Hitting a motivation wall

This part will return to come and bite you in the *kitten* from time to time and the length will vary. When I get like that, I try and think positive and remind myself how far I have come in recent weeks/months rather than focussing on what I still have left to achieve. All the positive comments from colleagues and friends, how my clothes feel and making that conscious effort to put good food into my body. Exercise is such a chore some days but I generally always feel "better" in many ways after. Think back to how you felt about yourself before you started your efforts and compare that to how you feel now. Hope that helps x

Take a good, honest look at why YOU want to lose weight. Not what others say or what you think it should be. Your reason doesn't have to be 'to get healthy' either. It wasn't mine. Once you find that reason, that will become your motivation and make it much easier to keep on track. You will have off days, we all do. But having your own reason for losing weight will make it easier to get back up when you fall.

LD3467 wrote: »

This part will return to come and bite you in the *kitten* from time to time and the length will vary. When I get like that, I try and think positive and remind myself how far I have come in recent weeks/months rather than focussing on what I still have left to achieve. All the positive comments from colleagues and friends, how my clothes feel and making that conscious effort to put good food into my body. Exercise is such a chore some days but I generally always feel "better" in many ways after. Think back to how you felt about yourself before you started your efforts and compare that to how you feel now. Hope that helps x

I think that this is excellent advice!

Also, remember that "motivation" is literally "moving". Positive thoughts and actions move you forward. Negativity will move you backward.

Theres nothing worse than feeling burnt out
I remember that feeling all too well.
I guess the only advice I have is to work through it. Dont let loss of motivation stop you. If you "take a break" trust me, youll never come back to it.
Start a weightloss diary or a fitness journal! Keep daily and monthly stats in it along with your mood, your food and some pics and recipes!

SueInAz wrote: »

You may want to review the way you are going about losing weight and what about it might be causing problems. Many people are overly restrictive with what and how much they are eating and over the long term it gets harder and harder to carry on. Is this you? Is it possible you could eat a little more and still lose weight but a little more slowly? Losing more slowly is certainly better than not losing at all. You might even choose to go on maintenance for a bit and "catch your breath." Then, once your motivation returns you can get back at it with no ground lost.

This was my first thought too. When I started out I was trying to eat 12,000 calories and managing about 13-140. I was pretty miserable. I did drop a nice chunk of weight that week but there was no way I was going to do it long term. I was exhausted, hungry and had trouble concentrating. Not good when you work with potentially dangerous animals for a living and practice martial arts.

Then I started using MFP and discovered I needed to be eating about 2700 calories for a 2 pound a week loss. I had 100 pounds to lose at the time. Now I use a Fitbit paired with MFP and follow the goals they give me, shooting for a Net calorie total between 1200 and 2000 each day. Now I am losing weight slowly but steadily and a not really experiencing much trouble with being very hungry tired or anything else. Down 33 pounds so far and feeling great. It is a lot easier to resist overeating when you are not so restricted that you can't stop thinking about food.

rankinsect wrote: »

SueInAz wrote: »

Many people are overly restrictive with what and how much they are eating and over the long term it gets harder and harder to carry on.

Yup, I found that out (more than once) the hard way. Trying to eat 1300 calories per day when I was 350 pounds was a recipe for disaster - initial enthusiasm will only go so far. Likewise, I tried to only eat "healthy" foods (i.e. all the foods I hated but thought I needed to eat) and failed quickly there too.

Now, I set no restrictions on the foods I can eat, and a lesser restriction on the total calories I can eat, and it all is going so much smoother.

Definatly! It's so nice to know that if I want a cookie, I'll find the calories and eat the damn cookie! XD However, I don't eat 5 or 6 cookies, 1 or 2 (depending on size) is all I need. Took me a while to get to that point, but knowing that I can still have foods I enjoy, just in smaller amounts, makes this whole process MUCH easier!