New to MFP

Hi there! Im new to MFP as well. My uncle found out a few months ago that he had diabetes and as a result deicded to get in to shape. Try to imagine a 60 year old man who had never exercised a day in his life and thats my uncle. He saw a nutritionist and got his diet in check but he was having a hard time finding the motivation to exercise. What he did was hire a personal trainer, and my uncle just ran his first half marathon last month! He said that it felt great to have someone always looking over his shoulder and reassuring him that he could meet his goals. While its understandable that a personal trainer may be out of your budget the point of the story is that anyone can do it if my ole lazy uncle could! I heard a statistic on the radio that said if you can mantain a good habit for just 2 weeks, you are 50% more likely to keep that good habit up for 6 months, and if you keep it up for 6 months you are 50% more likely to keep that habit for 2 years. Im taking things a day at a time and MFP has proved thus far to be an awesome tool. I wish you the best of luck and please dont be fearful of failing, it sounds like the risk of not acting far outweighs the risk of trying.

Hi! I'm in the same boat you are with the exercise. I am doing really great with the nutrition but the exercising is the hard part for me. They are supposed to be adding Anytime Fitness to my health insurance Wednesday and I am planning on joining that but I have to try and find a way to work something in before then. Feel free to add me if you like, maybe we can motivate each other!

Hi kebbing. Welcome to what will hopefully turn into one of the most fun challenges of your life!

I was thinking about what I would say to myself if I went back to last year when I started my own journey towards better eating. What is one thing I could tell myself to help stay motivated.

Think long term.

Try not to get sucked into extreme diets that make fast promises. Don’t sign up for exercise packages that take you way out of your comfort zone. These things won’t last as you won’t enjoy them. This only works if its something you can live with pretty much forever.

Start with small ideas and build on it. You have your entire life experience that you’re trying to deprogram and it won’t happen in a few months.

Use this website to record everything you put in your mouth. Turn it into a game. And then start with one idea.

For example, decide that you are no longer going to drink soft drinks. Do that for a few weeks or as long as it takes until it’s not difficult. At some point it will not be a big deal and you’ll gain confidence from this.

Build on confidence and step it up a notch. Start paying attention to artificial sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup. Decide to start minimizing or eliminating anything you can that has HFCS in it. You will learn how ubiquitous this culprit is in our culture. Spend a few months doing this. While it sounds small, the results will be profound.

My point is that taking little steps over many months will build upon your confidence and strength much in the same way that SVPQR writes of building good habits. If you take one brick down at a time the giant wall suddenly doesn’t seem as intimidating.

Most of all, try to have fun with it. This is the best kind of game you can play because as long as you keep playing you can only win and feel good.

Whoever wants to add me on Facebook.... I started a weight loss group on there with some other MFPers.

We mostly just chit chat and complain about our daily struggles (or success) of trying to lose weight.
But we have weekly weigh ins, we give each other motivation, tips, and share recipes top.

So far it's a great support group!

- Felicity Merrill

Hiya ! Welcome to the party .. it's hard to find motivation I struggle very bad espcially at the moment .. But your in the right place! The best thing to rememeber is if your having a bad day or have a question about anything then come on here and ask were all here to help eachother. Feel free to add me and anyone else can as well for that matter. much love x

I am new as well. Signed up in May but never really did anything with it. That changes this week. My biggest challenges are Pepsi and exercise. Pepsi is definitely a weakness and I have a really hard time getting motivated to exercise. I am uncomfortable in a gym environment and have work out equipment and videos at home....if i would just use them. Work zaps my energy and I don't want to do anything when I get home. My goal is to change that this week no matter how small the change is anything is better than nothing. I'll start by taking the stairs in our office bldg. Congrats to you for making the committment to get healthy. We can do it.....just have to get started and take one day at a time...