How do you stay motivated?!

Figure out your schedule and make time for yourself. I literally only have about 1 hour to myself because I am a single parent with a 3 yo and a full-time job requiring me to be away from home about 13 hours of the day. I make the most out of my sedentary job of sitting but purchasing a under-the-desk elliptical and also packing a huge lunchbox full of pre-prepped meals and snacks. I also use that 1 hour of free time and go to Crossfit.

Healthy snacks can be purchased for small price of $10/month through Urthbox or other sites. It is a great way to snack responsibly without the hassle of pre-prepping or even thinking. Meal prep is easy if you plan ahead (like the weekend), I get my toddler involved in the prep work and it is awesome!!

You'll get the hang of it Baby steps and you'll get your groove back!!

I work 50-60 hrs/wk, father of 8 & 6 y/o girls and husband to a wife pregnant with twins! I am in no way trying to trade war stories with you, but I want you to know that you are not alone in wondering, how? The short of it is sacrifice. My favorite shows that were a my escape - piling up in the dvr, x-box - collecting dust, car- dirty and junky, but I workout 3 days a week EVERY week. Sometimes it's when my family is in bed 9-10pm, sometimes it's when I'm home with a sick little girl. Now I don't want to make you think I have all of the answers. I don't. I've started, seen success and stopped several times. Most of them due to conflicts with life. This time I said no more, this is important to me and my family so what else can I push aside, besides the family, to make sure this get's done? You have to find your why first. That burning reason that makes you unstoppable. Then everything else fall into place. It's cliche, but you'll never find time, you have to make time.

I forced myself to log even when I went over my calorie amount. Before if I wasn't doing well I just stopped for the day. So slowly I'm being more motivated to stay in my calorie amount. I also found activities that I like. For instance certain exercises I can't force myself to do but running, yoga, ballet are all things that I really like doing. Also try to make friends on here who post on your statuses if that motivates you. Like yesterday I did really well and when I woke up today to positive comments on my food diary. It motivates me to do well today.

In my experience, motivation comes and goes. I can't stay motivated all the time. I have plenty of days when I would rather do any number of things than work out, like yesterday when I was stuck late at work with some unexpected overtime. All I wanted to do was flop down on the couch when I got home, especially since I was tired, hungry, and achy. There's always something that can get in the way... if you let it.

But when motivation wanes, that's when routines and habit come into play. Once you establish a solid routine, it's much easier, at least for me, to stick to healthy habits. I also don't allow myself time to think about whether or not I want to exercise. I can be extremely persuasive, and can talk myself out of exercising, or into eating an entire pizza or bag of candy or 6-pack of beer, in no time. So when I get home, I don't give myself the opportunity to talk myself out of a workout. I put myself on auto-pilot, and change into my gear, set up, and get into my workout before I even let myself think about what I'm doing. Once the workout has begun, I pretty much always have the impetus to keep moving.

It is difficult when life gets in the way. Hang in there. like you said you did it before and you can do it again. when I came back to MFP last August I took tiny steps in the beginning. I tracked everything I ate to the best of my ability and I would concentrate on improving 1 thing a week until it became a habit. something as simple as drinking the 8 glasses of water every day.
As far as exercise is concerned I have had some health issues so I don't do a lot of exercise but I am still losing not as quickly but a loss is a loss.

Good luck

I replaced weightloss goals with fitness goals.

A year ago I was literally lying on my sofa contemplating to get a motorized (!) scooter so that I did not have to walk my dogs...

Now I am training for a full marathon, after having completed a couple of 10Ks and halfs.

Food evaluation and proper nutrition became part of my fitness regime as they influence my performance. In the meantime, I have reached goal weight and have maintained it successfully for a couple of months now.

I set myself fitness goals, running further, faster, longer. Hiking up higher. Using the elliptical for an hour instead of 10 minutes. Lifting heavier... Achieving those goals make me proud and are enough motivation to go on.

Time wise...I have three kids, two dogs, a husband and my own business. Unfortunately, it means less sleep, getting up earlier or working out at night. I cut out TV completely, and am quite strict with myself not to waste time on things that I really do not need to do.

I wish you the best of luck on your journey!
Stef.

=/

It is hard. And that's that. So the desire to look good, fit into nice clothes, be healthy, not stand out as an overweight person, being a thin mom ... being able to eat junk in public with dignity lol... all this has to prevail over the convenience of just letting ourselves go.

If time is an issue, maybe you can sacrifice the workouts that help speed up weight loss/allow more calories, but you CAN always eat at a deficit. Hopefully you have the time to prepare bulky nutritious dishes (which do require more time, I guess), but even if you don't, you can consume prepared meals/packaged stuff/take out/delivery... at a deficit.

Motivation comes and goes (which also means that during periods when it's not there, it WILL come back ), but we have power over our decisions ALWAYS. When motivation's lacking, we'll just be more miserable hitting the deficit... but we just have to hit it miserably, haha.

When I manage to push through those bad times, that usually makes me so happy I become motivated again!

That's what I do, at least = )

amandaelizabeth81 wrote: »

The most frustrated part for me is I have done it before so I know I can, I just can't seem to get into the right mind state, not matter what I do!

Help!

Great advice from others above. I will just add that based on what you say above, it might be helpful to give yourself a break and not compare your current weight loss goals to your past ones. Maybe you can think of hitting a "reset" on your weight loss so that you don't feel you have to do things exactly as you did before. The idea of starting fresh can be very motivating if you allow yourself to say what's done is done. All that matters is what I do going forward.

I like to join short-term challenges here. They help to encourage this "reset" thinking so that even if I have a few challenging months, I know you can pick up with a new goal and new ways of doing things.

One thing to keep in mind is that let's say you were at your perfect goal weight right now, life would probably still happen, right? Getting to goal won't keep life from throwing us challenges and curveball. You'll have to learn how to adjust and deal with it then, right? Just think of this as practice for your future at-goal life.

I feel your frustration at less time to exercise, and apart from doing exercise with your little one (perhaps walking to and from places you'd normally drive) the good thing about a 4 year old is they should go to bed early enough that you can pop in a workout video (or check out Youtube) and get a pretty good workout in at least a few times per week.

When I feel stressed because life seems to be making it harder for me to workout or prep meals, I remind myself that this is when I MOST need to take care of myself. Eating right and working out will make it just that much easier to be good mom, wife, and a happier person and we all deserve that!

motivation has nothing to do with it. if i only did things i was motivated to do, i'd be sitting watching netflix all day.

i log my calories as accurately as possible because i want to lose weight. i cook and eat healthy because i want to get trim. i train hard in the pool, on the road, and at the gym because i want to improve on race day.

I think about time. Every second and minute you spend trying to find motivation, you have lost time - time you will never get back. I say don't find motivation. Just do what you have to do because motivation will find you while doing it.

I cannot stay motivated 24/7. I thought I could. I will have days where I want to eat everything and not go to the gym because I'm tired or just don't feel like it. I could easily finish a whole pepperoni pizza pie and pint of Talenti ice cream to myself while sitting in front of Netflix all day and night but then what? I've screwed up my progress for the week. It's never worth it. Eating better and working out is just something that has to be done and we have to learn to accept things they way they are. I don't want to give up on myself like a lot of other people do. I want to be the best so I stay focused. That's really what will get you through it. Stay focused on what you want most and don't let anything get in the way of it! I don't need to enjoy it and I don't need to be happy doing it all the time or feel hyped up and motivated. I just need to stay on track and keep doing what needs to be done. Try not to think about it, just do it. Seeing those results from that hard work we put in, week after week is the push we need.