Losing interest

rachel1783

HI all,

I have been on this site for a few weeks now and have not budged an inch. I wish I could say it is because I am just not sure what I am doing but sadly not the case. I just can't seem to stay motivated for more than 3 days at a time. I just get frustrated and upset at the size I am rather than focus on what I may become if I stay with it and focused. This is made worse by the fact that I am in lawschool and heading into exams, the most stressful and unhealthy time of the year. Any tips on (1) how to manage my academic stress period in terms of not eating junk food and (2) staying focused rather than beating myself up about being / feeling grossly overweight you be a huge asset to me and GREATLY appreciated.

Many thanks.

pdcarrell

Having your DIary open to friends holds you accountable that's it your honest if your not your only cheating yourself! Add a support team of friends on here Don't feel ashamed of asking for advice when you hit a low... Keep your goals in head and stick to it you can do it it's just how bad you want it! It works when you stick to your calories and make time for excersize you are worth it!

gettinfitmama

How about setting small goals? Can you aim for drinking 64 ounces of water each day for a week? When that becomes a habit, try making sure you get 3 fruits and veggies each day. When that becomes a habit, set another small goal.

gbtesq

Been there, done that. I know how stressful exams can be so I wouldn't beat myself up right now about the eating. Exam period is a short period of time. Afterwards, you can concentrate on the fitness. What you can do though is find a healthy snack that you enjoy - i.e. carrots dipped in ranch or popcorn without butter and snack on that while you study for exams. You will relieve yourself of some guilt because you are eating something healthy yet putting your focus where it should be for that moment.

Remember, you didn't get here overnight so you won't fix it overnight. One meal or one day is not the end. Just pick up and try to do a little better the next. Eventually you'll find that you are making greater strides than you thought!

Good luck on exams! What year are you?

lalexanderfamily

Introduce this website to some of your friends and get one or two of your close friends to do it with you. That has helped me a lot. I've been with this for 2 weeks and I've lost 8 pounds. Trust me, I need to lose about 57 more pounds, so I understand how you feel. I have a good friend doing this with me and we send messages to each other all of the time for encouragement and we talk about it at work. We are both addicted. And, I have met a young mother on here that lives in New Hampshire (I am in Georgia) and we send messages of encouragement and congratulations to each other all of the time. Eating baby dill pickles, when I am hungry at odd times, has really helped. And, I hate exercise, but I walk one 2 miles a day, 5 days a week, on the treadmill. And drink the water! That will help you lose it faster. Good luck and stay with it! It works.

SweetTooth68

Try these ideas:
1/ Read success stories
2/ Look for buddies on here with similar goals to keep each other on track
3/ Make smaller achievable goals for yourself along the way - it's really hard to look at the final goal only because it is a long way off - so break it up into small goals eg to log everything you eat for 7 days in a row, to lose 5 lbs, to exercise 3 times in one week, for 30 mins a time etc etc whatever will work for you - and then celebrate those small victories (not with food though lol)
4/ Stick with changes you can maintain forever. Don't pick a goal of exercising 3 hours a day or something unless you want to do that for the rest of your life. Don't swear off foods you love, unless you can quit them forever - it's just the amount you need to monitor. I think Bethenny Frankel says something like this "Try everything, finish nothing" - you can have small amounts of absolutely anything - just dont eat a lot of it!

Hang in there! You can do this!

As for dealing with stress - exercise. Start running. Try the couch to 5k program. i am still on week 2 after 5 weeks, but that's ok!

Plus it's hard to eat and exercise at the same time

Swilson87

(1) How to manage my academic stress period in terms of not eating junk food and

You've picked a really tough time to start your transformation. However, very few things in life are impossible or hopeless. My wife was a snack-a-holic, and has since found health/ier alternatives. There is nothing that can be done about academic stress, because the school is designed to stress you out. As far as the eating junk food is concerned, just plan ahead. When you plan ahead you can have your meals ready to go, and have them be filling so even if the urge to eat hits, you realize it's false because you still feel full.

(2) Staying focused rather than beating myself up about being / feeling grossly overweight you be a huge asset to me and GREATLY appreciated.

Ok, so you realized you're not as fit and trim as you would like to be. Now that's over time for phase 2. Everyone on this site is here because they realized they needed/wanted to make a change (phase 1). Plan your work, and work your plan. This site has tools and people to help you along the way. Use them.

goohan

eating 'brain food' not only helps your brain but it helps metabolism, diabeties, blood pressure and everything else.

what i would do is I would tell myself 'you can eat all the junk food you want but ONLY after you have eaten a massive amount of beain food' then you feel full up and don't fancy too much junk food after.

Good brain food:
salmon
tuna
spinnach
tomatoes
broccoli
bananas
blueberries
nuts-esp. almonds and brazil
seeds esp. sesame, flaxseed, pumpkin seed
chicken without skin
turkey with out skin
oats
oat cakes


if you tell yourself 'i can eat as much chocolate as I like after I've eaten 60g oatmeal for breakfast', you wont wanna eat very much chocolate and you'll be very full lol

thats what i do to me anyway good luck on exams xx

rosebarnalice

I was a "professional grad student" for a good 8 years. . . so I can sympathize with the exam stress.

I was really bad about "rewarding" myself with pizza for lunch or a fatty "burrito as big as my head" when I was overloaded with exams or project deadlines.

I can't really say HOW if happened, but one year it just clicked for me that my "rewards" were really "punishments" to my already overloaded emotional and physical systems.

I bought easy to prepare but healthy stuff and made a point of filling up my school backpack every morning before I left for campus with good stuff like (e.g., peanut butter, high fiber whole wheat bread; apples; celery and carrot sticks, low fat yogurt, etc.).

When I started thinking of this kind of healthy food as a reward to my stressed out system, and I thought of loading up that backpack as "taking care of myself", then it was easy to say no to vending machines and fast food crap.

qtrhrsewoman

Open your diary to friends, even though most of our strangers on here it was a huge difference to me having to be accountable to someone. I would say that exercise is a great stress reliever, but I know it can be hard to make time for it when you have exams to study for. Even a 15 minute walk outside, through the library, whatever can help. Snack on veggies or nuts instead of chips. 100 calorie packs would probably be a good thing for you right now. Lots of water.

I also know that I was like you and couldn't stay motivated then all of a sudden something clicked and it has kept me going. I don't know what it was. Wish I did so I could give it away to everyone I know.

Set solid goals for why you are losing weight. Make them personal. "To be healthier." is fine. We all need to be, but unless you have a life threatening condition, really not much of a motivator for most people. (I'll catch flack for saying that, but it is true.)

Be vain, be superficial. "I want to look dang good in court!", or "I want to daze and confuse opposing counsel with my smokin' hot fanny!" LOL, only you can pick your reasons, but they don't have to be about health and blah, blah, blah. I decided I didn't want to be the fat chick on the boat anymore.

Good luck and I hope you find what works for you and motivates you. Remember we are all here as a community to support one another in this journey.

Deszare

Depending on what time your day starts and what time you need to take your exams, get up eat a banana or a bowl of special K cereal. Get in your gym clothes start working out. Take a shower have glass of water or coffee doesn't really matter and start your day. Try not to focus so much at what your supposed to do, Just do it without thinking about it. before you know it you'll catch yourself looking in the mirror and see a new and healthy you. Or if you have classes early, get up have cereal and coffee or water whatever you drink, NO SODA! Take a shower and go! When your all done. Eat some dinner make sure its atleast kinda healthy if not only eat half. Go back home get in your gym clothes get your butt to the gym. Just don't think about it while your doing it. You know what you really have to do. Don't focus on what you look like or how you feel just get your butt in geer! Good luck! Add me as a friend if want! Yeah you should probably make sure what your eating is healthy. Make sure you have healthy snacks in between as well. Your aloud to splurge every now and then it wont kill you only if you work out that day all will be just fine.