#I wanna make up some ridiculous but low effort tasks for each month

[readingwriter92]

Went on an adventure today and bought like. 11 books.

I like never go to bookstores alone and honestly it’s probably better financially that I don’t. But it did allow me to zero guilt wander my local big second hand book store for AN HOUR. I now have all the squirrel girl comics. I bought both the first baccano and no 6 mangas. Bought some others on a whim.

Just all around great time.

Also bought camomille tea and so gunna try that for the first time this month

[cstesttaken]

An Unmotivated Weight Loss Mission

I’ve never been arrested.

I have been stopped by the police, asked to exit my vehicle, been frisked and had the contents of the car removed and inspected. It didn’t help that my mate told the officer that everything on the back seat was stolen, but that’s a story for another time.

If I had been arrested, the movies would have me believe that I’d get a single phone call. If that’s true, you’d wanna use that call wisely.

You can think of motivation in much the same way; it’s temporary, you’ve got it, and then suddenly POOF, it’s gone and you’re lying on the couch watching movies and eating whole bags of M&M’s. Okay, maybe that’s just me.

My point is; motivation is fleeting and you don’t have it for long. So while you have it you’d better put it to good use.

‘That’s a cool speech man, slightly odd, but WTF are you talking about?!’

I’m talking about a sustainable way to start exercising, lose weight and get healthy. A way where the need for motivation becomes redundant. I know what you’re thinking; losing weight and getting healthy requires huge amounts of dedication, motivation and willpower. You’d be right if we were going to go on a diet and launch ourselves into a ridiculous exercise regime. But we’re not.

Here’s a scenario for ya. Tell me if any of it sounds familiar?

You see an ad on TV for gym equipment. Gorgeous people wearing bugger-all clothes tell you: ‘it’s your time to lose weight and get in shape’. Sweet, that’s exactly what you want! There’s up to 60% off treadmills, rowers and elliptical trainers. It’s a sign! It’ll be the best money you ever spent!  A couple of days later your shiny new piece of weight loss salvation arrives. You’re excited and keen to rip into it!

Congratulations, you were motivated and you did something.

Fast forward six months and your investment sits in the lounge rarely used and gathering dust. The numbers on your bank statement are a little lower but the numbers on the scales keep going up.

That was my story, maybe yours is a litlle different. Maybe it was another diet, a gym membership, or maybe it was some shonky as seen on TV product. Whatever it was, you started something that was supposed to change your life but you lost motivation and couldn’t stick with it.

So what the hell went wrong?!

The problem is: motivation is temporary and losing weight and getting fit doesn’t happen overnight.

When we join a gym, start a new diet, or sign up to a new weight loss or exercise programme we’re motivated and keen to succeed. We know what we want to look like, we know how much we want to weigh, and we know the kinds of clothes we want to fit into. We’ve got a really clear idea of the results we want, and we want to see those results as soon as possible.

I call this the fantasy gap:

It’s the gap between where you are right now, and where you want to be. If that gap is too big, it’s almost impossible to see the path that’ll get you there. What happens? You fantasise about what you want and lose focus on how you’re gonna get there. You get overwhelmed by a task that seems just too big and lose motivation.

At first we’re dedicated to this new way of life; we hit that new exercise machine everyday, follow the programme, or eat all the meals on the plan. Whatever it is, we’re doin’ it, we’re all in! But at some point we wanna know if it’s working, because having sore muscles and feeling like we’re starving all the time sucks! We want some positive feedback, something that tells us it’s all been worth it. So maybe a couple of weeks into our new routine we jump on the scales…

…’ WTF! ARE YOU SERIOUS?! 1 KILOGRAM, THAT’S IT?! THAT’S ALL THE WEIGHT I’VE LOST?! ‘All that effort, all that sacrifice for one miserable kilogram?!

Bugger this, I’m getting the M&M’s!’

Well shit. Don’t beat yourself, we’ve all been there.

What if there was a different way? What if we could take that moment of motivation and turn it into something great?

First, Let’s Look at What Went Wrong?

The effort versus the reward isn’t a fair exchange. When you feel like you’ve busted-a-gut exercising and deprived yourself of all the foods you’d like to be eating, one lone kilogram doesn’t feel like a fair return. Especially when you stack it up against the many, many kilograms you want to lose. That’s deflating and ultimately unmotivating. I know how that feels, it’s awful, you feel ashamed, worthless and left wondering why you even bothered to try.

In my opinion the real trick to losing weight isn’t staying motivated, it’s finding a system where the need to be motivated becomes redundant. In other words: the reward outweighs the effort.

People much smarter than me call this a positive feedback loop. The Science Education Research Center at Carleton College in the U.S define it this way: Positive feedback loops enhance or amplify changes; this tends to move a system away from its equilibrium state and make it more unstable.

Yeah I prefer my definition too.

The reward outweighs the effort. Simple right?

When the pain of doing something seems insignificant compared to the reward of jumping on the scales and seeing the numbers go down, you tend to keep working at it. That’s the loop part of a feedback loop.

Effort + Positive Feedback = Repetition.

‘Ok, that’s cool man, I get that this Feedback Loop thing is great, but what does it look like in practice?’

Here’s why walking is so good:

Walking burns calories without busting-your-gut: Compared to nearly every other exercise, walking is easy. Yeah I know, we’ve all got some stupidly fit friend, or follow some obnoxious fitness page that likes to preach ‘No Pain No Gain’ but when you’re just getting started, or struggling to stay on track, that’s actually not very helpful advice. Walking for just 10-15 minutes can burn 100+ calories. Multiply that out across an entire week and you’ve burned up to 700 calories. Walking just a little bit every day can add up to big weight loss over time.

Walking will burn fat: Uh oh, here comes some science – Walking is low impact and low intensity, and in the weight loss game that’s good news. It means that your body doesn’t draw on its glycogen and glucose stores for fuel, which is what happens when you’re going all-in on some higher intensity workouts. Low intensity exercise means your body is more likely to use fat as its source of fuel.

Walking is easy to fit into your daily routine: Think about it, you already walk every day. Look for ways to walk for a few minutes more each day. Do you drive to work? You walk from the carpark to the front door, right? Park a bit further away and walk a little further. Do you catch the bus? Jump off early and walk the rest of the way. Finding ways to fit exercise into your existing routine is much easier than trying to add exercise to an already busy schedule.

If You’re Trying to Lose Weight But Struggle with Motivation, Get Your Walk On!

Yup, I’m a huge fan of walking. Why? I’m a big, BIG fan of really small changes and the small wins that follow. Remember the feedback loop? Effort + Positive Feedback = Repetition. Well, they’re kinda the same thing. Small Change + Small Win = Repetition. That’s how you form new habits and in my opinion habit change is a really HUGE part of succesful and sustainable weight loss.

Walking is probably the best habit building activity you’ll find. Walking for just a few minutes everyday is the start of an exercise habit and habits replace the need for motivation. It becomes something you just do without thinking about it, and when you do something without thinking about it, the need to be motivated becomes redundant.

So what can we learn from all this?

Well, motivation isn’t a bad thing, but it is temporary, and you can’t rely on always being motivated to achieve your end goal. Instead of focussing on one big goal, set mini goals, tiny little goals. Achieve these little goals regularly and you’ll restart the feedback loop. Trust me; the reward will outweigh the effort. You get used to this feeling of accomplishment and it’ll make you hungry for more, eventually it’ll become habit, and these are the habits that slowly develop into lasting lifestyle changes.

Source

http://www.127kgs.co.nz/here-today-gone-tomorrow-an-unmotivated-weight-loss-mission/