How did you get motivated once and for all??

katfitness27

Hey everyone! Hope you are well. Any tips about how you got motivated and stuck to it. Did you have a "wake up" call moment and never turned back? I have been starting and stopping for years, no lie. I have had times where I thought "I am serious this time.." What does it take to be truly motivated and disciplined? Thanks for your input.

gamerbabe14

Small goals worked for me. 10lbs then another 10lbs. Before I knew it I was 30lbs down and my clothes were getting too big and I just got on a roll and continued my loss.

estherdragonbat

I got an obesity-related health issue and decided that I didn't want the rest of my life to be dealing with flare-ups. Weight loss (and compression stockings) control it. There's no cure, but I haven't had a major flare-up in over a year and I've dropped just under 100 lbs.

jumpsquats

My wake up call was after one Christmas. I was jobless, had no confidence and I just felt so overweight, and I knew that wasn't what I wanted to be or the type of person I was. I started exercise very lightly (on the Nintendo Wii!) and it took me a year to lose a good bit of my weight. I cut out crisps, chocolate, etc. I then got a job as a leisure assistant at a health club, got offered a fitness instructor course and now I'm a qualified personal trainer. Last year I became assistant manager at the same company. This was over a six year span, so keep at it. I never ever in my dreams thought I'd be here in this position.

Meelisv

Everyone probably has their "wake up call" moment.
Like if you discover that a 6XL t-shirt doesn't really fit you anymore, you start to think a bit. And if you step onto a scale after quite some time and discover that a scale with 150kg max. weight gives an error, you might get that "enough is enough" push.
True story - both happened to me.
Sticking to it is actually hard, at least for me. As probably most people I have been yo-yoing quite a bit. Specially since I'm a stress rate and if I hit more difficult or stressful period it can get bit out of hand. Thankfully I have managed to pull myself together again after those moments...
Mirror usually works wonders in such cases

kommodevaran

My motivation for weightloss came when almost all my clothes had become too tight. Initially I was just going to lose weight, didn't have any concepts of anything but the next few days. I started exercising and counting calories and "eat healthy", lost some weight, was happy about that.

I was able to stick to eating less when I realized I didn't want to go back to the lifestyle that made me fat. So I started looking for a new lifestyle, not just a diet. A lifestyle is for life, so it has to feel good from day to day, not just "work if I stick to it". So I eat food I like, I don't do any boring exercise. That doesn't take a lot of discipline, I actually feel disciplined to stick to it because it feels meaningful. I'm living a lot like how we did in the seventies - regular meals, home cooked food, walking places, not eating between meals.

KeepRunningFatboy

Motivation isn’t always dependable. For me, I set some bigger goals like scheduling marathons and triathlons, then use smaller incremental goals to prepare for bigger achievements. I also really work on positive self talk, and meditation to work on smaller day to day objectives. For me, it took a lot of work just getting the right mindset, then the diet, weight loss and physical objectives fell into place.

88olds

I don’t think once and for all motivation exists. Motivation comes and goes. Good habits are a big help. Also determination.

abirdintherain

My original motivation that led to me losing weight was me beginning to love myself at 310 pounds. I found someone who made me feel beautiful, and when I started to realize that I WAS beautiful, and worthy, and deserving, I started to treat my body better. The more I lost, the better I felt, and I just kept loving myself through it all.

When I got to a bad place in my head, I gained 20 pounds back, and I struggled for months to figure out how I lost all that weight to begin with - how I stuck to counting calories and how I didn't give up. I realized that I needed to feel worthy again.

So, here I am - worked my way out of depression and back into loving myself and losing weight again.

But, motivation comes and goes. Life happens and sometimes you just have to work through it. It helps to find what works for you, and that changes too. Right now, I'm using a Nike workout plan, but sometimes I just do a lot of power yoga and sometimes I do C25K and sometimes I just put together some random workout videos when I feel like it. Sometimes I cook a lot and sometimes I eat a lot of convenience foods. You just have to remember why you started, and why you want this. I tried losing weight when I was depressed and I couldn't, and I had to remember I didn't want to lose weight because I wanted to love myself, I wanted to lose weight because I DO love myself and want to treat my body well.

And that's the end of my corny self-love advice.

Westschmeis

My granddaughter mentioned that my body profile was about the same as President Trump.
Time to change for the rest of my life.

More seriously, I looked at my mountain climbing pictures from 1991, when I last weighed 190 lbs, and decided I would feel and live a lot better if I got rid of 75 lbs of fat and increased my activity level.
So far, so good. Down 31.6 lbs since getting on MFP.

gymprincess1234

I didn't have a wake-up call, but I felt like I hit the rock bottom, literally felt trapped in a fatsuit and felt fed up above all limits. And them it clicked, that I can't live like that - I rose like a phoenix from the ashes

robinacasey

I have always resisted keeping a food diary but after having regained the 40 lbs I lost a few years ago, I'm trying it this time. Its only been 3 weeks but I've found it very helpful and motivating. I find myself saying, well, if I exercise for 45 min, I can eat more at dinner and not feel deprived. The diary keeps me honest about portions and calories. I'm losing weight, so its working so far.

seltzermint555

I had a series of wake up calls. I'd always been bigger than my peers, and I'd been over 200 lb since my teens and was honestly pretty comfortable with my body, health & weight. Then in my very late 20s I got a new stressful & sedentary job and went from an "active" 260 lb to 307 lb within a year. I started having problems for the first time such as increased frequency of migraines, swelling ankles, etc...all pointing to possibly serious cardiovascular issues. I went on a business trip with my normal weight female boss and could NOT keep up with her, had pain going up stairs and was out of breath. Up until then I'd always had zero probs keeping up with other people so it was my wake up call.

After that, I started walking a lot, about 2 hours most nights. I sometimes overdid it and strained my back or legs but it got so much easier with time & sticking to it. I didn't change my diet drastically and NEVER tried any "diets", but I did make an effort to eat a bit less. Stuff like having two tacos instead of four and a cone instead of a banana split. I still made a TON of horrible mistakes with my diet like drinking loads of milk and juice and getting mochas from Starbucks several days per week...I really had zero clue about calories! Sometimes I would eat only a cucumber with hummus for lunch and then wonder why I was jonesing so bad for a latte by 3 pm! My weight loss was VERY slow but I gradually got back to my "usual" 260-270 range and I looked better, felt better, and liked shopping & looking in the mirror again.

Then my life totally changed. I lost my home in a tornado, changed jobs, moved cities twice, got a divorce, everything was crazy...I managed to maintain my usual weight through that stress, which was surprising to some people in my family (in a good way). I think during that time I developed some good habits like eating smaller meals that truly kept me full, not drinking my calories so much, and introducing lots of new vegetables & "healthier" foods into my diet. Not to blame my ex for the poor eating I did for so long, but he was very much the chain/fast food every single day, dessert & cocktails with every dinner type and I found it difficult to go against the grain, as many people do.

Eventually, I wound up meeting a new guy (now my husband!) who was much more active & nutrition-minded. He set a great example for me and we started doing a lot of hiking and I ate his healthier cooking more often than not. I tried going pescetarian for a year and I lost very little weight. That ticked me off because a male friend did that for a couple months and dropped like 30 lb. So in my frustration I decided to try MFP! I was pretty comfortable at 265 but I started losing immediately from logging my food, so I thought "who knows maybe I will get down to 220!" which was my previous lowest adult weight (227). Within a year I was at 190 and pretty happy with that and I managed to get in the 160s but have been maintaining now for several years at 170 and very happy with it. I know that is still technically overweight for a 5'8" female but I'm healthy, active, and it's the weight I was at age 12 so I can't complain (age 41 now).

ashleymzeh1010

When I’m really honest the thing that motivates me last year to lose weight was pretty superficial. Last year around Christmas not one, not two, but THREE people mistook me for pregnant at work. I realized this wasn’t who I wanted to be and kicked into gear. I’ve lost almost 20 lbs and completely changed my body type. The thing is though the further I went down my weight loss journey the less it became about how I looked and more Bout how I felt. I feel powerful. I feel in control. I feel like I can do anything. It’s a magical place to be. So hang in there because if I can get there, so can you!!

franklin5280

Let me guess that you’ve fought this battle off an on? How did I know this was the right moment and I knew this is the time that the bad luck, bad health, accidents (over aggressiveness), bad nutrition, unawareness of calories and macros consumed, past trauma, the list goes on... That doesn’t matter.

To tell you how I knew. I could try to explain it. There’s a remote chance you might understand. The simplest explanation is I heard it inside. Not just a thought or an emotion. A knowing you know. If I called your best friend a thief. And you knew this wasn’t true. That’s what began echoing inside me.

Build, build, build your support network. Find successful people and find out what they did.

See, the only reason to do this that matters is you. Your worth it right? You have to be able to love yourself and deal with that voice that told you to come here. You’ve taken the first step, take one more, learn everything you can. Start thinking this is a Journey, not a destination.

Good Luck!