New Year's Resolutions

[pozorvlak]

I don't normally make New Year's resolutions, but what the hell.

1. Start tracking my weight and calorie intake again, and get my weight back down to a level where I'm comfortable. This morning it was 12st 1.9 - not terribly high in the scheme of things, but it's almost as high as it was when I first started dieting (though I think a bit more of it may be muscle now) and it's definitely high enough to negatively impact my sense of well-being.

What went wrong? Well, I'm gonna quote from Hyperbole and a Half: "trying to use willpower to overcome the apathetic sort of sadness that accompanies depression is like a person with no arms trying to punch themselves until their hands grow back. A fundamental component of the plan is missing and it isn't going to work." A scheme for weight loss that depends on willpower is similarly doomed if you're too depressed to stick to it. So this time I'm going to try to make changes to my eating habits that require less willpower. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

2. Start making (and testing!) regular backups of my data. I lost several years of mountain photographs last year when the external hard drive I was keeping them on died: I don't want that to happen again.

3. Get my Gmail account down to Inbox Zero and keep it there. It's currently at Inbox 1713, most of which is junk, but it's just *easier* to deal with an empty inbox, and not have to re-scan the same old things to look for the interesting new stuff.

I have a few more Ambitious Plans, but they don't really count as resolutions:

1. Do some more Stanford online courses. I'm currently signed up to Human-Computer Interaction, Design and Analysis of Algorithms, Software Engineering for Software as a Service, and Information Theory. Fortunately they don't all run concurrently!

[BTW, they're not all computing courses: wormwood_pearl is signed up to Designing Green Buildings, for instance.]

2. Enter (and complete!) the Meadows Half-Marathon in March. I started training for this back in December, but then I got ill and Christmas happened, so today was my first run for a while and it wasn't much fun. Never mind; I've got time to get back on course.

3. If that goes well, enter (and, ideally, complete...) the Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon. As I understand things, it's basically two 20km-ish fell runs back-to-back, with a night camping in between. Oh, and you have to carry all your camping kit with you. In the high classes people do the whole thing at a run, but in the lower classes (which I'd be entering) there's apparently a bit more run/walk/run going on. Philipp and I did nearly 40km in one day on the South Glen Shiel ridge in November, and then went for another hike the next day, so I should be able to at least cover the distance. Providing I don't get too badly lost, of course :-)



The only way to progress in anything. The trick, of course, is not biting off enough to cause you damage.

Comments

[lesslucid.livejournal.com]

Re: low-willpower weight loss, maintaining a routine is much easier than creating a new one or trying to "behave well" outside of a routine. "Pre-committing" yourself to what you're going to eat - and including a moderate amount of indulgences within that routine - is a lot easier than trying to "spontaneously" make good decisions every day. It does require an investment of effort and willpower to kick it off, but if you've written a plan for yourself, bought the necessary ingredients, and try to follow it, it's possible to set up a low-willpower healthy-eating lifestyle.

[susannahf.livejournal.com]

This sounds a lot like the "slimming world" approach, where there are "free" foods which you can eat as much as you like (usually fruit, veg, and carb staples like rice, couscous etc). Everything else costs you points, of which you have a budget per day - it's pretty much calorie counting but using simpler units which are easier to add up. But doing a similar thing where you have some reasonably healthy and pleasant-to-eat things that you can snack on without worrying may help.
Personally, the only willpower-free weight loss I managed was via medication side-effects, and I wouldn't recommend that to anyone ;)
Since you see to want to do some exercise-based things, building in training should help with the weight - the key is to either make it very attractive so you want to do it, or make it something that is just part of your daily routine. I know you don't commute, but maybe find a supermarket that is further away but stocks nicer/cheaper food, and running/walking/cycling there (extra bonus as the weight on the way back will mimic your camping gear!)

[johnckirk.livejournal.com]

There's an interesting WSJ article: The Science Behind Failed Resolutions. According to that (paraphrasing), willpower consumes blood sugar, so when you eat less your willpower will weaken and you'll go for the chocolate.

Based on my experience with WeightWatchers, it works well if you eat stuff that's in their database (either prepackaged or from the set menu at certain restaurants). You can still use it if you make your own food from scratch, but it's a lot more of a faff because you have to weigh everything; if you're low on enthusiasm, you probably won't bother.

For what it's worth, I spent a week cycle touring in 2010 and 2011. I ate loads while I was away, then when I got home I found that my body fat percentage had dropped significantly. In terms of motivation, I find it easier to do extra exercise rather than eating less.

Anyway, good luck with it all.

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[necaris.livejournal.com]

I don't have any useful advice, sadly, although I am lurking to see if there's anything that people suggest that might work for me. However, that "bite off more than you can chew" picture is awesome.

[wormwood-pearl.livejournal.com]

I will evaluate Weight Watchers and report back. You usually lose weight when I do so I have high hopes :p

[(Anonymous)]

When my inbox gets out of control, I select everything below the first page and then just delete it all. The first page gets a bit more detailed treatment as it's usually new enough for the below not to apply.

If it's important, I've either dealt with it and not moved/deleted the email, or it's too late by now. If neither of those is true, the person will email me again and I'll catch it post-cleanup.

To help keep inbox under control over time - I unsubscribe from mailing lists aggressively, I have filters which move mail I want to keep but don't want to read, I don't keep mail which details things recorded elsewhere - eg paypal reciepts, amazon orders, etc. Most importantly, I don't check my mail unless I'm in a position to actually reply to it. Read-but-not-dealt-with mail is a bastard for inbox-clogging. My phone definitely doesn't check my mail unless I specifically ask it to. Rarely can I deal with an email without a keyboard and a proper browser and so on.

Once you deal with (read/reply/whatever) a mail, get it out of your inbox - either delete it or tag it out of the way. If you get a reply, the conversation will re-appear in your inbox automatically, if not, it's dealt with and you don't need it there.

I currently have 12 emails in my inbox. 2 unread - one bill from BT I'm ignoring in the hope it will go away, one semi-spam that's occasionally interesting. The remaining 10 are either ongoing conversations or unresolved issues I need to keep visible (ie, I need to chase them if they don't move by themselves soon.)

My sole diet tip is that hungry isn't something you feel, it's something you hear. Wait until you're audibly hungry before eating and you'll lose weight. Although, having recently seen a friend drop a few kgs a month by giving up all fat, that seems pretty effective too.


-mat

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

I'm trying not to just delete everything, though I'm quickly skimming lots of mail relating to events that have already happened. There have been one or two interesting conversations in there. I'm down to 1033 messages to read, so I reckon another week or two will do it.

Your tips on keeping inboxen under control look good, though - thanks! Particularly the one about not reading mail until you're in a position to deal with it.

[ivenriker9.livejournal.com]

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