Forget Setting Goals, Focus on Systems Article

[MAPPLEBUM]

I've been thinking a lot about this in regards to health/fitness. Reactions?

http://m.entrepreneur.com/article/230333



I also see you guys are talking about logging onto LoseIt, which is probably like Sparkpeople. I logged calories burned and consumed for over a year and realized it really wasn't helping me much. After a few really good days I always felt like I could "handle" a big calorie splurge. I gave up on Spark and decided to start focusing on the way I feel and clothes fit.

[SoonerTexan]

Meh. Goals without systems are stupid, but a systems without goals are boring.

Meeting a goal feels awesome. I loved how I felt after running y first half and that feeling has inspired me. If you don't celebrate at goals, I feel like the effort can go stale.

Technically tracking on lose it would be a system, not a goal, but I understand why it doesn't work for some people

[Ladybug]

I've been reading the power of habit which I've found interesting. It's about identifying your ques, routines and rewards, and then replacing those routines with healthier, more desirable routines. The ques and rewards must stay the same, and we have to learn to identify them. We're more successful in sustaining changes when they occur in the environment of a community (hence loggin on) and if we believe the change is possible (faith, especially a collective faith).

I've tried logging into different calorie/exercise tracking systems, but I've never experience success. I'm not sure where the ball gets dropped, but they haven't worked for me personally. My dysfunctions are much deeper than systems…

[GreyhoundsRUs]

Meh. I agree with ST - the goal is the "why" behind your actions. I doubt a football team would practice every day without the goal of winning a game. I am looking to be healthier and fit into my clothes again. I will be tracking my calories and exercising. Once I reach my goal, I will continue doing those things, but my goal will change (from losing weight to maintaining). I think that just doing something without a reason would get pointless/easy to give up.

Wake up every morning and do 10 jumping jacks. Why? Just because? Meh


Wife of a PGY-4 Orthopod

[spotty_dog]

The book I'm reading on habits and changing them is called Switch. It's about getting your rational mind and emotional mind to work together to achieve change, break old habits, form new ones.

I have found, over the course of a decade (gah!) of trying it for varying lengths of time, that calorie counting is a path to unhealthy obsession for me. I try to shave more and more calories off my total until I am walking around fatigued and brain-fogged. I think I'm doing a little better this time around, but I'm also doing better at putting the emphasis on overall health.

[MAPPLEBUM]

Yea I've definitely decided logging calories did nothing for me. I do go through phases with weighing, sometimes it inspires me eat less/better, and other times weighing every morning just perpetuates they shame cycle. (I don't know what else to call it. It's the "I shouldn't be eating this, it's so bad but I'm doing it anyway") I wonder if the only time weighing every day has worked was in order to maintain weight.

As far as systems versus goals I totally agree that by having no goal you end up nowhere (or whatever the phrase is), to a certain extent. Professionally, in the music field, musicians rarely get exactly what they want, or even do as well as they hoped. The most successful ones I've found are proactive and take every opportunity until they start making progress. Doing this over a few years did to my goals, but circuitously. I did end up obtaining my goals but it was wrapped up in so many other things I was achieving (and after so many jobs I hated). It's the same thing with performing. No performance is anywhere as good as I'd like, so to make any kind of performance related goals would be a total mistake. Rather, it's the process of learning the music uniquely and profoundly that best sets you up for successful performances. The music and stress of performing is too complex to consider performance. I wonder if the same goes for weight loss. I'm not sure I've ever lost weight by weighing myself every day. I've maintained weight that way but the times I've lost weight was when I was focused on the here and now, eating well in this very moment and exercising as much as possible.

[Sheherezade]

You have to find what works for you and you have to recognize that your situation is completely unique. No matter how much advice we read or give to each other, we aren't the same. All we can do is offer each other new things to try!

Calorie logging did work for me - as did the strict restriction. I couldn't keep that up for more than four months. I was going crazy. Still, it worked where nothing else has. So...maybe I need to do that in smaller chunks. Two months? Who knows. By the time I'm sixty, I'll have it figured out. Lol

Daily weighing does not work for me either. Makes me craaaazy. I feel like a total failure. I finally realized why when I accidentally logged my weight before my morning yoga class and then forgot and weighed again after yoga. It's a hot yoga class, so you sweat buckets, but still... I was shocked that I weighed 8 lbs less in just 90 minutes. 8 lbs!! With that level of fluctuation happening to me based on water, how could I take 1-2 lbs on the scale so seriously that I'd end up depressed? I started weekly weighing after that.

I'm also a creature of habit. Systems and routines work for me. Goals, meh. I honestly care less when I hit them. Give me a routine and I'll motor on for years.

For me, the key is making substitutions for my treats and setting habits that I can live with (and love) that are within a low calorie diet. I've had great luck with my exercise because it became a habit. That's never happened before. It's so engrained now after three years of repetition that I'm going stir crazy from being sick and on the couch. Believe me, that's a huge change! I've had less luck with finding substitutions for all my emotional eating. Give me chocolate. Give me diet coke. Bacon. All these are hard to replace.


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[Michele]

I need the daily weigh in and the recording on LoseIt so that you all could "see" and I need the strict calorie counting/logging. That's what works for me.

[houseelf]

While I appreciate the author's point, I view it in a different lens. I do everything I can to build in success. Sign up for the race months in advance. Text a running buddy to meet me at o'dark thirty. Lay clothes out the night before. Financially, I save at an institution that is very hard for me to withdrawal cash from (no ATM card). I keep myself out of the mall and big box stores. All savings are automatically withdrawn each paycheck.

In a similar vein, I've taught the kids to set their own alarm clocks and pack their bags the night before. My car has a ridiculous amount of sunscreen, blankets, snacks, etc. Crap is gonna happen, but some preparation can help mitigate damages. Truthfully, I can't watch those prepper shoes, because I'm one nervous breakdown from becoming one.

I do understand the author's point regarding, "I've run the marathon, now what?" mentality. I typically take at least 3 weeks off after a huge race and training season. (Although last time it was closer to 3 months). It is hard to see the forest for the trees during this time frame. What helps me overcome the letdown is reviewing an exercise log that I keep in a free Chic-Fil-A calendar in my bedside table. Anyway, when I look over the pages, I still see that I'm somewhere in the cycle, even if there is a big gap in recent weeks. It gives me a bigger picture and allows me to see that rest and recovery are part of it.

I try to build in as many measures to promote success as possible. The older I get, I really appreciate that you have to view set backs and failures as part of the cycle. I don't think we teach that to young kids. I never got that memo. We want success all the time and maybe that just isn't realistic. Maybe it is better to take the long view and see health/finances/goals as cycles.

I did read an article once that some dieters did better with the cold turkey method and some did better with the moderation. DH is a cold turkey type of guy. I'm more of a moderation type of girl. Tell me I can't have something and I become a rabid zombie in an attempt to have it. I think figuring this piece out is helpful in determining what an individual path to success looks like.

[MAPPLEBUM]

I try to build in as many measures to promote success as possible. The older I get, I really appreciate that you have to view set backs and failures as part of the cycle. I don't think we teach that to young kids. I never got that memo. We want success all the time and maybe that just isn't realistic. Maybe it is better to take the long view and see health/finances/goals as cycles.

This is beautiful.

On another note, for awhile I was really good at giving myself non-food rewards. Like clothes shopping, manicures, or even getting a massage, I even started considering walks as a reward. For the shopping, many/most times I wouldn't even buy anything but for whatever reason going to the mall (which I hate) and seeing myself under those florescent lights is wildly effective. I'll either feel like WOW I'm hot! Or these days wwwhoooaaa....time to get my butt into gear.