what keep you going?

For me..its my friends and family. I just have been in this mental slump in which it makes me sometimes not a very good person to be around. We are always at the lake in the summer and knowing summer is coming up...I just stay motivated with that. I don't want to feel like I have for the past two summers. I used to be soooo outgoing and now I tend to hide. Also, some of my friends are working out with me. We have the luxury of knowing someone who trains and is willing to train us in his spare time. So with that, I just feel like if he can commit to us I at least owe him my commitment. I don't want to dissapoint him or my friends. Im not going to lie. There are times when its workout day and I just dread going. Esp. this time of year! I hate getting out in the cold. But on those days I just mentally tell myself, get up -get your shoes on -lets go! After the workout, I feel soooo good about myself getting out and doing it! It makes it all worth it because I know I'm doing something to better myself! Then I feel so proud of myself! As far as the food goes,,,well this site has helped big time. I love knowing I can plan out my meals for the day...and I am soo determined to stick with what I have scheduled to eat because I don't want my workouts to go to waste! So it is mental for me I guess. Think about it....you work out...burn 200 calories..eat a ONE cookie that is 200 calories...and that hard workout went out the door!

Don't give up....!!!! You can do it!!! And you need to tell yourself that everyday! Be determined! :smooched:

Motivation usually wanes at about that point. That's why gyms are full on January 1st, and at least around here we see all of these people in new walking shoes and fitness clothes power walking around the neighborhood, but in less than a month most of them are gone and the new clothes are in the back of someone's closet.

Maybe the answer to losing that initial motivation is to understand from the get go it'll be gone soon enough, and making sure you've got a plan you can live with, and maybe thrive with, ready to keep you going.

For me, I've got goals set with weights to reach by certain dates and I've got rewards in mind for certain goal reaching. Bigger ones for big accomplishments, and small ones for little ones. None are food related, but they help keep me going when I really don't feel like it.

Also, I joined the Biggest Loser MFP weigh in. I made a commitment to this group and I know I've got to post every Wednesday. That sense of community is wonderful for me. I hope we keep it up after Biggest Loser goes off. Maybe a "Waiting for the next Biggest Loser" group or something.

For the first time in my life, it is not about the diet anymore. I just want to be healthy. I am still 15 pounds away from where I want to be, but that doesn't drive me anymore. I have been a gymaholic for over a year and a half and I have just gotten to the point that I love it. Then my mind says, 'well you worked so hard at the gym today why do you want to pollute your body with junk?" so I don't. Occasionally I will splurge, but on a whole I don't have cravings much anymore. I also have finally realized that just eating one cookie does not mean I have blown the whole day..therefore eat the whole box! And healthy eating habits don't start tomorrow or Monday..they start now. It is a mindset for me that I have never had a grasp of before and I am 35 and have lost and gained the same 40 pounds more times than I care to count. But I have never thought like this before so maybe just maybe this is the time I do it for good!

Lots of good comments already. Something a bit more simplistic for me to add. When I start dreading my workout (I run on the treadmill), I download some new music. I have two young girls at home and about the only time I get to listen to "my" music is when I'm on the treadmill. So, if I know I have some new tunes, it gets me geared up to go....when I start getting bored, I download more....iTunes is loving me.

My sister used to watch movies while she was working out. She would rent a new one and the only time that she could watch would be working out.

GL. This is a marathon not a sprint.....

We're gonna make it.

I think the key is to change things a little at a time. Cut back on sugar in a definitive way that is doable for you instead of giving it up entirely (this is just an example) so that you are only changing one little thing at a time, which doesn't require as much motivation as changing everything at once and completely altering your entire lifestyle. But if you make little changes at a time and are CONSISTENT, it all adds up, and at least for me, it does not require much motivation to continue.

Are you trying to change so much at once that it is too hard? Maybe slow down and realize this is a journey without an end, because if you stop your healthy lifestyle when you reach your goal weight you will gain it back quickly. I've lost 21 pounds in three months. I know I am eating a lot differently than I was three months ago, but every change was a manageable one for me that I knew I could keep up on and so it almost seems effortless. The hardest part for me was to be consistent, but I know I must to continue to lose weight and to keep it off in the future.

Oh, one other thing, the time is going to pass whether or not you are working hard to lose the weight. You get to decide if you are going to be thinner or not when that time passes.

I feel you really WANT to lose weight and I know I am at a point in my life when I am mature and can make my own decisions and controlling what you put in and more importantly, what you DON't put in your mouth. I have definitely had tempations but I am think before I eat. I think "Is it really worth it?" and I imagine myself in a shirt or shorts (which I haven't worn in over 10 years).

I know people who always talk about wanting to lose weight and be thin but they never do anything about it. Though I have been overweight most my life, I don't feel sorry for overweight people. I am an adult and I can make my own decisions and I did this to myself.

I watch Biggest Loser and Big Medicine and see lots of people in need of weight loss, but they have done this to themselves. It's amazing all the gastric bypass and plastic surguries people have had all because they couldn't control their eating. This is a GREAT motivator for me not to let myself get to that point and I fully respect people who do it on their own with proper eating and exercise.

There are people on the Biggest Loser who have weighed over 400 lbs and lost it all. Of course their training is a little more intense than most people's but it is possible for those who weigh so much.