Seriously Though!?

tsw413

Every time I think about losing weight I immediately feel hopeless and like I can't do it! Please tell me there are other people out there who feel that way...and that we can support each other through this process!

mom23mangos

Browsing the Success section of this forum should give you plenty of inspiration to see that you CAN do it.

PigHerder

Yup - Success Stories is seriously addictive!

tulips_and_tea

I agree that reading about the successes of others helps, but in order to help ourselves we have to get our mindset right.

Don't think about what you CAN'T do. Focus on what you CAN. For example, say I can drink more water today. Or I can take a 15 min. walk. Or I can (insert whatever small thing would improve your DAY). Step-by-step. Think positive instead of negative. It takes work and consistency but you CAN do it.

jpatenaude15

I absolutely know how you feel! I have been struggling to lose weight since the beginning of time! Let's do this!!

nvmomketo

Getting started was the hardest part in my opinion.

janeite1990

I don't know if this will work for you, but I do best when I don't put my mind first on losing weight. Instead of thinking about what I'm giving up, I focus on what I will add. For example, I don't tell myself that I can't have chocolate. Instead, I tell myself that I need to eat three fruits today, and then if I want chocolate at the end of the day, I can have it. Some days I eat chocolate, but often I don't want it anymore. The same thing with exercise: I tell myself that I deserve a walk by myself around the block with some music, instead of saying I have to go run. Once I start walking, I usually end up running some of it just to make it go faster.

Just pick any small goal (giving up soda, no drive-thru for a week, no beer), make a replacement pact for yourself, and focus on the replacement reward. Then, just step into it! Good luck!

ata1anta

Don't set a goal of "I'm going to do a 5k this weekend" if you've never done a 5k. Do something small you can do every day. Maybe "I'm going to walk around the block every day this week." And when you can do that every day, "I'm going to walk around 2 blocks every day."

Think of it more as "attendance" goals rather than "accomplishment" goals.

And think of why you're doing this. IMO if your "why" doesn't resonate, then it won't work. It doesn't matter what other people think of your why, you don't have to tell anyone. But it needs to be something that resonates with YOU.

cgibson522

I think about it in small increments. I ultimately want to lose about 20 lbs but that seems too daunting. My goal at the moment is 5 pounds which feels doable in the next month or so. I can see real progress to that goal but don't feel the same about moving towards the 20lb goal.

COGypsy

Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're probably right.

xmarye

cgibson522 wrote: »

I think about it in small increments. I ultimately want to lose about 20 lbs but that seems too daunting. My goal at the moment is 5 pounds which feels doable in the next month or so. I can see real progress to that goal but don't feel the same about moving towards the 20lb goal.

Same here! I have 37lbs more to lose, but I am focusing right now on how many pounds I want to lose until my birthday next month, and it is really motivating because it's almost within reach!

kittybenn

Your most recent non-scale victories discussion is also fabulous and inspirational: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1275030/whats-your-most-recent-nsv#latest

AustinRuadhain

Ooh, yes! Love that discussion of non-scale victories!

It does seem hard when you think about how much there is to do. I have been working on this all year. I started with 125 pounds to lose, and found that overwhelming. After months of changing one habit at a time and making better choices one meal at a time, I only have 62 pounds to go. So I get the overwhelm, but I hope you persist on the journey!

We have a great group you are welcome to join -- daily checkins (how are doing on the actions that will make a difference -- food, water, exercise), weekly weigh-ins, lots of support as we all work on this:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/114605-weight-loss-challenge-and-support-group

Also, there's a blog section, and some of record stories as we go, and those can be inspirational. Here's a link to my favorite (linking to the first entry):
https://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/The_Movie_Chair/view/the-empty-chair-beside-me-909153

xmarye

tsw413 wrote: »

Every time I think about losing weight I immediately feel hopeless and like I can't do it! Please tell me there are other people out there who feel that way...and that we can support each other through this process!

What helped me at first was to write everything I had on my heart. It went something like: I am so fed up of being like this, I keep trying but I'm running in circle and I feel like I can't do it. I know I can but I don't feel like I deserve it... etc. Everything I actually believed at that point. After I was done I felt much better and I read it to myself. It just became crystal clear to me that this wasn't the self-talk of someone who was going to succeed, and so I scraped it and started writing again, how I knew what I had to do and that I would do everything I could to achieve this goal, because I deserved only the best, that I was going to do it for me and me only, because if I can be my best self, all the people I love so much will benefit from it too.

It got me so pumped, and actually brought back hope in my heart. I kept reading it to myself everyday for a while until I changed my beliefs about myself and started having a positive, problem-solving dialogue in my head. Sometimes I think that we just get so caught up in our past failures, that we rob ourselves from the opportunity of starting over better. Maybe it's time you have a real honest heart-to-heart with yourself?

Hope this helps! ox

girlwithcurls2

ata1anta wrote: »

Don't set a goal of "I'm going to do a 5k this weekend" if you've never done a 5k. Do something small you can do every day. Maybe "I'm going to walk around the block every day this week." And when you can do that every day, "I'm going to walk around 2 blocks every day."

Think of it more as "attendance" goals rather than "accomplishment" goals.

And think of why you're doing this. IMO if your "why" doesn't resonate, then it won't work. It doesn't matter what other people think of your why, you don't have to tell anyone. But it needs to be something that resonates with YOU.

/thread

^^ There is so much good advice in this. Do you floss your teeth? (Yes! I take care of my teeth!) Then take care of the rest of you. And it doesn't have to be every day. Start small. And keep going...

AJB1014

I didnt start for so long because I was afraid of failing, again. So I started small, and those little victories helped spur me forward. Here I am six months into it and feeling like I'm treading water again, so back to the basics! You are not alone - you got this!

heybales

tsw413 wrote: »

Every time I think about losing weight I immediately feel hopeless and like I can't do it! Please tell me there are other people out there who feel that way...and that we can support each other through this process!

When some people think of losing weight - in their minds they equate that to eating a whole lot less, making wholesale changes to what they eat, and some big level of exercise is required.

That can all seem daunting - so it seems like huge hurdle, and in current state think not worth it, or give up on it all after a short time.

Really though - if you have been slowly gaining, like over the year or years you have noticed a slight increase in fat weight - then you merely need to start moving a little more, and eating a little less.

Find maybe 500 calories worth of something in your normal daily eating routine that you can leave out - don't even have to log your food frankly. Just look up what you do eat already to get some ideas.
If you have high-fat items you like, perhaps eating half of those items can add up quickly.
If you want to improve nutrition too, perhaps leave something totally out and replace with some vegetables/fruit you can sustain in eating.

And then find 250 calories worth of additional activity you can do almost daily - perhaps a 30 min fast walk, perhaps shorter walk and some resistance exercise.

So many make wholesale changes to both things, and end up creating this huge deficit that the body doesn't like and adapts to in a bad way, creating an issue of adhering to the changes not really desired in the first place.

dsboohead

Look at others succeeding and it is catching! Nothing is stopping you but you!
What people or past experiences are whispering in your ear?

adamwatt305

Getting started was the hardest as I had so many bad habits in my diet that came to be routine and I didn’t even realise I was doing it until I put on a lot of weight.

But I just keep thinking it’s a marathon not a sprint I’ve made a lot of small changes to my diet and I’m already seeing results. If it happened overnight everyone would be a picture of health.