Need a little support and motivation...

joannecando

To get that willpower start by gradually cutting back on your portions. Try cutting things in half. Purposely ask for a to go container (before) you start eating. And then have the leftover portion for lunch, supper, the next day. Also start looking at the portion sizes.

Thank you Scott, very much! I appreciate the support and nudge.
I especially loved this tip!! I would have never thought of it!

This is a great tip, and something I tried for a long time. Unfortunately, I found that when I took the food home, I sat down and ate it as soon as I got there, accomplishing nothing by setting it aside. I have started boxing the food up, then just leaving it on the table at the restaurant. Out of sight, out of mind.

BTW, I KNOW YOU CAN DO THIS!

wolfsoul121

Hi Rachel,

I just recently started using MFP religiously on my tablet and don't come here often, so probably wouldn't be a good consistent motivator, but have some thoughts for you that might help out. (But feel free to friend me if you wish, and I'll be more than happy to help you out, and will certainly respond to any messages you send me.) And as you'll find out, I'm not short of words to say when I actually start talking.

I've always been pretty fit, but over the course of years my weight gradually climbed until I was about 25 pounds heavier than I really felt I should be. I started working out more seriously, but that didn't affect anything. I lost neither pounds nor inches. So I got curious about how much food I was REALLY eating on a daily basis and just started tracking my calorie intake. This was before I knew about MFP, so it was a pain to do, but the result was AMAZING. I wasn't even really trying to lose weight at that point, I just wanted to know how many calories I was eating each day, knowing how many calories I SHOULD be eating each day. Once I started looking at serving sizes, I was absolutely blown away. A serving size for tortilla chips is like 14 chips. My reaction was, "Seriously???? Just 14 chips???" That was a major eye-opener for me.

I found myself at the office with a choice of snacks before me. I could eat 20 chocolate covered raisins and be satisfied for about 30 minutes, or I could eat an apple and be satisfied for 90 minutes, then eat some carrots and be satisfied for another 90 minutes and for the same amount of calories as the 20 measly chocolate covered raisins. Just looking at the serving size and weighing the satisfaction level for the foods I was eating made me naturally choose the healthier foods and I found that I lost 25 pounds in a matter of a couple months, again without every really thinking of myself as being "on a diet". (For the record, I still eat the chocolate covered raisins, but I do so in a more measured fashion than I used to.) As a result, I never feel deprived, but I eat my healthily.

That experience made me a true believer and repeater of the mantra, "Calories in, calories out." You can exercise until you're blue in the face, but if you consume more calories than you burn, you'll never lose weight. You will become more fit, but you won't lose weight. (That may not be entirely true, but you know what I mean.)

Another thing that helps me out is that I refuse to let myself off the hook. My goal is to exercise every day after work (I sometimes give myself a pass on weekends or if I have plans in the evenings on weekdays). There are days that I definitely do NOT feel like working out when I get home. I get through that in a couple of ways. One, if I delay and say, "I'll work out after dinner." Or, "I'll workout after I check my e-mail." Odds are it will never happen. I walk in the door, get a drink, maybe a snack, and get right down to it. Once you get into that habit, it's easier to get done. Let yourself have a lazy workout every now and again, but always do SOMETHING. There are times when all I'll do is 5 minutes of abs (or whatever), but I always at least do something. That reinforces the habit and makes it easier to stay motivated on those tough days when all you want to do is crash. This is what I call the "grim determination" that is sometimes the only thing that gets me going. I want to blow it off, but after long habit, something inside me says, "No, do not let your negative attitude defeat you. Work out. Now." And I do. And I NEVER feel worse after I exercise than I did before.

Back to portions and serving sizes. One thing that helped me out is that I would find out the portion size and pull that much of that food out of the package and put it in a separate container. Put the package away. I never recommend doing something like eating potato chips right out of the bag. It is way too easy to lose track of how many you've eaten or to keep saying, "just one more." and before you know it you've eaten about 8 servings and consumed half your daily caloric intake. Seeing how much a serving is (and thinking about how long that will keep you satisfied) is also great motivation to eat healthier, more filling foods. An entire zucchini has fewer calories that a dozen potato chips. So does an apple.

If you happen to be competitive (especially with yourself), here's another trick: Make a game/challenge for yourself. For example, I have a list of 10 things that I have decided are extremely important to me and that I want to do on a weekly basis (for example, reading, learning something new, working on my website, exercising, learning Spanish, etc.) For every day that I do one of those goals for 30 minutes, I give myself a point. My goal is to rack up at least 11 points each week, meaning I will have spent at least 5.5 hours working towards my goals. (If I read for 2 hours, I still only get one point, which is my way of forcing myself to diversify what I do in order to reach my goal. Though if I do something for at least 15 minutes, I will give myself half points.) I hate not reaching my potential (not reaching my 11 points per week), and as a result I VERY rarely fail to do what it takes to get me over the top (and often well over the top.)

Anyway, hopefully you'll find something in all of that jabber above that you can apply to your life and help you achieve your goals. You can definitely do it.

As an additional little motivator, due to back problems and the subsequent inability to exercise, my wife has been gaining weight for about a year and a half now. She absolutely HATES counting calories and has always felt that all she needed to do was eat healthy things and she would lose weight. It never worked. I repeated my "calories in, calories out" (CICO) mantra to her over and over again to get her motivated to count calories, but she always resisted. After finding MFP just a couple of weeks ago, which made it easier for me to help her track her calories, she has been following the CICO mantra. Yesterday she told me she has lost 2.5 pounds! She had done nothing but gain weight for 18 months, and in two weeks of CICO, she lost 2.5 pounds. I'm a true believer. It works. So just know that. Follow it. And succeed!


Take care,

Brian

giniginib

So, it turns out that I do really have a question:

Is it selfish if I come on here and ask "I need some asskicking today, friends come in?"

:laugh:

That's what we're here for!! Isn't it funny how strangers can often be more supportive than friends or family? Take a look at my status update yesterday - needed a little encouragement to stop myself 'falling off the wagon' so to speak! I asked and most certianly got it!!

And don't forget...we're either going through it too or have already been through it! You are never alone on here!!!

ziplock123

Hi, My name is Linda,
I can agree with all of you all I just joined today and well me and my daughter who is 16 and has been dealing with thyroids since she was 3 is now a 250lbs and is very overweight. She and I both need to loose the weight but we have no motivation and we have tried to do diets and have had no success. It hurts me cause I can't help her cause I can't even begin to help myself. So I thought maybe some others felt the same way. As a mom I feel I let her down and she tries so hard she is a trooper. Anyway we need some help in the motivation dept. So if anyone has any advice we would take it and appreciate it.

sean13132425

me to i am new to

Pipsg1rl

This is more about how you feel he should be encouraging you --

Read or simply take the 5 love languages quiz. Yours sounds like "Words of Affirmation." While his must be something else completely.

It's a fun little way to figure out how your SO feels and shows love.

Lots of supportive people on MFP -- I've definately stuck around longer than orginally planned just for that reason.