Self Monitoring

This week I would like to start with a poem by 'Edgar A. Guest', which will help lead me to another important habit to develop both now and in the future to achieve weight loss and maintain that loss.

With a lift of his chin, and a bit of a grin-Without any doubting or "quit it,"- He started to sing, as he tackled the thing-That couldn't be done, and he did it."

In order to be successful at losing weight, one of the most successful additions to goal setting, affirmations and visualizations, is self-monitoring. This is the careful observation and recording of behavior that you wish to change. For weight controllers, self-monitoring involves observing and recording eating and exercising behaviors. Lets look at some statistics.

Among weight controllers in a 12 week program, those who self-monitored consistently lost 64% more weight than the inconsistent self-monitors;
Weight controllers who discontinues self-monitoring during a 5 week holiday season gained 57 times as much weight as their counterparts who continued to self-monitor consistently.
Two studies showed that even weight controllers who generally self-monitored very consistently discontinued monitoring for a day or more sometimes. During the weeks that they self-monitored inconsistently, however, they lost much less weight than usual for them.
Only highly consistent self-monitors lost any weight during holiday season (Thanksgiving to New Years) in two studies.
Weight controllers who self-monitored very consistently in the first few weeks of several professional treatment programs maintained much greater weight losses, compared to inconsistent self- monitors.
Weight controllers who were generally inconsistent self-monitors gained an average of one pound per week during their least consistent self-monitoring weeks.
We are coming into a holiday season. With this and the demands of work, family, shopping, and now the long November/December evenings, some people are struggling.

Don't get discouraged, because this happens to a lot of us. If you have lost sight of your goal, at very least start to monitor your eating. (this means writing everything down that you eat). Look at your eating behaviors, and amounts, but don't apply any self-criticism. Just see if there is something you can change the next day. Also, re-look at your goals. Is the way you are eating (the quantities, the snacks, those little treats that show up at work these days) consistent with your goals. If not, then change. At the end of the day, if you eat well, you feel good about yourself, but more importantly you, once again, feel in control of the food. Also, write down your exercise and activities.

You are developing good, healthy behaviors that lead to a healthy vigorous life.

It takes time and some effort; the rewards however are huge.

You can do it!

Just hang in there till its done!

Have a great weekend!

Dr. Doug