Need Motivation

JackieLane4

I am 20 years old and I quit smoking four or five months ago. Yay! I gained 20 pounds doing so. Not-so-yay.

I got myself into a comfortable relationship (so I am less motivated) and I live a very busy lifestyle (eat out a lot.)

I started tracking my calories, then I lost the motivation to do that.

I find that unless I do some drastic diet, I eat terrible food. But drastic diets are not a long term solution and I just want to get into healthy, natural eating habits.

I have also started working out a few times a week which is great, but it's not changing my body as quickly as a good diet would.

When I am upset, I tend to use that as an excuse to binge eat, then I feel worse.

Basically, now that I quit smoking, I need to quit the extra food.

I think this would be much easier to do if I had someone to do it with. To email or text or whatever daily to make sure we are both on the right track... and to guilt me into eating healthy when I'm not.

If you want some motivation and if you want to help me... That would be so appreciated!

jayfrailey

Your experience is quite different than mine. I recently had a physical where I had lots of negative surprises. I'm also newly single, so have more motivation to look better than I do. I was slightly over weight by doctors' standards, and probably "low average" by current American standards!

What I can tell you is that in one 1.5 months, by working out, and using myfitness.pal to track my nutrition, I dropped more than 10 pounds of weight, 1" off neck, 1" off leg, 1" inch off waist, and a total of 1% body fat. Granted, now that I'm single, I can devote 2 hours to the gym, 3-6 times a week, but the point is that if you stick with it, it really doesn't take long to see the results.

Like you, I quit smoking and need another oral fixation. I use a plethora of things to replace. Sugar-free candies, hard candies, lot's of tea, and various snacks I need for workout anyway. Sunflower seeds are great, though they do tend to push the sodium levels for the day. The candies mean you have to work out more, but if you suck them slow, they tend to do the trick.

Grats on quitting smoking, by the way.

JackieLane4

Thank you for the advice!! I find it so hard to keep tracking my food. I always just give up because I can't reach my calorie goal.

I think you misunderstood however, I got myself into a relationship that I am still in. I am not complaining, but like you, when I am single, I am much more motivated. I kind of became a couch potato because once I found someone, I stopped trying as hard.

Does this happen to anyone else?

silenthunter93

jayfrailey

Try not to be a couch potato. It's easy to slip when you have somebody, but try to at least keep 3 days a week to keep yourself how you first met him. After all, you want him looking at you, right? Don't give him reason to look elsewhere. That works both ways, of course. Once I reach my goal, and am in maintenance phases, I'll still keep to 3 days a week so that I can keep as nice looking as possible for my "better half." :P