Category: Planning Ahead

Clicking and Sticking

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There comes a point in most weight loss journeys when habits start to become automatic, they are “clicking” and start happening with little effort. It is very important to be self-aware of this phase. With that self-awareness comes room for better decision-making and confidence, and these are two essential qualities for long-term weight loss success. When we recognize these qualities in ourselves, we know the process of weight loss is (you already know where this is going) “sticking.”

Many people give up on their weight loss journeys because they failed to reach this poing. Finding your way to that pivotal phase when habits begin to click so weight loss starts to stick can be very difficult. Here are three helpful tips that have been helpful to me.

Habits Reveal your True Identity

Who are you? Chances are good, that if you’re reading this blog, improving health and weight loss are important to you. If you identify as a person invested in health and weight loss, consider whether or not if the habits you keep make it so. Our habits are the actions we take day in and day out. A habit tracker can keep you honest:

Every Habit Needs a Home

James Clear writes extensively about the role one’s environment plays on the successful acquistion of habits. He asks us to consider our relationships to the objects around us and to use these objects as a cue to engage a habit. That really captured my thinking. I like the idea of having relationships to objects. I have begun to associate objects with particular habits. Meeting my daily water goal – my water bottle is home to that habit. Take a look:

  • This char is my cue to get changed into workout clothes when I get home.
  • This lunchbox is out on my counter to cue for pre-tracking and planning lunch.
  • This pill case is the cue to take my vitamins.
  • This journal is my cue to write 5 things I am grateful for.
  • This watch and my Peloton are cues to working out.
  • This food scale is home to the habit of portion control. It is out on the kitchen counter.

Reflect and Refine What’s Working

Keep an open mind, and monitor how well your habits are serving you. If your happy with your progress, and your habits are proving to live up to your preceived identity, then great don’t change a thing. However, if this is not the case, do not be afraid to change things

If you’re not sure about how to build some momentum start with these tips. Before you know it you’ll have a whole system of habits that will help you to grow into the person you want to be. Thanks for reading.

Of Willpower and Whirlpools

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Do you ever blame yourself for not having enough self-control? You think, “If only I had enough willpower and resolve, I would be able to push through this and stay on track.” For those of us who are working to improve our health, it can be very confusing when it comes to willpower. Sometimes a challenging situation will arise, like bagels in the breakroom, and it is easy to navigate that situation. But then, there are other situations that completely deplete our reserves of willpower and bad habits take over. Driving us backward, and then comes the dreaded vortex of shame, “I can’t believe I did it again!”

Let’s start this post by saying, falling into the groove of a bad habit is normal, and should not be received as a source of shame. I hope that by the end of this post, you’ll have a better understanding of what is really going on when we (all) fall back into bad habits from time to time.

Sometimes habits become encoded in the brain, and they are activated by a situation. If I am attending a holiday with my extended family, I will eat and drink much more than I would at home. That response is an encoded habit for me. If I go to the movies, I’ll want popcorn – another encoded habit. Think about yourself, what situation would activate an encoded habit? You find yourself in a situation, and internal forces wake up to trigger a response. The situation and the habit work together and suck you in as if you were in a whirlpool on the ocean.

Imagine the rotating current is the encoded habit. The opposing arrows represent a situational cue that puts the habit into action. Willpower is no match for that amount of force.

Top 5 Strategies for Breaking Bad Habits

  1. Avoid the situation – if you don’t want to eat the bagels don’t go into the staff room.
  2. If a situation can’t be avoided, make a detailed mental story – if I’m going to a wedding I will wear an outfit I feel great in, I will eat 3 hors d’oeuvres and my entree, and spend the rest of the time socializing and dancing.
  3. Create a network of others to draw strength from, I am going to face a challenge next weekend like going to a winery, so I will talk about it with my weight watchers community to help me focus on what I really want.
  4. Disrupt a situation by inserting a new cue – I come from work and sack out on the couch but no – my workout clothes are there waiting for me to put them on. I work out instead.
  5. Find new rewards that will develop healthy habits – Instead of rewarding myself with a latte for a job well done, I put the money in a jar and let it collect there as a reminder of all I am accomplishing. Then spend it on something bigger and better.

Beware, bad habits. Steer your ship away from those insidious whirlpools. For they have no choice but to suck you back into the old lifestyle you are trying to escape. This journey is all about making the most of the situations you find yourself in, avoiding unhelpful situations, and building momentum for the good. You are the one who decides how this will go – never doubt that you are powerful! We got this.

Just for fun

Remember when we were all watching videos of sea chanties?

If you’d like to learn more about Whirlpools, this is a great video:

Make it Obvious

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Pretend you were able to walk into the home of someone you didn’t know. Once inside, you decide to look around. You walk into the living room and there on a chair in the foyer were some workout clothes folded neatly. You looked down at the coffee table and you see a half-filled habit tracker and some colored pens. In the kitchen, you see a food scale, and a bowl of grapes cleaned and trimmed into little bunches. Down the hallway off the kitchen and to right there is a small alcove and scale. A 64-ounce (pink) water bottle sits on a table, and it is almost empty. All of these objects tell a story about the person who lives here – this person is living a healthy lifestyle.

Environment is the invisble hand that shapes human behaviour.

James Clear Atonmic Habits

Are you making it easier or harder to achieve your weight loss goals?

Weighing in…

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I am part of the Weight Watchers community, and lots of members are talking about the company’s decision to partner with another company called Sequence. Now members will have the option to use pharmaceuticals to help them lose weight. Some members are having a hard time with this decision because they feel it is contradictory to the beliefs of the organization.

Dealing with obesity takes a tremendous toll on the health and well-being of many people. It’s not for me to judge anyone’s choices. I just want to support my friends who are on the journey. As for me, right now, I think I am learning a lot about myself on this journey. My plan is to keep working the program and to reflect on my process. So far today has been a good one on plan. I made time to sit and eat breakfast in the morning. I packed a low-point lunch and snacks that I ate during the workday. I did not eat any candy, even though I spent the day with that candy bowl. Instead, I ate a clementine, it was quite refreshing and sweet. And, I’m going to set an Implementation Intention to work out later this evening here goes;

I will use the Peloton for 20 minutes at 8:15 pm in my bedroom.

Jenn Hayhurst 3/9/23

The only thing I feel a bit discouraged about (not always but sometimes) is that on the inside, I know I’m making big progress but it’s not showing on the outside. It’s not rational for me to get upset about something I can’t control. The weight will come off because I am making all these smart choices. Every choice I made that gets me closer to my goal brings me joy, and that is what I am choosing to focus on.

What’s Next?

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Yesterday, I was admiring spring flowers during my walk with Sadie. Today, I woke up to a light coating of snow. Surprise! This has me thinking about surprises. A surprise disrupts a pattern, you expect one thing and something else happens – SURPRISE! For so long I’ve treated the scale like a literal platform for a surprise to unfold before me. Step onto it and… surprise! You’re down, “Yay!” Your up, “Agh!” In my mind, I would think, “I did this or that, and now I have an expectation for how things are supposed to go.” But hey, sometimes the pattern is broken and there is a surprise.

Whether it’s a good surprise or a bad surprise is not the point. A surprise is a momentary blip. No different than the snow that was there in the morning and gone by the afternoon. It’s what happens after the surprise that really matters. It matters because that’s the part where I get to decide what will or will not happen – next. This is a process, and if I stick with it, over time, I will achieve my weight loss goals. Believe it, and it will be so.

This is not a surprise – eating breakfast is becoming a habit. That’s also the point.

Planning Ahead

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What if instead of focusing on how challenging weight loss can be, we focused on how the journey can be a testimony of our inner power and strength? How would that other narrative make us feel? Who is telling your story? Is your story being written by others, or are you the author of your own life? I say your life is your story to tell. I am tenacious. I will perservere. I am optimisitic that I will acheive my goals. Who do you choose to be on this weight loss journey? Think on that for a moment.

Weight loss is a complex issue, and unfortunately, there are many people out there who think it’s as simple as not eating so much. This is (in my opinion) a mean spirited and very unwelcome message the world sends out on the daily. It is especially hard for those of us who are giving so much care and attention to weight loss goals. If it were so simple it to lose weight, the weight loss industry wouldn’t have a projected a market share of 3.8 billion for 2023. Incomprehensible!

So here is a tip to keep you working your healthy habits. In the book, Atomic Habits, James Clear writes about “Implementation Intention” this is a percise plan about the behavior, the time, and the location. Does that really work? Could it be that simple? I don’t know but I’m going to give it a go. Here is mine, and I promise to let you know if it worked or not:

Here is a weight loss tip I can share that I know for sure works, it is planning ahead. My husband and I went to the movies to see Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Movie popcorn is very, very delicious. Many times, I have gone to the movies and said, “I will tough it out. I just will not have any popcorn because it’s too many points.” I can tell you, that doesn’t work for me. So instead, don’t tell, I made popcorn and home and snuck it into the theatre. I would buy air-popped popcorn at the theatre if they sold it. Maybe they should since we Americans are spending 3.8 trillion on weight loss! My husband and I snacked on the popcorn, and I remained true to my goals for the day. Win-win!