What Other Factors (Besides Nutrition) Help You Succeed?
Replies
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I have been happy and successful since I reduced my goal to losing one pound per week.12
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Education - relearning almost everything I believed about nutrition and the influence it has on mind and body.
Losing the all-or-nothing/black-and-white mentality. Learning to trust myself.
Prelogging and portion control, evolved into meal planning, and eating actual meals instead of snacking/grazing.
Thinking long term goals as well as getting in short term rewards.
Eating my favorite foods every day and always looking forward to eating, and finally eating without fear or regret.
Removing trigger foods from my home.
Not relying on exercise to lose/maintain weight, but move because I want to.
Getting a better sleep pattern.
Weighing regularly, first weekly, and daily after hitting maintenance.
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Exercise has been a big thing. Its not always easy to get up and start exercising but once I begin it feels great. Music has been a gift to me. Getting lost in songs and lyrics helps me forget what I'm doing and get started.8
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Sorry ^ I've just started and I'm losing weight and looking after myself by eating healthily now. The key for me was i had to be ready to start this journey. I have tried for the past year but had no success because my head wasn't in the right place. So it's a psychological thing to even get started and I consider that my success.11
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First, get inspired. Read about others that have successfully lost weight and got healthy. Then begin to give yourself positive messages about health and strength. Then visualize yourself at your goal. Secondly, prepare your environment. Get your kitchen in order, get a food scale and stock up on healthy food choices. Treat yourself to something you enjoy eating every day, but log every bite.
Third, walk, walk and walk some more. Move your body and get a fitbit. Challenge family and friends and shut off the tv! Sign up for charity 5 K walk/ runs. Lastly, read MFP forums every morning before you start your day. It inspires and sets a postive tone for the day.23 -
My personal keys to success would be
1) Being honest with logging food! (This is huge)!
2) Having friends on MFP to keep me motivated, who are struggling with the same things and who are wildly supportive!
3) Realizing that taking time for myself every day for my health is a necessity, even though I am a busy mom. (I always used to say I don't have time).
4) Joining a gym with a friend. I have tried to do home workouts in the past, but would lose interest. The gym classes kick my butt and I have to go if my friend is waiting for me there!7 -
If I could sum up success in a single word: GOALS!WE WANT TO KNOW: What have been your personal keys to success? Can be anything from getting 10K steps a day to adjusting your sleep schedule. Tell us below!
In every area of life, tapping passion, writing out goals, making a solid plan, taking action and staying motivated has been the key to my success in everything.6 -
Motivation board with my goals and rewards on wall that I see when wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night. Looking at pics when I was bigger and not wanting to go back to that place where I was not healthy or happy.4
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The support of my fitness-buddy! We keep each other going, keep each other motivated and accountable.2
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Getting my mind really on board.
Then enhancing that with programs like MFP, taking small steps in changing my lifestyle, and finding some fun goals to encourage me to keep going (zip lining, hikes, new clothes, sport events)2 -
For me, I definitely had to have a mental change before I started succeeding. I stopped thinking, "I have to lose weight at all costs!" and instead changed it to, "I want to take care of myself and my health."
Other things that are helping:
1. Joining the gym at my work building and going on my lunch hour every day.
2. Creating small goals for myself, like being able to run a mile and now I'm doing c25k.
3. Knowing it's okay to treat myself once in a while as long as I plan for it!8 -
Commitment, patience, consistency, and self discipline.7
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1) Owning my decisions- I am the one responsible for my body, what I eat and my lifestyle.
2) Trusting the process- If I consistently eat healthfully and exercise, the results with show up
3) Release the idea that weight loss can be fast! It shouldn't be fast, it is a journey!!
4) Accept that food everywhere, Food is not bad, and I have to improve my relationship with food9 -
-Learning to really start loving myself and appreciate who I am.
-Realising that I no longer have the right to keep treating my body badly.
-That my body is a magnificent machine, wondrous and mysterious and has helped create and nurture three humans, so therefore deserves the utmost care and respect.
Rewarding myself as I reach mini goals set and how it has made me look forward to achieving more.12 -
mrcs_jolly wrote: »Commitment, patience, consistency, and self discipline.
This is my weight loss journey in a nutshell.2 -
mrcs_jolly wrote: »Commitment, patience, consistency, and self discipline.
Great quote. Thank-you for sharing. I am posting it where I can see it everyday.1 -
soufauxgirl wrote: »-Learning to really start loving myself and appreciate who I am.
-Realising that I no longer have the right to keep treating my body badly.
-That my body is a magnificent machine, wondrous and mysterious and has helped create and nurture three humans, so therefore deserves the utmost care and respect.
Rewarding myself as I reach mini goals set and how it has made me look forward to achieving more.
That's me. Realizing that am worthy of having the best. Your's was well said4 -
1. When I started I didn't exercise until I had dropped 20 pounds. I found it too much of a strain for my ankles and feet.
2. Then I started using Fitbit to track my steps. Each month I increase my steps by 2,500.
3. I upped my water consumption and found that I wasn't as hungry. I believe I was majorly dehydrated before MFP.
4. I noticed on days where I got less than 8 hours of sleep that my tiredness made me want to snack on sugary foods.
5. When I know I'll be eating out I prepare by going super light on the calories. I also snap a picture of my plate so I can guesstimate it later. If I go way over my goal, I take a long walk, sleep well, and get back on track in the morning.16 -
Health, fitness, self discipline and self control. Vanity, more health, my family, more vanity and more fitness. Mind set. Commitment and stubbornness. Love of exercise and a life style of eat to live and not live to eat.
Disclaimer: I was never an obese or fat person; just 10 lbs over “my weight.”
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I didn't try to lose weight quickly. I set my goal to 0.5 lbs/week.
I started with small changes in my diet. For example - instead making a sandwich with bread I started using the 100 calorie sandwich flats. Instead of mayo I use mustard or hot sauce.
I didn't cut out snacks (I LOVE to snack). I used to open a box of crackers/chips/chocolate/ice cream and eat from the container. Now I weigh out what fits in my calorie goal and just eat that.
I was successful with the small changes I made. Success is addictive and motivating!
I started paying attention to how full foods made me feel for the amount of calories they have and how much enjoyment I get from certain foods. For instance - I like donuts but don't love them. They are not really worth the calories for me. However I love ice cream and even if the ice cream is over 200 calories/serving the enjoyment I get from eating it makes the calories worth it.
Somewhere along the way I made my goal weight and started lifting weights and cut the cardio I do in half. Even though I am not losing weight anymore my body continues to change. I like that there is measurable progress with weight lifting. I know when I have added weight to the bar and have been successful doing so.
Progress and success motivate me to continue to progress and succeed.14 -
I have no willpower if I'm in a house full of cookies or at work surrounded by unhealthy foods so here is what I do:
I live close to my work (within a couple miles)so I leave all my credit cards and debit cards at home and I dont bring any money to work. That way I don't go to the vending machine and I don't eat fast food for lunch. I pack a healthy lunch, and I eat it!
Also, I have two kids (ages 3 and 1). We dont buy them crap for food. The worst we buy them is alphabets cereal or honey nut cheerios. Any cookies or crackers I buy for them are expensive and organic and would not last if me and my husband ate them so those are the kids food only.
Desserts for the whole family include chocolate banana ice cream (only sweets in it is banana) or avocado pudding (with small amount of honey). They are extremely tasty treats and cheap
Oh and doing a whole30 elimination diet (no sugar and paleo) for 30 days when I need to in order to get rid of my cravings if they are out of control. I started a MFP group for Whole30 a couple days ago because I started another one April 6th.11 -
Besides tracking, walking, walking, walking.7
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What helped me was doing a lot of research on the internet for "tips and secrets to losing weight". I found so much information, and so much of it was very valuable and useful.4
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Defiantly recording everything in my food diary even when it makes me cringeJustSomeEm wrote: »Being honest with myself - i.e. recording everything in my food diary even when it makes me cringe.
Forgiving myself if I don't 'nutrition' as well as I should and moving on. And remembering that this is a lifestyle, not a diet.3 -
First of all thank you for sharing: I too had to remove a toxic abusive person from my life and surround myself with loving caring people. Life is so much better. I think compared to most people my age I spend a lot less time dating. I do like sharing a close bond with someone special but agree I don't have too be with someone. Self worth and self love is the way to go.OlyCapitalChick wrote: »1) removing toxic horribly abusive people from my life
2) changing jobs
3) 10k steps a day
4) joining a gym and hiring coaches/personal trainers
5) MFP app using macros and going lowish carb high protein
6) daily vitamin
7) haven't watch TV in 2 years (except for seahawks at the bar)
8) learning to like myself and being alone
9)therapy
10) lots of self work5 -
What helps me is to remind myself that there are people who went from 300-pound-depressed-nothing to inspiring-bikini-model-everything. Hearing about other people's success stories makes you believe you can do it too, and that's all you really need - is to believe.9
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nutmegoreo wrote: »Realizing that if I wanted to have some reasonable expectation of a normal life while losing this weight I needed to stop lying to myself about how the choices I was making was influencing not just my weight, but my emotional well-being. I needed to accept that the weight was a symptom of so many other issues and that, while I could take the weight off without fixing those, I would still be a miserable cuss, just a thinner one.
Following the no nonsense approaches to weight loss that were sometimes less than gently explained here allowed me to get my head around all the lies and misrepresentations that are spouted by the diet industry and get to the heart of the fact that I have the control, I needed to learn to use it. While doing this, I worked on other aspects of my life that were out of balance.
While I'm only half way to goal, I am much happier with my life and I have confidence that I will get there and be better balanced for it. The friends I have made along the way are amazing and regularly make me smile. They also keep me focused and accountable, and send me hugs (not the creepy kind though) when I need them.nutmegoreo wrote: »Realizing that if I wanted to have some reasonable expectation of a normal life while losing this weight I needed to stop lying to myself about how the choices I was making was influencing not just my weight, but my emotional well-being. I needed to accept that the weight was a symptom of so many other issues and that, while I could take the weight off without fixing those, I would still be a miserable cuss, just a thinner one.
Following the no nonsense approaches to weight loss that were sometimes less than gently explained here allowed me to get my head around all the lies and misrepresentations that are spouted by the diet industry and get to the heart of the fact that I have the control, I needed to learn to use it. While doing this, I worked on other aspects of my life that were out of balance.
While I'm only half way to goal, I am much happier with my life and I have confidence that I will get there and be better balanced for it. The friends I have made along the way are amazing and regularly make me smile. They also keep me focused and accountable, and send me hugs (not the creepy kind though) when I need them.nutmegoreo wrote: »Realizing that if I wanted to have some reasonable expectation of a normal life while losing this weight I needed to stop lying to myself about how the choices I was making was influencing not just my weight, but my emotional well-being. I needed to accept that the weight was a symptom of so many other issues and that, while I could take the weight off without fixing those, I would still be a miserable cuss, just a thinner one.
Following the no nonsense approaches to weight loss that were sometimes less than gently explained here allowed me to get my head around all the lies and misrepresentations that are spouted by the diet industry and get to the heart of the fact that I have the control, I needed to learn to use it. While doing this, I worked on other aspects of my life that were out of balance.
While I'm only half way to goal, I am much happier with my life and I have confidence that I will get there and be better balanced for it. The friends I have made along the way are amazing and regularly make me smile. They also keep me focused and accountable, and send me hugs (not the creepy kind though) when I need them.nutmegoreo wrote: »Realizing that if I wanted to have some reasonable expectation of a normal life while losing this weight I needed to stop lying to myself about how the choices I was making was influencing not just my weight, but my emotional well-being. I needed to accept that the weight was a symptom of so many other issues and that, while I could take the weight off without fixing those, I would still be a miserable cuss, just a thinner one.
Following the no nonsense approaches to weight loss that were sometimes less than gently explained here allowed me to get my head around all the lies and misrepresentations that are spouted by the diet industry and get to the heart of the fact that I have the control, I needed to learn to use it. While doing this, I worked on other aspects of my life that were out of balance.
While I'm only half way to goal, I am much happier with my life and I have confidence that I will get there and be better balanced for it. The friends I have made along the way are amazing and regularly make me smile. They also keep me focused and accountable, and send me hugs (not the creepy kind though) when I need them.nutmegoreo wrote: »Realizing that if I wanted to have some reasonable expectation of a normal life while losing this weight I needed to stop lying to myself about how the choices I was making was influencing not just my weight, but my emotional well-being. I needed to accept that the weight was a symptom of so many other issues and that, while I could take the weight off without fixing those, I would still be a miserable cuss, just a thinner one.
Following the no nonsense approaches to weight loss that were sometimes less than gently explained here allowed me to get my head around all the lies and misrepresentations that are spouted by the diet industry and get to the heart of the fact that I have the control, I needed to learn to use it. While doing this, I worked on other aspects of my life that were out of balance.
While I'm only half way to goal, I am much happier with my life and I have confidence that I will get there and be better balanced for it. The friends I have made along the way are amazing and regularly make me smile. They also keep me focused and accountable, and send me hugs (not the creepy kind though) when I need them.nutmegoreo wrote: »Realizing that if I wanted to have some reasonable expectation of a normal life while losing this weight I needed to stop lying to myself about how the choices I was making was influencing not just my weight, but my emotional well-being. I needed to accept that the weight was a symptom of so many other issues and that, while I could take the weight off without fixing those, I would still be a miserable cuss, just a thinner one.
Following the no nonsense approaches to weight loss that were sometimes less than gently explained here allowed me to get my head around all the lies and misrepresentations that are spouted by the diet industry and get to the heart of the fact that I have the control, I needed to learn to use it. While doing this, I worked on other aspects of my life that were out of balance.
While I'm only half way to goal, I am much happier with my life and I have confidence that I will get there and be better balanced for it. The friends I have made along the way are amazing and regularly make me smile. They also keep me focused and accountable, and send me hugs (not the creepy kind though) when I need them.nutmegoreo wrote: »Realizing that if I wanted to have some reasonable expectation of a normal life while losing this weight I needed to stop lying to myself about how the choices I was making was influencing not just my weight, but my emotional well-being. I needed to accept that the weight was a symptom of so many other issues and that, while I could take the weight off without fixing those, I would still be a miserable cuss, just a thinner one.
Following the no nonsense approaches to weight loss that were sometimes less than gently explained here allowed me to get my head around all the lies and misrepresentations that are spouted by the diet industry and get to the heart of the fact that I have the control, I needed to learn to use it. While doing this, I worked on other aspects of my life that were out of balance.
While I'm only half way to goal, I am much happier with my life and I have confidence that I will get there and be better balanced for it. The friends I have made along the way are amazing and regularly make me smile. They also keep me focused and accountable, and send me hugs (not the creepy kind though) when I need them.nutmegoreo wrote: »Realizing that if I wanted to have some reasonable expectation of a normal life while losing this weight I needed to stop lying to myself about how the choices I was making was influencing not just my weight, but my emotional well-being. I needed to accept that the weight was a symptom of so many other issues and that, while I could take the weight off without fixing those, I would still be a miserable cuss, just a thinner one.
Following the no nonsense approaches to weight loss that were sometimes less than gently explained here allowed me to get my head around all the lies and misrepresentations that are spouted by the diet industry and get to the heart of the fact that I have the control, I needed to learn to use it. While doing this, I worked on other aspects of my life that were out of balance.
While I'm only half way to goal, I am much happier with my life and I have confidence that I will get there and be better balanced for it. The friends I have made along the way are amazing and regularly make me smile. They also keep me focused and accountable, and send me hugs (not the creepy kind though) when I need them.nutmegoreo wrote: »Realizing that if I wanted to have some reasonable expectation of a normal life while losing this weight I needed to stop lying to myself about how the choices I was making was influencing not just my weight, but my emotional well-being. I needed to accept that the weight was a symptom of so many other issues and that, while I could take the weight off without fixing those, I would still be a miserable cuss, just a thinner one.
Following the no nonsense approaches to weight loss that were sometimes less than gently explained here allowed me to get my head around all the lies and misrepresentations that are spouted by the diet industry and get to the heart of the fact that I have the control, I needed to learn to use it. While doing this, I worked on other aspects of my life that were out of balance.
While I'm only half way to goal, I am much happier with my life and I have confidence that I will get there and be better balanced for it. The friends I have made along the way are amazing and regularly make me smile. They also keep me focused and accountable, and send me hugs (not the creepy kind though) when I need them.nutmegoreo wrote: »Realizing that if I wanted to have some reasonable expectation of a normal life while losing this weight I needed to stop lying to myself about how the choices I was making was influencing not just my weight, but my emotional well-being. I needed to accept that the weight was a symptom of so many other issues and that, while I could take the weight off without fixing those, I would still be a miserable cuss, just a thinner one.
Following the no nonsense approaches to weight loss that were sometimes less than gently explained here allowed me to get my head around all the lies and misrepresentations that are spouted by the diet industry and get to the heart of the fact that I have the control, I needed to learn to use it. While doing this, I worked on other aspects of my life that were out of balance.
While I'm only half way to goal, I am much happier with my life and I have confidence that I will get there and be better balanced for it. The friends I have made along the way are amazing and regularly make me smile. They also keep me focused and accountable, and send me hugs (not the creepy kind though) when I need them.nutmegoreo wrote: »Realizing that if I wanted to have some reasonable expectation of a normal life while losing this weight I needed to stop lying to myself about how the choices I was making was influencing not just my weight, but my emotional well-being. I needed to accept that the weight was a symptom of so many other issues and that, while I could take the weight off without fixing those, I would still be a miserable cuss, just a thinner one.
Following the no nonsense approaches to weight loss that were sometimes less than gently explained here allowed me to get my head around all the lies and misrepresentations that are spouted by the diet industry and get to the heart of the fact that I have the control, I needed to learn to use it. While doing this, I worked on other aspects of my life that were out of balance.
While I'm only half way to goal, I am much happier with my life and I have confidence that I will get there and be better balanced for it. The friends I have made along the way are amazing and regularly make me smile. They also keep me focused and accountable, and send me hugs (not the creepy kind though) when I need them.
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shuki_cotren wrote: »I have no willpower if I'm in a house full of cookies or at work surrounded by unhealthy foods so here is what I do:
I live close to my work (within a couple miles)so I leave all my credit cards and debit cards at home and I dont bring any money to work. That way I don't go to the vending machine and I don't eat fast food for lunch. I pack a healthy lunch, and I eat it!
Also, I have two kids (ages 3 and 1). We dont buy them crap for food. The worst we buy them is alphabets cereal or honey nut cheerios. Any cookies or crackers I buy for them are expensive and organic and would not last if me and my husband ate them so those are the kids food only.
Desserts for the whole family include chocolate banana ice cream (only sweets in it is banana) or avocado pudding (with small amount of honey). They are extremely tasty treats and cheap
Oh and doing a whole30 elimination diet (no sugar and paleo) for 30 days when I need to in order to get rid of my cravings if they are out of control. I started a MFP group for Whole30 a couple days ago because I started another one April 6th.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who has to leave my purse at home! If I have money, I will be tempted to buy junk food and I just don't have the self discipline to say no! No money means that I can't buy junk and so I don't even think about it. I'm sure one day my self control will get better!
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Water! I have a pint on waking up and then one before every meal. I have a pint if I think I'm hungry (and wait half an hour to see if it was hunger or thirst), I have a pint if I am hungry (to curb my appetite somewhat before eating), I have a pint if I'm bored and in danger of late night snacking.6
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1) Never denying myself the things I enjoy eating. The difference is that now I don't tell myself I "deserve" it, but rather I have to "earn" it.
2) Logging every thing that goes in my mouth, regardless of how much shame I have when I look at it in black and white. I also make sure to look over my past couple days of logging to see what was right and where I need strength.
3) Reading, reading, reading posts on MFP - mostly success stories for motivation and tips on nutrition and exercise. Knowledge is power!
4)Measuring/weighing everything and planning my meals for the week. I also try to pre-log my food for the following day so that I know ahead of time if I have room for anything in case I get a craving or temptation. Anything that doesn't have a calorie count is estimated (I use a higher than likely number) and logged.
5) Not listening to all the people around me who have things to say about how diets work. This goes hand-in-hand with stopping myself from telling people that it is as simple as CICO....most people can't accept this and don't want to hear it.
6) Keeping a few of my larger clothing items around to try on every once in a while. Seeing how they practically fall off my body proves that I'm doing something right.
7) Recognizing every day how much less pain I'm in, how much better my brain works, how much healthier my body is, and that people ask ME what magic I've been doing.
8) Always finding different foods to try to keep from getting bored. Remarkably, this has introduced me to a whole new palette of flavors.
9) Making sure I buy fresh produce every few days. This ensures that when I open the fridge and see all the healthy stuff, it actually looks enticing and I look forward to eating it. Wilting/brown/flavorless produce just doesn't cut it for me.17
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