How do you stay encouraged?

pal00ga

Like so many, I have fallen off the wagon and gained 20 lbs over the last year (mostly recently). I was wondering what are some of the ways everyone here stays encouraged to stay on track. More towards staying on track to exercise.
I'm thinking about also printing out my before surgery and after surgery (at my lowest of 160) pictures to keep pinned up on my fridge to remind me what happened last time I allowed myself to eat whatever I wanted, however I got there with little exercise. I now need to exercise though to keep the weight off and try to tone up. How does everyone else encourage themselves?

Dannadl

I didn't start exercising until a year after RNY. The exercise Physiologist at my surgeon's office told me not to expect to see any results from exercise for 6 months. Yep. 6 months. So, I started with the expectation of no results for 6 months. Those 1st 6 months I didn't like to go to the gym and I went because I had committed to myself to do so for 6 months. My only goal was consistency. I would look for excuses not to go and force myself to go anyway. At the 6 months mark, I did see some results, but the biggest one was that I wasn't having to force myself to go anymore. I can't say that I loved it but I didn't hate it anymore. At the 9 month mark I started to like it. Now at the 15 months mark I love it. I do boot camp 4 mornings a week, I do 2-3 spin classes a week, I lift weights 2-3 days a week and I run 3-4 days a week (I'm training for a 1/2 marathon - but I've never run more than 3.5 miles in my life and that's only been in the last 6 months!) I try new classes at my gym periodically to try new things. I also set periodic goals to work toward. My 1st goal was to run a 5K, it took me 7 months of training, but I did it in Oct. and have run 6 more since. Right now I'm trying to do a 1/2 marathon in Nov. 2014, do regular not on the knees push ups, get over my fear of box jumps. Once I do this I want to work to doing a pull up and climbing a rope.

I can't say exercise has accelerated my weight loss. It really hasn't. I had RNY 3/2012. In my 1st year I lost 124.5lbs without exercising. My second year I lost 41lbs exercising a lot, but not tracking my food. Since my 2 year med check 6 weeks or so ago I've lost another 10.5lbs because I'm tracking my food again and exercising. I've lost a total of 177lbs and have 36.5lbs more I'd like to lose.

So, the slowing of weight loss in my second year taught me a big lesson. It's 80% what you eat. You simply can't out run your fork, you can't exercise away bad eating habits. Don't get me wrong, I love to exercise now and it does help to buy me some margin on days or weeks that me eating is less than stellar, but it isn't the magic bullet.

pal00ga

Thank you for replying. I guess overall, I just have to find something to stick to because it looks like it will be a long while before I simply enjoy doing it.
I don't hate the gym. Once I'm there, I usually like to push myself to stay longer. It's the pushing myself to go in the first place that I have trouble with. I make excuses for why I shouldn't go that day or tell myself I'll just buy an elliptical for home. I know when I had an exercise machine at home before (living with parents), I used it quite often, but that isn't getting in any different exercises, so I don't know that it would be very beneficial without changing it up.

csmccord

Quite honestly, the most encouragement that I get is from myself. It doesn't take me long to realize how far I've come in the last 20 months. I had RNY surgery early in Sept, 2012. Since that point, I've told myself that I'm a fat guy trapped in a skinny man's body. When I first started my journey, the medical staff told me one thing that really stuck in my mind. 50% of surgery patients gain it all back within 5 years. I found that truly astounding. Personally, I don't want to be part of that statistic. Really, I think these are my primary motivators. I simply don't want to look like that anymore.

So, for the first year, I was truly motivated, and lost about 133 lbs. However, the vast majority of that was in the first 8 months or so. I had a very long, "stall" and starting showing a gain over the course of the holidays. I say stall because I never did any extra work. I never tracked, I never exercised. However, at New Years I recommitted to myself. I'm truly scared of gaining it all back. Since Jan 1st, I've lost about 15 lbs, however I'm not the greatest at tracking anymore.

As for exercise, I've seen results, however, not in weight form. I've gained muscle mass, and improved my body's look. I can see some ab muscles underneath my extra belly skin, and I've lost the loose skin on my arms. So, I don't exercise to lose weight, I exercise to gain muscle. It also has the added benefit of giving me more leeway in my diet. I'm limited to about 1900 calories a day, however with exercise I can eat up to 2500 or so and still be okay.

So, to keep me motivated at the gym, I essentially hired a personal trainer, however it's a group fitness class, and much cheaper than a full on person trainer. My wife and I both go for $200 a month. At the same gym a full personal training runs about $100 an hour. I have two group sessions a week, and then do three days of cardio in between. He monitors our body fat and weight, so he'll know if we starting overdoing it on the nutrition portion. But beyond that I've found that once I started going to gym regularly, it just became habit. Now most days there isn't even a question of if I'm going or not. I just go. I've sometimes gotten in my car after work, and started driving home. Sometime during the drive, my brain is placed on autopilot and when I become conscious again, I find myself in the gym parking lot. On days where I do want to go, I make myself do it. I tell myself, "okay, do the warm up and 10 minutes of cardio. If you don't feel like doing anything after that then go home." Never once have I not done at least 3/4 of my normal workout on those days.

stroynaya

I find that if I get to the gym first thing in the morning it works better. I am actually more organized for the day, having planned and packed everything the night before, and my brain isn't yet awake enough to come up with excuses or other things to do.

bikrchk

I've found first thing in the morning is the only way I can keep the habit without life getting in the way. I purchased a good quality stationary bike and get up an hour early (this would be 4:30 am) to spend an hour on it 5 days per week, (I take weekends off). I try to look at it as "I get to get up this early because I am now healthy enough to exercise and it actually makes me feel GOOD". I was so sick with weight related illness before, I've vowed never to take my health for granted again.

garber6th

I make exercise part of my daily routine during the work week. I go to the gym straight from work, and just make it part of the day. I sometimes skip weekends, but if I do go, I will go first thing in the morning, which is amazing because I am not so much a morning person! I have thought about going to the gym in the morning during the week instead of after work, but I already get up at 5 for work, and waking up any earlier would be torture. My other option is to adjust my work hours to accommodate morning workouts. Fortunately my hours are flexible and its an option. I am at a point where I am willing to shift my schedule around if need be to make exercise a priority. It's something I have to do if I don't want to go back to square one, but I also really like how exercise makes me feel. I just remind myself how crappy I felt before and how I don't want to feel that way again. That definitely motivates me.

pal00ga

Just gaining this 20 lbs is extremely upsetting for me, so to even think about gaining more would really kill me.
The hard part for me is still just GOING to the gym. My gym is on campus where I live about 2 miles away. So I either have to walk to the gym which would be a welcome warmup (it's the walking back after my muscles are all sore that I despise), or I have to drive and park, paying $5 for parking each time I go. But given the cost I forked over for surgery, this should be a no brainer

pal00ga

I also think it's a little difficult because, being a student, I don't have much of a regular schedule.
Sure I have certain hours I'm in class, but being an upperclassman, almost all of my courses are group project based courses, so I'm almost always spending random hours with other students or getting called in for meetings last minute.
At least this summer I will have a (hopefully) regularly-scheduled internship and can work in a workout routine then.

pawoodhull

For me, it's the daily realization that I can do so much more than I ever could before. It's putting on size 16/18 clothes instead of 32/34. It's looking in the mirror and loving what I see now, not shying away from the camera, knowing that my husband is more attracted to me than he's been in years (not a dig on him, it's a very natural response), having my friends and family comment on how good I look, etc. And if I need more, I have a picture of me before. I don't ever want to go back there.

I'm not done yet, still haven't reached goal and I'm almost 3 years out. I lose slowly and I've had some really long stalls, but I'm not ready to be done yet. And that's my motivation to keep going even when I'm discouraged. I'm not done yet. Me. My choice to do this. My choice to see it through. For the first time in my life I am losing weight. And I'm not done yet.

Dannadl

I'm coming from the place of being an old mom. I had my kids when I was almost 39 and almost 41 and went from being a professional with control of my schedule to a stay at home mom at the mercy of newborns. Now my boys are 5 & 7 and I homeschool them. Is my schedule regular? Sort of but often not. You can't let schedule be the issue. Honestly. I say this as one of the most schedule and checklist loving people you'll EVER meet. I LOVE LOVE LOVE structure and order, seriously I alphabetize my spices...for real. But, with kids, or being a student or working shift work or lots of other reasons you sometimes just can't have it so you have to adapt. You look for the pockets of time to get to the gym and just do it. Even if it's at different times everyday. I personally prefer to workout 1st thing in the morning. If I wait until evening there's a really good chance I won't do it. But, there are days that 1st thing in the morning would have to end up being 4am and that's the middle of the night and I'm just not doing that. So, I adapt, I look for pockets of time during the day, or worst case scenario I go in the evening.

rpyle111

I have tried the early morning workout routine and I just can't sustain it. I like sleep too much. Lunchtime has never worked out for me, which leaves evenings. Evenings have the built in trap of 'I'm tired, I just ate dinner, etc. etc." I'm eating a lot less for dinner these days and hopefully evening workouts will work this time.

There is never gong to be a perfect time to work out, it just has to be a higher priority than my excuses!