigate menus for the healthiest options. My "splurge" mentality has shifted now from creamy to specialty fishes that I usually don't buy for the family, like shrimp (which right now, for a family of four, costs a mint). Salads with grilled veggies, chic or fish, and dressing on the side works for me most of the time.

3. Saying no to devilish treats: For me, I fall back on the other hard to give up things that I've successfully kicked, and I remind myself that I can make the right choice. I gave up alcohol a while ago, which was much harder than passing up cake for me, and now I notice that it feels good to stick to my guns and do what I have told myself I will do. Its a whole different kind of indulgence.

4. Family sabotage, etc. I definitely have to deal with this all the time. My husband misses the fatty food I used to cook everynight, but he likes the trimmer me - so that helps him get it. I still make some of the old foods regularly and make my personal substitutions where I have to.

5. Rewards - I'm big on that. I guess I'm just a goldstar type of kid inside I give myself permission to indulge with a new cd, shopping, dishes or books when I accomplish a goal. Having goals and accomplishing them on a regular basis is new to me, and feels wonderful. Afterall, I'm changing my life and if I'm the only one who gets what big deal that is, then I am the one who has to reward it.

1. How do you get yourself out the door to the gym or your walk/run, or off the couch to do your video, when all you REALLY want to do is snuggle under a blanket w/ a good book or the TV?

Work days: First, I had to build a habit. I had to condition my body that, when the alarm goes off in the morning, I jump right into my exercise clothes and go to the livingroom to pop in the DVD of the day. If you make exercise an automatic response--alarm means exercise, like the bell meant food to Pavlov's dogs--then MOST of the time you will be out of the bed and halfway into your sports bra before you have a chance to think "Do I want to exercise?" and by that time, it's too late to go back.

Non work days: Again, it's habit, just not quite as restrictive as weekdays because I'm on a schedule on weekdays so I have no leeway. On non work days, I have more flexibility, but I still try to go to the gym, leave for a powerwalk, or crank up the DVD soon after rolling out of bed. I've fallen back on this habit some during the winter because it's SO cold out first thing in the morning, but I still get my exercise in most days it's planned.

I know myself and I know that the more time I give myself between rising and exercise, the more time I have to create an excuse not to exercise. So I create an environment where there is little time for excuse-making. Is it foolproof? Heck no...I'm human! But it works the vast majority of the time!

2. How do you stick to your food plan, when someone asks you out for lunch? Dinner? You're just plain pooped and dont' feel like cooking?

The out to dinner/lunch thing is tough for me because most of the restaurants around both my work and my home are chain places and there aren't a lot of healthy options. But I do my best to make wise choices.

As for being plain pooped...that's easier for me because I eat my main meal for lunch and I put a lot of time and energy into shopping for, preparing, cooking and packaging those lunches when I'm NOT working. WHen I get home from my long workday, all I want to do is throw something into a ww tortilla or into the microwave so I plan my light dinner meals to be quick & easy.

3. How do you say no to devilish little Girl Scout cookies (Thin mints...), or whatever the temptation of the season is?

Certain sweets continue to be my problem. We have a monthly birthday party at work at which an iced sheet cake is usually the main attraction. I can easily leave that alone. In fact, I'm usually really good about leaving all the "crap" at the birthday parties alone. But, this week, they had an Easter theme and everyone was given a little plastic Easter egg with goodies inside and so I did take one and got a bite-size Kit Kat and a Hershey's kiss in mine and ate both of those and then another bite-size Kit Kat later in the day.

4. How do you deal with family members or friends sabotaging your "best laid plans"?

I am not always as assertive about this as I need to be. It sort of depends on the person (how easily their feelings would be hurt) and the situation. But I do make it VERY clear to everyone I know that I eat healthy and that I always appreciate their support in that.

5. How do you reward yourself, when you do accomplish all or some of the above?

I continue to struggle with rewards. If I am in need of exercise clothes (like right now, when several pairs of my older gym shorts are falling apart), I go buy them. I don't wait for myself to lose X number of pounds or accomplish X task to go buy them. I think this is the only philosophy of this group that I have never been able to grasp in the 2 years I've been a part of it.

Does that mean I don't reward myself? No. I do. It just isn't perhaps in as organized or controlled manner as some.

1. How do you get yourself out the door to the gym or your walk/run, or off the couch to do your video, when all you REALLY want to do is snuggle under a blanket w/ a good book or the TV?

I remind myself of how much better I'll feel when I'm done exercising - both physically and emotionally. That's usually enough to get me moving.

2. How do you stick to your food plan, when someone asks you out for lunch? Dinner? You're just plain pooped and dont' feel like cooking?

If it's an unplanned meal out, I make the very bets choice possible at the restaurant. When I don't feel like cooking, I usually have enough frozen stuff to nuke or a kit meal to throw together. I haven't resorted to calling my dh to bring home take out in well over 2 years. At very worse, I'll run out to get sushi.

3. How do you say no to devilish little Girl Scout cookies (Thin mints...), or whatever the temptation of the season is?

My temptation this season was the Edy's Grand Light. I did a terrible job saying "no" so now it's on the 'can't have in the house' list.

4. How do you deal with family members or friends sabotaging your "best laid plans"?

I remind myself that no one is putting in the food in my mouth and even though it may be there, doesn't mean that I have to eat it.

5. How do you reward yourself, when you do accomplish all or some of the above?

Right now my favorite rewards are workout clothes.

1. How do you get yourself out the door to the gym or your walk/run, or off the couch to do your video, when all you REALLY want to do is snuggle under a blanket w/ a good book or the TV?
I tell myself that if I go to the gym, then I can do that later. When I get home, or before bed. It just gets postponed for awhile.

2. How do you stick to your food plan, when someone asks you out for lunch? Dinner? You're just plain pooped and dont' feel like cooking?
Eating out is a social event for me. I like to go for the company as much as the food. So, if someone asks me out, I go, and I try to order healthy. If it is a really special meal, then I will eat what I want, but I try to watch portion sizes, or cut calories somewhere else during the day. I have more trouble sticking to cooking on plan, when either I don't feel like it, or DH isn't going to be home. I try to have bags of lettuce and other salad makers on hand, to make an easy entree salad or soemthing for those nights.
3. How do you say no to devilish little Girl Scout cookies (Thin mints...), or whatever the temptation of the season is?
I don't. I try to limit myself. I actually ate 1 thin mint the other night, and stuck with just eating one.

4. How do you deal with family members or friends sabotaging your "best laid plans"?
I don't have a real good answer for this and was hoping someone else did.
5. How do you reward yourself, when you do accomplish all or some of the above?
See answer number 1. Also, if I go to aquarobics, I allow myself to relax in the hot tub or sauna when I get done.