getting started

kathilynne3410

Hi my name is kathilynne and i am new to mfp so i'm not sure how this is going to work. i am diabetic and really unmotivated and need to lose weight not only to help my diabetes but to have more energy and feel better about myself. i heard about this through my OT who is helping me to get started exercising and such...any help with motivation will be appreciated and thank you in advance!

JustSomeEm

Your motivation needs to come from you. But let me tell you MY story: Using this app, I've lost and kept off 70 pounds. When I first started I was COMPLETELY unmotivated. I absolutely did not care if I stayed 200 pounds for ever. The idea of taking off the weight was intriguing, but beyond that I really didn't care to do anything about it. So I decided to track my calorie intake without making any changes to my diet out of sheer curiosity about how much I was eating. I was certain I wasn't eating too terribly much. So I promised myself I'd log every morsel of food and drop of liquid that passed my lips as accurately and honestly as I could. At the end of the first day I was completely shocked at how many calories I'd managed to consume. I was right: I wasn't eating much. But what I was eating was chock FULL of calories. No wonder I was more than 200 pounds and gaining.

So I continued to be honest with myself in my logging and almost by accident I started making healthier choices. Those choices led to my weight beginning to drop off. I wasn't dieting, not really. I had chosen to be honest with myself, realized I'd been making some bad choices and decided to do better.

I've been using MFP for years. I've been maintaining my 70 pound weight loss for 2 of them. I run, I bike, I lift weights, I feel freaking awesome. And none of it started with 'motivation'. It started with a choice - I chose to be honest with myself.