Staying motivated when we fall off the wagon

trea16

I am so use to putting everyone else before me and it gets me off track from my goal in losing weight. Then I lose motivation. I know that Im not the only one out there that goes throught this, but how do you stay focused and put your weight loss goals first? Then if you slide not beat y

maserati185

The key for me is letting everyone know that on this day at this time, I will be exercising, no matter what. With food, I try eating healthy first and waiting. If I'm still hungry, I go from there. When I fall off the wagon (which is often), I've realized that the best remedy is to waste no time beating myself up and jump back up there.

ajbeans

Have you ever been on an airplane? When the flight attendants talk about the oxygen masks, they make sure to tell you to put your own on before you help someone else. Why? Because if you don't take care of yourself, you can't take care of anyone else.

I guess the solution depends on what you're struggling with. If it's diet, you just need to get into the habit of logging everything you eat, and learn to plan ahead so you don't forget about lunch and then find yourself binging on cookies because you're so hungry. It only takes a minute or two to plan out your meals the day before or the morning of, and the benefits are huge. If you're struggling with exercise, find something fun you can do with the family. Take a walk, dance in the living room, etc. Or find a time that's just for you -- wake up a little earlier than everyone in the morning, or take some time in the evening, or use naptime if you have kids who nap. (If you have kids and they're too old to nap, you could institute a "quiet time" when everyone goes to their room for half an hour or so to read or play quietly, and they have to honor it and let you have your time during that period.)

I'm assuming your last thought was going to be, "not beat yourself up." To that I say, I just don't. There is no HOW. Just don't. Guilt is an absolutely useless emotion. It serves no purpose. All it does is demotivate you and make you more likely to mess up in the future, because you're so busy telling yourself how much you've failed that you can't work on succeeding. So don't. You messed up on eating with a dessert at lunch? Oh well, you can have a healthy, filling dinner. You had a whole day of binging? That sucks, but tomorrow you just drink lots of water and try to pay more attention to cravings so you can eat healthy foods before you get so hungry that you have to binge. You didn't exercise? Oh well, just work out like normal today. You're the only one making yourself feel guilty. So just don't. You get to choose when you punish your children for things they do wrong, don't you? And you get to choose whether or not you punish yourself. So choose not to.