Awareness and Accountability

After six years on this journey, I think that the most important things that I've find to help maximize the weight loss opportunity and maintenance is developing and exercising awareness and accountability. I think that most of us that have had a serious weight issue also have had what I often refer to as 'Three Monkey Syndrome' aka 'Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil.' This lack of awareness and accountability can and have had a crippling effect on many of us. The good news is that we can develop ways to be aware and in tune with what we consume and our level of activity. What we each do to become aware of our actions and the impact that they have on us varies depending on our needs at the time, but the need to be aware never goes away. I think that accountability is the partner of awareness because it requires us to keep a pulse on what we are doing. There are so many areas of our lives where these come into play.

What do you do to be aware of your intake and activity?

Do you have things that you do to help you be accountable to yourself?

Have the tools you use to be aware and accountable changed over the course of your journey?

I look forward to hearing from you.

I log in to myfitnesspal to keep up with my VSG friends.  I check in everyday and try and post everyday to encourage others.  I go out on this website and try and give encouragement to others and share my experiences.  I weigh all my food.  I also do weigh myself everyday but I don't let it rule my mood for the day if I am up.  There are going to be daily fluctuations but if it becomes a pattern it is a check for me to really look at what I am eating and drinking and adjust accordingly if needed.  I look at the weight on the scale and the body fat %.  I also use my body measurements to measure my success.  My accountability tools have not really changed because I have made a commitment to make a lifestyle change and these were part of my lifestyle change.  I am less than 20lbs from goal at 9 months out but I think I will need to stay in contact long term with other vets to keep myself accountable, I would like to say everyday but I don't know if that will be feasible or not.  I will set a maintenance danger weight and if I go past that weight, I have to go back into weight loss mode.  I am scared to death of putting the weight back on and if I do not continue to use the tools that I have been given and just bury my head in the sand, I will put it back on.

Hi Jackie,

Congratulations on your many successes thus far in your journey. I know that the tools that I used when I was losing my excess weight were somewhat different than the tools I now use in maintenance; that said, they are all related. Like you, I find that it helps to have an upper limit threshold. If you can nip regain in the bud, when it's a small bud rather than a full bushel of weight it's much easier to manage. Studies have shown that those who stay in touch with their support groups tend to do very well in the long term.

Wishing you all the best and continued success,

Excellent message. I lied to myself for years using small mirrors and viewing myself from the neck up. For me living in maintenance means logging/journaling my daily food intake. If I write it, see it, then I hold myself accountable. And like you said exercise is nonnegotiable.

Dasie

I think that we many of us lied to ourselves for years by using mirrors that only allow us to see ourselves from the neck up. I also never really paid attention to the 'value' of what I was consuming because to be honest, I didn't want to know. I know that if I was paying attention to the value of what I was eating that I wouldn't allow myself the indulgence, so unfortunately, I preferred the relative bliss of ignorance. Of course, we know that that relative bliss came with a very heavy cost... no pun intended. When I was losing weight I journaled heavily so that I could learn the value of what I was eating. After I hit maintenance, I found that I don't need to do it unless my weight goes up (or down) out of the maintenance range I'm comfortable. One of my in person support group members shared that they log their intake before consume food. Whenever I need to log my intake, I do this because I find that I make better choices when I see the impact of my choice.

Thanks for sharing and I wish you continued success,

Awesome message and reminder. Actually the only way I can be accountable is to document everything I put in my mouth. I use MyFitnessPal. If I don't do that it's only a matter of days that I completely lose control (I'm pre op). After reading this I'm going to get back to MFP. I've been off course lately focusing on researching WLS and getting approval for the surgery. That's a poor excuse but that has been my focus but not anymore. Thank you.

I also use www.myfitnesspal.com to hold my self accountable. I'm just a little over a year out and 2 pounds from my goal! I still weigh myself every morning as soon as I get up. Some people say it isn't good to weigh everyday but it has helped me so much. I know I can't obsess over small fluctuations up and down but I need to be aware if I'm gaining instead of ignoring it as I did for 20 years. I also have realized that exercise has played such an important part in my sucess. I wear a fitbit and keep track of my steps. I don't always manage to hit my goal daily but try to for the week anyway.

I rejoined TOPS and I am even the chapter leader now. I do this for the very reason you mention and I think being a chapter leader I must make good choices for myself if I am to be any kind of positive role model for the other members of my chapter.

 

I use an app called Calorie King to track calorie intake and use my fitbit to track calorie output. I am only 8 weeks post op but i think i will be using these tools forever as I already see the potential to slide back into bad habits.