Struggling to stay focused on goals

crewgirl86

Hello!

Over the past 15 months, I have lost about 40 pounds. The weight loss has been slow but sure. I started off doing Weight Watchers, and lost about 25 pounds. The last 15 have been from old fashioned diet and exercise (and calorie counting on here! ) I still have about 15 pounds to be at a healthy BMI and at my goal weight. I realize weight loss slows the closer one gets to goal, but I am truly losing my motivation. In April I lost 6.5 pounds, then in May and June combined I lost only about 1.5 pounds. Although I didn't go completely off track, I skipped calorie counting on days I was attending social events, and just did not hold myself to high standards of tracking on other days. I still exercise regularly (strength training and HIIT) and generally eat pretty clean. It just is harder for me to stay focused on calorie counting and really pushing myself to high standards now than it was in the beginning. I would love any advice from those who have been through this and have managed to keep on, keeping on...

Thanks so much!

try2again

I can't imagine there being anyone who doesn't go though this (and if there is, I don't want to know about it ) Personally, I've spent the last year & a half maintaining within about 5 lbs or so, but I still have a good 40 to go and just haven't been able to find my focus for more than a week or two at a time. I think the problem mostly is (and with only 15 lbs left, it seems likely to be even more applicable to you) that I'm at a point where it's difficult to see steady progress on the scale. I'm at that wonderful time in my life when my hormones are going crazy, and this results in wild water weight fluctuations that tend to mask any loss from week-to-week. Without that instant satisfaction, it's hard for me to keep on track. You're at the stage where you should only be losing about .5 a week, and I'm sure that's tedious and doesn't leave you much room for error. The advice I commonly see for those in your situation is to try to find some fitness-related goal to focus on. If you have a goal to lift more or go longer, your fitness benefits, but you'll be burning more calories as well. For the most part though, I'm more of an expert in the losing focus part. However, every day I keep off what I've lost I consider a huge victory.

try2again

I should say though, prior to this I had lost about 70 lbs over the course of 5 years, but in chunks with similar long sections of maintaining in between. So it's not the case that the motivation is just never going to come back. If you've been at this for 15 months, maybe a diet break is in order:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10481830/the-diet-break/p1

kommodevaran

I think a reframing might help you. When you say "I realize weight loss slows the closer one gets to goal, but I am truly losing my motivation", can you see that "but" and "motivation" is a problem here? As long as weight loss is your main driver for your behavior (eating less), it will be difficult to maintain that behavior when weight loss slows down. Instead - focus on eating less. Make eating less normal.

Maybe the number of social events makes it difficult to keep up with the tracking. If your tracking days by far outweight your non-tracking days, you'll still be able to maintain a deficit over time. But if non-tracking means that you eat back your deficit from your normal days, you'll be spinning your wheels. To continue losing, and maintaining weight later, you have to either reduce the number of social events, or track your eating anyway, or learn how to eat functionally at social events.

It seems like not tracking some days gives you "permission" to skip tracking on normal days. Is this because you think that it doesn't make any difference? It's actually even more important to track on your normal days when you have many off days.

Maybe it's the "eating clean" and "high standard" part that is weighing you down. There's a billion different definitions of clean eating, but they all tend to circle around deprivation and random rules. Eating well is important - it's good for you in the long run, and it's effective in the short run because you'll be more likely to stick to your diet, but take a look at your plan and see if you are imposing unnecessary rules and restrictions on yourself. You have to do what you have to do, and doing more than that, now, when you have stubborn weight to lose, is just asking for trouble.

Your goal is ideally to create a new normal. Good habits that form powerful routines, makes keeping on a breeze most days. You will have difficult days, but a good plan will accomodate most day to day challenges. To be able to stick to your new habits, your attitude has to change, and you will have to modify your environment. "Eating too much" or "eating all the time" or "eating in the car" or whatever your dysfunctional habit is, will just feel bizarre. This isn't something you can force, but you need to open up for it. It takes time, but it can be an exciting experience.