WAI: bad habits and distractions!!!

So we all have a bad habit or two,  and  they are usually harmless, but sometimes they can be big detractors from our goals or end game. I went to SW last week and to my most pleasant surprise I lost 2&1/2 pounds when i really thought i would maintain, and that got me thinking, if i had not done this and i had not done that, that 2& 1/2 pounds could have been 4! Greedy yes? My  point is why continue to maintain detractors, that will make you sad and fed up in the long run.  So I have had a long hard  look at myself and my habits, and these are my top 5!

1. I suddenly get hungry when i see cake - no word of a lie, but yesterday for the first time i managed to beat it. So this is the scene.. come back to my desk after lunch and a young lady had brought cake for the team to say thanks, anyhow i was fine to begin with, as i had just eaten yes? however the cake being there, everyone coming to take a piece etc was really getting to my psyche, all of a sudden about 2 hours later, i was hungry. Too funny, i mean its not as if i did not have a substantial lunch, i continued to ignore it, as i believed i should not be hungry, but the longer it went on the more physical the hunger was getting.  Luckily I won this battle on this occasion because I had soup in the fridge, so i told myself as i was hungry I was better off having the soup and did so. Battle over. I think we can safely say this was more of a psychological battle rather than physical. its big issue for me, because often i end up eating stuff because i do not want to offend. 
2. I don’t count my syns properly. Its not intentional, I just don’t seem to do it I start off with all the good intentions, but then i start telling myself stuff, like oh well its only a little, or its only about 3 syns, when all i have to do is reach for my phone that is always with me, yes. or in my bag for the book, but no Nike knows best. Well here is a note to yourself Nike you don’t know best, Slimming World has paid lots of nutritionist and other scientists to work this all out. 
3. I do not measure my healthy extras.  My A is always milk because I drink a good bit tea and coffee during the day. And there in lies the issue with the  A box,  I hardly ever have to make my own tea or coffee, because other people are always doing the tea round. (don’t call me lazy) These amenities are provided free for us at work. its all an excuse and a habit that needs changing, assistance on that one is surely needed.  As for my b box? What can I say? its up and down like a yo yo, sometimes its the hi fi bar, but that does not do anything for me, as they are like a snack and the porridge * 35 g of it is really not enough. i had worked out that 5 tbsp was 35g, ( i measured it and counted the no of tbsp)  but yep you guessed it, not enough, i could go on and on, we know that different types of heathy extra Bs are abound on SW, but i just can’t seem find satisfaction. hmm, really i can’t use soup as a distraction for everything. Anyhow its a bad habit in serious need of fixing. 
4. I stay up late, and i know that staying up late makes me hungry, but there are not enough hours in the day. I mean, i have to go to Zumba, to Tae kwan do, to SW and worst of all i have to go to work, i have to watch Criminal minds, i have to watch the football, i have to do all manner of things, yes, so how do I strike that balance. I have to be honest here, i do not always give in to the hunger pangs at night, but invariably this means when i get up in the morning to go to work, I am usually ravenous, and the whole vicious circle starts again.
5. I don’t make sensible choices when i am out ( well not very often) this one I think is self explanatory and downright foolish. Don’t even know what to say so I won’t say anything except its yet another bad habit that needs curtailing. 

So I ask myself again, what is my end game? What am I willing to do to achieve them?

Answers on a post card please.

WAI: What is your end game? Explain yourself!

“We pay a price for everything we get or take in this world; and although ambitions are well worth having, they are not to be cheaply won, but exact their dues of work and self denial, anxiety and discouragement.”

― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

So, who has been watching Scandal? The central character Olivia Pope is a fixer, I suppose what we here in the UK may lightly refer to as  a spin doctor!  One of the questions she always asks her clients is" what is your end game?" as in what do you want?  Bearing in mind that a terrible situation has just blown up and we are talking about fixing that and/ or damage limitation- these clients do pay a price and not just monetary either, in fact mostly it's hardly ever monetary. 

At the back end of last year, I recall talking to Cathy about my struggles, with the plan and she advised that perhaps I should think about setting a  smaller target,and it did get me  thinking because to be honest my behaviour towards achieving my target ( at least in terms of my eating ) has become rather erratic to say the least and whilst my Wright may have stayed rather static, I have lost several inches and I continue to receive plaudits regarding weight loss and I am always extremely surprised! Though it is quite obvious to me in my clothes I don't always see it in the mirror!! 

So here is the deal? Not knowing what my endgame is or not acknowledging it earlier has cost me dearly, in my mind I wanted to lose 3 stone! At my best I was 2&1/2 stone lighter and yes being a SW member I have the sticker to prove it! 

So now I have to say that SW is as easy as it is hard, because as with any thing  to do with weight loss  it takes dedication  and sacrifice and following the rules! Its unreasonable of me to expect that something as fabulous as SW that had been designed proven to work in a certain way would work in any other way! So the diet is all about volume as opposed to counting calories, it's about eating food in as near to its natural state as possible easy yes? It's also about limiting the amount of alcohol and chocolate we eat, hard yes? Reasonable definitely! So when we move away from these principles its only natural that weight loss may halt and if we are not exercising we'd probably put on a lot of weight that we may have lost previously ! SW is not a fad diet, it's actually more of a lifestyle change! So it's not really to be had lightly, it needs to be considered seriously and when we join we are given the tools to do  that! 

SW do encourage us to set our targets, they tell us all the benefits of such.

According to LM Montgomery these goals should not be achieved so cheaply - I think he means you have to work at it, it has to mean something to you otherwise it's likely to be lost  to you again! I suppose it's another way of saying come easy go easy! I think I can give testimony to this, as I have had several bouts of SW the first time it was really really easy, no word of a lie!  I lost 3 stones and 10 pounds in 3 months👍! Did it stay off? Of course not, did I appreciate that I had to continue working to maintain what I'd done? And this is the point, the Goals have to mean something to us! If they do we are not likely to just throw it all away now are we? Imagine it was like money?! We are more frugal when we've had to work hard for that money! So why is losing weight any different? Why is that so much harder? Yes there are those who cause no end of difficulty for themselves by always overspending, a using their credit cards etc it's not really that much different when losing weight, cheaply off sometimes equates to cheaply back on? So this brings me back to my original question- what is your end game?? What does this end game mean to you? How far are you willing to go in order to reach your end game! 

The answers to those questions lay in how much desire you have. How badly you want it, what it means to you!!! 

Laid out like this it's quite clear that I need to set my goals, but I need to be smarter about it than I was before!  It's giving me real food for thought! 

I am a real believer in the saying that you get what you pay for, so I need to make my goals meaningful to me, I need to show the desire to achieve these goals! So it's  really, put in the effort and get what you deserve! Don't put the effort & yes dare I say it the sacrifice you get what you deserve!  Straightforward yes?