Accountability

[taurusmoon]

Cindy made a point about accountability in today's thread that merits a thread of its own.

How does one become accountable for the food that jumps into your mouth against your will? You know, those Twix bars that were on your desk a minute ago, but somehow disappeared. Where could they have gone? Surely you didn't eat them. You did eat them! When did that happen? How did that happen?

If it weren't for temptation, dieting would be a breeze. We can shelter ourselves only so much from those foods that challenge us. Realistically, unless we cloister ourselves completely we are all going to have to look temptation in the eye and make a stand.

That is not easy. Not at all.

So what do we do?

Me? I keep my goal in the forefront of my mind at all times. Will I allow something as meaningless as a Twix bar to stand in the way of achieving my goal? Nuh uh. I am greater than chocolate. I am greater than cookies. I am.... oh damn, I'm drooling now.

Time to distract myself from thoughts of Twix (you're going to pay for this Andrea) with a glass of water. Or a walk. Or the unfinished project on my desk.

At the end of the day I'll check the scoresheet: Sara 24. Twix 0.
Feels damn good to be a winner. Feels even better being a loosah. Even if it feels like it takes forever. It's a long, slow process. And, for good reason. It allows you to take time to unlearn years of bad behavior. That simply cannot be done overnight.

But, I digress. Back to accountability. Some of us can face temptation on our own. Others need some external support. There's nothing right or wrong in either. As we've seen in the past months, we're all different.

So...

What would help you be more accountable for what you put in your mouth. Let's be honest, it's you who is putting it in there not some evil junk food demon, right?

Would posting food journals help? You can voluntarily post everything you eat over the course of the day. Even the embarrasing stuff. Perhaps pride will check your binges.

Would crisis intervention be the answer for you? Whenever you're tempted by something come straight here and confess. Someone is usually around to talk you through it. If not, the act of confession might be enough to get you to become conscious of your behavior and alter it.

What else can we as a group do to help?

Let's come up with some ideas.


Sara

[cyndilouwhoo]

I'm a fan of the food journal.

It's very simple. it's a little sheet that asks you to list by meal, what you have eaten. I count snacks and stuff on the sheet as well so I can get a more complete picture as to what I am up to food-wise.

Some people keep the list as they eat, some just list everything they have eaten at the end of the day.

If you are honest and list everything, it's a great reality check.

It is very concrete. You can look at it. It's always there. It never lies (provided of course, you don't).

It helps you tweak your diet needs as well.

As a maintainer, I continue to keep a food journal--although I don't total up the "points" I used to count so religiously.

If I look at it at the end of the day and decide I have "overdone", I use it as a tool to help cut back a little the next day.

It forces me to make better choices and helps me to see when I need to make them.

Perhaps we could keep our Journals privately for a week in order to get a baseline--and then those who are ready could post if they are comfortable after that.

Those who aren't could continue maintaining a private journal and report weekly how they feel they are doing in curbing those awful temptations.

Just my 2 cents

Cyndi

Who, according to her journal, needs to cut back today

[jenninca]

I need accountability in the grocery store. If I didn't bring so much bad food home, I wouldn't be eating it all the time.

I don't know if I'm quite ready to post EVERYTHING that I eat. However, I think I'm ready to post something about my food. My diet right now is awful. I don't think I want to show the world HOW awful, and I don't think I can completely turn it around on a sustained basis at this point, even with the pressure of having to post it here. But I think I could do the day's extremes.

Cindy

[lynnzop[$]]

Ah, the ever-in-the-back-of-my-mind journal. (Cyndi, I just HAVEN'T gotten past this one yet, despite our best intentions!)

I think I would do better with my journalling if I used a single notebook instead of the little weekly sheets that WW provides. But I've always been bad at keeping any kind of diary.

I do like the online journal at fitday.com and the other functionality on the site.

I think if I were held accountable to all of you by listing my consumption on a daily basis, I might get better at it (al la posting steps).

Plus, while it might be too much for some people to share, I'd be curious at some of the cool things y'all eat that I might be missing out on (my current passion is a cut-up fresh apple with fat-free carmel dip - 3 points.)

I also like Sara's suggestion that we set up a mini-confessional here at the site.

As a friend of mine in the WW program states: "You have to build in snacks to your plan!", you just don't have to go overboard with them. The confessional could be a place to go to when you are tempted by going overboard.

Lynn
(Shopping for a cool spiral notebook to journal in)

[cyndilouwhoo]

Just a couple of thoughts you might want to consider.

1. Grocery Shopping online (if it's practical). One thing that people who shop online say pretty universally is that with all its quirks, online grocery shopping helps to curb the impulse to buy junk. You don't see it unless you search for it. Many believe it saves them money due to the fact that they have stopped buying high priced junk food.

2. Taking a list and sticking to it. Sometimes only bringing just enough to pay for the things on your list helps too.

3. Eating a full meal before you shop. You are much less likely to buy crap after you have eaten something that makes you feel full.

4. Here's a weird fact about grocery store shelving practices: Most of the stuff that's good for you is placed along the bottom shelves. (example: cheerios is *always* on the bottom shelf)Look next time you go and you will see that it is pretty much true. Junk is placed at eye level to encourage you to buy it. (example: Cap'n Crunch is placed at eye level so that kids and adults will see it) They know you will search for good stuff. You won't necessarily look for garbage. Keep that fact in mind when you shop and maybe you won't be as likely to buy in to what is quite a sneaky practice in my opinion.

Cyndi

The grocery queen

[taurusmoon]

Cindy (and anyone else who might need it),

Print this out, trim it to size and place it in your wallet.




Whenever you go to the store, place it in the kiddie seat of your shopping cart. If you have a kiddie in there already, tape or pin it to said kiddie.


Sara

[lynnzop[$]]

ROTFLMAO


Here I was going to post a serious reply to Cyndi's grocery tips. Too late for that now.

Lynn
(THE EYES....THE EYES.... ARE FOLLOWING ME AS I PICK UP THAT TWIX BAR!!!!!)

Food journals not only help wit h accountability and calorie counting, but if you're interested in what foods you may be allergic to or what generates those nasty-wicked deathcloud farts, they help as well.

I've found that anything with potatoes in it makes my weight temporarily spike. So, no more potatoes. Ohhhhh... potato wedges... arrrgggghhhhh...

[jenninca]

HA! That's great! Will definitely do!

[lynnzop[$]]

Sara, I used your graphic as my wallpaper on my PC.

THE EYES...THE EYES...THEY'RE WATCHING ME AS I PICK UP...NO... AS I PUT DOWN THE HERSHEY'S BAR.....

Lynn
(Hearing voices and seeing things....)

[taurusmoon]

LOL Lynn.

Glad I could help.


Once my ISP gets its remote server back online I can upload the full size version of the graphic. I had to scale it down to use it as an attachment here.

Stay tuned.


Sara


3:05 pm. It's fixed.

[jenninca]

It's now my wallpaper, too!

[jenninca]

Did we come to any conclusions on this?

I mean, the eyes are nice (very nice), but unless you guys are really watching me, they will have a limited effect.

Cindy