One month in - zeal is flagging...advice?

katelimom

I just started with MFP about two weeks ago, and am about 1 month into my fitness program (I'm trying not to call it a weight-loss program, even to myself, but the truth is...I do have a weight I'm aiming for). My goal was to hit the gym (or get outdoor exercise) six days out of seven, and I've been doing well with that. I've gone down one pants size, and am starting to lose the muffin top, but I'm suddenly finding it really hard to keep at it. The struggles I'm having are:
1. I hate keeping the food diary. I'm a snacker for sure, but beyond that I just don't eat the same way I think most folks do. I make almost everything myself, generally not from a recipe, and I never know how to figure out exactly the amount of calories/protein/fiber etc. that are in a given food. So I never know if my real calorie count even vaguely resembles what I enter each day.
2. All this exercise feels great on one hand, but I also have problems with aching knees, back or shoulders. I try to vary it - Zumba one day, elliptical or treadmill the next, swimming or yoga following that, but I have always had bad knees and other joint arthritis (from the time I was a teen) and it's getting harder to motivate myself to bring a weary and achy body to the YMCA each day.
3. It just takes so much time! I have two young children, and I'm struggling with the feeling that the hour a day I spend at the gym would be better spent cleaning my incredibly messy house (no, I'm not a neat freak - it's really incredibly messy because I homeschool so we're all at home messing things up for much of the day), or working on projects, or doing one more load of laundry, or sewing that Christmas present, etc.

There - that's my whine. Anyone available for words of encouragement, a reality check, or a kick in the tush? I could use all three. Thanks.

msbunnie68

Going from zero to hero in the gym at our age is probably putting too much stress on your joints. Cut it by half and have rest days in between your workouts. clean the house instead LOL you still get a good burn if you turn up the music and dance your way through it. Your knees will thank you. Change it by walking to the park with your kids riding their bikes etc. Zumba is great but can be a bit hard on knees and feet if you go hell for leather at the start.

Look at some mulitvitamins/glucosamine for joints etc. You may not be getting enough if you have restricted down to around 1200.

Have a look at TDEE/BMR etc and work out if you are actually eating enough food - if you are tired you may not be eating enough.

As for snacking etc and cooking from scratch - I cook just about everthing from scratch. All I did was sit down a few nights in a row inputing my favourite recipes into the recipe builder section (took me a while but I did it as I add a dash of this and a handful of that and a splosh of the other when I cook). It has made logging so much easier as I have it set in there and just have to tick off how much I had of it. I try to have a rough idea each week what I am going to make for the week and update my recipes regularly.

Also, try to pre-log the night before for your main meals - it helps you to know what you are eating and how many calories you have left for snacks...then you can prepare a snack plate/snack box for you for the day within your calorie limit. When you are hungry you can just pick from the plate/box and it is already logged and accounted for guilt free.

Good luck !!

mem50

I make alot of my own meals. I just go to the recipe section and put in whats in it. Works well for me.

Try more water exercise for the aches. I have a bad shoulder, messed up lower back, bad knees and ankles. Granted there were days I did not want to go but knew it was for my own good.

How young are the young ones and if old enough get them to help pick up? Toss a load of laundry in before the Y and toss in dryer after you get home.

Believe me when I say it does not get easier as you get older to lose these unwanted pounds. Took me over two years. I hit my goal and been there for a year now.

JesterMFP

Weight loss is tedious and takes time. Maintaining weight loss - even more so. There will be times when your motivation slips, when you can't be bothered, when you can't remember why you're doing it in the first place. You need to:

a) make a commitment to yourself, whether it's a certain size, or a certain state of health or whatever, and make that an absolute priority. I bet you don't always feel like cleaning your house, or doing the laundry, or cooking, or homeschooling or whatever... But you do these things, because they are important enough to you. I don't always feel like going to work, but keeping my job is important. Hey, if I'm honest, I don't always feel like having a shower in the morning, hygiene is important enough to me that it's not an option not to! So basically, if losing the weight is important enough to you, then it has to be a priority, or it's not going to happen.

b) make habits. Like I said, you won't always feel motivated, so the way to keep it going is to make it a habit. Exercising, logging, whatever... make yourself do it enough times that it becomes automatic.

As far as logging your meals, I cook nearly everything from scratch too. I don't use the recipe builder that often (maybe I should) but I just add the amounts of each ingredient to my log as I'm cooking. If you don't have that option, then you could just jot it down on some scrap paper as you're cooking and log it afterwards. I don't think it takes me more than about 10 mins total to log my whole day, and usually not that much. Using your most used items, recent items, saved meals, recipe box etc makes it even easier as time goes on.

With the exercise, if you're still feeling weary and achy after a few weeks, maybe try cutting it down a bit and aiming for 5 or even 4 days a week. You're already starting to flag mentally, and you could end up just burning out and quitting. You could also try shorter workouts. You don't have to do an hour at a time. You could try exercise videos - Jillian Michaels' DVDs for example tend to be about 20 minutes, I believe. Or, you could try doing some resistance training and do say half an hour at a time. If you really wanted to get more in, you could do a shorter workout in the morning, and then one later on. Exercise is fantastic for overall health, for helping to maintain your muscle mass, for mental health etc etc, but it's not necessary to do an hour 6 days a week to lose weight. Far better (imo) to scale it back a bit than to overdo it to the point where you end up giving up, or injuring yourself.