What do you tell yourself to keep you from quitting?

What I tell everyone is, focus on the actions, not the results. The results are only the rewards for putting in the action. You can do it! :happy:

Honestly the first week or 2 are the hardest. Once you get used to the routine of it, you start to feel in control of your own body. It is so worth it! Once you start to see and feel real results you won't feel as discouraged. Good Luck! And use this website to its fullest potential. It's what helped me to lose 30 lbs! :happy:

The first week I wanted to quit too, because the change from my old eating habits to my new ones were a shake up for me. But, it's been a month now..and I stalled out on weight loss for a week because of TOM, and I was wanting to give up because it "wasn't worth it" and then I thought to myself, aren't I satisfied with what I am eating? Haven't I felt full? Have I had a craving that I wasn't able to satisfy? And yes I've been eating things I like, I've never gone hungry, and I've eaten cookies if I want cookies, ice cream if I want ice cream..I just limit the portion and make sure it fits in my daily goal. Doing it this way I have realized there's really nothing for me to "give up" on. I'm not dieting, I'm just living...healthier.

As for exercise, don't overdo it at first. Start slow, and try to make it fun. I don't exercise just to exercise. I have a goal in mind for my cardio..which keeps me going on the C25K program. I'm not worried about how many calories it's going to burn or how much weight it'll make me lose, that'd just get me down. Instead I focus on being ready for the next week and proving to myself I can do it. For my strength I make goals for myself too, and I love doing pilates and yoga, so that's primarily what I do for that. It's been fun, I've ENJOYED every minute spent doing it, and I can already see an increase in my strength and flexibility.

I know that diet and exercise work.
dont be disappointed by the results you dont get by the work you never put in!
for able bodied and mind there are no excuses
I set short term goals i.e Ive only got to keep up this strict discipline for first six weeks
then I have long term goal to be fit and slim!
My mfp pals are wonderful supportive and good examples!

"Losing weight is hard.
Maintaining weight is hard
Being overweight is hard
Choose your hard."


Having said that, losing weight is hard, but it doesn't have to be as hard as some people make it. Make small changes that you can live with, and then make more changes. You don't have to completely overhaul your diet overnight, or go from completely sedentary to 1000 calorie workouts. Start by meeting your calorie goal, and getting more active than you were. Go from there. This is going to be a long, slow process (which won't end once you reach your goal), so don't sabotage yourself now by creating a lifestyle that you can't sustain long-term. Baby steps. :flowerforyou:

P.S. take progress photos & measurements - they won't help now, but will be fantastic motivation a bit further down the line. Also, try to set goals that relate to what you can do, rather than what you weigh. They will keep you going too.

I look at the parts of me I don't like and ask myself if it is worth it to continue eating unhealthy. We are our own biggest critics. I have chubby areas I don’t like and if I can change a few simple habits and get results, why not?
Don’t get me wrong losing weight is something you have to work towards but there are small things that can be changed to improve weight loss. It doesn’t technically mean you have to starve yourself.

Tip # 1: Cut out drink calories.
There are soooo many calories in soft drinks and juice and sweetened drinks. So its possible to cut back on a lot of extra calories switching to drinking water, "unsweetened" ice tea, and coffee if you take it black.
It doesn't mean you can’t treat yourself maybe once a week to something different but if you give it a try that’s tons of calories to be lost.

Tip#2: Don't eat in front of the TV or computer go to the kitchen to eat.
This cuts out boredom eating if you’re truly starving or hungry enough to eat you will go to the kitchen and sit down and have a snack.

Tip#3: Exercise during commercial breaks.
Do sit ups, jumping jacks, or pushups.
You don’t have to hit the gym or run yourself to death to lose weight.
Why not do a few exercises when the commercials are on? Commercials take up a lot of TV time.
You don't get that time back. Why not put that time towards getting in shape.

Tip#4: No eating two hours before bedtime.
It is just pointless calories.
It also helps if you don't eat first thing when you wake up.

Tip#5 Eat fruit before each meal.
Fruit is healthy and there aren’t many calories in fruit.
You won’t need to eat as much of the meal to fill up.
I'd recommend having a wide variety of fresh fruit in the house instead of snacking on chips eat fruit.

"Losing weight is hard.
Maintaining weight is hard
Being overweight is hard
Choose your hard."

This gave me goosebumps. LOVE LOVE LOVE.

you need to make smaller goals (lose 5 lbs, lose 8 lbs, lose 12 lbs) etc. if all you want to see is the end result, it is going to feel like a daunting task.

I'm only a week in and I'm SO tired of counting calories, and so defeated by how much good eating and exercise it actually takes to lose a lb... Can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I feel like just giving up. But I won't, because I'm in this for the long haul and I know there are gonna be ups and downs. My question to you is: what do you do when you feel like this? How do you pick yourself up from such a slump?

Well, you're only a week in and it takes time to change old habits. Personally, when 'm feeling discouraged I come here and log in to MFP and read all the success stories and advice. Just seeing how other people have stuck with it and made such amazing transformations is enough to motivate me.

Like this - 4 weeksin and that is what I do....

And this ~

Your just one week into it. You will get a bit better at how to track to make it take less time. What did you expect though?
Dust yourself off and see you next week. I usually will refer to this when I need some motivation.

Number one thing I do when I feel that way is to whine to my friends on MFP. Surprisingly it works. They are incredibly supportive and give me that extra push that I never had before. I don't link my MFP to my facebook because some of my friends would just grow tired of it, but most people here are in the same boat and are truly helpful. So get a bunch of good friends that are active and let them be your support system!!! (Feel free to add me as well!)

I was kind of lucky in that I started in the New Year (traditionally a 'bad' time full of people reckoned to be trying to lose weight because they're 'supposed' to, but great for me because I'm usually sick of eating seasonal junk by then), and so the first two or three weeks weren't too bad. This week, I've faced out more than one urge to eat my own arm off, possibly related to TOTM. Not so good.

At times like that, I sometimes find myself thinking woefully 'It'll be (x) amount of weeks before I can shed this poundage and it seems like forever'. So then I cast my mind back the same distance in time, and it doesn't seem that long ago in the scheme of things. I'll also remind myself that from that moment in time until the moment I began my efforts, my weight stayed static. Looking forward again to the moment I eventually hit my goal, my weight is not going to stay static and jump from 'current' to 'goal' overnight - the period between now and then may have it's difficulties, but it will have plenty of joys too. It will be peppered with milestone moments where I can joyfully celebrate having seen off a quarter of the excess, half of it etc, or being able to fit into clothes that get steadily smaller.

I remind myself who I'm doing this for (primarily for me, but my kids come pretty close in my reasoning too) and why. The froggy in my forum weightloss tracker seems to think he's become one of my reasons too, and I've decided that it's in the best interests of my waistline to let him. I *will* get him out from under that cloud and have him playing in the flowers one day

I go online and save pictures I find of women whose bodies I admire. This is anyone from bikini contests, to crossfit pics, before/after photos from here, etc. I also save pics with motivational quotes/phrases on them. Then I set my desktop background and screen saver to shuffle through these pictures. My fiance thinks I might be bisexual. LOL. It's just motivating.

Sayings that I literally repeat to myself as I am working out to the point of almost vomiting:

"If you want something you've never had, you've got to do something you've never done."

"Work out like your life depends on it... Because it does."

"You're still beating everyone on the couch."

"A year from now, what will you look like?"

"If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you."

Those are quotes for workout, anyway. For everyday stuff, I think about how I don't -need- that candy bar. I tell myself, "Eat to fuel your body, not please your mouth."

I have only been on this for one month and lost 17 pounds total. I will count calories and eat like this for the rest of my life just to keep that weight off let alone my real need to take off a total of 100 pounds to just get to a normal weight. I did this to myself and have no one else to blame. We are lucky to have such a site as myfitnesspal to count our calories and exercise (it actually makes it easy) and this is a life change, it isn't just until we lose the weight. It is so we don't gain any more weight, maintain the weight we lost so far and to continue to lose the weight if our bodies will let it come off. I have a fear that the weight will stop coming off with my current intake, that my body will grow use to the calories I'm eating and I'll stop losing. Like I said in the first sentence, I'll keep counting calories just to not gain any more. It is so easy to keep going up on that scale and scary.