Praise makes me loose momentum

Tausi

I am on a weightloss journey that includes tracking my calories here and exercising. All is good until I make good progress and people start noticing and positively commenting. Strangely this doesn’t spur me on! For some bizarre reason I loose momentum and focus. This also happens with my personal trainer when he gives me an exercise that I find hard but I am determined to give it my all . I start off well but as soon as he says “well done keep going” the energy goes and I stop, even though I am sure if he hadn’t said anything I would have gone on. Happened today while doing press-ups. On the second round I told him not to say anything and it worked. I did double the number I did on the first try.
Does anyone else experience this? Why does this happen? Any tips on conquering this?

sarahlifts

Same here. I tend to now quietly hit my goals. I don't post progress pics on social media or tell any person aside from my hubby my goals.

I don't know why I tend to self sabotage when it comes to praise. Perhaps I tend to think, they said I look good I can have the cake and pizza and burgers too. smh. I'm focused on NOT doing this going forward. Keeping quiet about my goals outside of 1 fitness group helps.

puffbrat

*I am not even remotely any kind of medical/health expert*

This sounds to me like you have externalized your motivation and either use praise to self-sabotage or you are hearing that what you have done so far is good enough and you can stop now. You need to work on internalizing your motivation and making this journey about you only. You are not doing this for someone else but for yourself and therefore the opinions, negative or positive, of others are irrelevant. That is obviously much easier to say than do.

echmain3

sarahlifts wrote: »

Same here. I tend to now quietly hit my goals. I don't post progress pics on social media or tell any person aside from my hubby my goals.

Excellent advice!

Let other people think whatever they want to think.

JohnnytotheB

Likewise with the compliments. I tend to get a big head and think everything is OK and I am doing great. Because of this I tend to slack off thinking the early success will just continue. I think back to why I started. How I felt. Where I was. The clothes that didn't fit. You name it. I look at old pics. I also remember that even though I've had early success I still have a long road, plus after the goal is hit maintenance which to me is even more work. There is still a lot of work to do. I also remember how many times that I've personally did this and succeeded and failed. It's a personal journal. Dig deep to remember what your motivation is. You will get there with focus. Anything that is worth doing is going to be a lot of work.

dbanks80

I think subconsciously we think ok now I can slack.

whmscll

This is the reason why last time I was on here losing weight that I stopped two pounds short of reaching my goal. I felt it was “good enough,” why continue the hard work. (Then after a year or so of maintaining I gained about a third of the weight back).

Phirrgus

I'm going to do what I've decided to do, motivated or not most days because motivation can come and go. It's unreliable for me.

That said, if I get a compliment or encouragement from someone I usually just say thanks.

endermako

same for me too. I'm much stronger and motivated if I do things on my own. As soon as i'm with someone or i get compliments i feel weaker/less motivated.

anl90

Honestly? I have had praise go either way for me. Sometimes it gives me the motivation to slack off, and fall off track, yet other times it has pushed me to keep going. I would say refrain from sharing online until you feel ready to do so, and if it is someone you are comfortable enough doing this to, if they give you that praise, thank them and gently let them know it does not help. There's honestly only so much you can do to avoid it (especially if you are experiencing major changes). Best of luck in your journey, I hope you can find a way around this. xo

SoaringOccamy

I kind of have that too. When people tell me I am doing well, I sometimes feel like suddenly the pressure is on and I get anxiety about it. That has in the past contributed to my weight loss or fitness plan going off course. This is especially true when I tell people that I'm not super close to, that I know to have been critical of me or other heavy people in the past, or whose fitness makes me feel inferior. I feel like if I don't continue performing at my best or fall off the weight-loss/fitness wagon they will think less of me since I already made them think I was doing really well. When I get into this mindset, my psyche also chooses to harshly remind me of my many, many past failures.

Right now, I am just trying to be aware of that thought process and make myself stand up tall, breathe deeply, press down my negative inner monologue. Reminding myself that other peoples' opinions, whether positive or negative, have no bearing on my goals and that I just need to keep on keeping on and moving forward, even if the path meanders a bit.

MelanieCN77

Here for the Reddington avatar ^

On topic: I've felt a little something like this in a parallel sort of way with my food diary, this idea that if I'm not logging "nobody's looking" kind of thing. It's stupid because the only person I'm fooling is myself, and it took a long time to settle into being realistic about it. So next time you think of slacking, think is it because you ticked a thing off someone else's list of things or your own, honestly.

Tausi

Thank you all for the tips and experiences.

Chelle8070

I don't know about the second part, but I do know about the first part. When people notice my weightloss and tell me how great I look, I think my subconscious brain says "Cool! We've done enough! Take 3 rest days and 2 whoppers because you're amazing". Fortunately, my logical brain knows I should only take ONE rest day and eat ONE whopper to celebrate (the whopper is mostly a joke).

At least I think that's what it is for me, anyway.

As far as working out, when I'm struggling I NEED my trainer to tell me to keep going. I'll feed off his energy and it really helps.

It's good that you noticed this! The first part to fixing a problem is realizing it is one!