Ok, so admittedly this blog post has nothing to do with fatness or fitness. But sometimes a tantientally related website makes its way into my life, and I feel I must share it.
www.GoodRX.com – for those without prescription coverage is a really an awesome resource that I very much wish I had found sooner.
This website will compare pharmacies BY PRICE, giving you the ability to get the best price on your prescriptions. It’s likely that all your local pharmacies are listed.
I used it this weekend, and saved on prescriptions that I had apparently been overpaying for for years. #awyiss
Hope this does some good for someone out there. Please share with any of your friends who you feel might benefit from this information.
As the sluttiest of all holidays, Halloween is a great time to enjoy those weight loss results.
Here is what I look like now:
neanderthal
And here is what I used to look like just a few years ago:
yikes!
Just in case you think I’m particularly strong in the willpower department, I can assure you that I’m not.
I’m also not particularly hard-working, never deny myself chocolate, and NEVER exercise unless I actually want to (that said, I enjoy walking).
I’ve struggled with weight for a long time, and it took me a lifetime to figure out what works for me. For me, it boils down to three things:
Keeping bad stuff out of the house;
Setting myself up for success (ie.. understanding the reality of willpower depletion, and knowing my own weaknesses);
Eating mostly veg, and a little bit of everything else
This is not just about looks. It’s about empowerment, mental health, and also physical health. It’s about being a version of yourself that you are genuinely proud of.
Living a lifestyle that allows you to feel and look your best is not easy, but it’s also not that hard. Every person deserves to look as beautiful and vivacious on the outside as they feel on the inside. You just need to figure out what works for you. And never give up on yourself. Past results are NOT binding!
If you find yourself in a bad place now, just know that I’ve been there, and so have my friends and co-contributors to this blog. I don’t mean to say you’re not good enough as you are, but rather that you should live the full life you want to live.
You don’t have to lose a billion pounds this week, and you don’t have to run a marathon today. Just make one small change and stick to it this week. Next week, try another.
If I can do it, then anyone can do it. Put in the effort now, and make the small changes. By next Halloween, you’ll be strutting your stuff with the best of them 🙂
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Dun Dun Dun! Introducing, one of the most powerful (and understated) weight loss tools in the known universe. A blank calendar for the month of November 2016.
The Power of a Blank Calendar
You might have read my earlier post about the fresh start hypothesis. If so, you know that a clean slate (for example, a new month or week) can either help or hurt your weight loss efforts, depending on your own circumstances.
The blank calendar is mighty. Why?
It’s a great way to leverage the positive psychological benefits of “starting fresh.”
It forces you to break a large daunting goal into smaller, more immediate goals (which translates to a higher rate of sustained motivation and success).
The concrete action of writing your goals down might alone be enough to keep you sticking to them
It can serve as a visual reminder of the bigger picture, which helps when motivation starts to wane
It’s effectively free! (Provided you have access to a computer and printer).
How to Use a Blank Calendar for Weight Loss
Step One. Find a printable blank calendar (I googled “blank calendar 2016”) and print said calendar Step Two. Choose an achievable weight loss goal for one month (for example, 8 pounds). Subtract this goal from your current weight, and write your new goal weight the last day of the month. Step Four. Create weekly weight loss goals, and write each new weekly weight at the end of each week. Step Five. Surrender to the blank calendar (optional). Step Six. Tape the calendar somewhere visible. Step Seven. At the end of each week, reevaluate your goals. If you lost more than your weekly goal, you can change your next weekly goal post to reflect your current weight. If you lost less than your weekly goal, you can do the same. The key is that you can keep adjusting your goals as you get closer to the end of the month. (For more details, see this post.)
Your calendar might look something like this.
But How Do I Actually Lose Weight?
Obviously, the calendar itself is not a weight loss plan. It’s just a tool to help you stay organized and to improve your stick-to-itness.
As far as losing the weight itself – there are plenty of different ways. The right way will depend largely on your own circumstances and preferences, but removing processed foods and focusing on a plant based diet will likely go a long way. In any event, you need to do what works for you.
Additional Uses of the Blank Calendar
In addition to using the blank calendar to plan your weight goals,you can also use the blank calendar to plan concrete actions on specific days to help you reach those goals.
These actions can be related to food intake or to exercise. Just remember to keep your actions achievable.
Example of calendar with concrete behavioral actions
Also, keep in mind that missing one day doesn’t mean you should give up on the rest. In fact, you will be better off if you plan for failure.
Rewards. You can also use weekly or monthly rewards for making your goals (mani-pedi, anyone?). Just remember not to be too hard on yourself if you miss a week. Weight is weird, and it’s not the best measure of fat loss. On my own weight loss journey, I found that I lost weight 3 out of 4 weeks.
If you try this method, let me know how it works out for you.
If you have any thoughts on modifications, I’d love to hear those also.
Happy calendaring 🙂
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Regardless of how you plan to get into shape, there is one psychological trick that I believe will be helpful to most. You have to dream big, and you have to plan small.
By dream big, I’m referring to your ultimate goal. Visualize it, taste it. It can and will be yours, no matter how far away it seems right now.
You don’t have to write it down, you don’t have to meditate on it. In fact, now it’s time to (for the most part) throw it away. Because it doesn’t matter how big your dream is if you aren’t able to break it down into smaller parts.
By plan small, I don’t mean anything specific. But here is the general idea. Imagine that your “dream big” goal is to lose 50 pounds. Realistically, you think you can do that in 5-6 months. Assuming you’re starting in November, you should safely be able to hit that goal by May (losing 8 – 10 pounds a month).
Now – imagine yourself in the springtime, 50 pounds lighter and feeling so free. Wonderful! But in order to get there, realize that right now, 40 of those 50 pounds don’t matter. What matters is that you lost the first 10 pounds. The prospect of losing 10 pounds is much less daunting than the prospect of spending the next 5 months trying to lose a total of 50. So the last step is to forget the rest, and plan small.
Your “plan small” goal is now to lose 8 – 10 pounds in the month of November. How are you going to do that? I don’t know. There are a million different ways. But here are a few tips that might be helpful:
It might be a good idea to plan even smaller. Forget 8-10 pounds this November, how about 2 pounds this week? How about .3 pounds today?
One Small Caveat
Planning small is great, with one caveat. The smaller you plan, the more you need to realize that fluctuations will happen while still losing fat. This is especially true for females as we go through our cycle.
If your goal is to lose two pounds a week, realize that you might do everything you can but still not lose those two pounds in any particular week. Assuming you are doing everything right, you might lose 1 pound one week, and 4 pounds in another. This is the nature of attempting to measure fat by using weight – it’s far from perfect. So you have to be sufficiently psychologically healthy that you will survive apparent disappointments (which really, are not disappointments at all).
My Method
When I first decided to lose weight, I printed out a blank calendar for a period of one month. I subtracted 10 pounds from my starting weight, and wrote in that new weight on the last day of the month. I knew I had 60+ pounds to lose, but unlike any of my previous efforts, I decided to just focus to the here and now.
In order to reach 10 pounds by the end of the month, I’d have to lose 2.5 pounds a week. So I subtracted 2.5 pounds from my current weight, and wrote it in on the last day of the first week. I then subtracted 2.5 pounds from that weight, and wrote it in on the last day of the second week. I did this one more time, and voila – I now have 4 weeks and 4 goals.
I realize that 2.5 pounds is a lot of weight to lose consistently week after week, but because this was my first month – I figured I’d be losing a lot of water. I decided that even if I only lost 8 pounds by the end of the month, I’d consider it a huge success. In fact, any weight loss would put me in a better position than I’d been in at the beginning of the month.
In any event, I’d now start out on my first week, not thinking about the three weeks to come. My only goal this week is to lose 2.5 pounds. When I reach the end of the first week, I’d write my new weight down. If I lost exactly 2.5 pounds, I’d leave my goals as is. If I lost less, I’d adjust my goals to only 2 pounds per week. If I lost more, I would adjust my goals so that they reflect 2.5 pounds per week starting from my new weight (but still only until the end of the month). Even if I gained weight, my new weekly goal is just to lose 2.5 from my new weight.
The effect is that no matter what, my goal is always “lose 2.5 pounds (or 2 pounds) this week.” The month is not important, and the goal re-sets each week.
Here is what I found. Three out of four times, I met or exceeded my weekly goal. Usually about once a month, I lost slightly less than my goal, and very rarely I gained.
Over time, this method worked for me. My mind is overcrowded, and I’m sure yours is too. We want to fast forward to the future, but things just seem to work out better when we try our best to focus on the here and now.
Reddit is confusing and weird. To the uninitiated, Reddit is about as charming as an oil slick. As far as social networks are concerned, my roommate sums it up perfectly as “the cool one.”
In terms of overall troll volume, Reddit puts the collected works of Scandinavian folklore to shame. These purveyors of wanton cruelty possess not only an impressive ability to conjure the most unnecessary opinion humanly possible, but also the baffling desire to share such opinion in matters that don’t concern them.
How to Use Reddit for Good
Because Reddit will greet you with the warm embrace of a massive forest fire, it might not seem like a great place for fitness tips and motivation. But don’t be scared!
The truth is that Reddit is home to some excellent (and highly unique) forums which can serve as wonderful resources on your fitness journey. The following sub-reddits are mostly troll-free, and some have features which I haven’t found elsewhere on the internet.
Progress Pics
This sub-reddit allows you to view and post progress pictures, but it also has a really cool feature. Look to the right of the page, and you will see buttons where you can click on “Male” or “Female”
Click the appropriate sex, and the field expands (magically) as follows:
You can search before and after pictures by sex and height, which means that you can easily browse through hundreds of photos of people who approximate your own stats. You can often talk to those people, read about them, and learn what they did to lose weight.
You can also post your own photos to help others. I posted my own photo a little while back, along with a short description of my journey. In response, I received dozens of kind comments, many from people with similar stats as my own thanking me for the inspiration. Some people asked me questions about what I did specifically to lose weight. All questions were summarily ignored! #kidding
My post on progress pics.
2. Lose it
Lose it is a more general forum, where you can ask questions, post pictures, and discuss a number of fitness and weight loss related topics. You can also participate along with thousands of other people in daily, weekly and monthly challenges, which can be found on the right side of the page:
I’m not much of a tracker, but if you do track or if you want to try it – this is a great resource. In total, over 339,000 pounds have been lost with the help of the Lose it subreddit!
3. Veg Recipes and Paleo Recipes
Veg Recipes
Even if you eat meat, veg recipes is an excellent forum to find interesting and delicious vegetarian recipes, which are often quite simple and healthy. With a community of around 37,000 people – there are constantly new recipes to try.
Ok, so maybe stay away from that last one.
Unlike the previous two forums, Veg Recipes is NOT specifically for weight loss. But because I’ve found so many wonderful recipes here, it’s definitely worth checking out. Challenge yourself to make a new vegetarian recipe every week! Healthy food does not need to be bland food.
Paleo Recipes
Despite being a smaller community of less than 5,000, Paleo Recipes also has a lot to offer, ranging from breakfasts to snacks and desserts. Here are just a few examples of what you can find there right now:
In Sum
The above forums are just a few resources on Reddit that I use regularly and love. There are so many more out there despite the fact that Reddit is, for the most part, a hell hole.
If you’re new to Reddit, you can avoid trolls, meanies, and negative nancies by starting out with the links above. Then, if you enjoy any particular forum, you can find links to related sub-reddits on the right hand side of the page.
You can also use Reddit’s search feature to look for key words, but be wary – you might end up in troll territory. Or in a forum with very few users that is rarely updated.
If you have any sub-reddit you love, please do share.
..And remember, don’t feed the trolls!
**UPDATE**: Reddit Trolling has officially gotten so bad, that I just got Reddit trolled while sharing this post on Facebook.
In any event, he’s right. Just the other day, I spent about four hours in the Reddit black hole after coming across a post about husbands who cheat on their wives. This topic has zero relevance to my life, but in any event – during that four hour period, not a single slice of pizza was consumed. Success.
Happy Redditing :]
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Ambiguity intolerance is thetendency to perceive uncertain situations as threatening.
It makes sense – the unknown is scary. But some people have a harder time dealing with it than others. And these people are more likely to suffer anxiety and depression, especially when faced with a particularly difficult stressor.
Uncertainty and Food
I believe that many disordered eaters suffer from ambiguity intolerance.
Have you ever turned to food to flood your brains with feel-good chemicals in order to avoid feelings of panic? Have you ever done this – even though nothing was wrong in that particular moment?
Fostering a Taste for Uncertainty
If you find yourself threatened by the unknown, fostering a healthier relationship with uncertainty might do wonders to decrease your anxiety.
Who knows, you might even develop a taste for uncertainty. This time next year you could be reading this post while wrestling a shark.
Here are a few tips:
Focus on this hour, this minute, and this day. It’s only natural to feel overwhelmed by the whole entire future. Bring yourself into the present by focusing on what you can do right now. I know this is easier said than done. But try.
Do things that scare you. You have to actively do things that scare you. It sucks, but you’ll (most likely) live. Last year, I jumped out of a freaking airplane! It was the worst thing ever.
Improve a skill. Some people feel anxious because they have an overall feeling of never being good enough. But everyone is good at something. Take something you’re good at and get great at it. Your feelings of pride will spill over into every day life. See my post on pursuing your weird hobbies.
Achieve a behavioral goal. Set a small behavioral goal for yourself, and achieve it. Like number three above, the good feelings will spill over into your every day life making you feel less anxious in general. You’ll also see that things aren’t so hard when you take them one step at a time. Example: I will go to the gym every Tuesday and Thursday for the next two weeks.
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People say that losing weight is easy, while maintaining weight loss is hard. Well, people say a lot of things. And since I’m a person, I’m going to say a thing also.
Losing weight is hard. Maintaining it should not be. And if maintaining weight loss is hard, it probably means that you’re eating the wrong things.
Why is losing weight hard?
I can’t imagine how losing weight can be easy. I lost weight slowly over a period of two years. I had a goal in mind, and I never faltered. I’m still not 100% there, but I am closer every day.
And guess what. It was HARD as hell. It remains hard. Because in order to lose weight, no matter how you do it, you are starving in some sense. You need your body to use what it has by not giving it what it wants. And that’s hard.
Before your body starts losing weight, you need to burn through: 1) the glucose in your blood; 2) the glycogen in your muscles; and then and only then will it begin on fat reserves.
Sure, there are harder things than losing weight. And sure, there are things you can do to make it less hard. But it’s hard nonetheless, and I have no doubt that some days you will just want to give up.
Why Maintaining Weight Should Be Easy
How did you get heavy in the first place?
Chances are you ate too much crap. But that doesn’t mean it was entirely your fault. Yes, you made bad choices. You probably either made:
very bad choices over a short period of time, OR
slightly bad choices over an extended period of time
But in any event, you were under the influence of the food industry, and also of silly FDA guidelines which don’t make much sense. You were getting unfit in an unfit world. And that’s OK.
Sure – it make sense, from the standpoint of biological fitness, for many of us to overeat when food is abundant. Who knows – you might even be genetically or culturally pre-disposed to this issue. And that sucks.
But pre-dispostion won’t keep a mindful and well-informed person fat. Because your fitness level is based more than anything on:
the foods you eat; AND
the habits you maintain.
The foods you eat are based on availability and your habits. And if you’ve been overweight, then the chances are the you probably formed some bad eating habits. And that’s OK. It’s hard to form fit habits in an unfit world.
But now that you’ve lost the weight, you’ve had the chance to build good habits! Or one would hope.
If you’ve truly build good habits – you can relax a little. All you need to do is maintain those good habits and you should maintain your loss. Of course old ways can come creeping back. So stay mindful.
But if you haven’t built good habits – you need to keep working. Not at losing weight, but at building those good habits. Because good habits are what you need to maintain your weight without suffering. Eating well needs to be your preference! And it can be.
FAQ’s
Are there factors other than good habits that might make maintenance hard? Sure. You might have sleeping issues, or hormonal issues. Or you might be largely sedentary due to a medical condition. But habits are important. You cannot stay fit without good habits.
Will your metabolism slow with age? Yes. You’ll need to make adjustments for all sorts of reasons: age, varying activity levels, etc. But now all you need to do is fill your body with good stuff, and you will stay at a healthy weight.
Take Notice
Maybe this all seems obvious, or easier said than done.
But it’s important to take notice of the power of habit. And it’s important for you to be able to look at yourself and figure out whether you’ve TRULY formed good habits – or whether, on the other hand, those habits are superficially or weakly engrained.
Because if you think maintaining your weight is hard, then it’s likely that your good habits aren’t strongly engrained in your mind. In this case, it might be helpful for you to think about ways that you can further strengthen your habits. For more on habits, check out my post Why Emotional Eating is Actually Habitual Eating.
Until you ACTUALLY PREFER eating and living well, your weight might always be a struggle. So learning to hack that preference by delving into habit formation might just make your life awesome.
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When I reached my highest weight, I felt nothing but apathy. It was as if every day was a cold rainy day, and I just didn’t want to get out of bed. At that time:
Getting into even decent shape seemed so far away that it felt more like a fantasy than an achievable goal; and
Getting into great shape was completely outside of the realm of possibilities.
The result?
I fell into a complete state of apathy. And if things had gone a little differently, I might still be there today.
I wasted precious time dreaming of a fantasy transformation instead of slowly beginning to introduce the small changes that my body actually needed and wanted.
When does apathy strike?:
Apathy tends to strike when the place where you WANT TO BE seems too far away from the place where you CURRENTLY ARE.
So naturally, you need to find ways to trick your brain into feeling:
that the road ahead of you isn’t so bad; AND
that you’re closer to where you want to be than you actually are.
Four Ways to Fight Apathy:
Reduce your ambition. This seems counterintuitive, but it works. Try the “do one thing” rule
Set SMALL Behavioral Goals. You can never control outcomes, but you can ALWAYS control behaviors. What is one SMALL behavior you can change every day for this entire week?Examples: have salad for lunch every day; do 50 crunches before bed; eat one probiotic food every day.
Chop up your outcome-based goals. To the extent you do focus on outcome-based goals, cut them up into bite sized chunks. This is important!See my post on Aiming for Eight.
What are some ways that you fight apathy?
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How many times have you made a decision NOW, but only to start Monday? How many times have you vowed to take up a skill, or to make a big change beginning on New Years Day?
These are both features of what social scientists call the “Fresh Start Hypothesis.” This hypothesis states that we have a general tendency to correlate changes in behavior with temporal triggers or changes in environment.
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
If you understand more about human nature, you understand more about yourself. And if you understand more about yourself, you have greater control of your outcomes.
We can recognize the “Fresh Start Hypothesis” for what it is, and consider how we can exploit this natural tendency to our benefit. On the other hand, we can also think about how such tendencies might create psychological barriers to success.
In other words, the desire for a “clean slate” can be helpful. But it can also block you. And there is nothing more tragic than someone standing in the way of their own success.
Know Yourself.
There is no right or wrong answer here. Everyone is different. We all have different motivations at different times in our lives.
A “fresh start” may be just what you need! On the other hand, if you find yourself making a “fresh start” every Monday – it might be time to recognize that this approach isn’t working for you. You have too much emotional baggage, and it’s associated with the Fresh Start.
“But it will be different this time!” Maybe it will. Who am I to say? But maybe you are simply sabotaging yourself.
Example 1: It’s December 27th and it’s a Friday. You are miserable. Kids throw jelly donuts at you, and at 5’1 you weigh 220 pounds. You have never attempted to lose weight before, and in fact your weight hasn’t really bothered you until recently. You have zero healthy habits, and you barely know where to begin.
Solution: If you’re going to do a major life overhaul, you can start on January 1st. But until then, see if you can substitute one meal a day with a salad.
Example 2:At 5’2′ you weigh 160 pounds. You aren’t happy with your weight, but you’re always dieting. Almost every Monday you find yourself vowing that this week will be different. By Thursday or Friday, you’ve usually fallen off the wagon. You feel guilty and you binge all weekend. Next Monday you know you’ll get it right!
Solution: Stop starting Monday. Start right now. For you, the BREAK from starting on Mondays is the REAL fresh start. Don’t be hard on yourself, either. Just make one change for the better.
Alternative solution: start Monday, but also start implementing one specific change right now.
The Power of Now
If you need to make a change, it’s best to start RIGHT NOW. But maybe don’t start all the way just yet..
You DON’T need:
a funeral procession for your last meal
ritual binge before your “purge.”
The more you see fitness as a “project” the more likely you are to see it as deprivation or hard labor. It doesn’t have to be this way. It could just be simple – eat less shit.
On the other hand, the more you see your fitness journey as a “project” the more likely you are to take it seriously.
So what can we do about this contradiction?
Make a Fresh Start WITHOUT a Fresh Start
Understand that most people have a tendency to correlate behavioral changes with temporal markers.
Understand that our habits do not exist in isolation. They are intertwined with the concepts of time, and also with our physical environments. This will make it easier for you to change them.
Understand also that an absolute NEED for a “clean slate” can be detrimental. And it’s also an illusion. You never need it, you only think you do.
Use this knowledge for good! And Not for evil.
“Starting” can mean taking one small concrete action beginning right now. It could be as simple as replacing one part of dinner with veggies.
Do this PRIOR to taking a big plunge. You can still take the big plunge when you’re ready.
More Ways to Use the Fresh Start for Good
Start NOW!
But use temporal triggers and environmental changes to enhance your efforts.
Examples:
I’m beginning to replace one meal with a salad each day TODAY.
But beginning on Monday, I’ll start tracking my weight once weekly
I’m going to begin cut down on processed foods TODAY.
But once the semester starts, I will go to the gym on Mondays and Wednesdays.
I’m going to add more veggies in my diet beginning TODAY.
But starting on January 1, I’m going to begin my meal plan.
I’m going to try to make as many healthy choices as I can TODAY
But starting Monday, I’m going to do a 30 day weight loss challenge
The Struggle
I write this post because I struggled with this for a long time. I was always making a fresh start, and I was always failing.
My TRUE fresh start was when I recognized that my need for a clean slate was holding me back. It was crazy and delusional. I would NEVER have a clean slate. And I would never stick perfectly to a diet plan.
And even so, it was difficult to break the pattern. It took time. My brain kept going back to it. I had to break the pattern by reminding myself over and over again that my mind was playing tricks on me.
Remember this: the universe doesn’t have major plans for you. It’s apathetic. It doesn’t care about your clean slate. Only you do. And that’s because it’s a part of your human nature. Forgive yourself. Your slate is as clean RIGHT NOW as it will ever be.
You can use your need for a “fresh start” for good, or you can use it as an excuse to self-sabotage.
I say, if you’re not happy – then start this minute. In whatever small way you can.
Have you struggled with this?
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