How do you stick to it for more than a week?

LordBear

cut the bull stop with the excuses and just do it... you have to will it to happen..not want it..not need it...those are great but if u dont physically push ur self to do it..its not going to happen...

davert123

Empty your house of crap food.
Get plenty of MFP friends - then dump the majority who don't comment on your status then repeat until you have a good bunch of sociable people
Open your diary to let people see it.

If you are pigging on sugar - cut all sugar from your diet and have a look at radiant recovery - don't have any at all - every. If this thought makes you feel uncomfortable it is even more important for you stop. After a few days you will be feeling better.

Good luck
Dave

zechks

Hi All

I have tried to do MFP loads of times and find it difficult to get past 1 or 2 weeks as i get bored.

How on earth do you keep it up - even with the temptations of tasty junk food....??

Work is the hardest as i work in an office and the depts "snack cupboard" is ALWAYS full up of junk/crisps/chocolate......

HELP PLEASE

It's all about setting your mind onto something. And it will depend on how bad you want to achieve your goals. The more you want it, the harder you work for it.

RobinvdM

I don't think I have been bored with this yet, frustrated sure. Annoyed obviously, but I have yet to be bored.

I get bored with what I eat sometimes, but then I change it up and have something new until Im done being sick of whatever food it is.

I have yet to be bored with trying to get my life back on a healthy track, maybe it's cause being so overweight at the start of it I got a lot of instant gratification with the numbers rolling down thanks to the exercise I was doing, and the better way I was eating, and the not indulging in junk food as frequently as I used to.

I suppose it is just a mindset. You either really want this and are committed to it, or you aren't. Think of it like you are marrying this lifestyle. Better, worse, sickness, health, good times, and in bad you just stick it out and learn to roll with what life throws your way.

I don't NOT EAT junk food, I just don't eat it all the time. Hum, it's been 4 weeks since my last smore. Must be almost time for another >.>

Edited to correct grammar a bit, I didn't eat exercise XD

tinlee

To start, focus on just logging all of your food every day (good or bad). Then just make minor changes to improve your diet over time. Massive changes are going to be much harder to maintain long term than a series of smaller changes.

^^ This!

I have slowly made small changes, thus my slow weight change. But I still enjoy eating my food, maybe more now than I did before! Mainly I want to be healthier and be able to stick with it. I know I can't stick with low carb or no sugar so I don't even try. I just try to eat better each day.

Crystaleyed

You first of all need to really want to change, at the end of the day you can either chose to change by not eating junk or if you have an eating problem, seeking help, or you can stay where you are. Having said that I do know what you mean because at first I found it hard to remember to log what I was doing. I find it helps if for the first week or so you don't change your diet at all, you just get used to logging your food and exercise and finding your way around the site and then when it becomes a habit to log on and log food, exercise and get involved.
Hope that has helped:)

970Mikaela1

265 days in a row because i don't want to be like i was...i like me now!! 65 lbs gone

rgoodale

First of all, don't stress out if you don't make an entry, everyone does, just make yourself do it a few days; (I know it's difficult), :glasses: but after committing yourself to 3 days you might enjoy trackiing what you eat and the self-grattitude that comes from completing a worthy task.. After you get used to using the basic program, e.g. add to food diary; using the food bank, You will be flying around the App. .I enjoy both viewing my ...whatever! Remember, no one is watching you, criticizing you, or trying to make you feel guilty, you know the drill. Your only
enemy is yourself, which is the toughest...but "YOU CAN DO IT Let me know
:
Randy.:glasses :glasses:

myohana4

The first few weeks are the hardest. YOU CAN DO THIS! Just reach down deep and think about why you wanted to lose weight in the first place. Write it down and read it often. What put me over the edge and wanted me to make a change was that someone took a picture of me and I was shocked to see what I looked like. It was an eye opener....and keeps me motivated.

You need to find what motivates you.

You can totally add me as a friend. Just a warning...I check diaries and will comment!

THINk_kkaybbyx0

i found it really really hard to get rid of all of the junky-food eating for the first 2-3 weeks,

but then i started going out and gradually buying healthier snacking options.. like yogurt with reeses pieces and m&ms and oreos, or apple cinnamon straws.. where you can get the satisfaction of having something sweet without feeling the guilt of consuming too many calories.

then i started getting into the habbit of prelogging my foods,

and now i couldnt picture a day without logging

healthylady88

This isn't something that is short term. It has to be a way of life and for every good choice you make you will have good results. You just can't have it both ways. I guess you have to ask yourself what is more important to you. Eating junk or losing weight. I always think back on something I heard in a WW meeting over 20 years ago...Nothing taste as good as thin feels
You can do it if you want it bad enough.
Good Luck!!

heyitsmekatie

you just have to be in a frame of mind where you really, really want it -- more so than the junk food. it also helps to tell friends and coworkers that you've made this life change -- they can help keep you going by encouraging you when you're doing well and giving you crap when you slack off.

Ditsen

Drink loooooads of green tea with sweeteners

Shrelana

I have been doing it for over 2 yrs and I cant imagine going back to life before MFP. Before MFP I was having falling spells, (falling for no reason), I was falling asleep in midsentence, I was in bed 2-4 days a week, so for me it is about loving life again and nothing is worth going back for not even hot fudge sundaes
You have to decide how much you want it
replace the foods you are now eating with new lowcal favorites ex I dont buy containers of ice cream anymore I buy ice cream bars
Take your own lowcal foods to put in a seperate container in the junk cupboard at work ex popchips, mini rice cakes, apples, popcorn , etc
YOU CAN DO THIS HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT

Sorry to hear about your falling spells, glad it's gotten better

I do the tactic of taking my own low cal foods to work with me - our meals are provided, cafateria style along with Calorie information (like 350 Calories a meal on average) and then we have snack time later (I work at a youth home for troubled kids - when they have snack time, we snack with them), and during that time, everyone knows by this point that I bring from home things that are lower in Calories It works out really well, and you can make it work I think the best piece of advice I have gotten that I can pass on to you is to figure out your one "junkie" type of food that you don't want to miss out on, and then fit it into your maintenance...for me, it's soda, but I'm finding I even want it a little less every day, even though I give myself one every day

Shrelana

... or apple cinnamon straws..

Where do you find these?! This sounds really good!

SarahCW1979

Decide what's most important to you and go with that

Absolutely this

rachellosesitall85

I have silly reasons but I keep going, keep logging in. One, I love that if I don't log in every day, my daily log in streak will be broken. I want to make it to 365 without breaking it. I hate that it starts over but it's a great motivator!

Also, if you constantly remind yourself mentally to eat the right thing, work out, etc and follow through, before you know it 2 weeks will have passed by. I go to bed with my goal in mind, and when I wake up the first thought going through my mind is how much I want to lost the weight and get healthier. Then, during the day I try and follow through on that promise. Sometimes I fail, or eat something without putting it in at the gym but I stay on it and keep getting back up.I also tell myself "Take care of yourself and everything around you." That saying not only pushed me into the gym today, I cleaned my home too!

sarahg148

I actually went back about 10 weeks and then looked at each day...how much I ate and how many calories I burned through exercise. I figured out that THIRTY ONE of those days (out of 74), one whole month, was waaay over what I should have eaten...although I did have the exercise to offset it...but I basically was maintaining over the last 10 weeks because of those 31 days spread throughout the ten weeks. It was an eye opener for me. I thought I was sticking to the plan for the most part...but turns out NOT so much. So I'm focusing more on the eating portion of MFP vs exercise. I can burn a ton of calories working out...but if I'm just plain eating too much food, the weight isn't going to come off. I do use a HRM to make sure I log exercise calories correctly. I just have to realize that I'm not 18 anymore and I have to work HARDER in order for this weight to come off. Like many previous posters wrote...just don't give up. Look at what you're doing...REALLY see where you can tweak or improve and then do what you have to in order to get the scale moving in the downward direction.

Martin0524

You have to want it... Just keep thinking about how good your going to look in that bikini next summer.. Or in that catsuit next month for Halloween...

aprilrxoxo

For me, once I go over two weeks without junk food I'm on a roll and don't want to break my good streak. Stick through it for awhile and then those cravings will leave your system. Maybe have a cheat day once per week or once every two weeks. Plan a day where you will have ONE 'bad' meal and eat well the rest of the week.