Complacency and Motivation

Last night the topics of plateaus and complacency were brought up during my WW meeting. Like a new project or any new venture, a new weight loss program is exciting and motivating. I remember (vaguely) when I walked into the meeting room and hearing about the program for the first time. I remember how excited, nervous and eager to learn about the program.

However, eventually I learned and mastered the program. I memorized the points values of the foods I ate most often and learned what foods worked for me. Then the boredom or the complacency sets in. Or in many cases, I would get the “cockys,” thinking I got it all figured out and I would stop tracking or stop measuring and weighing my foods. Eventually I stopped losing weight and even (OMG!!!!) gained.

No, having a plateau or gaining a small amount of weight is not the end of the world. In fact, I found it can be a good thing. The plateaus and the weight gains are feedback. They give me information about what I’ve been doing so far and that what I’ve been doing hasn’t been working. There are two ways I can deal with this information: I can do nothing and accuse the scale of plotting against me, say the program isn’t working and quit; or I can take a look at what I’ve been doing and make a change. As if the first option is even an option, so I’m going with the second one.

It’s not always easy to make changes, but I make goals for myself the best way to do that. This can be as small as making sure I get my two servings of dairy each day or making sure to take my supplements, or as large as registering for a race. This week I made several goals for myself: to fulfill the good health guidelines each day, especially both servings of dairy and my supplements; drink at least six 8-oz glasses of water; to track everything I eat; to not bring anything into my home that could potentially sabotage me this week (I’m keeping it to pretty much power foods this week. If I want something, I have to go out and get a single serving.); and doing my physical therapy exercises each day (something I’ve definitely slacked on in the last two weeks).

Each time I create new goals like this I get excited and eager all over again and it renews my resolve to get to goal. It is definitely motivating, but it’s also so empowering. I know I can’t change some things, like my foot injury and being unable to run, but there are things I can do. I probably won’t be perfect and achieve these goals 100%. But I don’t need to be perfect, just better than I was before. 

Progress

The past nine weeks since I pulled the tendons in my foot have been a bit of a blur. I have been going to physical therapy twice a week and have been doing the exercises prescribed by the therapist. My foot is definitely better than it was, with the pain now annoying than the previously all consuming agony I had shortly after I injured it. I was able to ditch the stupid brace but I have to wear arch supports in my shoes, which only fit in my running shoes and one pair of winter boots (I am gladly making the sacrifice to only wear my running shoes to never, ever wear that stupid brace again). The swelling in the tendons is gone. The best part is that I get to walk again as long as it doesn’t hurt too much.

That is the good news. The bad news is that I have been holding a pity party for one since I hurt my foot. I have been eating things that I haven’t eaten in a long time. I have been eating too much of the wrong things and not enough of the right things. I wasn’t tracking, so I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on and what I was putting in my mouth.

I have learned a lot about myself on this journey so far. I’ve learned that I am in many ways an all or nothing type of person when it comes to weight loss. When I decide to do something, I put 100% into it. I track everything I eat. I follow the good health guidelines perfectly. I make sure to get my exercise and activity in no matter what. This is great until I hit a bump in the road, like an injury, and I go way off track. What happens next? I gain weight of course.

I have gained about 10 pounds in the last two months. The first few weeks were because of the sudden change in my activity level and my body becoming accustomed to my temporary lifestyle and less activity. However, the pity party started some time after the first few weeks. I wish I could say I was enjoying myself, but that’s just not the case.

But something happened yesterday that put me back on the right path. Yesterday morning when I was getting dressed, I put on a pair of pants that I’ve worn many, many times but they were now tight in the waist. I was still able to wear them, but it was the warning signal I needed that I needed to get my act in gear if I didn’t want to gain the back the rest that I lost.

The tight pants seemed to be what I needed to get back on the right path. For the first time in a long time, I tracked everything I ate yesterday. I wasn’t perfect and I went over my daily points target for the day, but I tracked. I even went for a 20-minute walk at lunch just because I wanted to. My foot hurt afterwards and I paid for the price this morning at physical therapy, but I needed to do for my own mental well being.

I need to learn that while I can’t do everything, there are lots of things I can do to be successful. I am working on those things now. There’s a saying always used at the WW meetings: “Progress not perfection.” I’m making progress.