Interested or Committed?

This is a journey you decided to take for better health more energy and stamina. Right? Are you where you want to be? Are you really doing the things necessary to fight the battle of the bulge?  Are you having many many cheat days and then feel guilty when you do?

Well let me tell you.  I am fighting with this question.  Am I INTERESTED OR COMMITTED in this diet journey?  I think I lost my committment and now I am just interested. Do you know what I mean by that? I mean, if you are INTERESTED you just want to sit on the side lines and take what comes not really being devoted on what the plan should be that you are following.

IF you are committed you are watching your calories, exercising, and not necessarily but maybe logging your food to track your calories. This at times isn't necessary because most eat the same foods all the time and are  routine and just know what the caloric intake is.

So, I leave you with the question - ARE YOU INTERESTED OR COMMITTED TO THIS DIET JOURNEY?  And what are you doing to show you are comitted and how are you staying motivated to remain committed instead of falling off the wagon like I think I am slowly doing?

JOIN ME IN THE NEW 2009 July 1st- September 30th GAMES CHALLENGE.

Great Question!

I know exactly what you mean. I get committed really quickly and then I let it wane and then it disappears and then I'm interested but it takes me a long time to snap back to committed.

I'm trying things slower this time. Trying to gradually move towards committed instead of plunging head first as I typically do, which I think is the reason I burn out. 

My method of trying to say committed this time is two fold, one is this slower introduction. 

Instead of starting back at the gym everyday, dropping my calories to 1500 right away and going gang busters and then bust. The plan was / is to first figure out how much I was eating on average (3000 cal OMG) and instead of dropping right away I'm forcing myself to only take away 100 calories a week. This is forcing me into a more gradual process. I am currently at 2500 calories. I also did the same thing with the gym. Instead of going back everyday I started with going once per week for 30 min. Gradually worked that up to 4 days per week, which is going to be the most I commit myself to doing. And once I was at 4 days per week, I increased the time by a half hour each week to now when I am now at 1.5 hours going 4 days per week. My hope is that this new gradual approach will help me integrate the commitment for a longer time period. 

Second, is that I've started a group called wagon jumpers. I know I am prone to jumping off the wagon. I guessed we may have some other people who are too. I've asked the people who have replied to call each other out if we don't check in once per week. I hope to turn this into an interactive support group for those of us who loose our commitment. 

If your interested (although I don't want this to sound like a sales pitch, I just related very strongly to your post and would love to get to know you more) here is the start up thread: Wagon Jumpers - Anyone Need a Lift?

Cheers,

 

Sara.

 

First off hear this. really hear it! You are NORMAL! All of us have problems getting out of the habits that were built. Remember we didn't get fat over night. And we sure will not get skinny over night. The cheat days happen. I still do them. This is a change for LIFE. Literally.

 

Here is the thing. Slow, is the pace of a person that will make it through. Your commitment comes from your heart. You are a Godly woman. You know were you need to look to get the strength to carry on. I KNOW you can do it. I know that you have th strength. A small walk everyday with Sandi has done you well. And you can continue doing that. ;)

 

You need to dig deep and find how you need to tackle this “Battle of the Bulge” The first thing I did. Was my family had to make the change with me. Them I have done it slower than with me. BUT my kids know that everything is okay in moderation. But that there will not be “junk food” in our house at all anymore. They come in from school and ask for nuts and fruit. That is the way it should be for me.

 

Reminder notes. Love notes to yourself. You are WORTH this more than I think you realize. Jump back on the wagon. Go for it. Little steps and keep yourself motivated.

 

#1 thing I do. No matter HOW HORABLE I feel when I get up I still GO work out. I always feel better after I do anyway. ;) But it has meant that the routine of the past 9 months is there. Even if I get up exercise for only 30 min. instead of 3 hours. I still got up and did Something. I am not sure what to tell you at this point. It has become such a way of my life. I hope that maybe this will help you in some way.

 

I love you Heaven, you are my sister in Christ. ;)

God bless and may he give you the strength to carry on!

JenBug

me, i am committed, and as i see reults, i become more committed. hope it stays this way

I know exactly how you are feeling Heaven.  I'm not really sure I'm as committed as I thought I was.  I've been able to stick to my exercise routine although it is getting harder already. I think boredom is setting in and I need to change things hopefully the nicer weather will help with that. I've also been committed to logging my foods most days. However, as you well know, I have had a lot of trouble sticking with my goals for my nutrition levels.  The number 1 reason - eating out.  If I was truely committed to the plan I started back in September I would not be eating out 2-3 sometimes 4-5 times a week. And I sure wouldn't be going to buffets most of those times!

Thank you for asking this question.  I think I've known for a while now that my heart really isn't in it like it was when I started.  However, it is time to re-evaluate and find a way to get back that committment.  I've made a lot of progress over the last 8 months or so and I don't want to ruin all of the good I've done.  It's time to sit down and list out all of the small and not so small accomplishments I've made. Once I see all I've accomplished with just small changes to my diet and lifestyle I think I will be able to get back that committment.

I am completely committed to this diet of mine but at the same time I am very interested in it as well - I love reading new information about the health benefits the foods I eat on a daily basis bring me - I also love reading how exercise is such an amazing activity for your body, mind, etc = because I do it on a daily basis. 

I think I will always be committed to what I am doing because my diet is a lifestyle & I feel really good doing what I am doing! 

I'm committed!  Every day I log food, plan menus, and read others posts and journals.  I weigh each morning and then log my thoughts and note my scale is a lot like life.  It has ups and downs, that are unpredictable, and not totally reflective of what I do or don't do.  But, ultimately, my weight will go down if I do what I need to each day. 

I believe that if I do the best I can each day and treat others the best I can, even when I may be struggling sometimes, regardless of how they treat me, if I forgive and keep believing and recommiting to my cc plan, I will live a better life and as a result, will lose these pounds.

That's an awesome question!

I can't decide what I am! One day, I'm COMMITTED, and the next, I can only muster interest! How do I change the interested days in to committed days?!?!?!

I want to be COMMITTED!

Original Post by howe:

 my scale is a lot like life.  It has ups and downs, that are unpredictable, and not totally reflective of what I do or don't do. 

 Great post. Simply that.

I love this post...it articulates almost exactly where I'm at right now.

I'm committed to a minimum level of exercising because of the nature of the exercise I do and the fact that I prepay for my classes, but I'm not truly getting the maximum out of it right now.

I'm committed to eating in a reasonably healthy manner, but I'm not counting calories right now.

So I'm committed to being healthier but only interested in losing the next 10 lbs.

 

For the first time in my life, I am committed. I have been interested many times, I have swung between commitment and interest, like I've had diet-boyfriends but now I am diet-married, fully committed to my plan for a healthier thinner me. For me, it's a question of survival: do or die. I know I was dying inside, slowly and painfully, when I didn't care about what I put into my body or what I did to it. The last few years have been a time of self-exploration and self-improvement for me, and I have made a lot of changes in how I feel about myself. Losing this weight, once a for all, was the natural next step in this process...to be kinder to my body as it's my vessel and the only one I get...and to know that I deserve to be thin and never again suffer the pains and humiliations and discomforts of being overweight.

Long post, sorry....this is something I feel really strongly about and it's the main difference from all the other times I have tried to lose weight. It's a lifetime commitment, to myself.

I am with VictoriaGirl.  It is now a question of survival for me as well.  My health deteriorating.  If I kept my old lifestyle up, diabetes and heart disease would be my future.  I don't claim I never mess up.  After all, if this diet and exercise plan is for the rest of your life, you have to expect some messups.  The fact that I have been on a 3 month plateu is annoying, but I have never thought of giving up.  My old lifestyle was a bad mistake.  One that would eventually kill me.  Why would I go back to it?

I guess I am committed.

I am committed.   I have no choice,  everything else I was doing wasn't working.  But it is a happy choice.  I have chosen well.  I am getting benefits, even though the excitment of weight loss is not there - I am still "stuck" at a 30 pound weight loss.  But my health, life style has improved so much that I am happily committed.

***BUMP***

I am still interested in hearing from more people about this diet journey they are on. Where they stand?

Today is February 26, 2009 and I thought I would bump this post up for reasons that I have determined I am on a different path of this journey.

I am NOW Committed. I have loss 49 pounds since the first post. A week ago I joined a gym and have been there everyday except on weekends, that is when they are the most crowded.

So I say, pose that question to you again, ARE YOU INTERESTED OR COMMITTED TO THIS DIET JOURNEY.

I just got the little e-mail alert thingy that told me someone had replied to this thread, and I couldn't even remember when I posted on it since it's not one of my regular threads. 

I am happy to say that I am still here. Between February and August last year I lost six dress sizes, somewhere around 50 lbs (I didn't step on the scale when I first started trying to loose). I got into a maintenance stride around October and coasted through the holidays. 

Part of me could bully myself for not continuing to loose, I'd still like to loose another 50 lbs, but I will say I am committed at this point. I will back that up with the fact that for the first time in my 8 years of trying to loose weight, I lost weight last year and I have successfully kept it off over the holidays and not gained it back and then some. 

For 8 years now I have been progressively increasing my weight by loosing a little and then gaining it back with interest.

This year I stopped that cycle. I'm not yet at my goal, but I'm in a much better position to reach it.

Sara.

I "fell off the wagon" back around September / October and ended up gaining back about 20 of the 30-40 lbs I'd lost but since then I've gotten back on track and have re-committed myself to becoming a healthier person.  The first step was getting my eating back in line (or at least working on it), then getting back into the exercise routine (Feb 09 is the best month I've had for exercise since I started recording  my times in Dec 08), and now I've started my next step to the healthier, new me - I'm quitting smoking. 

So I guess the answer to your question is I'm COMMITTED to this lifestyle change (I refuse to say that D word).

I was always just interested in losing weight before, but for the last 6 months I have been committed to my "weightloss journey." I too hate the D word and won't use it either!!

Good for you two not giving up!  We are playing a challenge game with ourselves everyday.  That challenge leads up to a committment.  I am glad for the support of my cc; friends to keep me on the path to this weight loss journey.

Keep up the good work you all!!!!! I have tagged this post so I shall check in on you from time to time.

Take care and God bless.

I thought I would re-post this in conjunction with my July 1st - September 30th Game challenge in that forum. To give you something to think about and see if you are COMMITTED to join in!

Hope to see more of you there!

 

Its now a few days into July and there are many members who joined the July 1st - August 30th challenge.  This is where you make a committment to post numbers regardless of what they are.  You pick the day to enter and if you miss a day and post another day, that doesn't matter.  As long as you remain with the challenge is really shows you are committed to this journey.

Supersize! I am sorry I didn't check this earlier, A big congratulations on your loss I read through the entries and decided to add this along with the July 1st challenge I started. If you are interested in joining feel free to do so.

Take care one and all.