How do you keep motivated??

charlotteleander

Morning all 😘

I’m just wondering if anyone would like to talk about how they keep motivated and on track ??

Does anyone have any good tips or suggestions for other people ?
How have you managed to reach your goals, have you reached them, or do you just want some support from others. Feel free to openley talk about success or trouble with weight wether it be weight loss weight gain or staying at your current weight.

Look forward to hearing from you all 😘😘

TavistockToad

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818701/the-myth-of-motivation-and-what-you-need-instead/p1

Vonny198334

I've never really had any....perhaps during the first few weeks?

My "click" moment was when I realised it was all about building good habits. Sounds simple (yet hard) & boring but in reality, it's the only way to go.

Small steps regarding reducing calories, small steps increasing exercise, incrementally pushing myself rather than going full throttle from the get go...it all adds up.

I weigh food on the scale/log & put on my workout clothes the same way I brush my teeth. No real thought, just go ahead & do it!

Last thing I want is to reach my 110lb loss goal (86 gone so far) only to put it back on again so I needed to accept this is life now. That means I have to make it as pleasant as possible & not the medieval torture I believed weight loss to be my entire life haha

There are things you can do to spur you on for sure...new smaller clothes, feeling healthier, looking better, only doing your favourite parts of a workout if you really can't be bothered (if you choose to exercise, not necessary), counting up all those delicious NSVs, looking forward to your favourite food knowing it's all accounted for calorie wise....the list goes on & the rewards for me personally have been so many I can't quantify them!

I guess to sum up, you have to think about why you want to do this & decide how important it is to you. If losing some weight would enhance your life more than excess food, what better "motivation" is there?

Best best luck!

88olds

@Vonny198334 has given you some very good advice.

I want to add that motivation is fleeting. It’s too unreliable to sustain something as long term as weight loss. Try to break your plan into things to do everyday, like planning a menu and keeping your food diary.

You can’t control the scale but you can try to control the process. If you find your plan doesn’t work out for a particular day or situation, problem solve and make it better. Trust the process.

Millicent3015

For me, it's not so much about motivation or willpower as it is wanting to eat more optimally for improved health. I had to lose weight for medical reasons, and I need to continue to get my BMI into the healthy range, but I also like the beneficial side effects of improved stamina and mood, feeling full on smaller portions, preferring more nutritious foods, and being able to buy standard size clothes and fit into my old clothes again.

What helped me is realising that no food is off limits. I can have whatever I want as long as it's in moderation. There are some things I won't have in the house, but that's a personal choice not to have them because I know I'll overeat them. I haven't banned them or told myself I can't ever eat those foods again. I just prefer to have them much less regularly. I also have a more relaxed attitude to food. No food is good or bad, "clean" or "junk"; it's just food. Some of it is more nutritious, some of it is less, and I choose to eat the more nutritious type most of the time.

Managing my weight loss expectations is also a big factor in staying on track. I used to get frustrated at 'only' losing a pound or two a week; this would lead me to abandon whatever eating plan I was on, which ended up with me putting on more weight. Now, I'm happy to lose slowly, and celebrate each small success. I don't weigh myself every day as weight fluctuates, and seeing what looks like a gain (which is probably only water weight and not fat) from one day to the next can be very demoralising. I weigh once a month, and that takes the psychological pressure off thinking I 'should' be losing X amount by X time.

I've stopped putting all my hopes and dreams on being thinner. Losing weight won't solve all my problems. It might give me a bit more confidence, but any issues I had as a fat person will probably still be there as a thinner person unless I work to resolve them while I'm losing the weight. I've had to learn to deal with stresses in a way that doesn't involve emotional eating or bingeing. And I've stopped expecting to have a super-fit, perfect figure at the end. That's a nice fantasy, but not realistic. I won't have an hourglass figure or a perky bosom. I never had those before, so why would I expect to have that after? I will have the body I have, and it will be healthier. I guess that's motivation of a sort.

Some basic tips:

Eat what you like within your calories.

Have more nutritious food most of the time, and have moderate amounts of food that's less nutritious.

Weigh and log everything even when you go over calories, so you can see where you can make changes, or identify factors that might trigger overeating.

Don't expect linear weight loss.

Notice the small changes in your body as you lose the weight.

Celebrate the small successes.

Don't fixate on the scales. Weight fluctuates. The scales will only tell you what you weigh at that given moment, not what the weight is composed of.

Don't expect weight loss to solve all your problems.

Be realistic about the body you'll end up with.

Don't rely on motivation or willpower to see you through. The trick is to keep plugging away, working towards your goal every day.

Make small changes to your eating habits that you can stick with long term.

Don't beat yourself up if you go off track. You're on a journey, and will naturally encounter obstacles. Getting back on track and continuing as soon as you can is one of the most important factors in successful weight loss.

manowarrule2003

Motivation comes in ebs and flows, like happiness, hunger and satisfaction. Its in the doing that change happens. So even if sometimes you dont feel like sticking to your plan, just do it.

rebbylicious

Focus on how you are feeling before you start to focus on weight loss/gain. I notice how certain foods and exercise gives me energy or makes me feel like crap.

amgreenwell

I want to be healthy and I want to share a healthy lifestyle with my kids and husband. Motivation is within so I don't know any tips or tricks. Either you can get up in the morning and make the decisions to do right or you can't. I know that sounds pessimistic but it's true. No one can do this for me, only I can do this for me. So, that's what I choose to do. Wake each morning, make the best decisions I can and live with the mistakes I make.
I'm very close to my goal weight but I haven't been able to exercise since May and that lack of daily exercise has weighed heavily on me. Normally I would eat my sorrows away but I took that loss and made it a gain by counting/logging/watching everything I put in my mouth.

ShayCarver89

I just think about the fact that time is going to pass whether its a good or bad day. But if I give up, in a month I'll regret it. Because I'll realize 'wow..look at all the time I wasted.' It passed anyway. Wasted or not. Also there is always tomorrow. I try to not let the number on the scale get me down because hey. There's always tomorrow.

rileyskye1

Youtube with weight loss success stories and following those that have had success ao i can learn from them.
Looking at pictures of myself
The idea that 1 lb a week is still 48 lbs in a year which is where i was 4 years ago. And 1.5 lbs a week is 72 lbs in a year.
This community page
Fitbit tracking but focusing on calories burned not steps (i have an office job sitting all day so 10,000 steps seemed impossible and was demotivating)
Only doing excercise i like and can do not trying to force myself to do what may work but i hate

melto1989

I take it 1 week at a time, seeing the scale go down also helps stay motivated. My main motivation is get to my goal weight before my 30th in 4months. I spent the last 10 years over weight and enough's enough I'm sick or being depressed about it.
I also was pregnant this time last year and diagnosed with gestational diabetes which scared the crap out of me so had to fix my diet because it makes me 50% more likely to get type 2 diabetes so that is a massive motivation for losing weight and eating right. I was never really good at changing my eating habits until I was forced to on the special pregnancy diabetes diet.