Staying Motivated

_sirenofthesea_

I've been 'trying' to be healthy for a long, long time.

I just found this post I posted in 2014 - and realized that I'm just a different person today. Does that mean I found the secret to making this 'stick' for me this time? Who knows....but I do show myself more grace, allow myself to feel bad for a moment, but not sit in it so to speak - just learning as I get older that my goals are more about 'living longer' and 'feeling better' than how I look....

So - posting my 2014 post - what are your secrets to staying motivated...?

_sirenofthesea_
_sirenofthesea_ Posts: 116 Member
May 2014
I'm just talking out loud - So many people are 'back at it', and 'starting over' - myself included - what is the key - do you think - of staying in the zone? Only a small handful of us will be successful. Surrounding yourself with positive, supportive, like minded people is a good step - but what else? What are those keys that will keep me working towards this goal a month from now....a year from now....

I'm making a conscious decision to NOT QUIT no matter what happens - lose weight or not, have a bad day or a bad meal - just get back on it -

I many times a day say I want this more than anything - yet I must not want it worse than the cookies I ate on Sunday - and I know all the 'you are just human', and 'you have to have a cheat meal' blah blah - I want to want this more than I wanted that cookie....

AnnPT77

I don't really believe in "motivation" (or willpower, discipline, etc.).

Even if I weren't a hedonistic aging hippie who only wants to do things that feel good, I don't think I could stay motivated every day (or even nearly every day) for the rest of my life . . . short number of years though that may be, since I'm already 67, and my family tends only to live into their 80s.

For myself, I framed weight loss as finding things that I thought I could continue for the rest of my life, to reach and then stay at a healthy weight long-term. Sustainable habits, including both enjoyable eating patterns, reasonably fun kinds of moving more . . . habits that could keep going almost on autopilot at times when other parts of life got demanding.

So, during weight loss, I experimented a bunch, and didn't cut out anything that would be a desirable part of a happy, balanced life for me in the long run, like social events, periodic treats or indulgent meals, etc. I cut the portion sizes of some things, the frequency of some calorie-dense treat foods, and changed proportions of various things on my plate so that meals would be nutritious, filling and enjoyable.

I'd been active since my late 40s (starting after cancer treatment), so I was already lucky enough to have some active hobbies that are so fun I'd do them even if they weren't good for me (but they are). I did give more effort/thought, during weight loss, to increasing activity in my daily life (non-exercise stuff).

Once I found things that worked well for me, I practiced them to make them routine patterns in my life.

When I got to goal weight, I could just keep up those same relatively-easy practiced habits, add back a small number of extra calories in order to stop losing, and go on in that same way.

It may not work forever, who knows, but it's still going OK in year 7+ at a healthy weight, so far.