Dull Subjects - Latest Comments

Re: Confessions of a compulsive eater (part 1)

dullsubjects — Thu, 05 May 2011 23:51:25 -0000

Four days in is a great start. No car eating is such a critical rule for me personally. Having your car detailed was a slick move.

Re: Feast or famine

dullsubjects — Thu, 05 May 2011 23:49:50 -0000

Definitely similarities to other addictions. There are opposing views on whether compulsive eating is addictive behavior, but my first-hand experience points to addiction.

Re: Confessions of a compulsive eater (part 1)

Mister B — Thu, 05 May 2011 21:25:20 -0000

Wow. Just... wow. Hello, other version of me.

As I'm trying to lose the 80 pounds that have to go (again), rule number one is "No eating in the car". I spent 100 dollars getting the car detailed and totally cleaned so other family members can see if I've been eating.

Four days in. One day at a time.

Re: Feast or famine

Mister B — Thu, 05 May 2011 21:20:01 -0000

Sounds like addictive behavior to me. A drinker can't have "just one drink". A crack addict can't have "just one fix". Similar to your ice cream cone.

I remember a packet of M&M's that was a turning point where I gained 60-70 pounds after having achieved my lowest adult weight. It's easy for the dominoes to start falling.

I have no idea how to fix it permanently. It seems like 12-step programs are probably the best bet.

Re: I don’t want you to die.

Allen Wright — Wed, 04 May 2011 19:03:44 -0000

I have felt your pain and know what those thoughts feel like ... it is amazing what you have accomplished and shows a fierce side to your inner self

Re: I don’t want you to die.

Tk10518 — Wed, 04 May 2011 18:16:52 -0000

The world would NEVER be better off without you!.. Aunt TT

Re: Feast or famine

dullsubjects — Wed, 04 May 2011 15:33:27 -0000

John, I don't think it's normal behavior but it's not as extreme or uncommon as I once believed.

Re: Confessions of a compulsive eater (part 1)

dullsubjects — Wed, 04 May 2011 15:31:45 -0000

Wow, great post Beth. I'm studying feedback interventions on consumer behavior and appreciate your introduction of neurofeedback. It sounds like you're doing great. Monroeville was just down the road from my drive-thru tour.

Re: Confessions of a compulsive eater (part 1)

dullsubjects — Wed, 04 May 2011 15:27:55 -0000

Thanks for sharing, John. I'd not heard of that book before, and will try to check it out.

Re: Confessions of a compulsive eater (part 1)

John McLachlan — Wed, 04 May 2011 15:17:03 -0000

Since you mention books, Gary Marino's "Big & Tall Chronicles" is also a good read; another guy with similar issues. (if you've read the book, the Steak Tip story was close to home...)

Re: Feast or famine

John McLachlan — Wed, 04 May 2011 15:11:28 -0000

Wow. You really hit home with "I immediately started thinking about whether I’d buy another cone tomorrow". I've had moments/meals like that :(

I had a liver infection a few months ago, which killed my appetite. I would eat a bite or two of a meal and then put the rest back in the fridge because I wasn't hungry any more. All I could think of when doing that was "Is this how normal people treat food"?

sigh.

Re: Feast or famine

Bhenry17 — Tue, 03 May 2011 22:06:39 -0000

Wow Scott, very interesting. I can relate to the whole "I'll eat better tomorrow" mindset. I am guilty of that as well, and all the sudden, instead of needing to drop about 15-20 lbs, I am looking at about 30-40. And at every 5 lb milestone it's that much easier to chill out on the couch with a cold beer than hop on the treadmill or walk the neighborhood. Stick with it, whatever your "it" is. I think it's also easier to beat ourselves up rather than forgive a few indiscretions. Maybe that's our inner enabler justifying our indulgences. From the looks of the feedback, you seem to have a support system budding.

Re: Confessions of a compulsive eater (part 1)

Beth@WeightMaven — Tue, 03 May 2011 19:49:09 -0000

Having decades of compulsive eating/food addiction under my belt, I feel like I've finally turned a major corner. I've tamped down the cravings by eating a diet that's high in healthy fats and low in processed grains/sugar and veggie oils. See http://weightmaven.org/2011/04... for why processed food may be a disaster re overeating and see http://perfecthealthdiet.com for the closest description of what I've been doing.

Diet has gotten me about 80-90% of the way, but I still get triggered. I started doing neurofeedback last October and have 50 sessions under my belt (google neurofeedback and alpha-theta protocol to see why I thought this might help).

You might also find this video helpful -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... -- I did!

Oh and I'm also a Yinzer (grew up in Monroeville). Best of luck!

Re: Confessions of a compulsive eater (part 1)

Akgomez — Tue, 03 May 2011 19:27:03 -0000

Oh my, I've done the drive-thru tour myself. I've accepted that I will battle food every minute of every day for the rest of my life.

Re: Feast or famine

Cwd1952 — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 17:59:23 -0000

We have the same brain....except for the intelligence thing. Sorry....

Re: Feast or famine

Aaron Silvers (@aaronesilvers) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 09:09:09 -0000

241.7... That's maybe a pound over my best loss since I started this effort. I can live with that and I'm pretty encouraged to keep it up now. I'd like to break the 237 plateau, which would put me below my 2003 weight.

Re: Feast or famine

Scott — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 23:47:54 -0000

The more I talk to people about this, the more common I realize it is. Very smart people can be very stupid about health when you look at it from a distance. But we are experts at manipulating our own minds in the moment, and even when we go to bed at night resolving to do better tomorrow, it rarely works. I really hope you get on that scale tomorrow because that can be a huge step to getting on track. I also hope that I keep an honest diary on MyFitnessPal again.

My current research project is actually looking at how to help consumers make better choices by intervening in problems with instant gratification and time discounting (future rewards are far less valuable than current ones).

Re: Feast or famine

Aaron Silvers (@aaronesilvers) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 23:34:22 -0000

Dude. I know. I'm there. Right now. I started the year, got a Withings scale, weighed in every. single. day. And then about three weeks ago, I took a detour. One bad meal. It turned into one bad day. It turned into two bad weeks.

I had a good week diet wise this week. I exercised today a fair clip. I haven't done Yoga in that stretch of time, which is another bad step, but the plan is to go tomorrow as long as my foot hold up (I have plantar fascia and when it flares up it really stings, which sucks for Yoga).

I haven't weighed in in the last three weeks. I will tomorrow. I know I have to, no matter how ugly it might be. The silly thing is, I probably am up five pounds total from my overall loss to-date. But it's the humiliation I don't want to admit to myself -- and I'm (like you) a freaking genius.

Will is right. We have to get back on the horse no matter what, and you are dead on right that we have to bring it every. single. meal. We go off track without a plan to get back on again and we're totally hosed for weeks.

Re: 7 writing tips from a GA

Spencer — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 20:37:31 -0000

On point 4: And don't lift entire corporate mission statements and sections of their website for your MBA group projects and present them as your own, fresh ideas.

Re: Why do anti-social companies struggle with social media strategy?

Jesse Zimmerman — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 22:48:08 -0000

Scott, This is a great post.

I don't know if you saw an article that came out today regarding corporate leaders approach to social media and building brand awareness and loyalty.

2010 State of the Brand Report: Marketers Not (Yet) Sold on Social Media

What caught my eye in this article was the following paragraph:
>>
While approximately half (52 percent) of those surveyed see social media as a way to build brand awareness among consumers who were previously unreachable, and more than a third (35 percent) believe that social media is making it easier to create customer loyalty, nearly as many (30 percent) disagree that building customer loyalty has become easier because of social networking.
<<

You seem to be right on target when speaking about the lack of an effort in building a robust and innovative social media strategy. The notion seems to be that it is not worth the time or effort involved to research and develop a social media strategy. If those statistics are accurate many companies seems to have the mindset 'If its not going to make a difference then why spend the resources?'

You also have to wonder if these businesses think they have the products / services to stand up to the competition when the public starts talking about them..

Now I know there are millions of different brands and each of these brands has a different target market. Many of these corporate leaders think that their target market does not participate in using social media. In reality, with the explosion of social networks like FaceBook all ages, sexes, races, nationalities, classes, etc. will be using social media sooner than later.

Due to the National Broadband Plan, by 2020 the government seeks to have nearly every household in the USA on broadband internet.. they equate its importance to electricity.. think about that..

National Broadband Plan

Re: Squeaking with your mouse

Allen — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:35:01 -0000

The WSJ wrote a great article on using social media prior to and during your stay at hotels. By tweeting prior to and including the hotels tweet address is a good way for socially connected individuals to get extra perks. Nice post.

Re: Squeaking with your mouse

Aaron Silvers (@aaronesilvers) — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 17:00:04 -0000

Well, the social capital you build in any given community counts for a lot, and that capital has some exchange outside of the community for certain (if it's clear that the community you belong to has some value from the outside, and that your role in the community is fairly clear). So yeah, to the extent that I might be identified as an authority probably benefits my causes.

Your followers are probably not that passive. If they are, I'd question if you've empowered them to act? There's no community without belonging.

Comcast, btw, resonds all inside of Twitter. I just mentioned them by name the first time (no tweet mention or hashtag) and they were monitoring and took action. Now, when I have a question about anything with Comcast, I hit up @comcast_bonnie directly. Having "my person" in their company is a very powerful thing.

Re: Squeaking with your mouse

Anjuan Simmons — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:41:01 -0000

Good post. You and Aaron hinted at the concept of influence. The number of Twitter followers is an important metric, but it is even more critical to understand their ability to influence others. Sites like twittergrader.com provide a free tool for measuring influence.

Re: Squeaking with your mouse

Scott — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:32:07 -0000

Aaron - It's encouraging that you've had positive experiences with service recovery through Twitter. I agree with what you said about the threshold of followers. @aplusk was just an exaggerated example. Do you think it also matters that you are an authority in your field? That is, many of your followers are not going to be as passive as mine toward what you're tweeting and they probably have a greater tendency to retweet what you post.

Did Comcast's responses direct you to another channel (like an 800 number) or did they resolve your issues publicly through Twitter? Did you do anything special to grab their attention like tweet @comcast or use a #comcast hash tag?

Re: Squeaking with your mouse

Aaron Silvers (@aaronesilvers) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:44:32 -0000

It's not entirely about the follower count (all though you need more than 53). Somewhere around 400 followers, firms start paying attention when you tweet -- because there's probably some math to back up that when you have 300 real people following you, the chances of any of your followers re-tweeting you starts to be a sure thing -- and heaven forbid you and your friends and their friends keep ranking on the company by name.

Software, such as Radian 6 (I think that's one of the monitoring software products) makes it really easy to respond to just about every tiny squeaky wheel there is. It's not much effort that has to be expended.. The question really comes down to this: what resources are you prepared to apply to cover up for defects in your product or service in support of your product?

Comcast might be evil, but man are they responsive and attentative to my needs on Twitter. I've really turned my feelings on Twitter around because of my experience with them. Same with UPS.

I'm not @aplusk, despite the devilishly good looks and impressive movie repertoire. However, at 1400 followers, you better believe that every time I mention a problem with some product or service I get a response. I consider it a tool to be used judiciously, not a weapon I brandish like a sloppy fool.

Part of the tacit social contract on these networks is that you're not supposed to be a jerk, even if you have the right to be one.