great idea Lyn to have short term competitions

My friend Brenda are going to give the last half of January a try! I think this is just what we need!
It feels good to be back!

Great to have you back!

It's good to be back Lyn! I managed to lose weight in 2022 but gained a little back and miss those familiar names. I am going to start blogging again. It seems to help me on my journey.

My best friend Brenda is going to join me on here. She has been a member for a few years but we are going to try and use it as a daily tool. The two week challenge is perfect for us. I have come to realize that I may have ADHD, I am self diagnosing but I believe that as a young girl in school it would have explained a lot and as an adult, the same.

So I am here and hopefully will stay focused long enough to make a difference for myself and maybe someone else. I think peer support is the best kind of support

Welcome back, Anna, and hi to Brenda! It keeps me out of trouble to stick around here.

I was diagnosed with ADHD as a child and am only really beginning to learn about its impact on my day to day life. It was never talked about in my house. They put me on Ritalin, hated what it did to me so took me off of it and that was pretty much the end of it. Of course, there was no google then so...

It is so good to be back. I say that every time, don't I? But as I peel back the layers of time and life I see where I have been and a little more on where I am heading.

I never got diagnosed with ADHD but I learned differently than the others and even as an adult I am ultra keen to completely disinterested or disengaged with no middle understanding. As you said, no google back then. As it relates to food and diabetic management, I think the ability to shut down or off and ignore so easily is something I have to keep in check. It's hard but today was an all in day. So I will take the green dot...

One day down...

I'm very ADDish as well; never diagnosed. Look, shiny!

I think a reason this dog is really hitting me so hard is because I had finally got into habits that worked well with my ADHD. I was able to put my focus where it needed to be, I had little tricks put in place to keep me on track and help keep me from getting sidetracked and it was working well. And now all of that is gone, I can't focus on anything, it's almost impossible to finish a task with him. And I can't leave my supplements out which means most of the time I forget to take them. If I can't see it I won't remember it, even if I set a reminder, because it will go off when I'm in the other room and by the time I get to where my supplements are I've already forgotten about them.

Lyn what you describe here is sooooo relatable.
The dog has introduced a factor of unpredictability and unpredictability does not play well with creating habits.
You are so right that seeing your supplements used to be a trigger or a cue to take them but now outta sight outta mind. I know if I don't pour water into the clear container I use for drinking, a whole day can go by without drinking any.

I wonder if it would work for you to try something called Pre-Event Scheduling meaning tacking something you're trying to make a habit of to something that already happens everyday. For example... and I know this is an oversimplification... practicing to take your supplements right before you brush your teeth because brushing your teeth is something that would happen everyday regardless of what the dog is doing.

I need to figure out something, that's for sure! My dream plan is to train the dog to not jump up on the counters anymore so I can go back to leaving them in my view. LOL. For now I'm going to try putting something safe where my supplements used to sit that shouldn't be there so that when I see it it will trigger me to open the drawer and take my supplements! Fingers crossed it works. If not, I guess I'll need to move them back to the bathroom like you said and link it with brushing my teeth. I've just never liked taking pills in the bathroom, it feels like a kitchen thing to me. Weird, I know!

Oh my! I am so relating to what you are saying Lyn! I could not understand why out of site out of mind was so excusable - if you will. I would want to take my diabetic meds but if I miss a step out of my morning... I could go hours without thinking about them at all! It wasn't even that I wanted to miss them... I just took it out of my realm of what I needed to do that day (or even today). I had to pick up my grandson today and didn't realize until 2pm that I forgot everything diabetes this morning.

I am doing much better but I had to put my meds pin an open shelf unit as to help me "acknowledge" what is expected of me by my doc, my family and then myself.

I like the combined habit idea. Tomorrow, I will add taking my morning meds with weighing myself (which I never forget to do).

It's nice to see communication happening on the boards again. We hit a dry spot for a while. I think it will help to keep me in the game! Thank you 😊

I love seeing everyone here chatting again! It's especially nice when I get in a rut or seem to have blinders on because you guys have great ideas that I may have never thought of or had forgotten about and needed that reminder.

It really is awesome to see the convos!

Hahaha Lyn I also think supplements are a kitchen thing to do. I was thinking more like going to take them in the kitchen just before you brush so that when you forget as you are about to brush, there'll be a trigger that you didn't do something. But I like the other idea even more actually - putting something out of place where they used to be to use as a trigger!

Anna I also never forget to weigh LOL. So my first drink of 500ml of water happens immediately after I weigh. At this point the 2 habits are so intertwined that they feed into each other. Sometimes I'll wake up really late on a rest day or subconsciously want to skip the weigh in because of bad eating but my brain will just say you have to weigh before you can drink

It's working for me with my meals and my meds now. I am making the decision to med right if I am eating right. It's the opposite of what I should be doing cause if I eat bad is when I need/must take my meds but not shutting out and down includes eating right and therefor3 taking my meds... ahhhh the brain and how it works...

I've had a slow start for January. Busy with the dog and being sick. Working on getting into a routine with him so I can get back to living a normal life but he is making it hard!

Good morning! Hoping for a happy healthy Monday! My soup for lunch is on. This helps me stay on track.