How does anyone actually commit to this?

MyPureSteez

Just commit to doing it for one day. Then repeat.

SoViLicious

One day at a time

welly5

I agree that it has to come within, but that doesn't mean that other people can't offer advice


my advice:

1. don't make all the changes at once! I found it much easier to just count calories for the first 20 lbs or so, then added exercise later. Working out while on a calorie deficit was just too hard for me at the beginning. Now I've upped my calories and added lots of workouts, but I did it over time

Too many changes too fast = too hard to follow. Starting with a huge blaze could lead to burning out quickly. Better to go slow and build on the changes as you become more comfortable.

Inshape13

The biggest thing that I learned along the way is that it is not an all or nothing situation with "diet" and exercise. In the beginning I went 100% clean eating and bombed after about a week of that and binged like a mad woman. Then I took it one food at a time and took out fried food, then sugary junk, then lowered the carbs and so on until I completely changed things. With the activity, that was a different story. I HATED to exercise and really had to just make myself do it and find what I liked because pushing myself to do things just to do them made me hate the whole experience. So I started walking and then found kickboxing which I love and kept going from there.

You will get there when you are ready and when you change your perspective of it being a chore into being something that you deserve for yourself....to be healthy.

blondejester

if you really want to lose the weight, you will find a way to commit. figure out what got you started and keep that in your mind.

13tea

Try eating 6 small meals. When you think you are going to binge, first drink 16 oz of water and wait 15 min before you eat anything. I lost my first 25 doing that. You have to know why mfp isn't a diet plan. It is how you will choose to eat for the rest of your life. I had to think of junk food as being poison to my system. Would you knowingly drink a glass of lye? No... An extra orange, probably. Just find your center and listen to it. Are you dieting to fit in your smaller clothes or are you eating better to be healthy. We all want to look better, but looking better and sacrificing your health isn't the answer. Find your smile. Find what makes you healthy.

Trechechus

Diets don't work. If you want something sustainable, you need to make a conscious decision to make a life-style change. No one can make you want this. Being healthy is not a fad. If you want it, you will get it, butthead boyfriend or not.

fooninie

I can relate. I disagree, you don't need to want it 100% right off the bat. What worked for me is making small changes and when I started seeing results and feeling good inside and out, I started to explore more and more ways to keep it up. I take it one day at a time and I lost 63lbs in one year.

I find it discouraging to look 6 months into the future, but a daily success adds up to many, many successes. Sooner than you know, 6 months flies by and you have amazing results to show for it. Don't give up, tomorrow is a new day.

sabrinakeck

Imagine what you want to look like, visually, imagine it, imagine how you would feel if you reach your goal, and yearn for it.
If it gets too hard in the evening, have a large glass of water, and go to bed EARLY! No way to snack if you are sleeping, and the extra snoozes, will help your body to get back into shape as well as your mind.
The less you eat in the evening, the less hungry you will be in the morning, at least that's how it was for me. And make sure not to eat after 1930 pm, I don't like Oprah, but its one important thing that stuck to my mind. Only water or tea after 1930. Seriously.

Good luck honey!

gigglybeth

I haven't read the other posts yet, but you just do it. You just keep going. The road any goal is not smooth. It's full of stops and starts and u-turns and wondering if it's all worth it, but as long as you keep moving you can always correct course. People who eat healthy still want junk. They just want health and fitness more.

I also wanted to add, to commit to anything, you make it important to you. You are committed to going to your job. You commit to brushing your teeth and bathing everyday (assuming LOL). You are committed to your partner. When it's important to you, you make it work.

PetulantOne

There's no magical answer.

You make a decision, and do the work. Eventually it becomes habit.

MercenaryNoetic26

You will do what you gotta do to be healthy, fit, strong and sexay. I just assume people that don't do it or commit to that must not want it badly enough or don't care. You want to wear that clothes again? Trust me, by the time you can fit into it, you're going to want NEW clothes.

Your boyfriend might've hurt your feelings a tad, unintentionally, but he sure hit a cord. If he made you think about it, you must care enough to get to that point where you can change your lifestyle and reach a goal.

jenster2373

It starts with accepting & Loving yourself as you are. The motivation to change will come as you love yourself enough to change the things that make you unhappy.

Lmns218

I can relate to what you are saying and how you are feeling....because I would do well all day, then binge at night. What helped me was eating more during the day....and working out at night. That is what helps for me because by the time I work out and shower, I am ready to go to bed. I do not WANT to eat anything else after that!!!!!


What motivates me to commit is this-a couple of months back, after so many stops and starts, I was talking to my friend who lost about 80lbs this past year. We had made plans to go walking around the track, and she cancelled on me because it was raining. Well, then she posts something on FB saying that if she waited on a workout buddy she would still be 230lbs!!!! Then, when I said she was the one that cancelled, she said nobody sticks with it....that resonated in my mind that because she was right. And that made me see myself for what I was-a quitter. I couldn't even be mad....I just said to myself I will show her!!!! Well, it started out "showing her" but why I continue is because I really WANT this.....I WANT to be a better person....and I DON'T want to be a quitter.

43932452

Don't look at it as committing to 'this' .. rather it's committing to
'You'. You are worth the effort. Your bf might have been just trying
to light your fire and like most wmn he knows wardrobe might be
a way to motivate you.

LeahT84

Honestly nobody can help you. If you don't want this bad enough yet all the encouragement and motivation in the world won't make you do it. Sorry you have to do this all by yourself and when you are truly ready the commitment and motivation will come.
Good luck.

QFT. I tried and failed many times because I just wasn't ready and gave up. No matter how many times you're told that you're fat, or that you're doing a good job, or how amazing you are... You're not going to do it until you're ready. When I was told that I was pre-diabetic and had bad cholesterol and I was only 28 years old, I knew that I had to get healthy for my son, but also that I needed to do it for me. When you find your reason, you will do it!

bodiva88

You can do it now, and learn how to live happily and healthily. Or you can find yourself not just out of shape, but obese and disabled. Do it now.

oldandhealthier

Starting to eat healthy was just like when I quit smoking. Nothing will work until your mind is made up and then nothing can stop you. I quit after smoking 35 years and now have lost over half the weight I want to because I was finally ready. That is the way it has to be for you for it to work. All the good intentions mean nothing if you do not have the desire. Good luck.

deksgrl

How do you do it? You don't quit, no matter what. There will be days that you feel you failed, you didn't do things the way you would have liked, but don't let that make you quit. You try again the next day and you learn from it and you make adjustments. Pretty soon you are making better choices more days in a row and you start to see more success. And you learn and you challenge yourself. Just don't quit.

cupcakes_and_cardio

I used to be a big snacker at night, too. You'll be surprised if, for a few days, you use self-control at night, it becomes a lot easier over time. Also, exercising later at night, around 8-9, a few hours before bed, helps to reduce my appetite (I have hardly any appetite after exercising). I hope you find what works for you and you can stick to this lifestyle change

gobraves47

For me, it's a lot of telling myself that the old way of doing things didn't work and made my body really unhealthy. I just say "No, that's what got me in trouble--I don't need <insert huge portion of super fattening food>, I can have less (or something healthier)."

MzManiak

You're probably either over restricting (ie: I started a diet, I absolutely can not eat this, this, this, this, this, this, or that... which probably drives you crazy and frustrates you into quitting) OR you're setting your calorie goal too low (ie: 1200 per day trying to lose mass amounts of weight way too quickly leaving your body craving nutrients and urging you to eat more).

Once you decide to commit to a healthier lifestyle, it'll seem kinda easy after the first 30 days, actually. You just have to learn about what's best for you, your body, and your lifestyle. You have to do it for you though. Not for your boyfriend, not for the clothes, or society. For you. When you're ready, we'll all be here and *most* of us are willing to help guide you along, as some other kind person did for us when we first started.

Much luck to you! :flowerforyou:

laserturkey

1) Start out by figuring your TDEE and setting a calorie goal for maintaining your current weight.
2) Get in the habit of measuring everything you eat (preferably with a food scale) and logging it all.
3) Gradually lower your daily calorie goal to a level where you can lose weight slowly and not be starving all the time.
4) Don't ban specific foods from your diet unless you have a medical need to.
5) Try to get plenty of protein and healthy fats.
6) Drink lots of water.

Mr_Excitement

If you're feeling an urge to binge at night, you probably aren't eating enough. Be sure to check your TDEE as recommended above and make sure you're getting enough calories. Also drink more water.

If you're good about only eating healthy food, you'll probably have trouble just getting enough calories to reach your recommended calorie level. Four hundred calories of junk will fit in the palm of your hand, but 400 calories of healthy food is a pile.

heyitsmekatie

... I'm either going to do it or I'm not and if not now, when?

I love this

freddykid

I tried MFP early last year and failed to keep logging, I couldn't figure out how anyone could do this either. But I got fed up with myself and a few months later I came back to it. I started to log everyday without changing my diet at all. I got used to it after about a month and it became easier to figure out where to cut/reduce things in my daily meals. After a while you gain the ability to guesstimate calories in your food choices. Make small changes gradually and never deprive yourself, greasy/fatty/sugary food tastes wonderful and in moderation has a place in your meals. That is what worked for me.
This is a lifestyle change and it has start with you.

iquiltoo

I didn't really start out by committing to the whole thing. I started out committing to tiny positive changes. The only thing I committed to at first was to log everything I ate, not actually reduce it. Just doing that is a learning experience that for me lead to more commitments... drink more water, walk every day, eat at or near my calorie goal, and it has slowly built into a lifestyle change.
[/quote

For me it was this too. I started out at an exercise class. Committed to a one year membership. Started on MFP eating whatever I wanted if it fit my calories. Began to realize that hmmm... that thing doesn't satisfy me for the amount of calories, I better have this instead. I am only four months into this, but that's a lot longer than ever before, and I argued with myself about going to the gym this morning (I did go!) so I haven't conquered it yet, but am getting there. It's one day at at time, and that day is today. Tomorrow has its own worries, and besides tomorrow never comes (cuz when it gets here, it's today!) and yesterday with all its problems and failures is over so leave it behind.

SteelySunshine

Well since you are here there is like no way you can start working on losing weight by accident. I started by accident. It was literally the only way that I would have started a to count calories and start losing weight. Even though I started by accident I learned quite a bit. One foods with fiber are very filling and protein can kill an appetite. I also learned little things add up quickly so I would set small goals like I would move more and I wasn't even necessarily specific at all. Moving more made me feel better and movement beget movement. Same with cutting calories. I replaced a high calorie breakfast with a lower calorie bowl of oatmeal and that kept me satisfied for a lot longer than what I was eating before. Then I dropped a snack a day. Then I dropped one of my six meals. Then I started counting calories. Then I found this place... to be continued.

Nplus

Try Intermittent Fasting !

hayleymc3

Sometimes comments like that give us more drive than anything else could.

My fiance would never say that to me though, he's very encouraging. Not sure what to make of your guy saying that, unless you two have a playful/joking sense of humor as a couple.