Everyday Systems

I'm thinking a lot about motivation as I try to get exercise happening. Many years ago I went on a management training course and they had a piece about motivation. They said that the most effective motivation for humans was:
1. positive
2. soon
3. sure

And the least powerful motivations are:
1. negative
2. far in the future
3. uncertain

This really resonated with me, and explains a lot of things, from why people speed in their cars to why I get more motivated by the tasty cookie today, not the possible extra pounds at some future point.

So, No S friends, do you have any tips for positive, soon and sure motivations? Are there daily/ short term rewards that help you stay motivated?

Daily weigh-ins! Nothing beats the immediate feedback, and it fits all three criteria for effective motivation:

1. positive - By weighing every day, you can tell if you need to adjust your eating the next day. Weight is up; eat less. Weight is down; keep doing what you're doing.

2. soon - By tracking yourself daily, you ensure that your goals are met sooner rather than later. There's nothing more motivating (to me) than seeing quick results.

3. sure - Daily weigh-ins give you a definite, objective reading of where you are in your weight-loss journey.


To contrast:

1. negative - By not weighing every day, you have no idea if you're losing weight, gaining weight, or staying the same. Should you make adjustments to your eating? Have that cookie? Don't have the cookie? Aauugh!!!!

2. far in the future - Instead of being able to adjust your food amounts daily to meet your goals quicker, you could be spinning your wheels regarding the amount you're eating, thus delaying achieving your goals and putting it much further into the future than it has to be.

3. uncertain - Again, not weighing is all about uncertainty. Am I losing? Gaining? Is this eating plan working for me? Should I try something else? Am I "failing" yet again? Daily weigh-ins are concrete, objective, benchmarks.

By using daily weigh-ins wisely, you can effectively motivate yourself to stay the course. It worked for me!

I weigh daily, and use a trend. I wouldn't say it's always a positive motivation - if weight is up it is a negative. But definite and soon for sure

At the moment my eating and weight are fine, but I've been trying for a while to establish a regular exercise plan. I've restarted my check in here to give me a daily incentive (ie need to do something so I can post it!).

I see your point about weighing possibly being a "negative" -- my "positive" comes from just the information itself.

Exercise is a tough one. I've also struggled with it in terms of not getting immediate feedback and results. In some cases, exercising is a matter of feeling worse before you feel better as your body adjusts to new demands placed on it. Ironically, it's almost custom-made to fit your list of "least powerful" motivators, which explains why it's so difficult for so many to be consistent with it.

On a side note, happy Australia Day!!!!!!

When I started having weight worries years ago, my husband told me to weigh myself everyday. I figured his advice was coming from his ex-wrestling days, so I didn't do it for long, because I wanted to see larger chunks of weigh fall off. So most of my weight- struggling days of weight watching were done haphazardly, if at all. In more recent years it's been once a week.

This month I started to eat off of a small plate - close to dessert size - and weigh myself everyday, even after S days, because I wanted to see results soon. I lose a bit each day (as I still have about 15 lbs or so to lose), and gain some after the weekend. But I see a downward trend even from judging a present weekend gain from previous ones. This encourages me to continue No S and small plates.

Being an older, short woman so far this is working for me.

For me, finding immediate rewards to reinforce good behavior and prevent slip-ups is a matter of identifying my vulnerable times and replacing the food reward with something else.

My two problem times are before and after lunch, when I have a tendency to nervously nibble as I cook and clean up, and night snacking. So, before lunch I do some stretching and drink some water and I try to streamline the process as much as possible. (I'm often hungry and have a three-year-old and two kittens jumping all over the table, knocking things around and hanging on me, thus the nervous eating.) I make coffee as I make lunch, so I have a hot cup right there to sip as soon as I am done eating. So having an opening and closing ritual helps seal off the one bowl/plate meal.

At night, it helps that my husband has mostly given up night snacking during the week, too. But I also do nonfood comforting self-care things such as yoga and brushing my hair and doing my nails and drinking tea.

Hmm, I think I need to come up with a reward linked to exercise. Years ago, that would have been eating something, but of course that would be counterproductive. I usually try to squish exercise in at nap time, so my reward probably can't be time consuming. Perhaps 10 mins of my fave show with a cup of tea...

In terms of exercise motivation I keep a log. If I don't work out there is a very obvious blank space. I like to see writing in all of the boxes! So I guess its the same philosophy as the red and green no s records.

I record improvements in my strength which is very motivating and I can easily see my progress.

I also set mini-goals that are about consistency (in contrast to performance) and tick things off as I complete them. For example I will aim to do 50 tricep pushups in a week and I will write in the log:

Tricep pushups 5-10-15-20-25-30-35-40-45-50!

I do the pushups when I can over the week. I find those min-goals easy because when I am having trouble motivating myself for a big workout I can think to myself just do 5 tricep pushups so you can mark something off.

I also weigh myself daily.

exercise is a great stress relief for me so i know it will immediately get me unstuck if i move...

but my new dog is such an extra motivator!
im not suggesting getting a dog just to get moving because that is a decision too big to be taken lightly... but if you already have a love for dogs this is yet another reason to adopt one...

positive - keeping your home clean, obviously, keeping your dogg less stressed, wonderful training and bonding opportunity (love spells "walk" in dog language, they say, haha), meeting other people walking their dogs, being already dressed up for a walk why not make it less passive and speed up your walk even run a bit with the dog... or take a bike ride/roller blades with the dog if possible...

soon - one week with my dog and i have to up my plates a bit already on already low bmi to maintain... i think people with higher bmi would see the numbers melting away even more...

sure - even slow walks can bring stress relief benefits... for stress eaters that is important...

now, if that was a cure-all there would be no obese people with dogs... nor obese dogs... but dog is a little kick in the ass, so to speak, if that is all we need to get us going... a powerful motivator for me...

oh, and here is a link to a beautiful and moving video of how saving a dog saved a man's life (depression, diabetes and other conditions due to obesity):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm0qYRWQpZI

Absolutely agree! Our dog is a big motivator for me, and it is good to remember that even when I think "oh I never exercise" I do actually walk our dog every day.

Habitcal

Positive - a lovely green square

Soon - that evening once you know you won't eat anymore

Sure - you can defiantly have a green square if you stick to the plan - much more sure that the scales that do all sorts of ups and downs which may or may not be related to what you eat.

oh yes, habitcal and monthly challenges are great motivators!

Exercise is my best habit. 2017 my goals are to have my eating habits as good as my exercise habits (:

When my kids were small I woke up early to exercise. I love breakfast & my rule was that I couldn't eat breakfast until I exercised. Until I worked out before breakfast there were too many things that would happen that would keep me from exercising. Using breakfast as a reward gave me something to look forward to after I finished & it felt great to know I was done & didn't have to worry about finding time later.

Now even on vacation or days off it feels uncomfortable to skip my morning workout.

I exercise (either a stretching/workout routine, or elliptical) while watching a favorite TV show, so I consider that my reward.

Maybe I need to start an exercise habitcal. I love the idea of mini goals - there is always time for 5 pushups.

What a great thread! I love the ideas shared here. Keep 'em coming!

One thing I do on occasion (if there is time) is to make my place to eat as beautiful as possible, fresh flowers, dust off a nice fine china plate, water in a wine glass, soft music, etc. so your eating experience is as peaceful and enjoyable as possible.

But in reality when life is crazy busy, sometimes it means just a paper plate on a clean kitchen table...