Need average motivation

I was in the same boat heading into month three of weightloss (which was last week lol). Log all your food even when eating like someone who wants to die young. Spend a bit more time making a really delicious healthy meal with some volume-I can recommend dry-seared bay scallops with sauteed spinach/capers and a light lemon beurre blanc. Directly correlate your exercise calories with more food (which is why I can't do tdee...assumes the hard work has been done and rewards in advance..nooo that doesn't work lol) and eat a good for your body good for your state of happy snack that s in line with a realistic 75% of the calories you burned. Keep anumbered list of all the things you notice have improved in any area of your life. My list has 127 items on it, and when I reread it a few days ago it was perfect. We often don't see how good we are being to ourselves when we are healthy (forest) because we only focus on how horribly out of shape/fat/tired/ashamed/long it will take (stumps). Often a good sweaty workout will reset things. Tood luck--no, I don't mean that. Luck has very little to do with it. Persistence and self-awareness...yes good persistenc and slf-aareness!

Hi there - some background on me for some context... I'm 40, married, 2 kids... work FT & have been actively pursuing fitness & good health since Jan 2013. I was on a pretty decent weight loss path Jan-Sept last year and then needed surgery early Nov & had to work on maintaining for a couple months while I recovered. I haven't had a loss since early Dec. I tell you this because not everyone has an easy time losing weight or staying motivated. I have successfully lost a lot of weight twice in past years but kept gaining it back (because I lost it for the wrong reasons). It took my doctor telling me that my blood pressure was borderline and if it didn't come down, they'd have to consider medicating or some other type of intervention. That was my motivation. You need to find yours...whatever that is. Do not beat yourself up if you can't get motivated. For years I knew I needed to take better care of myself but I wasn't mentally prepared to take it on. It's great to recognize you need support and reach out....but if you allow yourself the time to get into that mental place of working on your health, results are likely to be better. I only say this because it worked for me.

I really liked the other idea of making a list of all the things that improve when you're taking good care of yourself. Find out what works for you: TDEE or working with/eating back a portion of your exercise calories. I did the latter for several months & now I'm trying the TDEE method. This truly is a trial & error thing... also, take measurements so that if the scale doesn't move, you can continue measuring & identifying inches lost. That makes a huge difference. The scale isn't always your best indicator I also agree with logging every day. Every. Day. Everything. Make friends on MFP (feel free to friend me) - and keep the ones who remain active/supportive. If you're willing, share your diary. Allowing others to see it may help keep you accountable.

As for workouts, I have worked out with someone else in years past but I no longer have a workout buddy due to changing times, availability and circumstances. It worked great at the time, but I don't have a buddy for that now. If you do have this, I think you'll find it very effective!

You can do this. Just proceed when you know you're READY! Best wishes to you!