Mentally Drained?!

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Trueray
Trueray Posts: 1,189 Member
in Motivation and Support
Hey y'all, I have been out of it lately and just mentally drained/fatigued. To be honest, I am tired of putting all these hours into working out and still not happy at how I look now. I started eating like how i use to eat when I was obese again and just frustrated.

So my question to use is how do you avoid this and how do you guys stay focus and wanting to stay healthy?(Side note: I have been working out for a little over a year.)

Replies

  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,831 Member
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    Just looked at your diary and I think you are being sabotaged by what you are eating. Anybody would feel lousy eating what you've eaten the last three days. There's too much sugar and not enough protein. Also hardly any vitamins or fiber.

    You might want to look at http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/ and start eating healthy. You'll probably feel a lot better and motivation will come with it. You might also want to show your food diary to a doctor and get your blood tested.

    Harvard's "Nutrition Source" is well designed for the public and does a good job clarifying how to eat a balanced diet and why.
  • soysauce6626
    soysauce6626 Posts: 118 Member
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    If it was easy everybody would be doing it. Man up and get whats yours. I always tell myself, "If I work harder or keep doing what I'm doing how would I look like in a year?" If your consistent with your diet and training the results will come. The best investment you can make is investing in yourself. It's blood sweat and years. Stay patient brotha
  • lukester19
    lukester19 Posts: 72 Member
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    Well I think first you have to make the choice to be happy. No one can make you happy unless you change your mindset to get that out of yourself. Find something you love outside of working out. Maybe it is a hobby, a movie, meditation, playing certain sports that you wanted to do as a kid. When you make the choice to be happy you will feel energized. When you go to workouts you will actually crave to do them. The pumps and focus will come back to the same level when you were first making gains. Eventually you will make the right food choices because it will be coming out of a positive and inspired action mindset, instead of a deprived mindset. Maybe find a few quotes that resonate with you, or work out with someone who has a goal physique or is fun to work out with. I am sure you will find something that works for you.
  • Trueray
    Trueray Posts: 1,189 Member
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    Just looked at your diary and I think you are being sabotaged by what you are eating. Anybody would feel lousy eating what you've eaten the last three days. There's too much sugar and not enough protein. Also hardly any vitamins or fiber.

    You might want to look at http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/ and start eating healthy. You'll probably feel a lot better and motivation will come with it. You might also want to show your food diary to a doctor and get your blood tested.

    Harvard's "Nutrition Source" is well designed for the public and does a good job clarifying how to eat a balanced diet and why.

    Thank you for the link.
  • Trueray
    Trueray Posts: 1,189 Member
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    If it was easy everybody would be doing it. Man up and get whats yours. I always tell myself, "If I work harder or keep doing what I'm doing how would I look like in a year?" If your consistent with your diet and training the results will come. The best investment you can make is investing in yourself. It's blood sweat and years. Stay patient brotha

    Trying my hardest to hang in there man.
  • Trueray
    Trueray Posts: 1,189 Member
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    Well I think first you have to make the choice to be happy. No one can make you happy unless you change your mindset to get that out of yourself. Find something you love outside of working out. Maybe it is a hobby, a movie, meditation, playing certain sports that you wanted to do as a kid. When you make the choice to be happy you will feel energized. When you go to workouts you will actually crave to do them. The pumps and focus will come back to the same level when you were first making gains. Eventually you will make the right food choices because it will be coming out of a positive and inspired action mindset, instead of a deprived mindset. Maybe find a few quotes that resonate with you, or work out with someone who has a goal physique or is fun to work out with. I am sure you will find something that works for you.

    Yep I guess your right, thanks for the advice. Hopefully I can get my act together before its to late.
  • lukester19
    lukester19 Posts: 72 Member
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    Well I think first you have to make the choice to be happy. No one can make you happy unless you change your mindset to get that out of yourself. Find something you love outside of working out. Maybe it is a hobby, a movie, meditation, playing certain sports that you wanted to do as a kid. When you make the choice to be happy you will feel energized. When you go to workouts you will actually crave to do them. The pumps and focus will come back to the same level when you were first making gains. Eventually you will make the right food choices because it will be coming out of a positive and inspired action mindset, instead of a deprived mindset. Maybe find a few quotes that resonate with you, or work out with someone who has a goal physique or is fun to work out with. I am sure you will find something that works for you.

    Yep I guess your right, thanks for the advice. Hopefully I can get my act together before its to late.


    Trueray, you use the words "I guess" and "hopefully". You have to be decisive in your action. The word motivation means the general desire or willingness of someone to do something. Find the root cause of why you want to be healthy and workout. There must have been a trigger that caused you to begin and keep going for a year. Those guesses and "hopefully can turn in to "I will" and "I know"
  • Trueray
    Trueray Posts: 1,189 Member
    Options
    Well I think first you have to make the choice to be happy. No one can make you happy unless you change your mindset to get that out of yourself. Find something you love outside of working out. Maybe it is a hobby, a movie, meditation, playing certain sports that you wanted to do as a kid. When you make the choice to be happy you will feel energized. When you go to workouts you will actually crave to do them. The pumps and focus will come back to the same level when you were first making gains. Eventually you will make the right food choices because it will be coming out of a positive and inspired action mindset, instead of a deprived mindset. Maybe find a few quotes that resonate with you, or work out with someone who has a goal physique or is fun to work out with. I am sure you will find something that works for you.

    Yep I guess your right, thanks for the advice. Hopefully I can get my act together before its to late.


    Trueray, you use the words "I guess" and "hopefully". You have to be decisive in your action. The word motivation means the general desire or willingness of someone to do something. Find the root cause of why you want to be healthy and workout. There must have been a trigger that caused you to begin and keep going for a year. Those guesses and "hopefully can turn in to "I will" and "I know"

    You know what your right, I am reflecting on the past year as I type this in search of that trigger. I will find it and commit to it. Thanks :)
  • Goddessmaker1
    Goddessmaker1 Posts: 114 Member
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    I hate to break up the bro meeting but this was very enlightening and inspiring. I'm dealing with the same. Thanks OP for writing this.
  • Lena1967
    Lena1967 Posts: 94 Member
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    You've made such great progress! My advice would be, don't undo that progress by giving up because you're having a rough patch. Just tell yourself, "I had a bad few days, but tomorrow I'll be back to my usual healthy self."

    I say this from experience, unfortunately. Too many times, I have a low-motivation phase, and then I just say, forget it, this is too hard. And the weight all comes back. People on here have given great advice -- yesterday doesn't count, it's only what you do today.
  • Trueray
    Trueray Posts: 1,189 Member
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    You've made such great progress! My advice would be, don't undo that progress by giving up because you're having a rough patch. Just tell yourself, "I had a bad few days, but tomorrow I'll be back to my usual healthy self."

    I say this from experience, unfortunately. Too many times, I have a low-motivation phase, and then I just say, forget it, this is too hard. And the weight all comes back. People on here have given great advice -- yesterday doesn't count, it's only what you do today.

    Thank you for this!
  • hzliiz
    hzliiz Posts: 166 Member
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    I want to say I admire that you have kept logging your food even as you're struggling. You're not checking out completely, you're holding yourself accountable for what you're doing. I think by being real with yourself about what's happening right now you're in a better position to get yourself back on track. And agreed, it's never "too late."' Each of us lucky enough to wake up tomorrow get a whole new chance to decide what to do with it. And hey if you learn something through this particular challenge then it's no waste at all. Best of luck to you!
  • Trueray
    Trueray Posts: 1,189 Member
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    I want to say I admire that you have kept logging your food even as you're struggling. You're not checking out completely, you're holding yourself accountable for what you're doing. I think by being real with yourself about what's happening right now you're in a better position to get yourself back on track. And agreed, it's never "too late."' Each of us lucky enough to wake up tomorrow get a whole new chance to decide what to do with it. And hey if you learn something through this particular challenge then it's no waste at all. Best of luck to you!

    Thank you for your words. It seems like your right, there is still part of me stil wanting to do this because I am still logging.
  • Haley_alyssa98
    Haley_alyssa98 Posts: 32
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    I know that feeling. Some days I feel like crap and ask myself why I'm doing this again. Then I tell myself I need to stop thinking that way. I tell myself it's just a phase and then I stop thinking about it for the rest of the day.

    When I need motivation I look at my inspiration. What motivated you to lose weight and get fit in the first place? And then remind yourself of that everytime you feel discouraged.

    Maybe try changing up your workout routine. Tweak it a little. Get a workout buddy. Find someone to motivate you. I started running recently and I love the feeling I get after I'm done. I feel on top of the world and I feel almost weightless. I think about that when I need encouragement to workout. And if its time your being discouraged about, don't worry. Just keep it up. The time will pass anyways, just keep going.

    And we all have naughty days where we don't work out and end up eating the whole kitchen. It happens. But you have got to stay in the zone! Refuse to leave it.

    You don't want to go back to the way you used to, I promise and you know you don't want to. So don't let yourself get down.

    Don't let any unhealthy food into the house either. You can't eat what's not there.

    Good luck! Stay motivated. Stay focused. You can do this. And I know this is probably the cheesiest thing ever but it's true. :)
  • Trueray
    Trueray Posts: 1,189 Member
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    I know that feeling. Some days I feel like crap and ask myself why I'm doing this again. Then I tell myself I need to stop thinking that way. I tell myself it's just a phase and then I stop thinking about it for the rest of the day.

    When I need motivation I look at my inspiration. What motivated you to lose weight and get fit in the first place? And then remind yourself of that everytime you feel discouraged.

    Maybe try changing up your workout routine. Tweak it a little. Get a workout buddy. Find someone to motivate you. I started running recently and I love the feeling I get after I'm done. I feel on top of the world and I feel almost weightless. I think about that when I need encouragement to workout. And if its time your being discouraged about, don't worry. Just keep it up. The time will pass anyways, just keep going.

    And we all have naughty days where we don't work out and end up eating the whole kitchen. It happens. But you have got to stay in the zone! Refuse to leave it.

    You don't want to go back to the way you used to, I promise and you know you don't want to. So don't let yourself get down.

    Don't let any unhealthy food into the house either. You can't eat what's not there.

    Good luck! Stay motivated. Stay focused. You can do this. And I know this is probably the cheesiest thing ever but it's true. :)

    It is not cheesy and makes a lot of sense. You have really opened up my eyes.
  • anemoneprose
    anemoneprose Posts: 1,805 Member
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    Few things:
    - good advice so far
    - especially agree with fixing any gaps in your nutrition - can make a HUGE difference in energy

    Will add: maybe about a year into my weight loss, I just got fed up with counting calories. I stopped for a couple of weeks, maybe a month. I think it's natural, esp after reaching goal weight. Because, when you're driven to reach a goal, you've got it ahead of you. In maintenance, if weight on the scale is the thing, you've already done it.

    So it's worth figuring out some other advantage to doing the things that keep your weight right. Instead of viewing them as side effects, they can be the focus now. Like, choosing an activity for the *sport* of it. And getting good at it.

    Another thing: you could get into cooking as a thing. Learn new recipes, new methods. It's very possible to get lots of enjoyment out of that :)

    Point is: find something pleasurable or motivating in what you're doing day to day, to make your day to day bearable.

    Or, take a little break, & come back when your belt's a bit tight again :) (that's what i did)
  • Trueray
    Trueray Posts: 1,189 Member
    Options
    Few things:
    - good advice so far
    - especially agree with fixing any gaps in your nutrition - can make a HUGE difference in energy

    Will add: maybe about a year into my weight loss, I just got fed up with counting calories. I stopped for a couple of weeks, maybe a month. I think it's natural, esp after reaching goal weight. Because, when you're driven to reach a goal, you've got it ahead of you. In maintenance, if weight on the scale is the thing, you've already done it.

    So it's worth figuring out some other advantage to doing the things that keep your weight right. Instead of viewing them as side effects, they can be the focus now. Like, choosing an activity for the *sport* of it. And getting good at it.

    Another thing: you could get into cooking as a thing. Learn new recipes, new methods. It's very possible to get lots of enjoyment out of that :)

    Point is: find something pleasurable or motivating in what you're doing day to day, to make your day to day bearable.

    Or, take a little break, & come back when your belt's a bit tight again :) (that's what i did)

    Thank you. Really like the cooking idea. You actually help me come up with an idea to stay motivated.
  • Kareemelnaggar
    Kareemelnaggar Posts: 17 Member
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    I've felt this exact same thing from time to time. Honestly, you just have to realise that you've come so far and that the "end" is in sight. There will be a point where you hit a weight or body comp that you're really happy with and that motivates you to get up for that morning workout. I suggest that you try to eat without tracking for a couple of days. It may be that you just need a small break. Keep doing what you're doing, just eyeball it. Don't sweat every calorie and see how that goes. Just remember to keep the diet clean and your workouts tough.
  • Trueray
    Trueray Posts: 1,189 Member
    Options
    I've felt this exact same thing from time to time. Honestly, you just have to realise that you've come so far and that the "end" is in sight. There will be a point where you hit a weight or body comp that you're really happy with and that motivates you to get up for that morning workout. I suggest that you try to eat without tracking for a couple of days. It may be that you just need a small break. Keep doing what you're doing, just eyeball it. Don't sweat every calorie and see how that goes. Just remember to keep the diet clean and your workouts tough.

    Thanks man! Will do.

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