Hi WHEEsters! I'm working on our new theme song! Whaddya think? Does it scan?
You say you've got a resolution
Well, you know
We all want to change our ass
You tell me it's a quick solution
Well, you know
We all want to change it fast
But when you talk about liposuction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right
Yep, my topic of choice for January 1 is: New Year's Resolutions. Did you make them? Will you keep them? Will they actually help you do anything, you know, useful? And more on teh flip side.
WHEE (Weight, Health, Eating and Exercise) is a community support diary for Kossacks who are currently or planning to start losing, gaining or maintaining their weight through diet and exercise or fitness. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are working on your weight or fitness, please -- join us! You can also click the WHEE tag to view all diary posts.
If you're anything like, oh, 99% of the population, you are probably hunched over your notepad right now, writing down your New Year's Resolutions. The all-important resolutions that are going to make this year different than all the preceding ones, that are going to turn your life around and turn you into the person that you want to be.
And if you're anything like, oh, 99% of the population, one or more of those resolutions will probably have something to do with weight and fitness. (And the other one will have to do with giving up some pernicious addiction, like cigarettes or Facebook, but I digress.)
And if you're anything like 88% of the population, by the end of January, February at the latest, all of your resolutions (at least as measured by how often you use your New Year's gym membership) will have fallen by the wayside. More serious studies show that 78% of those surveyed fail in their resolutions. Not a very encouraging statistic for our annual resolution-makers.
I've made the same resolution to lose weight for years now. Some years I've succeeded, others I've failed, but I've lost a net of 67 pounds since 1999, and that is what I would consider an EPIC WIN. This year I pushed my weight loss the furthest it's ever gone, getting back to a weight I last saw in high school. Again, EPIC WIN. But I've failed at other resolutions: cleaning out my overstuffed closets and cutting back on frivolous clothing consumption, being more organized and completing tasks more efficiently in my working life. My experience with resolutions is definitely a mixed bag.
You say you've got a resolution
Well, you know
Yeah, you went and bought the plan
They're asking you for contributions
Well, you know
And you're drinking from a can
But when they want money for chemical chocolate shakes
All I can tell you is real food is what it takes
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right
Ah
ah, ah, ah, ah, ah...
So why do our resolutions fail? The guys who actually study this kind of stuff seem to think that it's because people make big, broad resolutions absent a concrete implementation plan, and that they focus on the downside of failure, not on strategies for success:
Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, who led the analysis, said he and his team had asked 700 people about their strategies for achieving new year resolutions. Their goals ranged from losing weight or giving up smoking to gaining a qualification or starting a better relationship.
Of the 78% who failed, many had focused on the downside of not achieving the goals; they had suppressed their cravings, fantasised about being successful, and adopted a role model or relied on willpower alone.
We had an interesting little discussion of this in MetalMD's Will Power diary the other day -- while appeals to will power may work for some percentage of people (maybe the 22% in Wiseman's study that succeed in keeping NY resolutions?), other WHEEbles felt that the will power formulation of self-motivation is very abstract, and perhaps more about self-judgment than about goal-setting strategy.
Wiseman found that the planners had a much better resolution success rate:
On the other hand, people who kept their resolutions tended to have broken their goal into smaller steps and rewarded themselves when they achieved one of these. They also told their friends about their goals, focused on the benefits of success and kept a diary of their progress.
People who planned a series of smaller goals had an average success rate of 35%, while those who followed all five of the above strategies had a 50% chance of success, the study found.
"Many of the most successful techniques involve making a plan and helping yourself stick to it," Wiseman said.
Seven strategies that Wiseman identified in his research included:
1) Break your goal into smaller steps
2) Reward yourself for achieving steps
3) Tell your friends
4) Focus on the benefits of success
5) Keep a diary of your progress
6) Make only one resolution at a time
7) Accept lapses as only temporary setbacks
Each of those strategies is probably a WHEE diary in itself -- maybe I'll do a series. The internet is chock full of websites where you can keep a diary of your progress, tell your friends about your goals, make one resolution at a time -- for instance by entering short-term challenges, and, of course, reward yourself for achieving individual steps.
You say you'll change your constitution
Well, you know
You say you need to change your head
You tell us it's a resolution
Well, you know
You better make a plan instead
If you make Jillian Michaels your sacred cow
You ain't going to make it happen anyhow
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right
all right, all right, all right
all right, all right, all right
Yeah, maybe I need some help on that last verse there. But the moral of the story seems to be? Have a resolution? Make a plan. Have a role model you want to be like? Make a plan. Rome wasn't built in a day, and you can be pretty sure they made a plan.
Here's my WHEE-related resolution:
I want to lose a few more pounds this year. Maybe 5-10. Then I'm done. I am going to do this by:
-- keeping my activity level up in January. I checked off all 20 spaces on my "unlimited" Zumba card this month and I still have a week to go until it expires. Those little cards are like mini-challenges...every month I get one with 20 spaces to check off. Can I burn it out this month? Next month? Etc.
-- keeping a net calorie deficit in January. If I can keep my calorie balance in the red for the month overall, that's a mini-goal, a mini-success.
-- at the end of the month, I'm going to re-evaluate my resolution and re-tune it to see where it needs to go. Check back with me in February for "Incremental Resolutions II: Electric Boogaloo."
Now of course, this doesn't address how I'm going to achieve my other resolution: no Facebook (or DailyKos) when I should be working...
Scheduled WHEE diaries
January 2
Sat AM - James Robinson
Sat PM - Edward Spurlock (Kessler, Ch. 37)
January 3
Sun AM - ???
Sun PM - leevank
January 4
Mon AM - NC Dem (looking at your pecs!)
Mon PM - ???
January 5
Tues AM - ???
Tues PM - Clio2 (Kessler, Ch. 38)
January 6
Weds AM - ???
Weds PM - Edward Spurlock
January 7
Thurs AM - ???
Thurs PM - ???
January 8
Fri AM - ???
Fri PM - ???
January 9
Sat AM - kismet (calorie values of everyday food/what a week of "clean eating" looks like)
Sat PM - ???