In dire need of motivation

You just have to do it.

You don't have to do it all at one time or be perfect. But you just have to start making good choices and decisions about your food and exercise. My advice is to set you calories to .5-1 pounds per week unless you have more than 35 pounds to lose and find an activity you enjoy.

I've been there before… many times. The best part about it, it's all mental. That's the biggest challenge. Once you've made up your mind that you're gonna do it, you just do it! Then once you start seeing results, you'll want to continue! You're gonna do great!

I know what you mean. So many times before I wanted to get fit and healthy, started and then just got real lazy, ordered takeaway and thought... bugger it and crap food tastes better anyway!

But since just before Christmas I decided to give it another go and instead of trying to make every inch of my lifestyle healthy I just cut down a lot of the crap. I still have a crappy day now and again and I still do have my treats. I couldn't limit myself to munching on a celery stick every day for the rest of my life. I find it's all about moderation.

I joined a gym and although I look like a headless chicken when I run on the treadmill, I actually started to enjoy it.
You just have to try different things and find out what's best for you.

If I ever lose motivation, I usually put my headphones in, listen to some upbeat music, and just do some research about different exercises or good foods you can eat.


Best of luck x

You don't need motivation.

You need to take action, even if it is smallest action, rather than talking about it.

Starting can truly be the hardest thing but once you get some momentum going it gets easier.

So begin.

It can be done! For myself, I am just getting back on this ride after being away 2 years, or just about. I figured, I needed routine, stability for this to work. The hunt, preparation, and consumption of "clean, healthy food" was all too consuming and it made me feel disillusioned. Which, of course, is a vicious cycle since, if you aren't eating healthy, sometimes the mind and motivation will slip about whether you need to workout or not and that dries up as well and then, you are back in a rut. But it can be done, but if you fall off the path, you can stand up on it again.

To piggy back off what others are saying. Don't overwhelm yourself with trying to change all at once. For instance if you each McDonald's everyday try eating it MWF or just on weekends. You don't have to join a gym straight away but walking 25 minutes a day has shown to have many health benefits. At first it may be hard to get moving but schedule it. Once you do something for any amount of time it becomes habit. Then progress from there. Remember progress not perfection.

queenliz99 wrote: »

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818701/the-myth-of-motivation-and-what-you-need-instead/p1

A quote from the article Liz linked:
We do not need motivation. We need decision.

I really believe this. My motivation is NOT consistent. If I wait for it, days and weeks will go by without action. I think motivation is overrated most of the time. When I am wanting to eat too much its discipline that stops me. I exercise because I have to not because I am motivated.

There's never a perfect time to start except now. Time will pass by whether you are working towards your goals or not.

Get one of these, look into it every day, and tell the person in it, that they can do it.

You can't rely on external motivation; it's nice, but sporadic. You need to learn how to motivate yourself. Take a good, honest look at why YOU want to lose weight. Not what others have said or what you think it should be, but why YOU want to lose the weight. And it doesn't have to be 'to get healthy'. That wasn't mine. For me, it was the fact that I'm fat in my wedding pictures. I didn't want that anymore; I wanted to be able to look in the mirror or at a picture and recognize myself. That's what kept me going.

Another thing you can do is break up the large goal into many smaller ones. Doing so helps you stay on track because you're seeing results a lot more often. Bribe yourself with something small you want. I had trouble remembering to log, so I told myself that I would not go out for a steak dinner unless I had logged 30 days in a row. And that worked. The steak dinner fit neatly into my calories for the day so I wasn't going over, but it's something I really really like, so that gave me incentive to build that habit.

You also need to learn how to forgive yourself. You will mess up and make mistakes, that's normal. When it happens, log it, learn from it, and start fresh next day/meal. Accidentally having an over day doesn't sabotage you or make you a failure. It makes you human. This is really a hard thing for a lot of people to learn, me included. This whole process got a lot easier once I learned it!

I have learned the hard way that it's all about baby steps no matter what change it is. If I try to do to much to quickly then I get overwhelmed and feel like I'm trying to take a sip out of a fire hydrant and give up.