Posts by denise07

cwol510485995, I can so relate to you. I just wrote a journal entry on will power about this very issue. It is such a struggle. We really just have to keep trying and never give up.

Original Post by berta612:

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I'm curious whether those in this forum who are ENFPs have been able to lose weight and actually keep it off.  Or do you find you tend to yo-yo diet, i.e. lose the weight and then put it back on, only to try losing again?

touche!

Original Post by trh:

Well, I don't know what kind of work you do but I think this come down to self-confidence.  It's knowing that you know what you need to know to do the job well and knowing at the end of the work day that you've done everything you could do that day and that you are ready for what you need to do tomorrow.

I think the stress comes from not being sure that you're doing the job well.

 

I never thought of it this way but I think you are really onto something there. The time management comments also make sense but I think it is because when you are not organized & on top of things, you doubt yourself and worry more. Self-confidence is something I am working on so this seems like a useful way for me to think about things.

kelrantymus -- wow, thanks for all that great info!!! Nothing like getting the inside scoop from someone who (practically) lives there! I am totally going to get tickets to that luau and surprise my friend! 

donuthole -- thanks!! Driving around is definitely on the List. Can't wait to explore!

meta15 -- Thanks so much!!

Original Post by catwalker:

We went to Hawaii in 2010. We didn't go to Maui, but I think some of the things we did will help for that island as well.

Research online for things like snorkeling, luaus, etc. We found that booking a luau was cheaper online and using a discount than it would have been if we did it once we got there. If you go to a luau, pay for the better seats up close. We didn't have to wait in the buffet line and we had up close tickets for the show. We also got several drink tickets for purchasing the better seats. The drinks are expensive at the luau, so we saved lots of money by purchasing the more expensive seats.

Go online and purchase one of those discount books for Hawaii. We got our usual one for our area and were able to purchase a 2nd one for only $10.00. It had coupons that saved us additional cash on the luau as well as discounts for other attractions, like snorkeling, surfing.

You'll have to get a rental car for Hawaii. Public transportation anywhere other than Honolulu is pretty much non-existent. Book your rental car ahead of time. It will be more expensive on Hawaii than other places.

Have you already booked a hotel? If not, you should search vacation condo rentals. You'll enjoy it much better than a hotel and it will be cheaper. We had 2 different vacation rentals, 1 on Oahu and the other on Kauaii. They had small kitchens so we could fix breakfast before heading out for the day. They also had washers. They provided beach towels and beach items to use as well.

My friend did mention wanting to go to a luau, so thank you for the tips! I know there is one where we're staying, but I haven't looked into where better ones might be. I have heard they're rather expensive, but that's okay for a one-time thing. That is a great tip about the better seats being worth it, too, I would never have known that.

We have already made hotel and car reservations. I love the idea of having a condo with a kitchen -- that was the original plan, but it fell through for a couple of reasons. I think it will be okay anyway. 

The discount book is another great idea I wouldn't have thought of - thanks!

Original Post by dnrothx:

Honolua Bay was the best place I went for snorkeling (west coast).

Hiking around Haleakala's crater (where most of the hiking is) is fun due to the landscape, but also challenging due to the landscape.  Little, if any shade, and the crater is gigantic.

You may not be into seafood, but the Paia Fish Market is one of my favorite eating places in the entire country, let alone Hawaii.

Keep in mind that burglaries from cars are quite common.

Thanks for the snorkeling tip! What are the temperatures like on the crater? I get that it can be sunny (and warm from the radiant heat) even when the air temperatures are cool, as it is like that where I live. When you say there is no shade, is it uncomfortably warm too?

Thanks for the tip about car burglaries!

I have lost 68 pounds since this time last year. I did not start losing until April. Looking forward to being another 75 down by this time next year!

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things 
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry

Original Post by weirdfish:

As AGirl is pointing out, it has less to do with technique as opposed to the mindset.

People who micromanipulate the numbers, take them too literally, regularly beat themselves up for perceived failures, and/or take unreasonable or unrealistic approaches to weight loss (in particular, the whole erroneous mentality of "lose X lbs. by Y date/event" -- choose your poison: spring break, wedding, new year, etc.) exhibit a greater tendency for self-loathing after a setback.

I'm basing this paragraph solely on patterns witnessed here on CC.com.  And there are a lot of data sources here!

Calories are ballpark figures.  Scales don't tell the whole story.  Machines cannot tell you what you actually burned, and a Web site is even more detached (Skynet has not come on-line, and contrary to popular belief, we are not in the Matrix).

We have a tendency to approach weight loss as a mathematical function.  A linear equation of "eat X less calories in perpetuity to maintain a steady downward progression."  It's much more amorphous than that (in fact, I say this often, but weight loss is not a linear equation of y=mx+b), and we fail to take into account the very real concept of "the more you do something, the better you get at doing it."

This means that the better one gets at operating at a certain level of caloric intake, the less weight will be lost because the body doesn't have to work as hard to figure out what's going on.  When that happens, we can either acknowledge it and adjust our approach -OR- freak out and panic and cry over the fact that we failed (which seems to be the more common reaction).

It's mindset.

^^^ This is great! Thank you!

After years of trying I like to think I am getting better at this thing, and am beating it. It does not mean I will progress perfectly (linearly), and it doesn't mean I have "failed" when I don't progress perfectly.

I really enjoyed the book Change Anything (Patterson et al.). I have not read a lot of diet self-help books. But this book is not about dieting per se, it's about how to change bad habits and make positive changes in your life. Weight loss/fitness is one example that they use (along with things like drug addiction, smoking, and improving work habits). 

The book talks mostly about how to set yourself up for success by working on the sources of influence in your life that can make your goal harder or easier to achieve, and how to use "setbacks" as data in your own personal experiment as a scientist studying yourself, to learn what you can do differently to make it better next time. 

So yeah, I agree that attitude/mindset is the difference between "easy" success and failure. But while it may come easier to some than others, I think all of us have the ability to modify our mindset to make it work for us. 

Original Post by kevinatthebrook:

Original Post by denise07:

 1. Yes, you offered that, but that's not all you offered. The additional component was what my comment was about.

2. Yes. That's why we post on these forums is to pass judgement, and then pass judgement on each other for having passed judgement.

I admit I didn't read the whole thread. Isn't it the spirit of this political season to pass judgements based on limited information? Especially on message boards.

So it's  my comment that rabbits are edible that you find offensive? You don't think it was irresponsible to bring an admittedly flea ridden and obviously sick, wild animal onto  public transportation?

My family is from a very "rural" part of PA. When driving down the road one evening my cousin hit a rabbit. It was wounded. We got out of the car, my cousin picked up the animal, very quickly "dispatched" it, checked for broken bones,threw it in  the trunk and we went on our way. We ate the rabbit for dinner that night. So my comment was based on the only similar experience I'd ever had.

BTW, it was the only meat on the table that night. The rabbit was unlucky but we weren't.

I'm not against eating animals (though I think we have a responsibility to treat them humanely; your description of eating the rabbit above sounds just fine to me). But when someone responds to a comment about helping animals (be it a situation like this one, or an endangered species or what have you) by mentioning how the animal tastes, then my interpretation is that the welfare or pain of the animal is unimportant because its status has been lowered to that of food and not a sentient being. There is no other purpose for making a statement like that.