The Lightbulb Moment?

slhall0822

To those of you who have been successful losing large amounts of weight and keeping it off... please tell me about your "lightbulb moment" when it all clicked and you suddenly made the decision to regain control over your health. What caused it? What do you do on those days when motivation wanes or exhaustion sets in and you would rather hang out on the couch with a good book versus working out?

airangel59

My light bulb moment: May 2012-got diagnosed with Type 2 DM
Found MFP in June 2012, been here ever since. Today is my 1,300 day.
Maintaining now but hit my "goal" on Day 640 (and have dropped an additional #15 since).

I walk daily for exercise & my motivation pretty much is 'I walk so I can eat'. Although I don't eat back all my calories but I do get more when I work out, I push my self out of couch potato mode to do it.

It is far too easy to fall back into my old habits (sitting on my butt, eating when bored or for something to do) and I've worked too hard to put the weight I lost back on..I have a bad track record, been there, done that, sigh.
My reward for my 5 mile/10K step walk might be computer time/tv/a good book...when I get back, although usually I've got more energy when I'm done that I no longer want to lounge around.

What keeps me motivated is being off all my meds ( DM, hypertension, high cholesterol/triglycerides) and no longer carrying those diagnosis & being a healthy weight for the first time in at least 3 decades .

OyGeeBiv

The hard part is doing what you know you need to do when you don't feel like it. I read somewhere that it doesn't matter whether you're motivated or not, you just have to do it anyway. Sometimes finding the motivation just doesn't happen. Motivation doesn't burn calories. Moving burns calories.

Today's the perfect example for me. It's cold and rainy out and 99% of me wants to crawl back into bed with a good book, a pot of tea, and my cat. And I may just do that - later - AFTER I get my workout done. I have no motivation today, really. Except that I don't want to let myself down by quitting.

Itreadlightly

My moment was when I found the 3rd key to dealing with my body while trying to live a good life.
It has turned my life around - it has changed my relationship with food.
I read an article by a Dr who wrote a peer reviewed paper on the anti aging benefits of Interment fasting. He later did a TED talk which I will put a link in for.
I struggled through my teenage and adult life with 25 extra lbs except for a period of extreme stress when I was 10 under- never in total control or happy about my weight. Spawned an eating disorder.
My lightbulb moment resulted in researching interment fasting and setteling on an 18 /6 schedule: fast for 18 hours and a window of 6 in which I try to keep a calorie deficit but don't always manage.
It took a couple weeks to adjust to and then it was easy. This month I probably was able to keep within my caloric allotment half the time due to festivities and family during the holidays: I ate what I wanted on those days including things I Normally would not touch but I stuck to the fasting schedule. The result was I lost weight ( not a lot) but I did not gain!
This is now a way of life: log my food and exercise AND keep the daily fast. If I fail in the first 2 the IF is there to keep control. For instance if I eat a gut busting meal out I do not throw out the day like before. I quit eating like always when the window closes.
I have lost 21 lbs and am fairly within 5 lbs of what I would like to weigh. My eating disorder is resolved. I am happier- not so much because of the wright loss ( that is good though) but because I feel like I have solved the food problem and I am at peace finally.
I would like to write a lot more of why it works and how it helps but don't want to overwhelm- so look at the UTube video and do some research- you can write me if you want more information.

http://youtu.be/4UkZAwKoCP8

CGade

This is really interesting. I'm in school for my bachelor of science in nursing and I've gained 15 pounds from stress eating. I feel foggier now and hate the way my clothes fit. I'm trying to find a good coping strategy (or 12 lol) that I can use this semester. Thanks for the post!

takop20

CGade, same thing happened to me but I was in pharmacy school. Took such a toll on me physically and emotionally and I really wanna reverse the damage I did!

cwolfman13

slhall0822 wrote: »

To those of you who have been successful losing large amounts of weight and keeping it off... please tell me about your "lightbulb moment" when it all clicked and you suddenly made the decision to regain control over your health. What caused it? What do you do on those days when motivation wanes or exhaustion sets in and you would rather hang out on the couch with a good book versus working out?

some really nasty blood work that indicated i would likely be very sick, if not dead by my 60s...i have two boys, 3 & 5 and i want to watch them grow to be men and i would like to spend my retirement years traveling with my wife, not laid up in a hospital or something.

these days, getting in a workout is just about as mundane as brushing my teeth in the morning...i just do it. i cycle and enjoy it for the most part, but nobody is 100% motivated all of the time...we all do things everyday for which we are not particularly motivated...but these things need to be done and so we do them. regular exercise is no different...when you stop thinking of it as this "extra" thing and start looking at fitness as another essential part of your daily life you'll be well on your way. taking 30-60 minutes out of my day to take care of myself really isn't that big a chore.

lizwrites1313

I went shopping for holiday clothes and I couldn't bear to try on anymore bikinis after seeing myself in one. I know it sounds trivial but I could eat anything till I turned 20 and now it's catching up. I'm lucky to have started early.