HOW do you STAY motivated????

At some point, being healthy has to become more important than being lazy.

The first thing is to not deprive yourself of anything. try making healthy choices with a few of your favorites worked into your calorie count each day....the second is to make sure your calorie count isn't set too low for your age, height and weight. there are so many people on here who start with the 1200 cals per day, when 1500 or 1600 would be a more realistic goal and still create the deficit you need to lose the weight.

Look up BMR / TDEE and you will find all kinds of information on calculating an appropriate daily calorie goal.

Lust for doing things. Physical things. Well.

My MFP Peeps are awesome, they keep me on here and motivated. I love to work out, it just took me a few weeks to remember.

My motivation is pretty good most of the month but then PMS strikes and it feels like I am always taking steps back. One weekend of cravings and its repenting all week and no forward movement, argghh. My workouts rarely suffer but my way of eating has to get back on track. I created a pinterest board that I go to when I want to give into my cravings. I have motivational quotes, pictures of figures which I aspire to, diet recipe tips, etc. And it keeps my hands busy so that I am not eating.

I just recently got my motivation back. After losing 52.4 pounds and gaining 16 back over about 18 months I looked at myself in the mirror told myself I refuse to allow this and I've been doing better. Not every day better but better than I have been. It's hard to stay on the wagon all the time. You really have to want it.

A friend of mine here said motivation is nice, but it is patience and endurance that gets us through the rest. I really liked that. My motivation comes and goes. But with patience and just doing the next right thing, day after day, it will be okay. Someone else also said that you just do the right thing and wait. It will show up eventually. That helps me have faith in what I am doing.

Sometimes finding the ways to measure our progress is also a big way to stay motivated. The scale has only shown 5 pounds lost, but I've lost 4 inches already. If I just went by the scale, I'd have given up. My clothes fit better, I can bring my belt in - the smaller victories are what keep us going - and that's okay.

Because I don't want the health issues of members of my family to become my health issues, too. Also, my 23 and 21 year old sons, they are always cheering me on and telling me that they're proud of me. :bigsmile:

I am in awe of the people that I see on here and in the news that decided to lose weight and just DO it!!! I find myself unable to stay committed for more than 2 weeks.I have good intentions and feel really strongly but then BOOM I am "off the wagon". I feel disgusted by my lack of will power and inability to stay on track. After a few weeks of feeling like a complete failure I try again but this has been the process for me for YEARS!!! How do you STAY committed????? Why, in the moment, is the food so much more important to me than my health or desire to be thin???? Any help would be so appreciated!

That's a hard question to answer! But I bet most people on MFP have tried and failed (or tried, succeeded, then failed) many times. Eventually, it just sort of 'clicks' in your head.

It helps to come up with every reason in the world you want it, both the profound reasons (doing it for your health, your kids, etc) and the "shallow" reasons. They're all perfectly acceptable :bigsmile:

But after that, the staying on track and being in it for the long haul is trickier. Some things that have been different for me this time (mentally) that I think have made a difference:

1) I have no timeline. I'm not trying to lose it all by a certain date or for a certain event or anything like that. I've been here almost 5 months to get halfway to goal. If it takes another full year to arrive at goal, that's cool.

2) Previous diets/exercise plans I've done were not well-thought out. I would exercise to exhaustion or try eliminating certain foods completely, stuff that I couldn't stick with for the long term. This time, I'm basically doing the "If it fits, I'll eat it" plan for my diet (with a goal of eating 'clean') and I try to exercise about 30 minutes a day (never more than 40). I feel like I could eat and exercise this way forever and I don't feel deprived or depleted (most of the time).

3) I celebrate every little win. Lifting more weight, running an extra 5 minutes, running 1 mile 20 seconds faster than last time, smaller pants, 1.4 pounds lost this week, loose wedding rings. At goal or not, I'm going to enjoy every single success, no matter how small. In the past, it was more of an attitude of "who cares, I'm still fat and until I'm NOT, I'm not allowed to celebrate."

4) I've educated myself as much as possible about weight loss and calorie intake and when I go way over my calorie goal or eat Thanksgiving dinner or go out for the office Christmas party, I just enjoy it and move on. In the past, that would be a guilt-inducing crisis that would result in me giving up, because oh well, I "messed up" and now I've proven I can't do it anyway, back to normal! I'd been losing weight at about 7 pounds a month average since starting. In the last 4 weeks, I've lost 4.4 pounds. I've gone over my goal more days than not thanks to the holidays. But I'm still losing weight so that means I'm still winning the game :drinker: And since there will always be holidays and birthdays and date nights and so on, this does not discourage me anymore, it actually encourages me to know I can do this sometimes and not gain it back!

Sorry so long, I hope something in there might help you to find your inner motivation. Motivational friends are great but ultimately no one can do it but you. Best of luck to you! :flowerforyou:

I agree with the ones that have said that you CAN do this....nothing worth having is easy. What has helped me is making friends at my gym that keep me accountable. If you track your food on mfp, you will start seeing how many calories and fat are in the stuff...particularly fast food & if you are like me, you begin to realize that it just isn't worth it. I also grossed myself out with the whole pink slime in the hamburgers thing...on purpose...and I can NOT bear to eat fast food now. You begin to see that if you eat healthy, you CAN have tasty stuff...and actually more food. If you are an emotional eater like me, try chewing gum or drinking water. Sometimes we are actually thirsty instead of hungry. Do exercises in the commercial breaks between shows. Challenge yourself to how many crunches/push ups/planks...you can do until your show comes back on. That will also keep you out of the kitchen.
I would also suggest that you go somewhere quiet and think about what your triggers are...why do you quit? what makes you "cheat"? Is there something active....or at least not food related...that you could do instead when you have a trigger? Yes, there is willpower, but it is also a commitment...because if you just diet, you will go back to your unhealthy ways as soon as the diet is over. It is a lifestyle choice...and YOU are WORTH it...Good luck to you

It was kinda easy at first but after a little while you start having a hard time sticking with it. Then I look at how far I've come. Even early on, when I had lost 15 or 20 pounds. I didn't look at how far I had to go. I just kept looking at how far I've come. I don't want to go back. I know how quickly I can gain back what took me so long to lose! I'm not going back! Not this time!! You can do it! You've already lost 10 pounds! Don't undo that! You can do it! You know you will be healthier in the long run and you are adding years to your life! YOU CAN DO IT!!

That has always been the big question for me. I am 68 years old so no way I am going to look hot if I drop my excess weight. At my highest I had a BMI of just over 25 and I walk a lot so there were no big health issues. I felt dumpy...but a lot of my peers were equally dumpy. Finally my knees started hurting and the Dr said even a ten pound weight loss might help. That got me started. But it was so darned slow! And there were no guarantees. What kept me going was logging my food and exercise here at MFP. I think this worked because 1) it made me aware of what I was stuffing in my mouth. I'd read stuff about eating mindfully but keeping a log brought this home to me. 2) I tend to eat out of boredom. I found that I was replacing my "nibbling" with an equally compulsive interest in calories in, calories burned, etc. I bought a Fitbit. Now that feeds into my compulsions nicely. I walk while talking on the phone to get my steps up. Silly stuff like that. Anyway that's what helped me. Hope it is of some assistance.

I think of everything I dont want to be. My mom was 400 pounds... I wish I was joking but she really was. Remember when theater seat armrests didnt lift up? My mom couldnt go to movies because she was so big she couldnt sit in one seat. She had to buy two plane tickets to fit on an airplane. She use to eat so fast that she would throw up... She threw up infront of my friends a couple times. I know, nightmare... She is in her early 40's, had a heart attack, she has a pace maker, she is diabetic, she has had 3 types of cancers, she has hair loss, she has skin problems.... Her ugly life goes on and on...
I found an app on my phone that 'Makes me fat'. It showed me what I would look like at 400 pounds. I didnt like it...
I look at my boyfriend who is overweight and how moody he gets with me.
I look at all the cute clothes I wish I could wear.
Find a reason to not be fat and stick with it. Dont do it for someone else.

It helps me to make new goals and start a new challenge when I feel like I'm starting to slip. Starting something new (it could be a new workout class, a new fitness dvd, a new goal to do 100 push ups, a goal to eat x amount of fruits/veggies each day) gets me invigorated and hypes me up so that I am excited to complete my goal. I've even gotten new workout gear or clothes to get me excited about it again. It works for me.