Motivation since I have returned to myfitnesspal

Is there anyone out there that can give advice on how to lose the weight and keep it off? I started back to myfitnesspal and love the tracking with calories. It does help to know I was eating too big of portions before and have now started to be more careful with this. Thanks.

Replies

  • ChelleDee07
    ChelleDee07 Posts: 396 Member
    The biggest change for me was knowing that I would be making a permanent change. Diets by definition seem to be viewed as temporary. I lost my weight and reached goal 2 years ago. I still log every day. I still watch what I eat very carefully. Yes sometimes I want to eat like I used to but for the most part I have changed my lifestyle and being thin is so much more pleasant than being 100 lbs. overweight. So to keep it off for me means continuing to do what I did to lose the weight for the rest of my life.

    I have to 2nd Cheryl's response. I also lost more than 100 lbs and have kept it off for more than 2 years. If you go back to your old ways of eating and not getting in exercise, that is when you will gain the weight back. The changes you make need to be ones that you can live with forever, not just for a while. Once I reached my goal, I did approach maintenance a little different than most. I would take my weekends 'off' meaning I ate more freely (not gorging myself) and exercise rarely happened. Weight would shift upward a little from my 'off weekend' mostly from sodium. First thing Monday I was right back at it... Back in the gym getting my workouts in and eating healthier. By mid week my weight was right back down.

    I cannot begin to agree with Cheryl more on the part about being thin is much more pleasant than being 100 lbs overweight.
  • geraldaltman
    geraldaltman Posts: 1,739 Member
    With the successful hip replacement surgeries that began my 2019, I have felt as if I have been given the "best second chance" at health and fitness than any other second chances I've gotten in life; perhaps even topping that which I got by quitting smoking almost ten years ago! This has changed all my motivations. My diet focus is aimed at dropping some weight which will eliminate extra strain on and enhance the lifetime of my new hips. If I don't lose weight, it will help me improve my A1C and other labwork meaning better health. Being able to do better and more consistent exercise will burn calories and help lose some weight; but if it doesn't it will improve and maintain my newfound mobility AND help lower my A1C and better my other lab numbers meaning good health. Weight loss has become secondary to good health which is achievable by finding a good balance of good consistent diet and exercise. Find your's and you should be ok and those down moments a whole lot easier to deal with.
  • PTA4LYF
    PTA4LYF Posts: 87 Member
    the first thing you have to do is change your mind set. no more using the terms losing weight because it implies when you lose something you want to find it again you want to start telling people and yourself that you have disposed of so many pounds to indicate it is thrown away and gone forever. also you are not on a D-I-E-T its a weight management program. diet has negative impact and why would you want a word in your vocabulary where the first 3 letters spell DIE!!
  • ElizabethKalmbach
    ElizabethKalmbach Posts: 1,416 Member
    PTA4LYF wrote: »
    also you are not on a D-I-E-T its a weight management program. diet has negative impact and why would you want a word in your vocabulary where the first 3 letters spell DIE!!

    I always came at it from the opposite angle. *EVERYTHING* I eat is part of my diet, so I may as well try to make it a moderately healthy diet.

    I suspect much of this comes from the fact that I work with a bunch of RDN's all day, and then go home and feed all my pets "Science Diet", "Guinea Pig Diet" and "Diet for Healthy Squirrels."
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,257 Member
    I ditched motivation and went with discipline.

    Motivation is emotional and fleeting. Discipline is hard at first, but once you see the rewards becomes easier and easier - spreading into other aspects of your life. You stop dreading the hard tasks and rejoice in them.

    From discpline comes freedom.

    Start with small changes and small goals. Hit those and ensure you develop habits to maintain these goals. Then set about to making more small changes and new goals. This has a dramatic impact over time.

    Be patient. Nothing worth achieving happens quickly.
  • girlwithcurls2
    girlwithcurls2 Posts: 2,257 Member
    I changed my mindset. Some wise person around here compared working out to flossing your teeth. I really need to work out. I need it to manage stress, weight, and to be able to do what I want to do when I want to do it. I have an aversion to flossing my teeth, but it's what I do to for good health. I drove myself to the pool MANY afternoons when I had zero motivation to work out because "It's what I do." I also knew that I'd feel so much better if I went. Now, it's a habit. I just go.

    Small changes add up. You have the rest of your life. Why push big when it's going to flare up and burn out? Keep a small fire burning. Find what you can life with that gives you the results you want.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    PTA4LYF wrote: »
    the first thing you have to do is change your mind set. no more using the terms losing weight because it implies when you lose something you want to find it again you want to start telling people and yourself that you have disposed of so many pounds to indicate it is thrown away and gone forever. also you are not on a D-I-E-T its a weight management program. diet has negative impact and why would you want a word in your vocabulary where the first 3 letters spell DIE!!

    A different perspective - I went on a weight loss diet (verb) and the outcome was entirely positive. Just made my normal diet (noun) a bit smaller for a number of months.
    Been maintaining since then eating a very enjoyable diet.
    But I prefer to face facts head on and have no hang ups in using the proper words to describe my actions.


    OP - weighing your food (even if only for a limited amount of time) is extraordinarilly revealing as to where the calories in your diet are coming from and gaining a more realistic view of appropriate portion sizes.

    Important to know yourself and work to your strengths and minimise the impact of your weaknesses. I hate restrictions so do best when I keep them to a minimum. I love my food and know I have to work the food I enjoy into my diet in the appropriate amounts / appropriate frequency to make my weight maintenance sustainable.

    Motivation is very individual - mine was to have as many good and healthy years as possible, weight loss was just part of that and it's not a goal that ended when I got to maintenance.
  • BeYou4U
    BeYou4U Posts: 11 Member
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    I ditched motivation and went with discipline.

    Motivation is emotional and fleeting. Discipline is hard at first, but once you see the rewards becomes easier and easier - spreading into other aspects of your life. You stop dreading the hard tasks and rejoice in them.

    From discpline comes freedom.

    Start with small changes and small goals. Hit those and ensure you develop habits to maintain these goals. Then set about to making more small changes and new goals. This has a dramatic impact over time.

    Be patient. Nothing worth achieving happens quickly.

    ^^^This x10000%