No S Failure Mod "Tracking Bogeys."

storm fox · Post by **storm fox** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:24 pm

In the past, when I've failed on an N-day, I have the problem of binging because I've already failed, and thought I might as well just "live it up" for the rest of the day. I like to think that knowing this is helpful, and that remaining cognizant of the harm this kind of thought pattern can do to health, let alone habit.

So, my humbly submitted rough draft solution is "Tracking Bogeys." Although I don't play golf, I thought borrowing the idea of the bogey might be helpful in curbing what I came to know as "ultra-mega fails."
The idea is that each S-event on an N-day is counted as a bogey, with the first counted as a simple "failure." 2 S-events are a failure double bogey, 3 is a failure triple bogey, etc. Yes, I've gotten even more ridiculous than that, and yes, I am ashamed of it.

That's all, though, it's just tracked for the sake of not being able to weasel an S-day out of an N-day. No punishments for a Failure Quadruple Bogey except 4x the shame. No rewards for a (simple 1 S-event) Failure not turning into a trainwreck other than realizing I'm getting into the territory of better self-control.

Any thoughts on this? Any ideas for making this mod better?

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:32 pm

I like the idea. I'm prone to the, "Screw this. I screwed up, so down the hatch!" idiocy. What's REALLY bad (as you'll likely see from my HabitCal) is that I'll be great for MONTHS and just...

quit.

I like this as a way to stop-punch that nonsense. And the goofy name of Bogey makes it even neater, as it appeals to my not-so-inner 11 year old who sees Bogey and thinks, "UK for BOOGER!"

kccc · Post by **kccc** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:42 pm

My variant of that (stolen from someone else on the board, whom I'd credit if my memory were better) is to have a "non-idiotic" calendar.

I use it to track ONLY days that are listed as Failures and S-days on my regular Habitcal. Green is "minor", yellow "watch it", red is "over the top idiocy".

I also remember the "don't wreck the car" analogy. (As in, how many of us would say "well, this car has a dent now, so I may as well wreck it completely" or anything similar?)

mbell · Post by **mbell** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 11:09 pm

Although I'm no expert compared to you others on this forum, what I've done in my vast experience of No S ing for 10 whole days is to add another colour to my habitcal. I've had a couple of days which are not green but certainly not red and so I make them blue days. They've ended up being days when I've either snacked, had seconds or sweets but only one of the 3 and only on one occasion (a mini slip up, if you like). I think a red day when i've managed to stop a binge will become a purple day. My chart is going to look so damn colourful!!

storm fox · Post by **storm fox** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 11:36 pm

If it works for you, then great, but I like the simplicity of 3 colors, and the clarity of even 1 slip-up=Fail. It's the hardline moderation that appeals to me. That's why I chose a monitoring system instead of a punishment/reward system.

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 11:42 pm

I think for bingers, and I am one, the bogey idea is a good mod. Not that we'd want single bogeys to become the norm, but some of us need a reason not to make things worse.
How can you get a different color on the HabitCal?

mbell · Post by **mbell** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 6:04 pm

you can't get different colours on habitcal (I don't think) - I just made my own version with a calendar template in Word and filled cells with relevant colour.
storm fox - I'm using the extra colours to ease myself in and be kind to myself as I want this to be for life and (hopefully) I've got plenty of years ahead of me where I can be more stringent with the basic rules. I've also got a fair bit of weight to lose so can afford to do this - don't think those with 20lbs or less would get the results.