How do you find the motivation to keep going?

It eventually just becomes habit. To you it probably sounds crazy but its true. If it is something that is important you will do it.

There is an old story that says when seafaring adventurers finally arrived at their destination they burned their ships. There was no going back, they had no choice but to survive.

If you new way of eating is something that has become a lifestyle change, there is no going back. It is only when it is a diet (temporary) that we hop on and off. Burn your ships! The old way of living is gone.

At a certain point, motivation is irrelevant. Your new habits simply becomes the way you live your life.

The thing that crystallized all this for me was realizing that my body has it's own timeline, and I am not in control of how many pounds I lose in a week. It's my job to eat well, track my calories, move every day, and be patient while my body slowly changes. Getting fixated on a certain rate of weight loss sets me up for failure.

Find a way of living that is good to your body, and then just live. Get on with your life and don't over think it.

Motivation is temporary. Will power even more so.

SIS

What keeps me going, is that I worked too hard to let it all go. Not that I don't want to most days. I originally lost a total of 62 pounds and then gained back about seventeen of them, before I put the brakes on. I remembered the fear and and how bad I felt at starting weight.
As far as eating better, drag out your crock-pot and make up some meals and freeze them, Defrost them at home or in the microwave at work. I did that for years.

I have found that when it comes to committing to eating right and exercising people tend to have grand expectations. We feel like we can do much more than we are willing to. That being said, make short commitments. For example devote to eating right for one day and then reflect! How did you feel? What worked or didn't? Then commit to 2 days and do the same. Then commit to 7 days or one month. The goal is to find what works and what does not! There is no method behind the madness because people are different. You want to find healthy foods that are fun and enjoyable also you want to find a fitness regimen that is also pleasurable, that way you will love it and not want to abandon your changes.

It's really just a part of you that wants or needs it. I lose this part of me all the time. I've lost 20 lbs in 3 years, fluctuating of course, because I'm on again-off again. It's really annoying, I end up feeling 'okay' with being overweight and then all of a sudden reality hits me in the face and I'm back on an 'I'm sick of being fat' body shaming tour and start it all over again. I can tell you that little changes have really stuck with me in the past three years. My portions are lower, my activity level is a little higher, I know what to do and what not to do.. I'm craving restaurant food less. It takes time for me but I'm sure some day it'll be worth it. I'm not at my goal weight, but I'm very much further than I was 3 years ago today.

Feel free to add me. Seems like we could use each other as motivation. Good luck! :drinker:

Edit: Forgot to add that our schedules are alike. I have a full time desk job, operate a side business of 30+ hrs per week and also am a full time student. Stress, negativity and laziness get me all too often. All changes I need to make!

I was always one of those people that was really good at losing weight when I put my mind to, but, as it happens, I was only putting my mind to it when I had something specific coming up - like a vacation (where a bathing suit would come into play), a wedding, a reunion, etc. Once that event passed, I found I'd always fall back into my old habits.

So now, I've taken to choosing something, no matter how far in the future and making that my "event". Mentally, I treat it as though that is the reason I want to lose weight and then once that event passes, I'll immediately choose something else to focus on and help me keep it up. Treating it as a bunch of small goals (baby steps) as opposed to an ultimate goal has proved to be less daunting for me, and helps to keep me motivated. Sort of like markers during a race.

Right now, I'm telling myself I want to look good in a dress at my friend's wedding in London in 2 weeks. After that, I'll focus on fitting into a cute Halloween costume. After that, looking good for a concert I'm going to in November... and so on. I can use each thing as my driving force (particularly in the case of exercise, which I find much harder to motivate myself for than I do eating well). Before I know it, I'll be maintaining for the next event, rather than trying to lose. :-)

(As a side note, this might sound crazy coming from someone with a ticker that says she lost 2lbs but I've actually lost 9 so far this summer. These two pounds are just what I've lost since I joined MyPlate 10 days ago.)

Why?

Everyone has listed great reasons, many of which I share.

For me the motivation lies in the journey. I am an intense sort of person, and I get wrapped up into a lot of details in general. I'm the type who finds a lot of personal satisfaction in choosing a goal, a challenge, etc and busting my *kitten* towards it until I've accomplished it. I've gained nearly 80 pounds in the last decade, and after having lost aroune 20, am determined to not only lose it but put myself through a regime to get myself in the best shape of my life.

I find that weight loss and fitness is one of those great dividers of mankind - there are those who do it, and those who don't. I get a thrill of changing paradigms, pushing myself to become something I've never become before.

Logging has really helped me stay on track. I was working 50 hour weeks for about 6 months this year, and it was tough. I rode my bike to and from work, so that added extra time onto my day. But it also gave me the exercise I needed.

I would wake at 4am to prepare my meals for the day. I had to have food within moments of arriving home, or I'd just call for delivery. I did a lot of food prep on Sundays, so that my mornings were a bit easier.

If you can stand it, eat the same thing every day for breakfast and lunch. This is a super time saver. You don't have to think about what you are going to eat, and cooking is a cinch. I'd have egg whites scrambled with fresh spinach and black beans for breakfast and a tossed salad with some protein (chicken, tuna, egg ect.) and a piece of fruit for lunch every day. For a mid afternoon snack I'd prepare some miso and have a handful of nuts. Dinner was lean protein, rice or potatoes and steamed veggies. I'd pre-cook the meat and potatoes on the weekend, so that way all I had to do was steam some veggies and pop the rest into the microwave.

The bike commuter thing was a bit drastic. I knew that I had to kick my own *kitten*, so I sold my car forcing myself to commute by bike or use public transport. Public transport took twice as long as riding my bike, so mostly I just rode my bike. But I was tired. And sometimes I had a really tough time doing anything at all on the weekends. (My daily commute was 10 miles each way).

Eventually, I just gave up the 50 hour a week job. That is an unreasonable amount of time to spend at work. I wanted those 10 hours a week back to use doing other things like resting, exercising, socializing ect. Now I work from home part time, and also on site part time. But my time is my own.

I got lazy again, so I had to sign up for some bike races. Now I'm back into hard core training mode. (kicked my own *kitten* again! )

Sometimes you just have to do something totally unreasonable to yourself to stay with the program. You need more motivation? Sign up for something like a 10k running race, a tough mudder, or other difficult and public challenge.

Oh, and never stop logging. Even the very ugly truth is motivating.

watch this type of *kitten* every night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLv0Vsegmoo

Thank you for this link. I'm going to watch all of these.