Just saying hello

Silviaeceron
Silviaeceron Posts: 1 Member
in Introduce Yourself
My name is Silvia and I am new in this territory. I’m looking for advice on how to stay motivated and continue to track all that I put in my mouth.

Replies

  • xbowhunter
    xbowhunter Posts: 1,269 Member
    Welcome!
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 11,798 Member
    Welcome, Silvia!

    There are some great threads created by our members, bookmarked to the top of each category that may be helpful. Just look for "Most Helpful Posts - whatever the category name is”.

    For example:
    You can also ask your questions in any category that interests you, read posts or questions made by other members, join a group, or add some friends.

    Here are some frequently asked questions that may also be helpful: FAQ's
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,381 Member
    Hello and welcome, Silvia!

    From my own experience, I'd recommend shifting the focus a bit, not so much putting motivation on center stage, but rather thinking most about shifting routine daily habits in positive ways that don't require huge, continuous motivation to keep going.

    I don't know about you, but I can't imagine doing something that requires constant strong motivation for the whole rest of my life (!), and I do want to stay at a healthy weight for the rest of my life if I can. For me, that meant finding relatively pleasant (at least tolerable and practical) new eating and activity habits that can continue nearly on autopilot when other parts of life get challenging . . . because they will.

    I told myself I wasn't going to do anything to lose weight that I wasn't willing to continue long term to stay at a healthy weight, except for a manageably moderate calorie deficit until I reached goal weight. (I'm now in year 8+ at a healthy weight after around 30 pre-loss years of overweight/obesity . . . so far, so good, I guess. ;) )

    As far as food logging, if it's new to you, I think that does rely on motivation at first.

    It can help to link the logging habit to some other habit in your life. Many people find pre-logging a plan for the day very helpful even if they need to adjust it a little when that actual day plays out, so for example maybe make that pre-logging one of the bedtime rituals the night before, or something like that.

    The reason I say that logging in particular takes motivation at first is that there's a learning curve. It takes time and a little patient persistence to learn how to use MFP logging accurately and efficiently. At that point, motivation may be required to invest that start-up effort, realistically.

    For me, it would be a rare day (eating mostly unusual things, for example) where it might take me more than 5-10 minutes absolute maximum to log a day. Most of the time, in my routine groove, it's just a minute or at most two per meal. For me, that's a small investment of time for huge benefits of staying at a good weight, in the same-sized clothes, feeling much better than when overweight, and with objectively improved health.

    Wishing you success: IME it's more than worth the effort!

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