THE MYTH OF MOTIVATION (AND WHAT YOU NEED INSTEAD)

Can someone summarize this for me. I wasn't motivated or interested enough to make it past the first third. I had some running to do.

Can someone summarize this for me. I wasn't motivated or interested enough to make it past the first third. I had some running to do.

You're going running and your ticker is on the right side. You really don't need a summary anyhow. Just keep doing what you've been doing.

This post is so on the money for me. All my life I have been fat, now extremely fat, and I have always made out like I didn't care or wasn't bothered, boy was I bothered! And as I have gotten older, fatter and much less fit I have just ignored it and tucked into another of whatever I wanted. Indecision, apathy and frankly laziness have been my watchwords for years, and as I hurtle towards an early grave with the chocolate still staining my lips and lining my arteries, I have finally found that my blinkered view of everything that is happening to my body and my mental health could have and can still be avoided.

So I've made my decision, strengthened my resolve and I am on the road to recovery.

20lbs down, many more to go. :happy:

Bump

Bump!

This combined with the Derpes thread is fantastic.

Good post for the spirit of it...but...

Those men, soldiers standing in that down pour don't have a choice, it wasn't their decision...it was an order..

I know that from being ex military myself and doing centaph duty on rainy cold Novembers...no choice.

But I do feel movitvation is a myth..my profile says how I feel...you either want it bad enough or you don't....end of that quote is "it's a choice you make".

And I believe that.

and those soldiers executed that order because....

They had discipline.

Discipline is doing something even when you don't want to. Yes, discipline can be used for good or ill, but when you are making your own decisions, discipline to execute your decisions will define you.

We should not let life "happen" to us. We should grab it by the throat and bend it to our will.

Like you, I got to the point where I wanted it bad enough. I was unwilling to accept what was "happening" to me. I made a decision.

To misquote, "Be the change you want in you."

And, BTW I also decided I will never go back to the desert, or CENTAF, again.

USAF retired

You know that is so true! I have people tell me that all the time, that it must of been really hard, well it wasn't a walk in the park, but it wasn't that difficult either. I tell people that you have to have the right mind set, if you don't really want to put forth the effort then it is not going to happen. I was ready to make the changes and I did. Then I started seeing results and it made me that much more motivated....Just like my mother who quit smoking after over 40 years of it. She had tried to quit before a dozen times, but this time was different...She was ready and she did it!! Has not smoked since June 22, 2012. People have to want to change and when that happens, it will happen.

QFT

Thank you for this!

Great post

I agree with your myth about motivation but you say it is lack of discipline, what do you do when you go with out losing weight when you step on the scales even though you have been diciplined

Great stuff

I have actually put my experience in basic training and the airborne to start losing weight.. even though it was over 20 years ago...

I put the goal before me... and go for it... I run and march to cadances and imagine myself going back into time working out to build my body to a lean mean fighting machine... while it may seem crazy... it has helped me..

I'm up to 530 push-ups a day...^^ and 150 sit-ups a set... and walk (swinging my arms) for 2 hours a day... and actually running (airborne shuffle) for 1/2 a mile...

This post is exactly what I needed, thanks!:happy:

"The bigger mystery is why we choose to ignore the need for proper diet and exercise in the face of obvious requirement."


Hmmm....some good points in the original post. I didn't read all of the 300+ responses but it seems the overall consensus is agreement with the 'try harder, do better' philosophy. I know this approach has failed me many times in the past. From reading many posts on the MFP message boards, it seems like that philosophy is not working for a lot of other people either.

It is no longer a mystery to me why we choose to ignore the need for proper diet and exercise in the face of obvious requirement. Human nature is to avoid pain and seek pleasure. It is basic evolutionary survival. When we restrict food and become hungry.....we create pain. (It doesn't feel good....does it?) When we exercise out of obligation or drudgery because we hate our body and the way we look....we create emotional pain. (Again, it doesn't feel good.) It then becomes our natural response to seek pleasure. Food becomes pleasure. Not forcing ourselves to exercise out of self-loathing relieves pain and feels much better. (For a time, anyway.) So binge eating and foregoing exercise is actually our body's natural response to these painful situations.

I can agree that decision has an important role in changing our health. But I would suggest that intention is the key. When the decision to eat foods that move us toward health and wellness comes from a positive intention of wanting to take care of the body and life we have been given.....and exercise comes from the same positive intention of wanting to feel healthy and energetic....it will be an easier and much more joyous process. If the decision comes from a "just do it" attitude....it will be harder, many times a struggle, and more often than not - unsustainable.

I don't mean any disrespect to the original poster. I only offer my opinion here to hopefully help others who are struggling with determination, will-power and motivation to see that there is a reason why they feel they keep failing and that there is another approach. It starts with a positive, loving attitude towards ourselves.

*Just a little side note - I used to eat and exercise from a place of self-loathing....wishing I had a better body. To the point of becoming a super lean, super strong bodybuilder training for competition. It wasn't very joyous and even after I achieved my perfect body....I was still not happy with it. So it is possible to be an extremely fit person but not achieve what it is that we're all truly after......self-worth, self-love, value and self-acceptance.