Thursday 11 June 2009

Old school

My foot / ankle is still buggered, so right now most exercise is off the agenda. I'm therefore taking an old school approach to things and just concentrating on the food - on getting it right, and not cheating. I think I usually rely too much on my activity points to pull me out of trouble and I let them give me a license to slide in sly little treats under the Weight Watchers radar. Maybe for the next couple of weeks I should stop counting my activity points (but still exercise as usual), and just concentrate on getting my food right.

I've been reading a lot recently about the different views among the bloggers on receiving comments / compliments about weight loss.

People seem to fall firmly into two camps - those who love receiving comments and those who hate it. I see it this way: I like comments because then I know I'm making progress, and I'm not just kidding myself. They make me feel a success. I know that a lot of people look at them negatively - that the very act of commenting on a loss reminds them that they had something to lose in the first place, but at the end of the day, it's the truth. After all - I came to that very same conclusion myself, otherwise I wouldn't be doing this. Ultimately, I'm doing this for me, so it shouldn't matter what others think, but we're only human, and the approval of the "crowd" does matter to most people. It shouldn't, but it generally does.

I had the funniest compliment yesterday. One of the young girls in our office (she's only 21) asked if I'd been losing weight. When I replied that I had, she looked relieved and said that she thought I had, and had wanted to compliment me on it, but then wasn't sure if I'd been trying to or not, and hadn't wanted to say anything just in case she offended me. It seems a silly society when we're too afraid of hurting someone's feelings to compliment them. Compliments are good - they make us feel good, and then give pleasure when passed along and they make someone else's day. Go on ..... give someone a heartfelt compliment today - there's always something nice to say!

In fact, I was reading something yesterday about charisma, and the secrets of charismatic people. Giving compliments is one of their features - people feel good around that person, and feel like they are the focus of positive attention. So there you go - this blog isn't just about weight loss - it's about self-improvement too! Lol. I could so be a guru!

3 comments:

Cole Walter Mellon said...

I still have trouble with compliments about my weight loss... I generally brush them off as quickly as possible. "Yeah, I've decided that I should quit being such a fat-ass."

For some reason, the whole notion makes me mad at myself for letting my body go rather than proud of myself for doing something about it.

Just something each of us needs to work out in our own way, I suppose.

You could so be a guru!

starfish264 said...

Well, that's certainly true too - I hate that it took me so long to get round to actually figuring out where I was going wrong in managing my weight. Actually, not so much hate, as regret. But I've also come to terms with who I am, who I was, who I (hopefully) will be, and refuse to feel ashamed about any of them. I was already doing all the stuff I love in my life ages before I started this latest learning curve - way back in 2005 I decided to stop making excuses and just try things anyway; it's just taken me this long to figure out that I could do things better if I was smaller, fitter and healthier and find the appropriate motivation to do something about it. And I guess now I'm damn well doing the hard work, it's nice to have other people praise it :o)

Jaframity said...

As far as comments go, I'm one who likes them. If I wasn't happy for people to comment on an entry then I wouldn't be writing a public blog, but would write a private diary instead. I don't mind if people don't comment, but I feel that every time someone does, or I do on another blog, it's someone reaching out and saying "I understand; you're not alone." It always gives me a boost that complete strangers will go to that trouble.