Introducing myself

Donna184mfp

Hi. I am a 59 year old widow, mother, and a grandmother. Going to this again. Usually I do not complete my goals. I don't make myself accountable which maybe I should. I make it backslide and then just stop. I'm trying to motivate myself to get healthy, lose weight, be more energetic and just get myself over a slump. Lately I've been having trouble motivating myself. So who knows maybe this time I'll succeed. Like they say one step at a time. I'm hoping to find ways to better help myself. And find out what others do to help motivate themselves and keep on track. Any help would be greatly appreciated on that task.

CacaoNibs15

Hi Donna.
I hope that you can reach your goals. I totally agree with having trouble motivating yourself. It's really hard for me to motivate myself sometimes.
Right now, my motivation is to lower my blood pressure. Somebody told me that I need to lose 10% of my body weight. I think doing that will help me stabilize my BP. HBP, Diabetes, and all sorts of heart issues run in my family, so I do need to get this in check.
Good luck!
Deanna

AnnPT77

Donna184mfp wrote: »

Hi. I am a 59 year old widow, mother, and a grandmother. Going to this again. Usually I do not complete my goals. I don't make myself accountable which maybe I should. I make it backslide and then just stop. I'm trying to motivate myself to get healthy, lose weight, be more energetic and just get myself over a slump. Lately I've been having trouble motivating myself. So who knows maybe this time I'll succeed. Like they say one step at a time. I'm hoping to find ways to better help myself. And find out what others do to help motivate themselves and keep on track. Any help would be greatly appreciated on that task.

Hi, Donna, and welcome to the Community!

By coincidence, I joined MFP at the age you are now (59), but it was back in 2015. I'm now 66, hanging around here to maintain a healthy weight these days.

I'm commenting because - maybe shockingly - I'm not a huge believer in "motivation" or "will power" and such. None of those are my strong suit, to say the least.

For me, it helped to think of managing my weight and fitness as being similar to other longer-term efforts that had improved my quality of life. By our age, we've done quite a lot, usually gotten some kind of multi-year education, perhaps built a career, in cases like yours made a home and raised a family, etc.

I dunno about you, but when I did those things, I didn't feel motivated every single minute. I did them because they needed to be done, and I could do them by chipping away at them patiently over a period of time. Sometimes it took "motivation" to start some new chapter, but the motivation didn't last, as a high-key kind of thing. It just got the ball rolling, at most. Habits, and commitment to continue them, did most of the work.

I don't know whether it would work for you, but it helped me to think of fitness improvement and weight management in a similar way: When I had some emotional energy ("motivation"), I could spend that brief energy figuring out a new habit that I could establish, that would move me in a positive direction. It needed to be a habit that - once I got over the hump of changing - would be relatively easy to sustain long term.

To lose weight, I decided I wasn't going to do anything I wasn't willing to continue permanently, in order to stay at a healthy weight - except for a sensibly moderate calorie deficit to trigger the weight loss. That turned weight loss into a series of experiments (when I had the motivation to try one) about finding those new habits that I could keep up nearly on autopilot, because they were relatively easy, relatively enjoyable, for sure practical and affordable. No weird eating rules, no food-related social isolation, no punitive exercise routines. (Turns out all of those are optional.)

I don't know whether that concept appeals to you, or not. If it does, the process I used for the eating part of the equation was getting a calorie goal from MFP, logging what I was then eating (even if over goal), then gradually remodeling my eating in manageable ways to get the calories dialed in, while staying reasonably full and satisfied. Then I did similar gradual things to improve my nutrition. Rinse and repeat!

If that sounds interesting, there's a description of that process here:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10636388/free-customized-personal-weight-loss-eating-plan-not-spam-or-mlm/p1

Like I said, may not suit you: IMO, finding the plan that works for us personally is key. That's just one approach to consider.

On the exercise front, it isn't necessarily about some radical, difficult exercise plan, just about starting by moving more in ways that are enjoyable, or at least tolerable, and they chipping away at that as it gets easier. For those of us trying to make a change in the 2nd half of life, we've slowly accumulated habits that by default lead us to be a little heavier, a little more out of shape . . . then being heavier and a little out of shape makes movement/activity less pleasant . . . so we do less active stuff, more sedentary stuff. Getting more active is just a matter of reversing that spiral, moving a little more in some pleasant-ish way (walk the dog, go window shopping or to the park, play with the kids, dance a little - whatever). As that gets easier, take on a bit more movement. And so forth.

Again, just a thought, won't be ideal for everyone.

Wishing you much success in finding a new route - the results are 100% worth it IMO, in improved quality of life!

annliz23

Hi Donna, I agree it is hard sometimes to keep motivated, you can add me if you want to keep motivated. All good advice above.

annliz23