How do you all keep yourself motivated?

jonathondschluter

I lack the drive to ever get myself to stick to a routine.

AnnPT77

I don't. Motivation is fickle, and temporary.

On the eating side of things, I figured out how to change my regular daily eating habits in enjoyable ways that were also calorie-appropriate. I like the way I eat, though it's somewhat different - not radically different - from the way I ate when obese. Habits are a power tool for health: Find new, productive, enjoyable ones. Practice them until they're automatic.

On the activity front, I do active things that I personally find fun. The best ones are so fun that I'd do them even if they weren't good for me . . . but lucky me, they are good for me.

Too many people try to do really hard things to lose weight or get more fit: Restrictive eating rules, "superfoods" they don't enjoy, weird supplements/substitutes. Punitively intense, unpleasant exercise. They act as if being fat or out of shape were sins we need to expiate by suffering. That's a total myth.

Think about how to make improvement relatively more easy and fun, rather than a thing that requires intense motivation and willpower.

(Context: I'm heading into year 8 of maintaining a healthy weight, after a year of loss and around 30 previous years of overweight/obesity. My fitness tracker - absurdly, to my mind - estimates my "fitness age" at 26 (I'm 68). Seems like "make it easy and fun" kinda can work.)

dejonny

looking at my profile pic of pitt in troy motivates me WAGMI!

PeteKona

How badly do you want it?
Fitness and getting healthy follows a very predictable path. First, you get inspired. You change your eating habits, start going to the gym, whatever. That lasts about a week.
Secondly, you're motivated. You keep doing what you've been doing, for another couple of weeks. But that too wanes.
Third, comes discipline. This is where most people falter. This is where even if you don't feel like it, you do it anyway because you know the result will be worth it.

It is said that of you keep doing something for 90 days, it becomes habit. So keep doing it.

A few years ago I was getting in the shower and looked at myself in the mirror and absolutely hated what I saw. That was the final straw that got me going.
I started slow at first. Researched a bunch, and decided to try keto.. And to my amazement, it worked very well. I also started weightlifting and the two, in about a years time, radically changed my physique. But I just kept going. I work 10 hour days {11 with drive time) but I still made time to better myself.

Getting fit is a lifestyle change. This is not something you stop. You keep at it for the rest of your life. Your quality of life will be better for it.

If you find that some things don't work, change then to things you like more. Don't deny yourself the small pleasures, but don't overdo them either.
It's about finding balance.
Keep reminding yourself why you're doing it. That is what keeps me doing what I'm doing.
Good luck.

melodyvegan

In addition to the great advice from @AnnPT77 above, it might be that you're pushing for too much too fast. Try making your routine more manageable and doable by keeping the goal small, only pushing yourself further in increments. This is the foundation for building habits which will always trump motivation (which we should plan for: it will always dip and rise depending on so many factors like sleep quality, energy, boredom, weather!).

For example, if you're currently getting 4000 steps a day and eating over your calories instead of saying "I want to get 10,000 a day and lose 1 pound per week" try increasing your steps to 5000 or 6000 consistently for a week and reducing your calories by reducing or cutting out one thing from your diet (or replacing a high calorie food like fries with your burger with a vegetable or water for soda, for example).

If you struggle to get motivated to exercise, sometimes little things like putting your walking shoes out where you can see them first thing can help get you to follow through. I like to set out my clothes for exercising the next day right before bed and keep my running shoes in view so even if I don't exercise first thing, I see that they are waiting for me there for later in the day. Sometimes it's also just releasing expectations that are too big. Like telling yourself you want to strength train for 1 hour 3 days a week. How about just starting with 20 minutes 3 days a week? Or 1 hour once a week?

Sometimes it's also pairing something you don't like with something you do (like listening to music while you fold laundry to make it a more enjoyable activity). Or only listening to your audiobooks or podcasts when you're exercising.

The idea is to make it easy to be *successful* because our brains like rewards and to feel accomplished. You are more likely to repeat an activity if it feels like you're meeting a goal or being successful doing it and the more you repeat the activity, the more it's likely to stick resulting in the formation of a habit. "Winning" a little every day helps with motivation. Over time, you can increase your steps or exercise and further manage your food habits. Micro habits will add up.

It took me 2 years to lose 40 pounds. But I did it. I went slow in order to go far.

At the end of the day, I was either going to lose weight or not. If I got there slowly, it was better than not getting there at all.

You can do it! Good luck!

littlegreenparrot1

I think language is important. I'm not going to try to do something, I am going to do it.

Picked up from an article interviewing someone who ran ultra marathons about how they motivate themselves to do training 'Its not about whether I want to or not, the decision has been made'

When the alarm goes off at 5:30am and I'm in a nice warm bed listening to the driving rain I don't want to get up and go out. But the decision has been made and it is not a negotiation.

Same with other stuff - I'm not cleaning the bathroom because I enjoy it, I just have to do it so I do.