My introduction

DenaOzkan

Hello all! I've never been one to worry about my weight or health most of my life, the USAF helped a lot with keeping me in shape. But now I'm 54 immensely overweight, at least in my own eyes. I've never actually worried about my weight before ever. But when you're significant other and your brother tell you you're fat, ( I respect their honesty), and I can't walk up stairs without heavy breathing; I know it was time to take action and make myself better.

So here I am on the journey with a goal in mind and I plan on working my hardest and darndest to lose 60 lb. I'm 5 ft 8 in and at the present time weigh 210 lb most my life I weighed in at 125-140 lb, so you can see why I must lose weight and just simply get in shape.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to stay motivated please throw them at me I've never had to diet before, I'm on a GLP-1 now and ready to start this adventure!

AnnPT77

My advice will always be NOT to chase "motivation", but rather to make a plan that requires the absolute practical minimum of motivation while still leading sensibly gradually toward our weight and fitness goals.

What does that mean? Eating food we find filling, tasty, practical and affordable that adds up to appropriate calories and good overall nutrition. Being active - exercise or daily life stuff - in ways that are ideally enjoyable, but at minimum practical and tolerable.

IMO, the goal is new routine permanent eating and activity habits that can run almost on autopilot to first reach a healthy weight and decent fitness, then stay there long term, ideally permanently.

A lot of people arrive here with a "lose weight fast" intention. They cut calories to the bare minimum (sometimes lower), self-impose a lot of food restrictions (no white food, no junk/processed/fast food, no treats, all superfoods - whatever). Maybe they adopt a trendy named diet. Often, they stack a punitively intense, miserable daily exercise program on top of that.

That doesn't usually end well, but it does often end quickly. It's Just. Too. Hard. The most common outcome seems to be to give up, "go back to normal", regain the lost pounds/kilos (maybe plus some new ones), then show up here or in a similar place next beach season, before the wedding, at New Years resolution time, or something like that. There are a lot of "I'm back" posts in the "Introduce Yourself" section here most of the time.

Losing any meaningful total amount of weight isn't a quick project with a near-term end date. Doing it in a health-compatible way means it will take many weeks, maybe months, possibly even a small number of years if someone is severely obese. IMO, success depends on a plan we can live with that long. Then there's maintaining that healthy weight: That's forever.

Does changing habits take some energy and commitment? Yes. But it doesn't need to be an instant revolution, doesn't need to be misery-inducing. Perfection isn't humanly possible if you ask me, but it's achievable to do pretty well on average the majority of the time, and that can deliver results. Patience and persistence are more important IMO than motivation.

If we can commit to the process, experiment, find the habit changes that work well in our own life context, practice them until they're nearly autopilot, that can work. If we try something that doesn't work, that's not failing: That's useful, learning something that doesn't work, so we can cross it off the list and try something else. Keep going like that doggedly, persistently, using the extra energy when we have some to make changes, riding on the previous changes to avoid backsliding when other parts of life get demanding . . . success is out there.

Unlike you, I was overweight to obese for around 30 years, most of my adult life. I'd already gotten athletically active in my late 40s/early 50s (after full-bore cancer treatment), and was the semi-mythical pretty-fit fat person. Exercise alone didn't cause weight loss. At 59, I finally committed to lose weight, and joined MFP. I decided 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 sensibly moderate calorie deficit to reach that weight. I haven't been sorry for one second that I took that approach. It took just under a year to lose about 50 pounds. I'm 70 now, still at a healthy weight, still in the same jeans size, still active. My health markers - blood tests and such - are dramatically better. My quality of life is better.

If an unreformed hedonistic aging hippie flake like me can do this, I'm betting you can, too. If your experience turns out like mine, the results will be more than worth the effort required to accomplish them.

Best wishes - I'm cheering for you to succeed!