When it comes to weightloss we throw around a lot of words, especially words like motivation and committment. but what about discipline? What is the key to discipline? How do you discipline yourself?
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 12,392
S/C/G: 217/179/142
Height: 5'2
I think it's different things to different people. For me, my biggest issue is mindless eating...eating because the food is there, not because I'm hungry. I am working on being more concious of everything I eat. Stopping myself when I want to pop something in my mouth. If it's something I really want to eat, I try to think of a way to fit it into my next meal.
I have the food under control, I am relatively disciplined with my diet. I say relatively because I don't deprive myself. If I want something, I have it. A little bit of it. One glass of wine, not two. One cookie, one slice of bread etc. not every day, but when I want it. This works for me. I don't let myself backslide or allow myself more than a 2 lb momentary gain on the scale. One I am at goal, the 2 lb allowance will move to within 5 lbs of goal (up or down).
My biggest issue with discipline is the gym. I go through phases. Some months I am every day. Period. Then one small thing happens like a cold, a heavier than usual TOM, or an unusually busy work week. If something "unscheduled" comes up I will use that as an excuse and run with it!
November is my month for starting my plan to break that pattern. I have committed to myself that no matter what...M,W,F is no excuses at the gym. Period. That leaves T and Th for other stuff. And Sa/su for active activities.
I'm the opposite, I'm very disciplined with fitness because I enjoy it. I'm terrible with food. I will use any excuse to eat. I jut wonder how everyone achieves discipline.
I use my discipline from other areas of my life to motivate me into being more disciplined in weight loss. For example I'm extremely disciplined in my work, so I think about that and all the skills I use to stay disciplined in my work and try to transfer them to weight loss. I try to use the fact that I am very disciplined in some areas to inspire my discipline in others, if that makes any sense
I love the act of working out, I love the feeling I have after, I love watching my body change. I hate getting there lol. Once I am there I can push through all of my excuses, but actually getting to the gym, is a mental gymnastics event!
I have motivation because I love shopping and I want to look hot again!
I have discipline because I am super competitive, and love attention (Leo that I am lol) so I compete with myself. I find the harder I push, the better I look. The better I look, the more attention I get.
I am completely undisciplined. I loathe sticking to anything just for the sake of sticking to a program. What I do must have a strong emotional motivation in it for me.
When it comes to the diet, I avoid certain foods because they make me feel sick or awful. I cook simply because it's uncomplicated and takes very little time for me to achieve a tasty, satisfying meal. And I design my plate as follows: half the plate is full of non-starchy vegetables, quarter of the plate full of protein, quarter of the plate full of colorful starchy vegetables. And everything includes healthy fat sources.
As for exercise, I found what I love to do everyday and I do it. I recently learned that my body is very happy with an hour of exercise, twice a day. So in the mornings I do cardio and weight training, and in the evenings I do Pilates.
I rest on the weekends. Completely. From everything. I even skip food altogether on one of the weekend days and go for a 36 hour fast. I'm fasting right now, in fact. I'm about 14 hours into it now. The weekly fasting helps me reset emotionally as well as physically.
I am completely undisciplined. I loathe sticking to anything just for the sake of sticking to a program. What I do must have a strong emotional motivation in it for me.
When it comes to the diet, I avoid certain foods because they make me feel sick or awful. I cook simply because it's uncomplicated and takes very little time for me to achieve a tasty, satisfying meal. And I design my plate as follows: half the plate is full of non-starchy vegetables, quarter of the plate full of protein, quarter of the plate full of colorful starchy vegetables. And everything includes healthy fat sources.
As for exercise, I found what I love to do everyday and I do it. I recently learned that my body is very happy with an hour of exercise, twice a day. So in the mornings I do cardio and weight training, and in the evenings I do Pilates.
I rest on the weekends. Completely. From everything. I even skip food altogether on one of the weekend days and go for a 36 hour fast. I'm fasting right now, in fact. I'm about 14 hours into it now. The weekly fasting helps me reset emotionally as well as physically.
So, I guess that's my discipline.
That's extremely disciplined. But I find that for me discipline is void of emotion. The things I am successful at in terms of discipline I have no emotion attachment to. Cleaning, paying bills, running errands, cleaning, work etc.
When hunger is an emotion it makes it hard to instill discipline.
I am completely undisciplined..... I even skip food altogether on one of the weekend days and go for a 36 hour fast. I'm fasting right now, in fact. I'm about 14 hours into it now.
That's extremely disciplined. But I find that for me discipline is void of emotion. The things I am successful at in terms of discipline I have no emotion attachment to. Cleaning, paying bills, running errands, cleaning, work etc.
When hunger is an emotion it makes it hard to instill discipline.
Actually, thank you geoblewis, this sentence you said "I loathe sticking to anything just for the sake of sticking to a program. What I do must have a strong emotional motivation in it for me" struck a particular chord with me and I've been thinking about it ever since.
I think I pay too much attention to how I feel and I don't like to push myself psychologically. I cave in to my "I don't feel like doing this" attitude way too much. It's quite immature actually because I certainly never feel like doing dishes or paying the bills but I push past that initial "I don't feel like it" and get the job done. When it comes to food and hunger I balk. There's something to this I think. Perhaps this is why I'm able to earn a masters degree, run a family and start my own business - because I know how to push past my fears and weaknesses. It's always boggled me how I can accomplish so much but I tremble at the sight of a french fry. It's not because I'm weak, it's because I don't want to break through that fear barrier, maybe?
It's food for thought and I'll be thinking about this as I approach my next meal. I don't want food to be my weakness or my vice.
The last time I lost a tremendous amount of weight was before going to a wedding fraught with certain family members. I HAD to look as good as, if not better, than them! I had that "Eye of the Tiger" thing. I was laser-like disciplined. I was also on a weight loss challenge as well, so that was my excuse not to eat: "I can't eat that, there's $500 for me if I win this thing!" Since then, I can't lose any weight!! Either one piece of candy undoes it all, or I have no motivation.
To me, disciple is having something in sight that is more important than anything else in the world as a constant reminder. For me, it is my kid. Ever since my near death experience in which my kid very nearly witnessed in August of 2012, I can't stand the thought of not being disciplined. It makes me sick with worry if I eat a slice of pizza or don't work out. Maybe it is better described as an obsession, but for me, I want chocolate, I want greasy food, I want all that stuff I used to do...but I refuse to do it. My kid almost lost me once. I will not put her through that again. that keeps me honest and on track.
To me, disciple is having something in sight that is more important than anything else in the world as a constant reminder. For me, it is my kid. Ever since my near death experience in which my kid very nearly witnessed in August of 2012, I can't stand the thought of not being disciplined. It makes me sick with worry if I eat a slice of pizza or don't work out. Maybe it is better described as an obsession, but for me, I want chocolate, I want greasy food, I want all that stuff I used to do...but I refuse to do it. My kid almost lost me once. I will not put her through that again. that keeps me honest and on track.
I'm a severe asthmatic who at one time weighed close to 300 pounds. My kid got sick and gave me Strep B, which later developed into streptococcus pneumoniae and caused 90% blockages in my left lung and 75% blockages in my right lung and brought my O2 saturation levels to a deadly level of 42 (morgues get corpses with higher O2 saturation levels.) My daughter was 3 when she found me passed out, more or less in a coma like state as I was very unresponsive. She tried to wake me for several hours and it was just the two of us at home. I really have no idea how long she tried to wake me, but by the time she managed, she has pulled my massive frame nearly onto the floor from our bed, was screaming bloody murder, and was obviously pretty messed up over the fact she couldn't wake me. That image, that moment plays in my head EVERY second of EVERY day. she came so close to watching me die...if my husband had listened to his gut, he would have taken her to day care that day when he left and they would have come home to a corpse. That kind of knowledge messes you up in ways unimaginable.
Anyways, while in ICU, I had complete lung failure and developed ARDS. While ARDS is acute and is "short termed", short term is relative. Most ARDS patients take anywhere from 1-5 years to make a recovery, and of those, 90% never make a full recovery. I've made a "mostly" recovery, but my upper left lobe is not functional, my O2 saturation still had to be monitored daily, and I still have flare ups more often than I care to admit. My doctors had told me at the time to file for disability and had informed me that I would spend the rest of my life on an O2 tank at the ripe old age of 29.
I guess that is where my discipline really comes in. I cannot handle the thought of my kid finding me like that again. And I know it is a very strong possibility. So, I went against everything the doctors said and started dieting. I lost some weight and decided to throw in exercise. That part was hard. I couldn't even walk from my bedroom to my living room with out passing out due to oxygen drops. But, with enough time and enough persistence, I managed. I would just add 10 seconds at a time to my "workouts". The first time I went for a "walk" I only managed an 1/8 of a mile, and that took me close to 30 minutes. But, the driving force was not allowing my kid to find me so close to death again. And in a little over a year later, I run (although I am currently on a 3-4 week break due to a knee injury) a typical 3-5 miles 3-4 times a week, lift weights, and do a modified HIIT exercise. I have to closely monitor my heart rate when I exercise as anything above 145 can send me into an asthma attack, which can lead to an ARDS flare up.
It's hard. It really is. But having a driving force behind why I do what I do keeps me honest in my efforts and in my discipline levels. I will not go back to August 2012. I live with the memories of that nightmare daily and have suffered some serious PTSD from it. And not just me. My daughter is now 4 and still starts freaking out if I fall asleep while she is awake. I take it as a blessing in disguise. Had all of that not happened, who knows how low I would have gotten before it was too late. Afterall, it almost was.
Wow thank you for sharing that. You're blessed to be alive and using that in the most positive way possible. Thanks for reminding me how fragile life is and how important it is to keep on keeping on!
Discipline
