How do I stick with this?!

Treat it as a lifestyle change - major overhaul of anything and everything that keeps your weight too high. Be patient, take one day at a time, don't beat yourself up for small hickups, use a good scale to measure your food, be honest. If you have a pattern of eating because of stress, emotions, etc., do figure out why that is, why you choose food instead of exercise or such, and do your best to change your habit. Read the forums, be active, don't blame anyone but yourself. And do ignore people, who might have crap to say to you; they have problems and issues of inappropriate behaviour, not you.

All great advice above me!

Especially making small changes at a time. For example: First goal to get enough water in, second to start eating more fruits/veggies, third work in exercise... start adding the good and you'll see yourself want to drop the bad to make room for them.. and once you build enough good habits, spending the time weighing and measuring your food and going to the gym won't seem so hard, because you're already doing all these other things so why not those as well??

Good luck with it all!

Best of luck to you!

Surround yourself with people who have succeeded, be sure you are doing it for the right reasons, set mini goals and commit to a lifestyle change! Add me and I'll cheer you on!

Log in every single day, even if you're not feeling it. Don't let anything get in the way of logging in, even if you're not eating the best.

So, this is what's called the Competency Matrix. It's a good start on how human beings establish habits and behaviors. Take driving for instance. When you first start, you think about all the things you have to do: Check your mirrors, keep the wheel straight, keep your speed up (or in my case, down), use your turn signals, read the road signs, shift the transmission (just go with me here) etc.

After a long enough time driving though, you don't even think about it anymore. You just do it. That is what's called unconscious competence and that is what we're aiming for with our diet and exercise goals. It's the point where a behavior becomes a part of your life and you don't even have to motivate yourself to do it. Sometimes it sucks to drive to the store, but you've got to if you want to eat, right? Same is true here.

Now, the first two steps of this model are the difficult ones and in most people last ~30 days (if done daily) to form the habit. Once that habit is formed, it takes another few months to have it become a part of your identity. Right now you are at a point where you don't see yourself as a person who tracks their food or who exercises. Your goal should be to imagine yourself as a healthy and fit person. Take a moment to think about it. Really think about it. What does a fit and healthy person do? What do they look like? How do they act, and behave? What foods do they eat? What are their days structured like?

Do you have a picture in your mind?

Okay, we're ready for the first step. Let's set some goals. Now your goals can be whatever you want them to be. Do you want to log your food every meal for a week or do you want to focus on measuring every meal for a single day? Start small. I know this sounds like hokey Tony Robbins shirt, but just humor me and write down the smallest thing you can do today to affect your overall outcome.

No go do it. Once you achieve that goal, then set a bigger goal. Tracking for a day becomes tracking for two days, then three days, then a week, then two weeks, then a month. Then two months. Then congratulations, you've moved from unconscious incompetence into conscious competence. The next step is just to keep repeating the process with larger and larger goals. Change them if you need to. One week your goal may be to track everything and one week your goal may be to do ten pushups. One week your goal may be to eliminate processed foods from your diet.

Your goals should be challenging but attainable and you should write them down. Get a little notebook and write them in it. Then when you achieve them, cross them off. Keep the book so you can see how far you've come. I know this seems stupid, but it works and it does wonders for your self-image. If you know you're capable of setting and achieving difficult goals, you'll find benefit not only when it comes to your body, but also to your personal life.

And if you fail at a goal, don't get discouraged. Be patient and forgiving with yourself and stay the course. They're YOUR goals. No one is pushing them on you. You set them yourself. You can change them at any time and for any reason. The important thing is that you have them and that you're working toward something that is important to you.

Before you know it, you'll be at the last square of the competency model and you'll have started to turn into the person you imagined at the beginning of this exercise.

I hope that helps. Be well.

this sounds so easy.... Stop quitting. yo say you are quitting and coming back. why are you leaving?

I think that one thing that makes it easier to stick with is to stop building it up in your mind as some huge ordeal that you have to endure temporarily until you get to happy freedom funland. Unfortunately, there is no happy freedom funland (I was bummed, too). I used to think that I had to be super restrictive and do crazy workouts, but sustainability comes from figuring out what foods work for you for that day and what kinds of activity you can do even when you don't really have time or whatever special circumstances you normally rely on. For example, if you're pressed to get in your regular workout, you can listen to some music and walk back and forth down the hallway in your house. It is optimal? No. Does it burn calories and beat sitting around on the couch? Yep. It really is a lifestyle change, and you can adapt your efforts to whatever is going on in your life at the time. If you want to indulge at the holidays, add in more activity (dancing! lol). When you go on vacation, choose activities that keep your body active (swimming, walking around the museum, beach volleyball, etc). Start with small changes (track your food and start walking) and then move to the bigger changes.