Motivation at an all-time low

I've been there done that but you know what you need to do. Think of you and ignore others around you. You need to put yourself first. Honestly, using MFP has changed my life drastically. It had made me make better choices. You can do this just take one step at a time and build up on your excercise and eating. I have done my weight lose with all regular food. No powders or special meals. Weightloss takes time and your worth it. I'm here to help if I can.

Personally, I think we often sabotage ourselves with the "the scale would reflect that" mentality. Unfortunately, I haven't come up with a good analogy for it, but here goes:

Try to take the composition of your body into account: would you prefer to weigh 225, with 10% body fat, or would you prefer to 190, with 30% body fat? According to "what the scale reflects," you're better off @ 190 than you are @ 225, yes? Because the scale measure quantity, not quality.

As for motivation, unfortunately that's your journey. I've met some here that are motivated by being able to fit into old clothes that they've outgrown. Some wanting to not have to shop at plus size stores. Others wanting to simply not be embarrassed to take their shirt off at the beach/water park this summer.

I don't think you will ever be "trying hard enough." I've been working my self seriously (not the half assed, trying to convince myself that I am methods of before) for 2+ years now. I look back at myself when I first began and thought I was giving it my all, and realized "Wow! I wasn't. I thought I was at the time. If only I knew then what I know now." Even today, I can look back on the previous day at the gym and find little things that I should have done better, and beat myself over the head to do better next time. Try to not let other people tell you how hard you are, or are not working. Don't tune it out entirely, necessarily. But YOU hold yourself accountable.

Perhaps try picking one thing that you want, and then sit down and try to figure out how you're going to work toward that. I didn't go t the waterpark one time with my daughter last year because I was too ashamed of the people that I knew would be judging me. It sounds so stupid and self centered now, thinking that the entire world was just sitting, waiting for me to get to there and take off my shirt, because EVERYONE would be watching me. I missed an entire summer of making memories with her because I was too caught up in myself. I told myself that wasn't going to happen this summer, so my goal was "don't be ashamed to take off your shirt." To achieve that I decided:
1) eat something green with every meal

2) eat lean protein with every meal

3) exercise regularly, and with conviction; don't be the person that does 1 exercise, spends 10 mins socializing, does another exercise, socializes some more, does 10 sit ups, and then leaves the gym saying "Yeah! Great workout!"

4) recognize and learn from your mistakes; my diet is solid during the week when I have the structure of the work day to keep me on task. On the weekends when I'm free to roam, I rummage for junk food all day. I've started keeping apples in the house to snack on when I feel cravings coming on. They help me to not want to eat anything

5) Don't kid yourself: I think of all this like paying off a debt. Everything "good" that I do take a chunk out of the debt. Everything "bad" that I do only increases my debt. Some people like cheat days. I'm not discouraging cheat days. But to me, would I rather spend this "money" on something to treat myself, or would I be happier forging the treat, and being that much closer to being out of debt? Some need to treat themselves from time to time. That's fine. But make sure you're "treating yourself," and not "cheating yourself."

Figure out what you want (I suggest that it be more than "for the scale to show a certain number"), and then think of the little steps that you're going to make to obtain it:
- Drink water instead of pop
- Eat smaller portions
- Always take the stairs instead of the elevator

It may seem as though you're throwing pennies at a very large debt, but the pennies will add up.

I agree with Rossah. Easier said than done. I am over weight because I like to eat carbs. It temporarily makes me feel good. I turned to the community ( just now) so I can distract myself from eating until dinner. 20 min to go. wml