The All Negating BUT, A Few Thoughts On How A Fat Person Takes Negative Motivation

Hi Readers, Friends, Followers,

Maybe it’s because I’ve now raised two dogs for Canine Companions for Independence and we use positive motivation to train our dogs, always conscious of ourselves when we bring negative approaches to training, something we are taught not to do.

Or…

Maybe it comes from my time in Managerial Training classes back in my mid twenties, learning how to lead a team of people.  What to say, what not to say, being conscious of what we referred to as The All Negating BUT.

This is what was going through my mind this morning when I plugged in my Activelink monitor (a little accelerometer that I bought and subscribe to through Weight Watchers and Phillips, which I wear on my chest strap each day to keep track of my activity, working toward getting 100% each and every day) and saw this…

I know it’s hard to read but it says…

“Your high-activity days don’t necessarily make up for the lower-activity ones.  Consistency is important as you work to change.  Your peaks are great, but the low days have an impact too, so try fitting more activity into those times.”

Did you see how many points I earned yesterday?  Can you see that?  I earned 8 points (that’s like another whole meal!), it was a record setting day for me (my previous record was 7 points) and the message was not Congratulations on a new record, no, the message was some kind of twisted verbal sadism inflicted upon me by a stupid computer!

Needless to say I’m a little p’o’d right now.  Just look at that message.  The first sentence is NEGATIVE!  “Your high-activity days…”blah blah blah na na na…don’t necessarily make up for the lower blah blah blah.  ooooh!!!

Then a semi positive sentence, yes, consistency is important, no kidding…

Then the slammer!  The all negating BUT word!  The BUT word that discounts and negates anything that comes previously before it sooo.

“Your peaks are great (really? no, not really because you negate that with this next word!), BUT the low days have impact too (really?), so try fitting more activity (what the h*** do you think I’m doing!) into those times (that’s why I have to do more on the weekends!!!!)   Ahhhuuggh!!!

Alright.  My little rant is over but friends, this was not something I wanted to see today.  A fat person takes in this BS seriously (like me, really, I take this stuff seriously) and I’m a little bit miffed that I’m actually PAYING this company to give me this feedback. It’s just horrid.  I’m seriously considering having my Activelink sledgehammered.  I mean, who wants this kind of feedback?

What about you?  Have you experienced an all negating BUT moment in your weight loss journey?

I suppose there is a quilt block that should come from this, the only thing now would be how to translate that into an art block…

I’d love your ideas…

Later!

~Cathy