What keeps you going day after day???

placeboaddiction

My enjoying of spicy foods (had heart burn when I was big)
My enjoying of being checked out A LOT (seriously...its weird to me.. I'm used to being that fat awkward guy... now I'm just that athletically built awkward guy)
My wife. To support her. To be her rock. To be the best I can be for her.
My friends. *eyes wonder*
My depression is a lot less
My feeling of disgust every time I stuff my self full
My health
My blood pressure. It gets out of control pretty quick with me. Its hereditary. With my weight loss I am cool as a cucumber..while I felt my patience was always VERY thin when I was heavy.
My kids. They are awesome, and deserve their daddy for a long time.

sparkie51

I have been doing this for one year already and I remind myself it takes time. I gained over a period of years so losing will be even slower.I don't let the scale get me down.I let the clothes do the talking and the feeling I get when I look at myself and see the difference.I also try to not feel I am depriving myself. I have a little frozen yogurt or a quarter of a piece of cake once in a while. I do not think of this as a diet:IT IS HOW I EAT NOW! I am a thin person and I have a thin person's attitude even tho I am not totally there yet LOL Good luck and do not lose faith in the results.They will come with work and the work is not easy!

MdmAcolyte

I'm in the same boat. I have made progress, and I was starting to fall off the wagon, and then YESTERDAY I found a picture of me from a couple years ago at my "Most Fattest-ness" and Im going to take that nasty ******* pic and keep it in my wallet to remind myself that "We are not going there again" ~ you know, right next to my DRIVER'S LICENSE PHOTO that makes me look like I won the pie eating contest at the county fair (and, consequently, baked all of the pies myself).

My inner fat brat is in time-out indefinitely.

ErB56

I do not think that you are that far off from being where you want to be. The only thing that you really have to change is the mindset of "I will start again Monday." Bad days happen to everyone. The difference is to try to figure out why, try to avoid or change that in the future and most of all change the thought process to "I will start again *tomorrow*!"

Alpina483

To me, hardest part is to set my mind on treating myself right. Once the mind knows 'what', figuring out 'how' is a technicality...(in which MFP does seem to be making a difference for me, as logging food gets easier and a lot of routine calculations are done for you). I'll know better in a month or two )) but my point is, there is a certain momentum / inertia in doing what's good for you just as well as in doing bad. So it gets easier... I think.

Sophiem1402

When i dont feel like working out, or i want to just eat something nice and fatty I will read the Success Stories on MFP. I LOVE to look at the stories with before and after pictures and i think, if they can do it then whats stopping me!!

That gives me the motivation to work that extra harder and i also saw a quote just the other day -

"More sweat now, Less Jiggle later"

Good Luck

JenKillough

I am having the hardest time staying focused and on track. Or I mess up once and just say, "I'll start again next week". How do I avoid that? Then I get depressed and mad at myself and of course, that makes it worse.... HELP!:sad:

Just drop the "get depressed and mad at myself" part... and keep coming back to it. Know WHY you are doing it. Know exactly what you want to accomplish.

And having awesome friends here really makes it easier :flowerforyou:

Elen_Sia

My motivation: deep-seated fear of going back to where I came from.

carolstartingover

Knowing that my arthristis in knees will improve and that I won't need knee surgery because for every 10 pounds of extra weight, there is 4 times that much pressure on my knees. I hear overweight young people who say they cannot catch up with their toddlers. I can stil catch up to my grandson who is 21 months old, but it would be easier with 45 pounds off. I like to be mobile and to fit in last years pants.

Skinny_Jeans_Soon

Buy a bikini and hang it from the corner of your bathroom mirror. Works for me and keeps me focused. I will often hang jeans or a cute dress that is one size smaller or just snug on the outside of the closet door. I try it on every week until it fits.

jenmurray116

2 things -

My knees - I have severe arthritis in one, moderate in the other. A bad fall scared me - if I don't lose weight/get in shape I could end up in a wheelchair before the Dr's are ready to do knee replacements. And knowing knee replacements are in my ftuture, I know I'm not physically ready for that surgery. The Dr told me we put 6 times our body weight in pressure on our knees - I can't keep doing this kind of damage to them.

Second, I keep remind myself that if I had only stuck to this when I started a few months ago, a year ago, the year before that - I'd be at goal by now. Do I really want to say the same thing next year?? No. For once, I want to BE at goal.

Kelly_Runs_NC

The way my clothes fit now compared to how they used to fit 50lbs ago....I used to HATE and I mean HATE myself. I know I dopn't ever in a million years want to have those feelings again. That keeps me motivated. Because NOTHING tastes as good as skinny feels.

Keep your head up girl.

BioShocked89

I exercise by doing what I love: walking and tennis. I invited my friends to go for walks, or just go with my family, or with my nieces and nephews. Bottom line is: I have fun exercising. I let myself enjoy it, and the time flies. I worked out every day for about 9 days straight now because I think it's fun. I have to force myself to to take a day to sit still now!

If I have something that's going to put me over, or I know dinner will be a little overboard, I either work out extra before or after. At the very least, if I can't make sure my net isn't in the red, I at least want that number to be smaller.

KilikiMom

i keep in mind...my starting weight...i do NOT want to ever see that number ever again....yes there are days where i just kinda go with the flow...but i KNOW that it will not ruin me and i will be okay

nrhug19

I just look at it as time will pass whether or not I am doing something healthy for myself.. I might as well control the one thing in life I can reasonably control.. and that is my weight. So many things in our lives happen that we have no control over. And I take it meal by meal. If I have a meal that has more calories in it than I had originally planned, oh well. The next one will be right back on track and life goes on.. It is definitely a lifelong process.

LorinaLynn

Make small, sustainable changes, rather than trying to overhaul everything all at once. IE, instead of trying to make EVERY meal perfect, I stopped having Pop Tarts for breakfast. Not that an English Muffin smeared with Nutella was MUCH better, but it was lower calories and better nutrition. When those changes become habit, make another change.

Set fitness goals. For me, it was being able to run a 5k with my brother and his daughter. The first race I was going to do with them was about three months after I started running with Couch to 5k. My very athletic niece kicked my butt, but I kept up with my brother, and after about 5 months of running, I was only a few seconds behind my niece.

After a while, I realized that I feel so much better when I exercise and eat well, but until then, it was a fake it til you make it kind of deal. Seeing my fitness levels increase each week kept me motivated. I knew even if I didn't see any changes in the mirror or the scale, I was doing good things for my body and becoming stronger and healthier.

zaph0d

I want to be fit, lean, and strong, so I do things every day to keep myself lean, fit, and strong.

alpine1994

I find setting mini-goals for myself keeps me on track.

Last weekend, I bought a slinky little dress for a wedding I'm going to this weekend. So I had 2 weeks to "be good" and really ramp up the exercise to feel confident in my dress.

For a little longer term, I bought a bridesmaid dress for a wedding I'm in next May in the size I am now. The girl at the dress shop told me the dress can NOT be "let out" because the fabric doesn't allow, but it can be taken in if I get smaller. I had to promise her I wouldn't get fat! haha

kalawhon

I know it is really tough, expecially when you first start off!! You have that little voice in the back of your head saying, go ahead and eat it, It's not going to hurt you, but in your own mind you know it's not good for you and you need to exercise and eat healthy for you. And then that voice says, just do it tomorrow, but really you don't do it, it moves from a day to week to weeks.
Kind of like the devil and God.
I can honestly say what has really kept me going since starting my journey in March is the people on TeamBeachBody.com and on here at MFP and looking at so many other peoples transformation pictures and reading about there journey. It has helped me continue to push forward. Also by joining a group on the message boards who's doing the same things as you, helped out tremendouisly bc you know you are accountable for doing your workout that day along with other wonderful motivated people like yourself. I felt like if I didn't do my workout that day then I'd be behind and I didn't want that. I also said to myself at the begining of my journey, I kept that voice in my head stating: "Kim YOU CAN DO THIS, AND YOU WILL". I made sure I made myself a promise to lose the weight, and be fit by a certian time and NO BODY WAS going to stop me bc I am doing this FOR ME & I was out to prove to my hubby and folks you CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE if you try hard enough and NEVER give up!!
I def. proved myself and it feels great!

You can do this hun!! YOu just have to have faith! Hang in there, take one day at a time!!

Hope this helped! Love to be your friend if you need support for whatever reasons!! xoxo-Kim

Alpina483

Just drop the "get depressed and mad at myself" part... and keep coming back to it. Know WHY you are doing it. Know exactly what you want to accomplish.

And having awesome friends here really makes it easier :flowerforyou:

I SO agree on dropping the bad feelings part. Don't know how it's going to sound, but they kind of don't matter for your (my, our) purpose. So I try to focus on what matters.