"Pretty good" weight/fitness - can't get motivated to be better

Oh, how I could have written this post myself!!! I've just booked myself 10 sessions with the PT to try and get my oomph back. At the beginning of the year I set myself a challenge to be able to do a pull up by the end of the year....guess what, I will be setting myself the exact same challenge for 2015 as I didn't even start....

I'm getting married in June and kept thinking the motivation would kick in automatically, instead it is panic that is now setting in which isn't quite the same!!

There has to be some kind of motivation there. You are only going to do something if it bugs you enough. Sometimes I actually welcome negative comments, people poking fun at my eating habits or dieting. Getting angry seems to make me want to prove a point. It gets me over that hump from "I wish" to "I'll show them!" I am not recommending anger as your motivation, but there needs to be some kind of strong force there, even if it is just self generated.

I hate to give credit to Elliot Hulse for a sincerely good idea, because the dude says some off the wall stuff, but to paraphrase one of his videos on motivation:

"Most people will never be able to chase something they want. They lack the ability to self-generate motivation. Most people only know how to run away from something. I could put a $10 million dollar sports contract in front of you, tell you to train hard and you can earn it, and most people would never get there. Now, if I put an angry dog behind you trying to bite your *kitten*, you can bet you are going to run as fast as possible away from it, faster than you ever thought you could. This applies to pretty much every facet of your life. Average people do whats comfortable. Stop being average and be the strongest version of yourself, mentally and physically.

I get like this too sometimes....I'm sort of where you are....Pretty good shape, within 10 lbs of my goal weight, etc. I'm thinking about signing up for a charity run...maybe sponsoring someone who has cancer or some other kind of illness might give you motivation to train harder? Good luck...

Trust me, almost everyone has either been, or currently is, where you are. Otherwise, the diet industry would have withered and died decades ago. Almost everyone wants to be fit and thin but few are actually willing to put in the hard work it takes to make it happen. They'd rather try to find a quick fix than make the necessary changes. If it were easy everyone would be doing it. What you need to decided for yourself is if you're willing to be counted amongst the wishers who don't take action or if you'd rather be counted amongst the doers and achievers.

deluxmary2000 wrote: »

Hi all - I've completely lost motivation lately and fallen off the food-logging wagon. WhatI'm struggling with is that my weight and fitness are pretty good. I'm at the high end of my healthy weight range, I can run a 5K, I lift a few times a week (although I've been sick lately so it's been sporadic). I had a physical and my cholestorol and blood pressure were great. Some days I feel like I look pretty awesome. Other days I catch a glimpse in the mirror and think I look pretty awful.
I guess what I can't seem to do is get motivated to step up to the next level. I want to be at the LOW end of my healthy weight range (I have a small frame, so that's really where I should be). I want ABS. I want to be able to run a faster 5K. I want to be able to do a pull-up. Etc, etc. But right now I guess I don't want those things more than I want to sit on the couch and drink a glass of wine at the end of the night. But I WANT to want it more. lol. Does that make sense?
Anyway, just wondering if anyone is or was in the same boat. How did you motivate yourself to go beyond just "ok"?

Makes perfect sense to me. I struggle with this too. Not exactly, my goals are different and I am overweight, but I get what you mean. There are things I'd like to do better or faster and I'd like to not be overweight. But, since I have no health issues and don't really think I look bad, my motivation to lose waxes and wanes.

It makes for slower weight loss (8.2 lbs in 2.5 months), but at least I only care sometimes.

SET Goals... compete with yourself... run a faster mile... lift a heavier weight... JOIN a team, find accountability where none existed before.

Good is the enemy of great, something I've believed for a long time, as it's easy to settle sometimes at a point you're happy enough with. Overarching goals in the past, ones that stretched me, tended to work best for me, as well as changing those goals when needed.

Finding the motivation to carry on again, is something that can be very difficult in my personal experience, and when it comes to motivation and inspiration I try to take it where I find it, and try challenge myself if I can, as it's often too easy to fall into a comfortable groove (speaking for myself).

I'm not sure what the answer is in your case, but it's good you recognise the issue, and want to change things. Sometimes it can be very difficult to get out of such a groove, and think the best thing can be to shake things up sometimes, as you may have grown too settled in your routines.

Re: dieting to shift those vanity lbs, perhaps you can stir things up to get a start again, even if it's only something like eating at a deficit for 3 days a week, and at maintenance for the other 4 days.

Sometimes aiming for as much as you can, is the best way to go, and know I'm in a similar space, where things had stalled, and even temporarily regressed. I tried everything to get back on track, but it turns out what has been working best, is simply aiming to eat at maintenance (and not over) every day, and not eating back any calories burned from exercise, in effect just letting weight loss happen as it will, and for my part, simply putting all my effort into ensuring I don't go over my maintenance calories every day. This is in contrast to the entirety of my weight loss up to this point, which has been typified by hard and aggressive enough goals. Right now though, I'm finding a somewhat more relaxed approach is working best.

Bottom line, it's easy to make better changes once you have a little momentum behind yo first, so I would say put all your focus into getting things moving again, even if just slowly. From there you shall be able to steer more effectively towards your ultimate goal, even if it takes some time

By the way, sometimes a partner to drive and drag you along can be a great thing, and perhaps there's someone you can hook in with, and work out together/ start something together to work towards..

Brolympus wrote: »

"Most people will never be able to chase something they want. They lack the ability to self-generate motivation. Most people only know how to run away from something. I could put a $10 million dollar sports contract in front of you, tell you to train hard and you can earn it, and most people would never get there. Now, if I put an angry dog behind you trying to bite your *kitten*, you can bet you are going to run as fast as possible away from it, faster than you ever thought you could. This applies to pretty much every facet of your life. Average people do whats comfortable. Stop being average and be the strongest version of yourself, mentally and physically.

... That's beautiful. Thank you for those words!

lemurcat12 wrote: »

I'm totally in the same boat at the moment. I'm thinking that it's okay, I've been doing this for a while, it's not like I'm putting on weight (I'm losing, just very slowly), and especially it's the holidays. Nothing wrong with taking a bit of a breather. (I'm also not to goal yet but at a weight where I feel good and think I look pretty good.)

What I'm trying to do instead is just change my focus/motivation a bit. I'm being more lax on the food stuff and some of my cardio and trying to focus in on doing more weights and getting a good program going there. Since it feels fresh and new it's easier to get excited and, frankly, it being indoors makes it easier than running right now.

In January (not to be a cliché) I suspect getting back to some stricter eating/calorie counting will be easier.

I'm there myself with my eating. This time of year I always get more lax with it and I don't worry about it; I just try to maintain. It's race season in the area where I live since the weather is nice so I'm running more which helps, too.

I agree, there is absolutely nothing wrong with taking a break for awhile. I'm in this for the rest of my life so I know I'll always refocus before too long. The trick is just not to fall back into old habits and undo all of your hard work. It's depressing to be right back where you started from, really knowing how much work you have ahead of you, since you've already done it once, and that you have only yourself to blame for it. Worse, unless you were strength training the last time you would have lost muscle along with the fat, and replaced it only with fat, so it's going to be even harder. There's a reason yo-yo dieting takes it's toll as we get older.