Help...I keep giving up.

I am having a hard time trying to get on track and stay that way for more than a few hours. I lost 20 lbs last year and felt great and i want to feel that way again but I give up within a couple of hours. I give up dieting every couple of hours with excuses.... any ideas on how to keep the motivation to stay on track? I haven't even made it a full day without throwing in the towel.

There is nothing anyone can say this has to be your decision as to what you want. You have to want it, you have to be determined there is no other way....reach inside yourself and find what your looking for to get where you want to be.

Your the only person who can make this change it's up to you to find the strength to do it.

Seriously? A couple hours? Sounds like it's just not that important to you.

If it was, you wouldn't think about it as dieting - that's temporary. It has to be a lifestyle change - something you can maintain, and keep the weight off.

The motivation has to come from within - you can't rely on others for your happiness, and you can't rely on others for motivation. Other people that you're relying on for these things won't always be there to support you. You have to do it yourself.

Not being rude or mean, just honest. We make time for and commit to the things that are important to us..... i.e. getting a paycheck is important, so you may hate your job but you don't go in for two hours and then not want to be there anymore so you go home.... It just doesn't work like that.

If you're not willing to put in the work - don't expect the results.

Motivation really seems to come and go. The test is if you can force yourself to keep going in an unmotivated phase. I read somewhere that "discipline is doing what you know needs to be done even if you don't want to do it". You'll find no greater weight loss truth than that one.

I know your right... I have to find the strength but I wonder because it has been so hard maybe it's not the time. When I lost the weight before I was totally motivated and excited. Now I know I need to and I want to but i don't want to put in the effort. I have a lot of stress with work ... should I stop stressing myself more about weight loss until things ease up? On the other hand I know losing some weight and exercise would help to release some work stress. I think I answered my own question.

LoL You pretty much did answer it, going to the gym/working out has been proven to help relieve stress and anxiety. You could do little things at work like take the stairs instead of the elevator ? at first start just taking the stairs down ( allot easier ) little changes can make a big difference.

You could also just start with changing up 1 meal to something healthy then move on to two meals ect ect. Maybe this way you wont feel so trapped by fallowing a strict diet kind of thing. I'd also suggest making a lifestyle change instead of fallowing some stupid fad diet. Take all the good parts/ ideas from the fad diets and make your own meal plans.

I get a motivational quote... like... "Think Progress. NOT Perfection!" Find a picture of yourself where you were happiest too! It's great motivation and helps you see that YOU can do that. Not feeling like crap by looking at some model who is borderline anorexic.

GOOD LUCK!

Don't go on a diet! Diets are doomed to fail, because they are temporary changes. Make small life style changes that you live with long term. Don't make any food off limits; just watch your portion sizes and your calories. Try to move more, even it that only means walking to the mail box right now. As you lose weight and become stronger, increase your exercise. You can do this!

This is just my suggestions...
For me, I got a coach that I was accountable to. It was a free telephone coaching service offered to me, so I took advantage of it.
What we did, was we set goals for every week. They were SMALL goals, but each one has added up to a bigger one.
Then, I got rid of all of the junk food in my house. How? Well, that was easy, cause my wife took the kids on vacation for a few weeks... They took it all with them, and I went shopping for healthy food. EVERY ITEM that I bought, was focused. I look at it and say, "how can I turn this into something delicious and healthy?".

I made it fun too. When I make a dish that looks awesome, and tastes delicious, I feel GREAT. It's like being a home chef, lol. And when those dishes are healthy... I can't emphasize enough how good that has made me feel. Doing this, and increasing my activity, allowed me to lose 5lbs last week.

The last thing I have to say is exercise... You don't have to throw weights around, or go for walks or whatever. MAKE IT FUN! I ride my bike to work, which burns a TON of calories, and I love it. It's very rewarding. Also, I went for a run the other day (BOORING!), but when I saw trees in the distance, I ran to them, found a trail, and had a little adventure. I listen to music when I run, which gives me a beat to run to, and when I have some good scenery, it's just an overall enjoyable experience... But trust me, tennis players are fit for a reason! lol.


Hope this helps.

I am new too and hoping to hang on to my new found motivation but I definitely know what you mean! My weight has been up and down over the years and the main thing I tell myself for motivation these last couple of weeks is "You are better than this!"

Also,l it helps to remind myself WHY I'm trying to do this in the first place because at the times it seems especially hard, it's easy to just throw in the towel. Maybe looking at your reasons for wanting it in the first place would help.

For example, I love to hike and I would like to be able to do challenging hikes without gasping for breath and having pain in my hips and knees which is related to my weight. When an old friend I haven't seen since my skinny years lets me know they'll be in town and want to meet for dinner, I'd like to be able to say "YES" without any hesitation due to embarrassment about the way I look. I want more energy, less joint pain, and better numbers at the doctor.

This is what I think about when my motivation fails. Sometimes friends and relatives can harm my motivation because they like to say "you are beautiful just the way you are." It's sweet and all but I feel that it's BECAUSE of healthy self-esteem that I can look at my body and look at what I've done to it with my lack of self-control and say, I CAN DO BETTER THAN THIS!

Come back when you are ready!

The bottom hurts and youll know when you hit it!

My advice is take it slow. Don't try to change everything at once. Take small steps. Change one thing and make it stick. For me it was Dr Pepper. Without changing anything else I stopped drinking soda and 7 lbs in about 2 months. Once that happened I was like WOW. Then I started seriously watching my sugar and processed foods. Went more to whole grains etc. I'm still not going at it 100% but I'm reading more food labels, thinking more about what I eat, and hopefully I will eventually get gung ho 100%.

You can do it! You sound a lot like me. This is not my first rodeo on My Fitness Pal. I think that I have been on here off and on about three times. I tried several other weight loss tools like Fit Click, SparkPeople, FitDay etc. but after a while, I got tired (and quite bored) with logging everything. So to make things simple, I just stopped and quit doing the food/exercise journals. I quit working out. I quit taking my necessary meds. I quit monitoring my glucose and guess what...I went to a health fair a couple of weeks ago and ALL of my levels were beyond normal. The weight that I lost, I gained it back plus more. My glucose was creeping above the 152 range. My blood pressure.....well let's not discuss that.:embarassed:

Anyway, just hang in there and remember, you can ALWAYS start fresh on the next day!!!! "There's Always Tomorrow For Dreams To Come True" sanged oh so sweetly by Clarice, Rudolphs love interest on Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.....how I still love that movie.....:blushing:

I think a few others have said it, but you have to want to do it. I know when I try to do something I'm not really committed to it never works out, and there is nothing, and I mean nothing, anyone can tell me to change my mind.

I stayed comfortable at the weight I was for eight years. Then the high blood pressure came. Then the sciatica came. Then the bone pain came. I also have scoliosis, and that was getting worse because of being overweight. I was a shut-in during the summer because I would burst into a sweat just walking to the car. I was fine with the way I looked; that has never been a problem. In fact, I was the happiest I have ever been at my highest weight. If I were to use looks as motivation I would have never lost the weight. I am also an active person at heart. When your true self is trapped in a body that will not cooperate it can be depressing.

Find your motivation. If it's looks, use it. If it's your health, use it. And if you're happiest at the weight you are, that's fine too. However, if your health is being affected by your weight, mentally or physically, then you should make an effort to change it. Life is too short.

No more diets. Thats something you have a start and stop date for. You stop and the weight comes back on with a vengence. The best thing, as someone else has mentioned is to make a permanent lifestyle change.

If its the movement thats hard to do and stick with, then its your heart and head that need to change tactics.
Find ways to improve motivation by being able to see your goals. This is where you need to get a little arty Get a poster sized piece of paper/cardboard and write up your goals, for weight loss do it in stages so you can 'tick off' when they've been achieved and this is really encouraging to actually see it. Have 5kgs/10kgs/15kgs etc, what ever suits. Have other pictures or photos of yourself when you were most happiest phyisically or even pics of other physiques you like and want to achieve. Sports women/gym instructors etc, there are plenty of women out there with really great physiques that we can aim for. Put all your goals up there, if its a holiday, put a pic of the destination, put an amount up for a specific money savings goal (along with small goals like the weight). A career, a study path and car you want to get. Put them all up so you can see them every day. In your bedroom/dining/kitchen, where ever you are able to see it daily. In the very centre write up a motivating personal mantra. I just want to give an example so mine is: "I am a strong, independent and beautiful woman". Hey at first I didn't truly believe it myself. as I said it out loud it grew on me and now I can say it with a wink and a smile in the mirror. It is so empowering mate! truly. Your words work both ways, saying to yourself all the time, I'm failing, I'm not gonna do this, I cant lose weight - well you will believe it soon enough. Change those words to positive directive ones - I can lose weight, I will do this, I'm gonna get what I bloody well want and do it starting now!

You are what you eat

You are what you think

If its the food you struggle with, up the movement.
You really need to look at your calourie/food 'input' and your calourie/fitness 'output'. Its simple mathmatics. If your calourie intake with foods is 8000 kjs/1904 cals, then the physical output needs to be equal to stay the same weight or more if you want to lose weight. (Pretty much, not 100% exact of course). If your daily intake on MFP is (for example) 1300 cals/5460 kjs, then you need to burn up a decent whack of cals to make it work for big weight loss. If your cal intake works out to be 2000cals or 3000 cals with the food choices you make, then you would have to run a marathon daily to break even and lose weight. Just understand that part.

I had a 1260 cal intake to start with and was able to do a bike ride for over an hour and kicked *kitten* doing 1000 cal burn! Thats when my weight loss kicked into over drive. The times i am not moving, like now after injuring myself ice skating, I am not losing due to lack of exercise but also, I am not gaining either due to watching the meal size and what my 'full feeling' really is.

The motivation will build with starting with some goals and taking steps daily. You will have down days, you will have days that are out. Dont let them get to you. Get over them and tell yourself to do just that. If you are focusing on the few hours of not following a diet or food routine, then it truly isn't do-able. You are setting yourself up to fail from the start as by now, you know how well you stick with things so far, you know how much motivation you give yourself or how much effort you push yourself to put in. So find some goals, get them written down to become visual and its almost like you've got 'someone' to answer to. This someone is yourself through something as simple as a piece of paper up in your room. I hope this helps. You do have to put in more effort now. Just know that you can of course. being on MFP means you are wanting to achieve something for yourself, just have to find the best way to do it. Good luck. Start today

If none of this works, then you need to take a self assessment to look at what and why you aren't able to stick with things. Has it always been this way through life. Has it always felt like a struggle. Then an easy way of doing things to lose weight really isn't going to work is it? You need to kick yourself up a gear and throw yourself into a new mental mode that wants to achieve goals. Look at motivation and procrastination books for further info. I hope you find your way matey.