Momentum and Shame

Momentum:


mo·men·tum/mōˈmentəm/

Noun:
The quantity of motion of a moving body, measured as a product of its mass and velocity.
The impetus gained by a moving object.

shame/SHām/
Noun:
A painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior.
Verb:
(of a person, action, or situation) Make (someone) feel ashamed: "I shamed him into giving some away".
Synonyms:
noun.  disgrace - dishonour - dishonor - ignominy - opprobrium
verb.  disgrace - abash - dishonour - dishonor



I am losing it.  No, I’m not losing my mind, although with Christmas coming up lightning fast and not one iota of shopping done, I should be.  No, I am losing momentum. 
I am having a hard time sticking to my resolve. 
I’ve established my routines of making a menu, shopping to it, and actually preparing the foods.

I am trying really hard to make sure I put all my food and drink into the Weight Watchers points calculator.  That is often a problem.  That is where I’m losing momentum. 

I’m also starting to have difficulty because this is the time of year where patients, specialists, lab representative, physical therapy companies, all drop by with goodies.  Yummy, over the top homemade cookies, shortbread, donuts, chocolates.  I do really well until someone TELLS me there are cookies in the back.  There were chocolate shortbread cookies today.  How in the world could I pass THAT up?  So, I didn’t.  I had one. 

In the past, I would have had 3 or 4. 

I don’t like Dunkin Donuts, thank God.  There were some in the kitchen today, too.  They have this weird artificial taste and some type of fat in it that coats your mouth leaving it feeling sticky/slimy. 

In order to combat this inertia, I’ve been telling more and more of my patients about the blog.  I am trying to ensure my resolve by increasing the number of people who can give me a hard time about failure.  I’m trying to shame myself into success.  Not sure if this is the best approach, but it seems to be working so far!

  Most of the conversations start with, “Hey Doc!  I like your new hair cut!”  Then I launch into the REASON for the haircut, my struggle, and the blog, and I invite them to follow along and cheer or jeer me on!  I tell them that I HAVE to succeed at this because then I’ll be giving them an excuse to fail, if I do.  BUT, if I succeed at this, then I’ve given them hope that they too can do it, and I can give THEM a hard time.  It’s kind of group therapy. 

So far, it’s been a success.  This lack of momentum thing is a temporary bump, I think.  Shame is a powerful motivator and I’m shaming myself into success every time I see my resolve weakening.  I think to myself, “THINK of this TEACHABLE MOMENT!  If YOU fail, you’ve failed your patients too!”  Then, I walk away from the temptation or  I  eat fewer of the tempting yummies. 

Keep me on the straight and narrow guys!  Help me keep up my momentum!
Help me avoid the SHAME!!!