I am not a procrastinator. At least when it comes to work. I am just the kind of person I would like to have working for me -- conscientious, goes the extra mile, etcetera, etcetera...
A glance at that first sentence up there and I feel a bit guilty. It's not strictly true. When it comes to exercise and eating right I am a skilled procrastinator with about forty years of experience.
About a week ago, I was suffering greatly because of this. I no longer set myself up for misery with weight goals, but I do have behavior goals. One is regular exercise (even as a procrastinator, I get more exercise than most people). The other is cutting back significantly on processed foods (especially sugar) and increasing my intake of vegetables.
I was suffering because I know I can do these things, yet I just couldn't convince myself to get started. I would start for a day or two, or a few hours, and then decide to "start again Monday," or "after Easter," or some such nonsense. So, as I was feeling terrible about myself once again, I did a little research and I found a site called https://www.stickk.com.
You wouldn't think it would make any difference at all, but for me it really has. I started with the food goals. There is no waffling about with dates. I made a 10 week commitment to both of those goals. The idea of StickK is that you make a (usually) financial pledge to achieve some goal. If you don't check in on a weekly basis to confirm that you have been faithful to your commitment, you lose money. It is all on the honor system, so no one other than myself would know if I cheated. If you want to do this, and you need another person to be accountable to, you can assign a referee to monitor your progress. For me, just putting it down on the site, and checking in regularly has been enough. Once I get a couple successful weeks under my belt, I'll create an exercise one: probably working out six days a week alternating 2 miles of running with weight lifting at the gym.
My two current goals are very doable, but one is more difficult than the other. It is not so difficult to give up processed sweets when you can still have fruit or yogurt (or in a pinch sugar-free ice-cream -- yuk). However, it has been exceedingly difficult to eat six servings of vegetables a day. It just means I have to plan ahead, and with food that is not my strong suit. Last night I had to eat a giant Romaine salad in the middle of the night in order to catch up for the day. I'm hoping I won't do that again, but here it is almost 2:00 and I haven't had a veggie yet!
I'll keep you updated. I feel calmer all over now that I am not wrestling with myself. I have started, and I'm sticking to it!
A glance at that first sentence up there and I feel a bit guilty. It's not strictly true. When it comes to exercise and eating right I am a skilled procrastinator with about forty years of experience.
About a week ago, I was suffering greatly because of this. I no longer set myself up for misery with weight goals, but I do have behavior goals. One is regular exercise (even as a procrastinator, I get more exercise than most people). The other is cutting back significantly on processed foods (especially sugar) and increasing my intake of vegetables.
I was suffering because I know I can do these things, yet I just couldn't convince myself to get started. I would start for a day or two, or a few hours, and then decide to "start again Monday," or "after Easter," or some such nonsense. So, as I was feeling terrible about myself once again, I did a little research and I found a site called https://www.stickk.com.
You wouldn't think it would make any difference at all, but for me it really has. I started with the food goals. There is no waffling about with dates. I made a 10 week commitment to both of those goals. The idea of StickK is that you make a (usually) financial pledge to achieve some goal. If you don't check in on a weekly basis to confirm that you have been faithful to your commitment, you lose money. It is all on the honor system, so no one other than myself would know if I cheated. If you want to do this, and you need another person to be accountable to, you can assign a referee to monitor your progress. For me, just putting it down on the site, and checking in regularly has been enough. Once I get a couple successful weeks under my belt, I'll create an exercise one: probably working out six days a week alternating 2 miles of running with weight lifting at the gym.
My two current goals are very doable, but one is more difficult than the other. It is not so difficult to give up processed sweets when you can still have fruit or yogurt (or in a pinch sugar-free ice-cream -- yuk). However, it has been exceedingly difficult to eat six servings of vegetables a day. It just means I have to plan ahead, and with food that is not my strong suit. Last night I had to eat a giant Romaine salad in the middle of the night in order to catch up for the day. I'm hoping I won't do that again, but here it is almost 2:00 and I haven't had a veggie yet!
I'll keep you updated. I feel calmer all over now that I am not wrestling with myself. I have started, and I'm sticking to it!
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