I Am Worth It Challenge II

[jimmie 48]

Re: I Am Worth It Challenge II

for convenience, i've add the post number of the assignments in the very first post. a simple click on the number will get you to the assignment for your copy and pasting needs. that might be easier than trying to sift through things.

i have some errands that must get done today. i'll read up and comment as needed when i return.

y'all are too good for words!

[jimmie 48]

Re: I Am Worth It Challenge II

December 18
Looking Back
Homework/Board Work
1. These are to be posted in this thread. Copy and paste the questions then answer.

• Reference a time when you were completely committed to a project, cause or life event. Relate to the group what struggles you had and what you did to stay the course. How did you feel when you met the obligation?
• Well, I left everything I knew and loved to move to the UK for that man that I love. It is still hard, I still cry and sometimes I even want to go back home. What makes me stay? In the end, all of the tears and heartache are worth how happy he makes me. My whole life I had to listen to lectures about how fat girls don't get the guy. He is my prince charming. He is gorgeous and fit, funny and successful and he loved only ME! The struggles are knowing my parents aren't getting any younger and anyone can die at any time and I might not be able to be there for a funeral (dark, I know). I stay the course with my husband because I committed to him for better or worse. I stay the course because in the end, our relationship is still worth all the sacrifices. Marriage is an obligation that needs to be every day, you are never done and I feel the same way about my food issues. I will never wake up cured of my addiction, but it is managable. Staying committed to both my hubby and WOE make me feel accomplished and some how a little smarter than the rest of humanity.
  

• Have you ever over committed? How did this affect your challenges, woe, etc.
  
• I over committed in college. I was Student Body President, in a couple of other clubs, trying to take 18 units and enjoying friends and church. It didn't work out so well. I didn't succeed in anything. It all exploded in my face and I felt like a failure because I couldn't do a bajillion things like so and so did. During that time of my life is when I gained the most weight. No time to eat=overdosing on carbs and with my carb sensitive body that meant 150-200lbs weight gain in only 2 years or so.
  

Virtually everyone has a problem now and then with slow losses, no losses or even gains. We are human. Dr. Atkins knew this but he also used the word “occasionally” in reference to eating off plan, many times in the DANDR. “Occasionally” should never be confused with every other day or be the scapegoat come Friday. Keeping this in mind, answer this question (as it applies):

1. If you are committed, why do you find yourself continually battling cravings, falling off the wagon, giving in and giving up?
Because carbs taste good!!! I'm such an addict and I don't think I could ever look you in the eye and proclaim chocolate is gross, ever. There is a difference between battling cravings and giving in and just giving in and quitting. My opinion is, this WOE is for the rest of my life. No one, not even God himself expects me to go the rest of my life without good food. However, that does not mean I eat carbs on every day ending with Y! That means I am on program at least 90% of the time (after induction/6 months). This isn't a contest for me. This isn't a race. I'm going to lose weight AND live life at the same time. If there are donuts in the office I can say no, but if there is a special occasion (birthday etc) then I will indulge a LITTLE with the promise of getting right back on with my WOE at the next meal, not the next day, week, month etc.

This will always be a battle for me. I'm ok with losing a few battles as long as I win the war.

learning i thank you for your honesty and the words you wrote. i've learned just a little bit more about you by reading your post.
dr. atkins wrote about going off plan for those ulta special occassions and said if you know it's coming, back off the allowed carbs for a bit prior to the event. then get right back to the business at hand.

[apple]

Re: I Am Worth It Challenge II

I didn't have a moment to read through as many as I liked to have yesterday...maybe today.

I love everyone's quotes they're finding!

Even though we're on Day 2, and I haven't touched that one yet, I'm really enjoying this.

This is a great quote! I needed to hear that today. Thanks.

Your welcome....

[apple]

Re: I Am Worth It Challenge II

Here's my homework for Day 2....
December 18
Looking Back
Homework/Board Work
1. These are to be posted in this thread. Copy and paste the questions then answer.

• Reference a time when you were completely committed to a project, cause or life event. Relate to the group what struggles you had and what you did to stay the course. How did you feel when you met the obligation?
• Well, recently it's been research papers for school, but that's not necessarily "life changing"; but I did complete it . I think the one thing I can say I commited myself to a project was this summer and focusing on making life time changes in exercise and eating. It was HARD to get going every day. But the more I focused on the feelings I had, the more I enjoyed the feelings. I hope that makes sense. The euphoric feeling of exercise is just a great thing. When I realized I had lost a substantial amount of inches all over my body, that's when I knew I met my obligation to get started; however, I don't look for a completion to this type of project
• Have you ever over committed? How did this affect your challenges, woe, etc.
• I have over committed myself a number of times in the real life of having too many titles at one time...mom, Sunday school teacher, youth director, babysitter, college student. I ate my way to keep up with it all. As far as over committing for me and challenges to keep me going in this woe, I know over committment when I wanted to do everything I possibly could in order to stay focused, exercise challanges, noweighing challenges, etc.; that wasn't the smartest thing to do for me because I got burned out and I let myself, again, eat to keep up with it all...not cheating necessarily, just not on the rung I was on. Lesson learned!

Virtually everyone has a problem now and then with slow losses, no losses or even gains. We are human. Dr. Atkins knew this but he also used the word “occasionally” in reference to eating off plan, many times in the DANDR. “Occasionally” should never be confused with every other day or be the scapegoat come Friday. Keeping this in mind, answer this question (as it applies):

1. If you are committed, why do you find yourself continually battling cravings, falling off the wagon, giving in and giving up?
Good question! Because, for me, it's creature of habit and comfort. It's the idea that I'm afraid of succeeding in something that's new and unknown. It's not new that I use to weigh 155 pounds over a decade and more ago, but my body doesn't remember and my brain's afraid of the road it has to take to get there. Every day has to be a renewed strength and focus on just making good choices to work on my New Year's Resolution....completing what I started.

[dreamof145]

Re: I Am Worth It Challenge II

I didn't answer the over-committed question...so here goes:

I've been over-committed most of my life. As a fat-person, I was a YES person. I always volunteered to do more things than I could handle. Somehow doing for others was a way I over-compensated for being fat. Does that make sense? If someone needed book reports typed up at school while they went out on dates or social events, Since I was fat and didn't date, I did it for several people. I also volunteered at school for decorating, writing and whatever needed done. Sometimes it was all I could do to go home, do my chores and my own homework.

After I was married, I began taking on other YES jobs. I ran errands for people, watched their kids, did the car pool way more than others, volunteered for school mom, volunteered to help neighbors when they went on vacation to water, mow or whatever they needed. So many times I didn't have my heart into doing things for others, but I wanted them to like me, so I kept my mouth shut and thought about their needs instead of my own.

Even now I struggle with it, but I am getting better at saying NO now that I have gained confidence in myself.

[Claudiabi]

Re: I Am Worth It Challenge II

December 18
Looking Back
Homework/Board Work
1. These are to be posted in this thread. Copy and paste the questions then answer.

• Reference a time when you were completely committed to a project, cause or life event. Relate to the group what struggles you had and what you did to stay the course. How did you feel when you met the obligation?
• I've been commited to finishing my degrees. It has taken some time and a lot of effort. I've had to put up with chauvinistic behaviour from men (even women)...What I did to stay the course?...I fought my way through in a world of men. I'm still fighting to get ahead...the struggle isnt over because is a lifetime experience!
  
• Have you ever over committed? How did this affect your challenges, woe, etc.
• I have over commited to different things...specially relationships. I realised I gave so much of me and didnt give me what I really needed. I got dissapointed in people at first...then I got dissapointed in me. SO I decided to cut myself some slack and start understanding me..
  

Virtually everyone has a problem now and then with slow losses, no losses or even gains. We are human. Dr. Atkins knew this but he also used the word “occasionally” in reference to eating off plan, many times in the DANDR. “Occasionally” should never be confused with every other day or be the scapegoat come Friday. Keeping this in mind, answer this question (as it applies):

1. If you are committed, why do you find yourself continually battling cravings, falling off the wagon, giving in and giving up?
Because I have a bad habit of wanting to cheat the system...defy and sabotage the rules. Maybe it's even selfdestructing!! Eventually my addiction to food kicks in and It's too late until I realised that I screwed up. Of course I know this now...before I would have never admitted to such a shameful thing!

[decreaseself]

Re: I Am Worth It Challenge II

• Reference a time when you were completely committed to a project, cause or life event. Relate to the group what struggles you had and what you did to stay the course. How did you feel when you met the obligation?
• I was asked to head up the recreations for Vacation Bible School one year. It was my busiest time at work and I did not want to do it. I prayed about it and felt like I was supposed to do it and committed to it. The struggle that I had was time management. I was the General Manager for a busy restaurant on the San Antonio Riverwalk and it was during our peak season. I used this lovely WWW to find exciting games for the children to play, having something fun and different every day. I scheduled myself mid shifts, so I could work when it was over which made for a very long week. At the end, physically I was exhausted. However, emotionally, I was filled up. The smiles, the hugs, and seeing the children see the love of Christ was very rewarding. In the end I was happy to have made the decision to do it. Was it self sacrificing? Sure, but that's what commitments are all about.
• Have you ever over committed? How did this affect your challenges, woe, etc.
• I too used to be the queen of over-commitment. However, when I worked in sales 6 years ago, my training healed me of that. We were taught never to over-commit. It is the worst thing when you tell a customer that you are going to do something and you don't follow through. You give yourself a realistic time-line, so that your goal can be met. We were taught to under-commit and over-deliver. I used it in my business life and it overflowed into my personal life. Even today, if I am invited somewhere or asked to do something, rather than commiting and saying yes, I tell them that I am nor sure that I will let them know. After I have time to think about it and ponder it to see if it fits in with my life or schedule, I commit or I say no. My training affected me positively. The best thing that I learned is it is OK to say , "no." It is better to say no then over-commit and wind up looking like a fool.

Virtually everyone has a problem now and then with slow losses, no losses or even gains. We are human. Dr. Atkins knew this but he also used the word “occasionally” in reference to eating off plan, many times in the DANDR. “Occasionally” should never be confused with every other day or be the scapegoat come Friday. Keeping this in mind, answer this question (as it applies):

1. If you are committed, why do you find yourself continually battling cravings, falling off the wagon, giving in and giving up?
In the past with other diets, I have always let other people influence me or cared too much what other people thought. Worse still, if they told me I would fail, I would start to believe it. My mentality would be, "well I am going to fail, so I may as well eat now" or "well since I didn't start Monday, I'll wait until next week" or "Oh I have that party to go to, so I better put it off" Fast forward to now......... I may have an advantage for starting this WOE and this challenge almost at the same time. This WOE has been easy so far, I enjoy the food. I have resisted temptations with Christmas and parties. The Challenge is thought provoking. I like Sunny's synonym "morally obligated" because I am making this commitment to myself, I am strong in my faith and know it can be done. When I achieve it, it is going to free up so much space that I have been spending on negative energy.

[OzLover]

Re: I Am Worth It Challenge II

December 18
Looking Back
Homework/Board Work
1. These are to be posted in this thread. Copy and paste the questions then answer.

• Reference a time when you were completely committed to a project, cause or life event. Relate to the group what struggles you had and what you did to stay the course. How did you feel when you met the obligation?

The time period I chose to show my biggest commitment is 1995-1997...I was in a part time nursing school program.
I believe my commitment to school literally saved my sanity & enabled me to deal with the most difficult 2 yrs of my life.
Three months prior to starting school I found the courage to leave my abusive alcoholic husband. During the 2 yrs there were many trials & tribulations...a nasty divorce, daily harrassment from the ex, fighting for child support, my son getting into trouble & my daughters mental health issues.
I refused to give up. I refused to be beaten down. I had waited so long for this dream of becoming a nurse to become a reality. I made a list daily of what I had to do for that day. Often the list started with GET OUT OF BED. "One day at a time" became my motto. Sometimes it was "one minute at a time". I WAS COMMITED!!!

Commitment paid off. I graduated with a high grade average & received 2 awards for Clinical Excellence.
How did I feel when it was all over: I felt like I was a WINNER!! I felt like I was in fact that incredibly strong person my friends & family said I was. I knew after going through these 2 yrs that I could do anything.
The biggest blessing of that time period is my DH. I met him 4 months before graduation. He is truly a gift from God as he has shown me what a real man is. He has shown me what it is to be truly loved by a man. He has shown my children what it is to be a father. I am truly blessed!

• Have you ever over committed? How did this affect your challenges, woe, etc.

I spent most of my life being over commited. I grew up as the caretaker, fix it person & people pleaser in my family. I didn't know how to say no. Being like this caused me to be resentful & full of anger. Not being able to express those feelings due to my life situation I would overeat. Overeating equalled stuffing those feelings down so I didn't have to feel them.
I started saying no to people back in 1995. My commitment to school superceded doing everything for everybody. I now tell people I need to check my schedule & will get back to them. I pick & chose what I get involved in.
Virtually everyone has a problem now and then with slow losses, no losses or even gains. We are human. Dr. Atkins knew this but he also used the word “occasionally” in reference to eating off plan, many times in the DANDR. “Occasionally” should never be confused with every other day or be the scapegoat come Friday. Keeping this in mind, answer this question (as it applies):

1. If you are committed, why do you find yourself continually battling cravings, falling off the wagon, giving in and giving up?


Despite being commited to this WOE/WOL I am not perfect...I'm human. This is an ongoing journey to physical/emotional/spiritual health for me. I am also a carb addict...with any kind of addiction there are trials & tribulations. I know that each day this WOE/WOL gets easier.
I am strong! I am commited! I am on my way!



This has been quite a thought provoking assignment for me. These are all great questions which have made me look once again at what has brought me to this journey! Thanks Jimmie...sometimes it is easy to forget.
Glenda

[sillygirl]

Re: I Am Worth It Challenge II

December 18 Looking Back
Homework/Board Work


1. These are to be posted in this thread. Copy and paste the questions then answer.

· Reference a time when you were completely committed to a project, cause or life event. Relate to the group what struggles you had and what you did to stay the course. How did you feel when you met the obligation?
There are so many times in my life that I have struggled for a cause and saw it through to my satisfaction that it’s hard to pick just one. My husband often tells me he married me because I am passionate about every thing that I do.

One that stands out most is that our local hospital was threatened to be closed. I helped to gather the required amount of signatures needed to save that hospital. When my father was in this hospital last year, it made me very proud to know that partially due to my efforts, my father was able to be at a wonderful, trusted hospital and close to home.


Have you ever over committed? How did this affect your challenges, woe, etc
I have over committed in the past. I think it ties into the always thinking of other people before myself thing. As I get older it does become easier to say no to things I may not be able to fulfill.
Since I’m a planner, if I get bogged down I make lots of notes and plug away at lists one thing at a time. Therefore I’m still able to eat right, even if that means being out of the house. Over committing never had an affect on the way I eat or challenges I enter

Virtually everyone has a problem now and then with slow losses, no losses or even gains. We are human. Dr. Atkins knew this but he also used the word “occasionally” in reference to eating off plan, many times in the DANDR. “Occasionally” should never be confused with every other day or be the scapegoat come Friday. Keeping this in mind, answer this question (as it applies):

1. If you are committed, why do you find yourself continually battling cravings, falling off the wagon, giving in and giving up?

I’ve been following Atkins for so long that it truly is almost second nature. I am often bothered by the many posts about cheating on this board. Cheating is such a negative term and it’s one I read time and time again.

Part of my commitment is that I certainly never plan for a cheat and I shop for groceries the way I intend to eat. I’m diligent about planning weekly meals (including nights out, where we will be going and what I intend to order). My family would call it me being an A Type personality. I call it commitment to the way I eat

I am human and there are times when I eat something considered “illegal”. It happens, just not very regularly at all anymore. I do not beat myself up for it I just carry on with the way I normally eat. There are times when I’m up in pounds, and I don’t usually sweat that too much either because I know that with a few days of diligence and water, it too will go away.

[SunnySmile501]

Re: I Am Worth It Challenge II

Just remember...you asked for it!

December 18
Looking Back
Homework/Board Work



1. These are to be posted in this thread. Copy and paste the questions then answer.

• Reference a time when you were completely committed to a project, cause or life event. Relate to the group what struggles you had and what you did to stay the course. How did you feel when you met the obligation?

You don’t have time or bandwidth for my answer to this! Quickly, I suffer from a disorder called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, or RSD for short. If you really want to know more about this disorder, you can go to www.rsdhope.org or www.rsdrx.com for the skinny on it.

Anyway, at the time I started Atkins, I was walking with two quad-canes only with great difficulty. I was also on 11 different prescription meds for a total of 26 pills per day. They wanted to fit me with the type of canes that clamp around my forearms, like polio victims use. They also wanted to increase my meds.

RSD comes with an extremely high pain level, neurological problems and a plethora of movement disorders and doesn’t have a cure. I was told that I couldn’t exercise at all, not even aquatic exercises. I spent at least 90% of my time in bed and sometimes I was not able to leave my home for two to three weeks at the time. At the same time DMV was going to take my license because of all the meds I was already on! I had been following these doctors’s advice for eight years, and I was worse, not better.


Sooooo—my stubborn streak kicked in. I am not a newbie at living through incurable diseases. I have almost died at least three times in my life, not including the time when I was 14 and was told I would not live to be 15 (aplastic anemia). I’ve been proving doctors wrong for most of my life.

RSD doesn’t kill you; just makes you wish it would. Since my family history predicts that I will live at least until my late 80’s, I had to think of a way to not only survive, but thrive for 40 more years. Since my brush with death at 14, I had been a “live every day like it will be my last” kind of girl. I was prevented from doing much of anything by my whole family, and I remember telling my mom that if I was going to die anyway, I wanted to do everything before I did! I kept remembering this era of my life every time a doctor advised me to give up something else.

Soooo—I decided I would give up ALL meds! Not take more. I started weaning myself off them all! I then decided that I would NOT advance to more restrictive canes that screamed disabled even louder than the quads. I had gotten out of the wheelchair that they said I would be in for life. Ditto the walker. I’m here to tell you that coming off all meds was a white-knuckle experience I will never forget. I only agreed to go back on one new med this summer. I took nothing at all for over two years.
Then I had to figure out how to have a life if I was going to continue to live. I had to decide what price I was willing to pay to have a life, then pay the price and not look back. I knew I had to get the 100+ pounds off that had piled on while I was so inactive. I knew I wanted to go back to church and sing in the choir. The ‘dystrophy’ part of RSD speaks to the muscle wasting part of the disorder. Besides the wasting, I was so weak from spending most of the day in bed. I had to figure out a way to exercise again and get strong enough to ditch the canes. I will always fall from one of the movement disorders, but the canes never stopped that from happening anyway.


I have known for years that I don’t metabolize carbohydrates and needed low carb, so I knew the diet I needed to go on. I started Atkins at 296 pounds on September 15, 2005. I lost almost 25 pounds the first month and almost 50 pounds by the end of the third month.

My first exercise was just walking around the house for more than the few steps that usually wore me out and started the tremors and spasms. I also bought and used a special exercise video for disabled people called “Gentle Fitness” with Catherine MacRae. I owe a debt of gratitude to that video and Ms. MacRae.
In the middle of November, I started walking outside with one cane. I still remember that first walk of less than a quarter of a mile taking 45 minutes and how tired and sore I was, but I remember more the exhilaration!

Next, I started lifting 2-pound weights, sitting in a chair. I had owned those weights for about 10 years, but had never used them more than a couple of times. I had always hated weight lifting, but I hated being weak and disabled more. So I lifted! After five minutes, seated in a chair, I was in severe pain, in tears and the contractor spasms started in my hand/arm, so I stopped—that day. I lifted every other day until I worked my way up to 5-pound weights for 30 minutes of a real Joyce Vedral workout.

I also started using a recumbent stepper that I had owned for several years and ‘couldn’t’ get on. I had to figure out how to get my fat, stiff leg up high enough to get it on the stirrup/step and then take a cane to push it down so I could get my feet in place to start stepping. Contractor spasms contract the muscles into painful positions and then lock. Many times I was locked on that thing for 30 minutes or more. I live alone, and that was scary.

I stopped using the canes in public in December and completely a few months later, except on steps, which I mostly avoid. I can easily walk for an hour at a very quick pace. It took me almost a year to be able to shop without using the electric carts, but I no longer use them. When I first started figuring out how to walk outside, I found that if after I got my bad leg swinging, I could keep up the gait as long as I didn’t stop. I still have trouble stopping and starting movement and that will always be. People always laugh when they see me “just gettin' it” in a store, but fast is the only speed that lets me walk at all.

Add in months of diverticulitis with round after round of antibiotics, advice to eat no raw foods, hard to digest foods, no fat or high fiber foods, then a month in the hospital on I.V. antibiotics where they tried to force me off Atkins, then surgery to remove my sigmoid colon and a long recovery and you have the rest of my difficult journey. I have prevailed! I was forced to eat two bites of a turkey sandwich on a white bun so they would let me out of the hospital after three days, but that’s as much as I gave in.

How did I feel? You didn’t hear me scream each time I did something that ‘they said’ couldn’t be done? I think the very best was the first time I got on the recumbent stepper and realized I could get my feet in the stirrups and start stepping without use of the cane. Oh, yeah…I started at tension #1 for 5 minutes and now I’m up to 30 minutes at tension #6!

Additional health problems stopped all exercise back last February, but what I have had to do to begin again is another whole story! But, I never let myself get as weak and bad off as I was in 2005. Also, the reason is the subject of the next question!

• Haveyou ever over committed? How did this affect your challenges, woe, etc?

I got really feisty last fall, after recovering from surgery, so I committed to way more exercise than I was capable of. Sometimes, I am too stubborn for my own good. I had just found this forum and started to sign up for exercise challenges. I had been doing challenges on eDiets, but they were more geared to what I was capable of, instead of everyone having to do the same things. Anyway, I signed up for the Presidential Challenge and a stability ball push-up challenge. I pledged way too much for the Presidential Challenge, but I was an idiot for thinking I could do any kind of push-up with the RSD in my right arm/hand and shoulder and the severe degeneration of my cervical spine (neck), spinal stenosis and bone spurs. But, I’d made a pledge, gave my word, so I kept trying until I was back in the bed and in traction. Now, instead of being able to exercise gently, I was back to bed bound for much of the day and forbidden by at least four doctors (I lose count) to do any kind of exercise. I’ve learned my lesson this time, and even though I have had surgery and horrible nerve blocks, I am exercising very gently and stop when I know I am doing more damage. I pledged exercise on one of my challenges, but it was based on what I was actually able to do without damage.

I also over-committed with the things I do at church, but I didn’t count on so many goofs with my health treatments at UVA. The things that were avoidable were in the hands of the medical team at UVA, and they kept dropping the ball. Many times I felt like giving up, but I am not going to back down on having a life. Sometimes it all just feels too hard, but I’m so much better, I can’t afford to backslide into that existence that I used to call a life.

Virtually everyone has a problem now and then with slow losses, no losses or even gains. We are human. Dr. Atkins knew this but he also used the word “occasionally” in reference to eating off plan, many times in the DANDR. “Occasionally” should never be confused with every other day or be the scapegoat come Friday. Keeping this in mind, answer this question (as it applies):

1. If you are committed, why do you find yourself continually battling cravings, falling off the wagon, giving in and giving up?



I have to say that I don’t do any of these things very often. I can count on one hand how many times I have given in to cravings or fell off. I almost never crave what I can’t have. I rarely feel like giving up. I feel whiny about it once in a while, but I allow myself very short pity parties. I do struggle with not eating too much legal foods sometimes, or to eat after dinner, but have found ways to cut that off as well. I’ve had to do a lot of work on mind-set to get to where I am. I’m worth the hard work.

[elsy]

Re: I Am Worth It Challenge II

December 18
Looking Back
Homework/Board Work
1. These are to be posted in this thread. Copy and paste the questions then answer. Will do, as soon as I'm done.

• Reference a time when you were completely committed to a project, cause or life event. Relate to the group what struggles you had and what you did to stay the course. How did you feel when you met the obligation? When I was a senior in college my dad suffered a heart attack. At the time, Dr.'s recommended we travel to Houston where he could have better chances of surviving open heart surgery. All of a sudden, I was faced with the decision of either traveling with my parents to help out with moral support and interpreting or I would stay to finish my last year of college. There was no one else that could accompany my mother but me. So I opted for the first. After being gone for almost a month, I came back and had a serious talk with my professors. Back then, their was no internet so there was no way I could do online classes. One professor didn't care about my excuse and gave me an F. The others said it was practically impossible to make up the work but I could give it a shot if I insisted. Well I did! That other class I got an F in, I took it in the summer and passed with an A. I had made a committment to my parents to help them and I did! I had made a commitment to graduate that year and I did! You can just imagine how good it felt to see my dad recover and congratulate me after my graduation.

• Have you ever over committed? How did this affect your challenges, woe, etc. I didn't think I was overcommiting when I joined ADBB. At the time, I was a stay at home mom and had all the time in the world to join all kinds of challenges. It was when I came back to my full time job and learning to juggle between work, house work, husband, baby and Atkins that I felt the pressure. I wanted to join all the challenges and meet them at the same time. Somewhere in the middle of all this is when I started to deviate from what I had committed to do. I stopped recording my meals on Fitday, I started to slowly decrease my exercise, and started to eat off plan more often than not. Now, it's taken me longer than I thought to refocus and recommit.

Virtually everyone has a problem now and then with slow losses, no losses or even gains. We are human. Dr. Atkins knew this but he also used the word “occasionally” in reference to eating off plan, many times in the DANDR. “Occasionally” should never be confused with every other day or be the scapegoat come Friday. Keeping this in mind, answer this question (as it applies):
1. If you are committed, why do you find yourself continually battling cravings, falling off the wagon, giving in and giving up? If continually defines for the past month, then yes I have and I don't know why. Let me see.....
Maybe cuz I've been sad and disappointed about not getting pregnant when I planned for it. Maybe, because there was a time when we were dealing with a really hard and sad situation with my BIL and it ate up a lot of my time spent on that problem. Maybe because it gets dark by 4 pm in this part of the country and it's really wet and cold and I don't have the drive to exercise. Maybe because it's the holidays and i have been tempted to eat more of the things I shouldn't. Or maybe becuase I got to confident and to coky with the constant compliments. I wish I knew the answer. The only answer I have is that I am an addict. I have been able to accomplish all types of things in my life but to get to my ideal weight and stay there. Every time I get close, I lose focus and I gain it all back and more. Oh, I know, maybe because I'm not fully committed to this WOL. I forget that I have to see it to the end. Daaaa!!!

[jimmie 48]

Re: I Am Worth It Challenge II

Here's my homework for Day 2....
December 18
Looking Back
Homework/Board Work
1. These are to be posted in this thread. Copy and paste the questions then answer.

• Reference a time when you were completely committed to a project, cause or life event. Relate to the group what struggles you had and what you did to stay the course. How did you feel when you met the obligation?
• Well, recently it's been research papers for school, but that's not necessarily "life changing"; but I did complete it . I think the one thing I can say I commited myself to a project was this summer and focusing on making life time changes in exercise and eating. It was HARD to get going every day. But the more I focused on the feelings I had, the more I enjoyed the feelings. I hope that makes sense. The euphoric feeling of exercise is just a great thing. When I realized I had lost a substantial amount of inches all over my body, that's when I knew I met my obligation to get started; however, I don't look for a completion to this type of project

that makes perfect sense to me, apple. i would call a sense of pride. you are accomlishing things and that makes you feel good which spurs you on to continue which makes you feel good.... a never ending cycle.

• Have you ever over committed? How did this affect your challenges, woe, etc.
• I have over committed myself a number of times in the real life of having too many titles at one time...mom, Sunday school teacher, youth director, babysitter, college student. I ate my way to keep up with it all. As far as over committing for me and challenges to keep me going in this woe, I know over committment when I wanted to do everything I possibly could in order to stay focused, exercise challanges, noweighing challenges, etc.; that wasn't the smartest thing to do for me because I got burned out and I let myself, again, eat to keep up with it all...not cheating necessarily, just not on the rung I was on. Lesson learned!

is it just me or i'm seeing that a mess of us are or have been overcommitted and that went hand in hand with eating. i think we might see some wiser decisions on all our parts after this challenge, including me.

Virtually everyone has a problem now and then with slow losses, no losses or even gains. We are human. Dr. Atkins knew this but he also used the word “occasionally” in reference to eating off plan, many times in the DANDR. “Occasionally” should never be confused with every other day or be the scapegoat come Friday. Keeping this in mind, answer this question (as it applies):

1. If you are committed, why do you find yourself continually battling cravings, falling off the wagon, giving in and giving up?
Good question! Because, for me, it's creature of habit and comfort. It's the idea that I'm afraid of succeeding in something that's new and unknown. It's not new that I use to weigh 155 pounds over a decade and more ago, but my body doesn't remember and my brain's afraid of the road it has to take to get there. Every day has to be a renewed strength and focus on just making good choices to work on my New Year's Resolution....completing what I started.

some very good insights, apple. don't sell yourself short on the first item. that paper was alot of mental work and i for one think that can be more draining mentally than any physical work. kudos for keeping a steady course with that while still making time for other things concerning atkins.

[jimmie 48]

Re: I Am Worth It Challenge II

I didn't answer the over-committed question...so here goes:

I've been over-committed most of my life. As a fat-person, I was a YES person. I always volunteered to do more things than I could handle. Somehow doing for others was a way I over-compensated for being fat. Does that make sense? If someone needed book reports typed up at school while they went out on dates or social events, Since I was fat and didn't date, I did it for several people. I also volunteered at school for decorating, writing and whatever needed done. Sometimes it was all I could do to go home, do my chores and my own homework.

After I was married, I began taking on other YES jobs. I ran errands for people, watched their kids, did the car pool way more than others, volunteered for school mom, volunteered to help neighbors when they went on vacation to water, mow or whatever they needed. So many times I didn't have my heart into doing things for others, but I wanted them to like me, so I kept my mouth shut and thought about their needs instead of my own.

Even now I struggle with it, but I am getting better at saying NO now that I have gained confidence in myself.

what a busy life you had and still have! what's that saying ..... if you need
something done, find the busiest person and ask them to do it... or something like that. you remind me of the person being asked. have you ever had a chuckle while looking back on things and wonder how you even had time to eat with so much going on?
by all rights, we busy doers should be the skinny ones.

[jimmie 48]

Re: I Am Worth It Challenge II

December 18
Looking Back
Homework/Board Work
1. These are to be posted in this thread. Copy and paste the questions then answer.

• Reference a time when you were completely committed to a project, cause or life event. Relate to the group what struggles you had and what you did to stay the course. How did you feel when you met the obligation?
• I've been commited to finishing my degrees. It has taken some time and a lot of effort. I've had to put up with chauvinistic behaviour from men (even women)...What I did to stay the course?...I fought my way through in a world of men. I'm still fighting to get ahead...the struggle isnt over because is a lifetime experience!

so many of you are in school of one kind or another! is the field you are in dominately male? i'm guessing so. keeping the course has to be double hard in this kind of situation.

Have you ever over committed? How did this affect your challenges, woe, etc.

• I have over commited to different things...specially relationships. I realised I gave so much of me and didnt give me what I really needed. I got dissapointed in people at first...then I got dissapointed in me. SO I decided to cut myself some slack and start understanding me..
  

claudia, as the understanding of yourself gets clearer, are the relationship issues easier to handle? is the commitment any different?

Virtually everyone has a problem now and then with slow losses, no losses or even gains. We are human. Dr. Atkins knew this but he also used the word “occasionally” in reference to eating off plan, many times in the DANDR. “Occasionally” should never be confused with every other day or be the scapegoat come Friday. Keeping this in mind, answer this question (as it applies):

1. If you are committed, why do you find yourself continually battling cravings, falling off the wagon, giving in and giving up?
Because I have a bad habit of wanting to cheat the system...defy and sabotage the rules. Maybe it's even selfdestructing!! Eventually my addiction to food kicks in and It's too late until I realised that I screwed up. Of course I know this now...before I would have never admitted to such a shameful thing!

we see self sabatoge happening quite frequently around here. sad to say, most of the ones that experience this, drift away and we never see them again. isn't it amazing what we will post when we get involved in a challenge such as this? i think it can be theraputic, like, there it is, it's out, everybody knows.

good job, again, claudia! one more day done, one more day to go!

[jimmie 48]

Re: I Am Worth It Challenge II

alrighty, i've bot boot scoot out the door again but i'll be back to do some more reading. i will be starting at post #217 which belongs to decrease.

i know silly, sunny, glenda and elsy have posted, also. agian, feel free to comment on each others stuff. you might not have to watch my posts so much if you jump right on in there.

again, ya'll have done a superb job and i expect nothing less than that from the posts i need to read yet. you are all GREAT!