To Change Habits, Try Replacement Instead
171–180 of 180 posts
Re: To Change Habits, Try Replacement Instead
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't exaggerate with a bar of chocolate, I've done that, not proud, but a huge fan of chocolate. I understand what you mean and most people might do exactly as you say, I don't argue with that. My argument is that it is possible to lose weight if you do sports, even if you lose a very small amount of weight, it is still losing the weight. I'm not trying to stubbornly prove my point here, I just feel that I've bee…
I hear you, and I understand your point. And you're right too. Exercise is a way to burn calories faster, there's no denying that. I've been coming down extra hard to emphasize my point. ;) But just to be clear, because I'm not sure I've been completely understood either, and to answer your question "why we should deny the fact that sports also is one of the options"... I never lost weight at the gym in 20 years of g…
When I was teaching and training for runs regularly, I would often purposefully eat more on my heavy work out days before a two or three hour work out session just so I could make it through the session. But I was in weight maintenance mode. I wanted my weight to stay in a certain range. If I were over a certain weight, I wouldn't look as toned and under a certain weight, I just felt "little".
I was in weight maintenance mode. But like you said, whT about all of those people who weren't purposefully trying to maintain and were compensating by eating more? I know people who actually gained weight by over compensating.
Heck if I hadn't known about the density difference in fat versus muscle, I would have felt really bad seeing my weight go down by only 15 pounds a long time ago after working out hard, with cardio and weights - even though my body fat percentage went down 12% and I lost 4-6 inches in my waist.
Re: To Change Habits, Try Replacement Instead
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
> After all, there is a reason why thousands and thousands of people go to the gym only to lose weight. There are multiple reasons for that, but none of them are because it's the best way to lose weight. I used to think it was, and I've been going to the gym religiously for a couple of decades. I was always fit, but never lost the weight I wanted until recently when I discovered that eating less is the best way to lo…
I very much agree with many points you've mentioned. I've never said it is the best way to lose weight and I'm sorry if I misled you. My response was to the comment above; I will just quote the last part of it :"There are a lot of good reasons to exercise that should be emphasized but so wouldn't even mention "weight loss" as one of them." My point was to say, that exercising can help you lose weight. I'm not saying…
I'm not saying it can't work. I was in a position as a part time fitness instructor and a very occasional personal trainer, that people would ask me for advice. The safest most general advice that would work for "90% of the people 90% of the time", would be to focus on their diet (not "a" diet) for weight loss and to recommend a dietician for help in eating a well balance meal.
My goal was to help them get stronger and in better cardiovascular shape - not to help them lose weight. I would actively discourage them from thinking of exercise as a weight loss tool. Anyone who was active enough and already in shape enough to work out to the point where they were losing weight wasn't coming to me for advice.
Re: To Change Habits, Try Replacement Instead
#174Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and if you are suffering emotionally/mentally please seek professional help. ---- My anecdote: I used to frequently suffer from (undiagnosed) anxiety and depression. For about a year, I would respond to sudden anxiety by seeking comfort in various forms of isolation/depressed behavior (watch TV as a distraction, try to take a "nap", etc.). The most insidious thing about this was how it s…
I hope this doesn't come across as a personal attack. This is meant to be a message for people reading your comment.
If push-ups can treat your (undiagnosed) depression, then you do not have depression. Full stop.
This is not to say that you did not have a mental illness, or that you did not experience real suffering. However, doing a session of push-ups will not treat depression or significantly alleviate its symptoms. For anyone reading this, if you think you may have depression, you absolutely, urgently need professional treatment. Push-ups, running, or meditation will not fix it.
Re: To Change Habits, Try Replacement Instead
#175Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and if you are suffering emotionally/mentally please seek professional help. ---- My anecdote: I used to frequently suffer from (undiagnosed) anxiety and depression. For about a year, I would respond to sudden anxiety by seeking comfort in various forms of isolation/depressed behavior (watch TV as a distraction, try to take a "nap", etc.). The most insidious thing about this was how it s…
I hope this doesn't come across as a personal attack. This is meant to be a message for people reading your comment. If push-ups can treat your (undiagnosed) depression, then you do not have depression. Full stop. This is not to say that you did not have a mental illness, or that you did not experience real suffering. However, doing a session of push-ups will not treat depression or significantly alleviate its sympto…
Thank you for emphasizing this (definitely not taken as a personal attack).
This is basically what I meant with that disclaimer. Also, I hope I didn't trivialize anyone's suffering, and if I did I am truly sorry -- I'll avoid using these words in the future.
Re: To Change Habits, Try Replacement Instead
#176Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and if you are suffering emotionally/mentally please seek professional help. ---- My anecdote: I used to frequently suffer from (undiagnosed) anxiety and depression. For about a year, I would respond to sudden anxiety by seeking comfort in various forms of isolation/depressed behavior (watch TV as a distraction, try to take a "nap", etc.). The most insidious thing about this was how it s…
I was diagnosed with ocd and depression. You said it took a year to catch youself doing the pattern. Please tell me how you learnt to catch yourself. I need that skill desperately.
Re: To Change Habits, Try Replacement Instead
#177When training animals, particularly dogs, it's (I think) pretty well-known that redirecting to positive behaviors is much more effective than punishing unwanted behaviors (so much so that one could say "punishment does not work at all compared to redirecting to desired behaviors" without much exaggeration). i.e. when a dog chews on a sofa cushion, put a dog chew in their mouth or direct them to go get their toy or ch…
What’s the positive analogue to barking?
Re: To Change Habits, Try Replacement Instead
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It took me about a year to recognize this pattern, but eventually I learned to catch myself whenever I was seeking this form of comfort Most of the advice from self-help books can be condensed into this line - Recognizing a pattern and catching yourself. Only after this in place can a behavior/habit be replaced. Or improved. Or removed. If there is no self-awareness, changing behavior/habit is infinitely more diffi…
I would maybe partially agree. I personally mostly recognise the pattern, the problem is to find the strength to fight it, to want to change it at least. It's even more difficult if you are depressive. For more than a year I struggled with a depression and sometimes couldn't get out of bed, even though I worked and studied, cycled at least 3 times per week and was mostly active. I would fall asleep everywhere and any…
Been at this stage for a year or so. Finally been trying to change it since January. Been difficult, but happy to have loving, familial support.
Re: To Change Habits, Try Replacement Instead
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
Synopsis: 95% of U.S. soldiers addicted to heroin during the Vietnam War broke their addiction nearly overnight , when they returned home to the states. Only 5% relapsed back into addiction. Apparently, relapse rates for heroin clinics are normally around 90%. When the soldiers changed environments to a place that contained none of the stimuli-triggers for heroin usage that they had overseas, they found it far easier…
I wonder if tourists who get addicted carry the habit back at a different rate? Part of the reason to explain the GIs drug usage was, well, they were in a nasty war and probably knew some people who were KIA and wanted an escape.
Yeah, that makes sense.I think this affect was taken to the extreme with the environment of the Vietnam war vs. civilian life in America.
I imagine it would apply to tourists, just not nearly as strongly. It would be interesting to see numbers.
Re: To Change Habits, Try Replacement Instead
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed, but there's an exception in my personal experience. If you start commuting by riding a bicycle, you can easily get 5-10 hours a week at around 70% max heart rate (average). Of course it's difficult to motivate yourself to start and to keep at it. If the distance is long, you probably can't completely change to riding in one go due to excess fatigue, and if it's short it won't be effective. And of course it wi…
I'm not arguing that it can't be done, just that someone who is over weight and deconditioned is not going to have the stamina to work out enough to make a significant difference in their weight. How long did it take you to get in the kind of shape to do that?
Yes, you're absolutely correct, but stamina comes with practice. The biggest issue IMHO is motivation: if you don't have it, you're not going to keep exercising for long enough.
Riding 22km once was no problem, and shouldn't be for most healthy people given plenty of time and a working bicycle.
Riding it both ways on the same day took me a couple of weeks. This was coincidentally the point where I noticed weight loss.
Riding both ways three days a week took 2-3 months. (I did it before that, but then was too tired next week.) Note that this was about 7-8 hours a week of exercise, ie. a lot.
Now, about two years later I might be able to ride that kind of a commute five days a week. But my commute is only 15km now (which is a lot easier) so I haven't tried.