Working hard on doing the right "stuff"... You?

JuiceBars

Hi All, I am doing a great job with daily exercise and eating well but am getting discouraged by how slowly things are changing lately.. Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled to see ANY movement in the right direction What is your strategy for staying on the right track and keeping positive? Would love to have a few friends with a positive attitude and determination to keep on keepin' on. I have another 10-15 pounds to go before I hit my personal best!

grimendale

I try to set smaller, more easily achievable fitness and diet goals for myself to help keep up the motivation. I am working on bringing my diet soda consumption down now, which is an easily quanitifiable number not affected by other fluctuations outside my control. The same goes for my running distances and weights. Even if the scale isn't budging, seeing the amount I lift go up is heartening. Also track your measurements since they may show improvements that the scale doesn't.

vals83

I Get your frustration I truly do! I've come close to giving up and just accepting the fact that this is what I'll be forever. I had lost 2% of body fat in 4 months! Talk about slow progress! But I started approaching this as more of adjusting to a new life style. I quit setting goals as in "I wanna lose 20lbs by ___" or I want to be "2 sizes smaller by this point". I hired a trainer we fought and struggled with adjusting food calories and protein intake. All too many times I'd ask her "What more do you want me to change!?!" But I kept going and FINALLY! I started seeing a consistent weekly loss. Now I'm about .5 pounds a week losing a 1% of body fat every couple weeks. I'm about 9% away from my personal best and I decided I will focus on just making sure I'm nourishing my body and getting stronger. Strengthening my muscles and my heart. The rest will follow. Trust me! It really will. Those 1 pound losses add up. And one morning you will wake up and you will see why you didn't give up. Why you fought through the discouragement and didn't give up on you!

JuiceBars

What an awesome response! Congratulations on all of your hard work!! I have always enjoyed exercise and feel really good when I set out to reach a goal and cross the finish line, so to speak. I am wondering how you are tracking your body fat%? I do have the weight watcher's scale that measures that but I am not sure how accurate it is. You are right, I should not set a time as to when I can/should reach my goal because it is a bummer when it is going slowly. It can make it seem like I am only going to fail in reaching it. What has been your inspiration? It must be great to have a trainer!

Ramberta

Just have faith in yourself. It's hard, make no mistake, but you have to honestly believe in yourself 100%. Otherwise, on the bad days, you let yourself give up instead of getting back up again and coming back stronger.

I've spent the last two and a half weeks stuck at 244, and I got on the scale this morning about to cry because I was expecting it to still be there. ...But it had gone down two pounds.

You WILL succeed in this if you want it bad enough! Add me if you like, I'm always happy to have more people to be motivated by and to help motivate in return.

JuiceBars

Great advise! I just did my measurements last evening. I appreciate you taking the time to write!

sunnyside1213

If you eat clean, give up processed foods and all sodas, drink lots of water, get moving and log everything, you will have success. This is not a diet. It is a life style change forever. :happy:

aseymour13

In many ways its the little things that help keep it going. A year ago i was recovering from hip replacement surgery. and yes while I'm 56, its pretty young to have (I had fractured it Mountain bike riding and didn't realize it for several years). Easy excuse to not do anything but eat and even after surgery and the PT, I didn't get back to doing anything. Now, I'm doing something virtually every day, getting rid of the stress eating or just becuase I'm bored. I would like to have lost double what I have lost but I know I'm healthier, my clothes are starting to fit better and I feel better! My favorite saying or one of them is - it's a Marathon not a sprint. Some days it tough to be patient but that and being persistent will pay off! We are all in this together.

Tlbrown1985

I finally realized that this is forever... I would eat great. and work my *kitten* off and the scale would do nothing..or mabey a 1/2 lb.. and I started getting tired of it.. but I relaized that this is a forever change.. and I will get to where I need to be when its time..U seee the tranformations people do in a year.. and think ughhh a year from now.. a year goes hella fast.. before you know it.. Keeep at it.. dont give up...

Dpade1337

Track in every direction. weights, measurement, photos. Sometimes one thing doesn't change..like weight, but you LOOK better...so, take it in stride. I just took a week off from the scale because I felt like it was just making me angry. Sometimes relaxing on diet a little bit helps because your body adjusts to always getting and doing the same things.
Try changing your routine, like, take a week off from cardio and just do lifting. Or start lifting. I dont know what your routine looks like, but your body adjusts to that too, so try taking a break from one style and pick-up heavier on another.
Whatever you do. Don't give up.You will absolutely get there!

JuiceBars

Thought I would share a favorite saying with you eseymoure13.......The desire to change must be greater than the desire to stay the same! How true! It helps me keep on track.

vals83

What an awesome response! Congratulations on all of your hard work!! I have always enjoyed exercise and feel really good when I set out to reach a goal and cross the finish line, so to speak. I am wondering how you are tracking your body fat%? I do have the weight watcher's scale that measures that but I am not sure how accurate it is. You are right, I should not set a time as to when I can/should reach my goal because it is a bummer when it is going slowly. It can make it seem like I am only going to fail in reaching it. What has been your inspiration? It must be great to have a trainer!

I think when we set these goals we end up sabotaging ourselves. It's sad but true.

I've battled my weight all my life. Obesity is a major issue in my family. I was a size 18 and I'm now sneaking my way into a size 8. But this has literally been over the course of 10 years. I've gone back and forth. I think I just got sick and tired of not liking myself. If I let someone treat me as badly as I treat me I'd kill em! So I found a love for myself and in doing so I found that I take care of things I love and that means not poisoning myself with bad food and ridding my body of the poison (fat) that has made a home there. So I set out to be the best ME i can be. And if it takes me 6 months or 6 years to do then so be it! But I will be kind to myself and patient and love my body and the changes it's make every single step, fall and crawl of the way. And the beauty of all this is it's inspired my mom who has also joined MFP a couple weeks ago and has lose 5lbs!!!!

At the gym I use their calipers or their body fat machine (remember when you use the digital one it's always 5% higher). I get it now when they say this is a life style. It is. And if you're not ready to make changes for the rest of your life then you will continue to struggle. I have found that the more I know the less I want bad food. If you really find out the crap that's in a lot of these foods that are prepackaged or fast food it's so easy to stay clear of them.

Having a trainer is amazing. She's become my biggest cheerleader and has taught me SO much. She's become a great friend. Expensive as hell, I wont lie. But if you calculate how much you spent on mindless eating there is no excuse to spend that same amount of money and investing it in yourself.

vals83

Well Said!!!! The term "Life style change" is not meant to be taken lightly. It is in fact for LIFE! ANd you'll be better for it.

I finally realized that this is forever... I would eat great. and work my *kitten* off and the scale would do nothing..or mabey a 1/2 lb.. and I started getting tired of it.. but I relaized that this is a forever change.. and I will get to where I need to be when its time..U seee the tranformations people do in a year.. and think ughhh a year from now.. a year goes hella fast.. before you know it.. Keeep at it.. dont give up...

JuiceBars

Track in every direction. weights, measurement, photos. Sometimes one thing doesn't change..like weight, but you LOOK better...so, take it in stride. I just took a week off from the scale because I felt like it was just making me angry. Sometimes relaxing on diet a little bit helps because your body adjusts to always getting and doing the same things.
Try changing your routine, like, take a week off from cardio and just do lifting. Or start lifting. I dont know what your routine looks like, but your body adjusts to that too, so try taking a break from one style and pick-up heavier on another.
Whatever you do. Don't give up.You will absolutely get there!

You are right, tracking in every direction is the way to do it, not just that number on the scale. Your advise if good. I did switch up the routine quite a bit since January and lost 8.5 pounds. I appreciate your response.

teklawa1

I get frustrated by how long it takes to see progress, too. I think slow but steady is really the way to go. This time I am working at watching my calories and exercise and I feel better but have a ways to go. Good luck to you.

Mamalea32

Take it one day at a time. Celebrate (not with food, try treating urself to a movie or massage or a manicure) when you stay under your calorie goal for the day. Monitor your progress at the end of the week.

natmckn

Keeping your momentum of motivation up is probably the most difficult thing. Like many others I'm trying more to focus on making a permanent lifestyle change that includes healthier habits that will result in weight loss, rather than focusing on just losing weight. Each week I try to add something to my goal rather than just worry about the weight loss part, because I don't always lose as much as I'd like to. this week I added that instead of after a long frustrating work day, coming home and plopping on the couch with a glass of wine, I'd instead go to the gym and work off my frustrations there. I was successful in that goal 3x this week and I felt so much better! However I still have a serious tendency to turn to food when I get emotional. I have to do a better job of keeping the right kind of food stocked in my pantry for those times, and I have to do a better job of not going to the grocery store hungry!!!

JuiceBars

Thanks to all who responded!