Getting Motivated to Loss Weight and Staying There

DeservingGirl

Hi, my name is Kelly. For the past 6 months, I have really wanted to lose weight an get into shape. I get caught in all or nothing thinking and cannot get myself to stick to logging or working out. I am completely stuck and sick of it. Help!!!!

Liftng4Lis

When you want this badly enough, you'll just do it. It's an inside job and unfortunately, only you can go get it! Good luck.

suziecue20

You don't want to lose your weight enough at the moment. I'm sure most people prevaricate for varying lengths of time before they 'bite the bullet' and knuckle down to the job, I know I did. I hope you get your 'eureka' moment soon and then the MFP community will be able to help you with any problems you may or may not have when you start your weight loss journey. Good luck

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DeservingGirl

Thanks, everybody! I agree that I am not clearly in the right place yet or I would just do it.

I will continue tryin and take baby steps like maintain weight and just focus on tracking what I already eat - great suggestion (this and the others), thanks!

Good luck to everybody!

sinbadfxdl

DeservingGirl wrote: »

Hi, my name is Kelly. For the past 6 months, I have really wanted to lose weight an get into shape. I get caught in all or nothing thinking and cannot get myself to stick to logging or working out. I am completely stuck and sick of it. Help!!!!

sinbadfxdl

No reason to beat yourself up. It does take a couple of tries to get your right motivation. Looks like your heading in the right direction.

callsitlikeiseeit

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

When you want this badly enough, you'll just do it. It's an inside job and unfortunately, only you can go get it! Good luck.

that, all day long, every day. I've logged in every day since i started in january (and logged the OVERWHELMING majority of what ive eaten, aside from random days here and there)- and that was through vacations, parties, 2 moves and separating from my husband. if anyone had told me a year ago, id be down 75 pounds and 5 sizes today - I'd have thought they were insane.

rankinsect

I think in some ways the trick isn't to be extremely motivated, it's to no longer need extreme motivation to meet your goals.

I preplan every day's meals the previous night, and pre-log them in MFP. I don't feel particularly motivated to do this, but I do it without fail, in a lot the same way that I don't feel gung-ho about brushing my teeth but I do it twice a day every day. At some point it simply becomes routine, like brushing teeth or doing laundry.

I have a daily checklist of things to get done, and I tend to follow that very closely. I just put meal planning & exercise on those checklists. Like most things on the checklist, I'm not eagerly chomping at the bit to get them done, but I will do them anyway.

lemurcat12

Giving up on the all or nothing thinking was probably one of the main reasons I stuck with it this time (started in Jan '14) vs. the various other half-hearted attempts I made in the 2 or so years before that. I decided on a general plan and to log and to add activity over time (started with just deciding to walk everywhere, then I added some easy stationary biking 3 days a week for 30 min each, and kept adding to that). Making it really easy and adding in baby steps and logging and journaling what was working and not, what my struggles were, really helped. When things got tough I didn't quit but did what I could and forgave myself (or simply decided in advance I'd not worry about some piece) for a while and treated slips as a learning experience.

One key period was in March when I got really busy at work and was extremely stressed. Past history was that I'd miss workouts, blow a meal, and decide it wasn't working and I'd start again at a better time. This time I decided that it was okay if I took a week or so off workouts, but would do what I could to control what I knew I could control -- what I ate. Struggled one day because I was at work until 11 pm with nothing to eat and was really tempted to go to town on what was around, but I managed and I learned from that to bring greek yogurt and nuts and other "in case of necessity" stuff to the office. It ended up being a really helpful learning experience, and strengthened my understanding that I did not have to be perfect (because I'm just not, like everyone).

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scolaris

My 'motivation' is all over the map! Motivation can be so closely tied to our emotions... What works for me are bullet proof, iron clad routines and commitments that I do my best to fulfill no matter how I'm feeling at any particular moment. And whenever I screw up I try to laugh at myself kind of like I would if I slipped on a banana peel ala the 3 stooges and just get going where I left off. I find that giving too much negative attention that direction can become just a sort of twisted & devious form of procrastination or avoidance.

eileensofianmushinfine

I started with small changes when I made the decision to begin this journey. I hired a personal trainer (not necessary for everyone, but instrumental for me) who started me on working out 2 days per week and we worked to fix obvious issues with my diet. I gave up all soda -- switched out for water. I stopped eating fast food with the exception of the occasional "subway" or deli sandwich. I limited red meat to two times per week. All of these small changes added up for me. When I started with my new trainer almost a year ago, we tweaked even further.

melonaulait

The best thing is to take it slowly one day at a time. Have a moderate weekly loss goal and try to keep your calories to a deficit. A loss in your weight might not even happen every week (very likely to have weeks where you don't lose in fact), but you're gonna have a downward weight trend going on if you're careful with your calorie logging. Taking it slow and chill is the key to getting rid of that all-or-nothing mindset!

hannahcall2

Sometimes it isn't always a matter of planning, just doing. Don't say "I'm going to start on Monday". You start when you start, so as soon as you start you can say that you started. And hang out in the Success Stories forum! Its encouraging to see the mini and MAJOR victories that people have and it always inspires me to act.

And if this helps here is an awesome movie quote from The Martian that helped inspire me to do many things. It's paraphrased a little, so apologies for that:

"At some point everything is going to go south on you. Now you can either accept that or you can get to work. That’s all it is. You just begin. You do the math, you solve one problem. Then you solve the next one, and then the next."

DeservingGirl

What a great quote! Thanks for the advice!

Sued0nim

I bought in my motivation with a Personal trainer

I went to him saying "I don't want to lose weight, just get fitter"

He suggested MFP and said to friend him and he'd follow me

He doesn't / he didn't .. but what he did was get me over the hump of not trusting my body .. and MFP and discussions on here got me thinking my problem is I'm confused .. I know too much about different ways to lose - low carb, meal timing, IF, WW, Slimming world, superfoods etc etc

So I threw it all out and concentrated just on calories - calories in < calories out

And saw my PT twice a week

And then started to realise if I watched my protein and moved more outside I'd be able to do it easier.. so I started moving on non-gym days, and I started going to the gym on my own and then I cut him to once to week

and the end result was losing 55lbs and being in maintenance the bulk of this year

still seeing the PT once a week though .. cos I like the way he laughs at me .. yaknow cos I didn't want to lose weight I just wanted to get a little bit fit .. and I like the way every session feels as hard as the first but I'm on a whole different level now

I am a fit and healthy and slim person

You can be too

You just need to commit