I keep falling off the wagon

Doesn't sound like you've even given yourself a chance to get ON the wagon, never mind falling off of it. Only you can decide when the time is right. Only you are going to know when you REALLY want to do this for yourself. Spend some time thinking about it because it will be a heck of a lot easier to make changes now then after you have a heart attack. Or a stroke. Or get diagnosed with diabetes. I'm not trying to scare you because that never works. I'm just trying to pont out that the decisions on what to do, or not do, now have the ability to affect your life a long way down the road. Give yourself the chance to make things better. What can it hurt?

I have fallen off the wagon more times than I can count. It's very hard to stay motivated. The only advice I can give you is to take it one week at a time. I bought a weekly planner and wrote down my weight goal for each Friday of the year. Nothing extreme, just 5 pounds per week. So far it's working, I have made my weight goals for 3 weeks now

Take it day by day! And plan your meals - it's annoying at first, and tedious, but it works - at least for me. I also set goals - like Iceman420 who has a goal of five pounds a week. I have a goal of 1 pound per week. Or - set daily goals - such as 25 push-ups per day, or 50 crunches on Tuesday - then build on these goals - if you do 25 push ups on Monday, try 30 on Tuesday. I just joined a group on MFP called Lifes's New Journey Challenge - We log our weight loss/gain and goals and challenges on a spreadsheet, and have daily challenges that we can follow. It's a great motivator for me b/c it keeps me accountable. My first week with MFP I didn't watch what I ate. I logged my usual food. Then I looked it over, saw how much sodium and fat i was ingesting and it made me realize how badly i was eating.
Another thing that keeps me on track - pictures of myself at my heaviest and at my goal weight. I lost 50 pounds in 2003 and felt/looked great...but i put on the 50 i lost plus 20 more. I look at the pics of me then and the ones of me now and i am so mad at myself for letting myself go. Now i know how hard it is too loose the weight the second time around.
Hope all this helps. Like beachlover317 said - you have to be ready to get healthy for YOU! I was told the same thing, and it's true.
Good luck!!!

Well, don't wait the time is now! Don't drag that extra weight around with you every single day- it is bringing you down. You are a beautiful, young person and you only have one life to live so go for it. Stick with the basics- simple ingredients as close to their original form as you can get them- water with actual fruit juice in rather than sweetened drinks, whole grains instead of processed flour, fresh fruit and veggies instead of battered,fried or obliterated produce, meat roasted of grilled instead of fried or battered, small bits of sweets instead of big helpings.
You are in the right place. MFP is a great place for support, ideas, and tracking of your progress.
Start with simple exercise- walking and ramp up from there. Pick exercise you really like to do and try and stick with it. Don't beat yourself up if you stop just start again as soon as you can.

Friend me and also check my blog for tips- I am happy to be a buddy! I would love to you succeed!

Honey, I was a compulsive list maker, I set goals for myself all of the time. When I went into talk to my motivational coach she nabbed me--right in the middle of my lists. I was feeling like a failure because i was giving myself a to do list every day that five people couldn't accomplish. She said I was setting myself up for failure and she was right. If you want to succeed find something that works for you--this week. Commit to do it for seven days and give yourself easy goal to accomplish every day. My goals changed from doing 3 workouts a day to one workout a day, drinking only protein shakes to eating meals with lots of vegetables. One I started achieving my goals I felt good and it became easier to follow through.

I agree, I think you have to be ready to really commit to it. It's hard and takes a lot of time. But what helped me believe I could do it was going to the dietitian. It helped to have somebody say just change a few small things and eventually it will all add up. It doesn't have to be salads and no carbs all in one fail swoop. That's not realistic, but swapping out soda for water or white for wheat is. Also talk to your support system, having someone tell you they believe/ know you can do it is really simple but so helpful and effective. If the drive is in you, you will get there.

P.S. Dinner was my biggest problem too! Try having a couple healthy snacks in the afternoon, so that you are not starving once you sit down for dinner. Or sometimes if I can't wait for dinner, while I'm making it I'll snack on veggies. Gets more veggies in and I don't eat seconds.

Google. Inspiration for losing weight.....

It may help you FIND your motivation.

Make a motivation board.... all the things that motivate you to do this.

I've hung a little bikini in the kitchen before..... really, it's hard to pig out with that little polka dot suit staring at you. (That reminds me... find that little suit again!!)

Join a bootcamp, Crossfit Box or sessions with a PT - the financial commitment could be all the motivation you need.

Skinnytaste.com has delicous, tasty recipes. It's become my "go to"
site for healthy recipes. My family and I have never disliked anything we made from her website.

I did the same thing, I actually never got on the wagon, I just ran along side it hoping it would stop and let me on. I swear I'd get a leg up on it and just then it would start off again and I'd be stuck hopping around with one leg on the wagon. Then I realized the wagon was full of overweight people and by running after it I was losing more weight than they were, ha! Seriously though, I tried dieting a million times and tried all the different diets you can think of, if it had diet in the name I tried it, if it was a fad, I did it.

One day I woke up and just stared at myself in the mirror, the longer I looked the angrier I became and that anger became my motivation. I was sick of being fat, sick of having no energy, sick of feeling like a failure. My anger was the drive I used to lose the weight. I used to hear people say that I wasn't committed and that I didn't want to lose weight bad enough. They were right. The weight didn't come off until I was serious about it, until I actually got mad at myself for letting my body get the way it did. I had tried for years, but that's exactly the problem; I only TRIED. Stop trying and start DOING. Quit making excuses for yourself and how it's hard to find meals for the entire family. IT IS HARD so do it anyway. It's hard to be a mom, but you do it anyway. I also got bored with my meals and all the bland carbs, I truly HATE wheat and brown rice and all the other "healthy" grains. One day I came across marksdailyapple.com and was hooked on the paleo diet. It was extreme, but I needed something extreme. I was desperate enough to try anything and it worked for me; and I've been at it for over a year and still love it. Everyone is different and the same approach doesn't always work for some of us.

Visualization worked really well for me. I found a model with a body shape similar to how my body would look if I was fit and toned, cut it out and stuck it on the wall in front of my treadmill. I would stare at that body and visualize myself looking like that, playing volleyball on the beach with my friends.

Another thing that really hit home for me was the saying, "you can't exercise away a bad diet." If you're eating unhealthy, no amount of exercise will help you lose the weight. Eat clean and work hard.

Trick is - don't give up; just keep plugging away at it. Never say to yourself "well, I blew it today already, might as well go out for nachos and magaritas" or "I have 2 birthdays coming up this month, so I'm going to write the whole month off and start again next month." Just keep at it, day by day, decision by decision. Some days are great, some days are terrible, but if you never-ever give up - you will see progress. It might be slow, but progress is progress. ....

^
Day by day.... one step at a time

I have about 100 pounds to lose, and i keep coming up with a plan of what i want to do to lose it but my motivation leaves me after a day or two and then i end up packing on some more pounds. Either the plans i come up with are just not realistic or i just dont want it bad enough though i feel like i do. Any tips to stay motivated or anything else that may help?

What you need is help to control your appetite (no, I don't mean pharmaceuticals). Don't believe people who have never been obese and who say, sanctimoniously, "It's all about willpower!" It isn't. Two years ago, I was "morbidly obese" with over 50% body fat and I am now about 30%. I would like to go down to 25% but even if I don't get there, I have discovered some things about myself.

I NEEDED to cut out sugar and wheat (too long to go into now but the short explanation is that I found them both to be addictive). I lost about ten pounds right away and discovered that I didn't need to eliminate carbs to lose weight--that I just needed to restrict them to around 100 grams a day (more on heavy exercise days--but that came later) and that most of them should be spent on vegetables and fruit (not too much fruit--most days only one serving. There's a reason for that but P.M. me if you want to know more of the "tricks" that I employ and why). That alone gave me the initial loss of fat that gave me the willpower to pursue healing for my other medical problems like gouty arthritis, high blood pressure (I was on two medications and they were likely damaging my muscles as my muscles hurt ALL the time while I was on them) high blood sugar (my doc warned that I was a prime candidate for Type II diabetes). I knew that healing would come with eating right for my body type and moving more.

I decided to do strengthening moves at home with lifting light weights (as much as I could tolerate with the arthritis which was starting to fade (with the help of some herbs) along with the carb restriction and sugar elimination (there is a reason for this but too long to go into now). I gradually tapered off my blood pressure medication as my weight began to drop and I began to move more and for longer periods. I felt much more like exercising.

And wonder of wonder, I found that I no longer was subject to binging once I got rid of the addictive (for me and a lot of obese people--maybe all) sugar and wheat. By this time, I was down about 37 pounds and in Sept. of last year, I joined MFP and started going twice a week to our local pool for water exercise, in addition to my home routines. My arthritis dramatically improved from that and I have shed another 13 pounds. I no longer have trouble controlling my appetite---in fact, sometimes I have to remind myself to eat. I'm finally comfortable being who I am and even if I never lose another pound (though I'd like to lose at least 30 more) I have actually enjoyed the journey. If I can do it---you can too--I was always unsuccessful (for years) before. Good luck!

I couldn't sleep so I rose at 4am. I got on the treadmill and walked for 30 minutes. I plan on having a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast and a turkey sandwich for lunch. I will have strawberries for my mid day snack and a handful of nuts for the mid afternoon snack. I plan on drinking at least 4 glasses of water before I leave work today.

Tell me your plan for the day. Guess what, I posted the meals and exercise mentioned above and what started out on my daily plan of 1640 calories for today increase by the 291 calories I used for exercise. If I do this today I will have lost one pound by Sunday. That is not hard. It actually made me feel pretty good starting this wonderful day that God made.

What is your plan for today. I honestly what to hear it. We can do this.

I am encouraged by all the other posts. Not feeling alone thanks to you all.

Don't stop trying. Read everything you can about nutrition and try to utilize the things that will work for you. For me it started with white flour. I avoid white flour products. Then sugar. I started out by using less to make cool aid and buying less sugary cereals. This wasn't enough though as I started reading labels I realized sugar is in EVERYTHING. I've slowly gravitated towards a more raw foods kind of diet. Not completely, but I add more and more recipes to my collection and I keep on hand the ingredients for green smoothies when I crave fast food. I still need to get more exercise but nobody can tell me I just don't want it enough. It isn't all or nothing. Our eating habits took years in the making and everyone is different. Just keep trying.... and don't let labels fool you. Low fat is meaningless and even whole wheat is meaningless... Watch out for sugar. Pre-make and freeze meals, always have fruits and veggies on hand, dance, play, ride and keep coming back to MFP.

^^^THIS^^^

It's so hard to get going. Knowing you "need" to do something (or wanting to do something) but actually taking steps to do it are different things.

You have to have a reason big enough to compel you to get off the nail....(reference to the hound dog bellowing because he's laying on a rusty nail - farmer's friend asks him why the dog doesn't move, farmer says, "Because it doesn't hurt enough.")

My defining moment came when I went to "Moms and Muffins" day at school with my daughter. I could barely walk to the front door - had to stop several times on the way to it, and once I finally got inside, I had to sit down and catch my breath....there was nowhere for me to sit, so had to sit on the floor. Sitting on the floor, I remember thinking to myself, "Something has GOT to change."

It'll either take a defining moment, or something will come along that you want enough to make it worth being uncomfortable - to make it worth taking steps to keep you on the wagon.

Take small steps - Rome wasn't built in a day, and God even took 6 days to create the world....losing weight is no different.

Take steps to set yourself up for success. If you eat out for breakfast, start bringing your breakfast to work (from home, not McDonald's). Then start adding fruits or veggies to lunch. If you don't drink much water, add a glass of water to your day until you can get up to 8 glasses a day. Bit by bit make small changes that are liveable, and you'll get there.