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.