Community Chat

[Puzzle Piece]

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@feline groovy wrote:

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@Puzzle Piece wrote:

Wow.  I'm stumped.  I've never been to a WW or anything like that.  Do the ladies have psychological issues?  Maybe they need to voice a thing or two. 

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Um, where do you think that ALL obsessions, compulsions, and addictive behaviors come from?

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The problem is that most people with these anxiety and stres-induced disorders can't/won't change their lifestyle and behaviors until they make a deep-rooted emotional breakthrough.

And then learn to love and like themselves.

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Geez, I knew that but the OP was asking for people to write in and suggest something.  Where is your suggestion? 

I've known obese females and they have had their 'issue' bassed in some sort of trauma, abuse, violation, etc.  I've also known some who are just plain lazy and don't care - they just want to go through life satisfying their whims with eating. 

[qualitygal]

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@baker wrote:

Your incentive to lose weight should be to be in better health and look better in your clothes. That should be incentive enough or am I missing something.

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Yes, it's a visual that I'm after. As you say, that is my major thing, but I'm speaking of a visual, that you can do something with. I worked before in a classroom with a teacher and recall how "measuring progress" would go in some areas. That's what I'm getting at. Sorry my clarifying skills needed more help there. I couldn't recall specifics on things we did back then. (Late 70's).

Thanks to those who got what I was after.

[JJsMom]

I don't really believe in material rewards for doing something. Succeeding and reaching your goals should be its own reward. Get to the root of why they want to lose weight. Maybe you could ask them to pin a photo or picture that represents what it is they are after (e.g. a photo of their kids if they want to get healthy for them). Put it somewhere prominent at home where it is a constant reminder.

Having said all that, I think motivation is overrated. If you're constantly waiting to be motivated, you're going to fail. Just get up and do it whether the mood strikes you or not. Your habits determine your level of success. Those who are consistent will see the greatest success.

[Lotus]

This is not an incentive.    However I think it's a great tool for ALL teachers to use as a tool in the classroom.   

This came across my FB newsfeed and I think it's worth sharing:

Bill Clay

ATTENTION ALL TEACHERS AND PARENTS

This is an article that needs to be repeated:
Every Friday afternoon Chase’s teacher asks her students to take out a piece of paper and write down the names of four children with whom they’d like to sit the following week. The children know that these requests may or may not be honored. She also asks the students to nominate one student whom they believe has been an exceptional classroom citizen that week. All ballots are privately submitted to her.

And every single Friday afternoon, after the students go home, Chase’s teacher takes out those slips of paper, places them in front of her and studies them. She looks for patterns.

Who is not getting requested by anyone else?
Who doesn’t even know who to request?
Who never gets noticed enough to be nominated?
Who had a million friends last week and none this week?

You see, Chase’s teacher is not looking for a new seating chart or “exceptional citizens.” Chase’s teacher is looking for lonely children. She’s looking for children who are struggling to connect with other children. She’s identifying the little ones who are falling through the cracks of the class’s social life. She is discovering whose gifts are going unnoticed by their peers. And she’s pinning down- right away- who’s being bullied and who is doing the bullying.

As a teacher, parent, and lover of all children – I think that this is the most brilliant Love Ninja strategy I have ever encountered. It’s like taking an X-ray of a classroom to see beneath the surface of things and into the hearts of students. It is like mining for gold – the gold being those little ones who need a little help – who need adults to step in and TEACH them how to make friends, how to ask others to play, how to join a group, or how to share their gifts with others. And it’s a bully deterrent because every teacher knows that bullying usually happens outside of her eyeshot – and that often kids being bullied are too intimidated to share. But as she said – the truth comes out on those safe, private, little sheets of paper.

As Chase’s teacher explained this simple, ingenious idea – I stared at her with my mouth hanging open. “How long have you been using this system?” I said.
Ever since Columbine, she said. Every single Friday afternoon since Columbine.

Good Lord.

This brilliant woman watched Columbine knowing that ALL VIOLENCE BEGINS WITH DISCONNECTION. All outward violence begins as inner loneliness. She watched that tragedy KNOWING that children who aren’t being noticed will eventually resort to being noticed by any means necessary.

And so she decided to start fighting violence early and often, and with the world within her reach. What Chase’s teacher is doing when she sits in her empty classroom studying those lists written with shaky 11 year old hands - is SAVING LIVES. I am convinced of it. She is saving lives.

And what this mathematician has learned while using this system is something she really already knew: that everything – even love, even belonging – has a pattern to it. And she finds those patterns through those lists – she breaks the codes of disconnection. And then she gets lonely kids the help they need. It’s math to her. It’s MATH.

All is love- even math. Amazing.

Chase’s teacher retires this year – after decades of saving lives. What a way to spend a life: looking for patterns of love and loneliness. Stepping in, every single day- and altering the trajectory of our world.

TEACH ON, WARRIORS. You are the first responders, the front line, the disconnection detectives, and the best and ONLY hope we’ve got for a better world. What you do in those classrooms when no one is watching- it’s our best hope.

PS....Congrats on your weight loss journey.....good luck!!

[maestra]

I'd like to quote comedian Bill Maher," We applaud police officer, firefighters and teachers as our heroes! So, why do we pay them like chumps?" So, why do we?

[wildcat fan]

I ask the students what they would like for me to do/give when they reach their goals.  What works as an incentive for one doesn't necessarily work with another.

[house_cat]

When I lost weight years ago, I had a bracelet and I'd put a bead on it for every pound I lost. That was incentive for me, but I guess it wouldn't work for the men in the group.

Perhaps you could have a big jar, like the kind used to keep flour on the counter. Each person could choose a color marble or bead and add one to the jar for every pound lost.  I know I'd be proud to add mine.

If the WW center had money to put up for you, you could purchase something your clients might like to have - a FitBit or something of that nature. Each pound lost could represent a raffle ticket towards that prize at a realistic date in the future.