What is the best way to get motivated?

tomatoey

deirdrebradley2 wrote: »

I need to lose 20 pounds and am coming out of a couple of really stressful years. What is the best way to get motivated?

Ok, another tack - you're coming out of a difficult period. Health, fitness, well-being, even the positive reinforcement you give yourself and get from others for feeling attractive, help provide a base of resilience against future stressors, in so many ways. You can go from feeling like you're putting out fires (or like you're drowning) to having more energy , sleeping better, being able to think at least a little more clearly under pressure (if you're exercising), and of course managing stress itself (again with exercise, for a lot of people). These are changes that give you tools to cope with life.

Maybe you can draw inspiration from that stressful period. Illness? Living more healthfully obviously makes a difference there. Divorce or breakup? Get your head in the game again by doing right by yourself. Problems with children? Be a role model for them, provide them with guidance on living well from your own experience (or just give yourself more energy to cope). Issues with parents, again, another coping tool. Financial stress, again, hard to plan or do more than just react if you don't have a base of energy and wellness. Feeling better about your body (and yeah, looks too) also has knock-on effects on how people respond to you, in a self-fulfilling prophecy, so it can set you up for better luck with people.

So I don't know, dig into your most recent fears and hopes.

Machka9

Kalikel wrote: »

When you're really motivated, you'll know it. You won't have to go looking for it. It'll just be there. It will carry you through the days when you don't feel like doing exercise or eating right. It will make you pick yourself back up after a fall. It will drive you and push you until you reach your goal. It's the reason you say No to the Ho-Ho and Yes to the strawberries, even when you'd much rather have the Ho-Ho.

But you can't find it. You can't buy it. Nobody can give it to you. It's internal. You either want to lose or you don't.

When you're truly motivated, nothing can stop you.

+1

AlisonH729 wrote: »

To me there's a fine line between 'searching for motivation' & 'procrastination'.

Just start. Even if it's slow, with better food choices. Or walks around the block, for example. Feeling & seeing results (however large or small) are excellent motivators, IMO. But you need to start somewhere.

Also +1

Just do it already.

Machka9

Several times I've thought about what motivated me to lose weight, and this sort of thing is good thinking material when I'm on a long bicycle ride because ... I don't know. So I ponder over several possibilities.

I suppose one factor was that we had finally settled for the first time in 4 years (which is the amount of time it took me to gain the 15 kg I wanted to lose). We'd been travelling the world and moving from here to there in that time. Never anywhere for more than a few months at most. But finally we are in one place with plans to stay here for ... who knows ... maybe even a couple years!! That'll seem like forever. So now I can focus ... and we're not faced with eating out all the time as we travel from here to there to over there.

Another factor is that it has been on my list of things to do for a while. I didn't just wake up one morning and think, "Oh my, I should lose weight". I've sort of been dealing with it now and then throughout the last 4 years. Several times I increased my activity level, and dropped a bit of weight. Several times I kind of reigned in the eating, and dropped a bit of weight. So last Christmas I was forced to take about 10 days off work for the Christmas holiday (my office shuts down over Christmas) but my husband had to work most of those days. Since we couldn't travel, I decided to spend my time off getting outside, exploring our new area and generally being as active as possible. Every day I was out cycling and walking and climbing stairs and lifting weights ... and it felt great! I was on a roll into the first couple weeks of January ... and then I was sidelined by a pair of surgeries. But when I recovered, I signed on here as a continuation of what I had started at Christmas.

Another factor is related to the one above. We live in a very hilly area, and although I was out cycling every day over Christmas, I was finding slogging up the hills to be quite challenging and painful. I knew that if I lost some weight, I would likely find the hills a little bit easier. After all, from experience I know that if I'm trying to ride a bicycle loaded with panniers up a hill on a tour, it is much more difficult than riding a bicycle without all that extra weight. So again, I signed on here as soon as I recovered from the January surgeries.

And then there was a jacket. I have a good quality waterproof-breathable cycling jacket I quite like. But there came a time when I couldn't zip it up. So, I began looking for a new one ... but the price has gone up quite a bit. I got to thinking that perhaps if I lost weight, I could get into my jacket again. Sure enough, after losing about 10 kg, I did.

Also my coworkers. I work with a collection of fit people. Lunches are almost a competition in healthiness. People chat on Monday mornings about their latest events ... bodybuilding, rowing, cycling, running, etc. etc. And there I was, one who used to be an ultra-distance cyclist, not participating in the conversations because all I had done on the weekend was a quick 25 km on the cycleway. That was no good ... I needed to take steps to get in there with the rest of them!

I could keep going.

It wasn't one thing ... it was many.
It was entirely internal ... although possibly influenced by external factors.
It did not involve motivational statements or slogans.
And in the end it was just simply a decision to do it.

Sorchya

I was not feeling motivated at all when I started, so I came from a "just do it" and really had to take one day at a time. One thing that helps is to list all of the advantages to eating healthy and the disadvantages to not eating healthy, and do the same for exercise. And to start somewhere. Also getting supportive people in my life has really helped for me, not the trolls who are quick to jump on someone and tell them how messed up they are, but folks who can and will say "you can do this", offer positive feed back and advice. I find when I hear abusive feedback my feed myself for comfort wants to kick in, but sincere feedback being delivered without abuse (instead of saying you idiot how could you do that say a comment "okay, you burned less than you ate" and help problem solve how to not go there again, be it avoid a certain food for a while, find one or two people to share it with to reduce the amount, substitute something healthy that you love, etc. And find a plan for eating and exercise that you like and can live with. If there is a food you don't want to go without, work it in but carefully....I allow myself one slice of pie a month but I do not have a whole pie in the house as I know I will eat it...I go out for one slice and coffee and have salads and other low calorie foods for the rest of that day.

Then take one day at a time and move forward, and reward yourself every so often for doing well! I have a long way to go but I recently got myself a couple of cute tops in my new lower size, for example. Also I find ways to make food taste really good that are low calorie as well since I am a foodie and don't have to give that up. I also love to walk around the farmers market in town, doing a few laps before I buy.

hekla90

You don't need motivation, just consistency. Motivation is variable and if you lose it you might give up. Just make small consistent changes, track what you eat, do something physical you enjoy and accept there's no magical motivation that keeps you wanting to eat healthy and exercise. There will be days you begrudge every second of exercising and eating healthy, days you fail at doing that, days you gain, and days you ride the highs of losing weight and exercise endorphins and feel like you'll never give up for anything, and of course maybe the next morning you do. Consistency and repetition are much better long term than motivation.

atypicalsmith

mantium999 wrote: »

Kalikel wrote: »

When you're really motivated, you'll know it. You won't have to go looking for it. It'll just be there. It will carry you through the days when you don't feel like doing exercise or eating right. It will make you pick yourself back up after a fall. It will drive you and push you until you reach your goal. It's the reason you say No to the Ho-Ho and Yes to the strawberries, even when you'd much rather have the Ho-Ho.

But you can't find it. You can't buy it. Nobody can give it to you. It's internal. You either want to lose or you don't.

When you're truly motivated, nothing can stop you.

So....you're basically saying the OP is screwed until they bathe in mind awakening mystical waters. At which point ain't no stopping them. Solid advice.

That was rude.