Liz

Got nails did again

This was so amazing and packed with practical advice on how to strengthen willpower. There are 5 methods of strengthening willpower. The first is physiological. Sleep, diet, exercise, and last but not least, meditation. Mindfulness meditation in particular helps the brain to focus. It also increases blood flow to the prefrontal cortex. This is part of the brain most connected with willpower. Meditation to the brain is like turning off irrelevant computer programs that’s using up energy and slowing the computer down. Second way is to not be hard on yourself. Being hard on yourself increases stress levels. This causes the prefrontal cortex to work less efficiently and the brain reverts neural activities to the basal ganglia, which is most associated with habits. When I use to be anxious and stressed, I would revert to my coping mechanism of computer games and internet surfing. I could go all day and night, and keep myself from sleeping. The third method is to think of your future self. Based on research, people who are more connected to their future self are more likely to save money for the future and perform other tasks that have long-term and not immediate benefits. I’m thinking of incorporating this by thinking of my future self from the end of the day, end of the week, month, year, five years, when I’m forty! Fourth is imagining future failures instead of success, This is counter to that book The Secret, that advocated thinking of future success and making collages of what we want five years from now. Imagining future failures helps in fail-proofing goals. For example you have weightloss goal. What are the ways can you fail and how can you avoid failing at it? One way I could fail at it is that I would get tired/lazy after work, and eat something comforting and rich for dinner. A way to avoid this, is eat a healthy snack right after work. The last is riding the wave method. I’ve come across this before in the book Brain Over Binge. It is basically a way in which you distance yourself from the emotional messages thrown at you from the basal ganglia. Don’t suppress the feeling. Let yourself feel the urge to do bad habits like overeating, procrastinating, websurfing, but realize you have the power to not act it out.

Fire once again. Leaving freeway via dirt road

This habit formation thing is working.

Celebrated my supervisor's birthday. I ate a donut. Then at lunch, had potato soup, then a mex bowl. The bowl had more rice than veggies. I physically felt like complete shit a few hours after that. After work, I headed to the gym and just did what I enjoyed. I ate my dinner at a parking lot. Instead of studying, I drank with Stella and Scott. I woke up pretty late on Saturday to catch up on my sleep. Was able to eat no carbs for breakfast. Drove to Rose's place. Got our nails did and ate a hearty cheese and meat board at Salt & Cleaver. Then met up with my other girlfriends and got shit faced in North Park. So glad I was able to go out dancing.

202.6

I was missing something. I think I’m getting closer to what it is. I didn’t have the willpower or the know how of implementing permanent healthy habits. It’s as if my eyes have just been opened for the first time. I've come to recognize the petulant child that resides within my soul, unwilling to grow the fuck up. Who knows what the immediate future will bring. I can’t wait to find out.

201.6 lbs

Timothy Pychyl dedicated his life in researching procrastination. Procrastination is about emotions not time management issue. Don't over think your emotions, and focus more on what's to be done now, and what's to be done soon after. Another way of framing our conflict in terms of bad habits like procrastination is this idea that we have one brain with two minds. The first more automatic instinctive mind wants immediate rewards, while the second is where our intentions lie. Being lead primarily by the automatic brain is like being hijacked by our six years old self who wants immediate rather than delayed gratification. Really, the biggest take away from listening to Pychyl's ideas is to just start. He makes a big distinction between just do it versus just start it. Getting started is the biggest hurdle. Cut the task into small manageable blocks. To me, cutting up even the starting process has recently helped. For example, I told myself that after work on days I don't have school, I will drive either to the gym or Starbucks. Just focus on driving to Starbucks and not in the discomfort of studying. Then at the parking lot, I focus on organizing my things. At Starbucks, I focus on preparing my study material on the table. Then when I start losing focus, I try on finishing reading one paragraph and then tell myself to go and read one more section. In this way, cutting up the task into smaller pieces, I have less emotional resistance.

202.8 lbs

I've forgotten how delicious Urbane's chipotle ranch dressing taste. This whole meal was fantastic.

I added another element to my mindfulness meditation based on YouTube. I count to four for my inhales and count to six on my exhales. Helps me focus even better, but I did keep falling asleep. I think 10 minutes meditation after lunch is good.