NO MOTIVATION

Remember you can't exercise your way out of a bad diet- if you eat more calories than you burn then you will not lose weight, so you're kind of wasting all the time you spend working out. You don't want your workouts to be a waste right?

Also you don't necessarily need to eat healthy to lose weight, you just have to be in a calorie deficit. It's easier to stay under your calorie limit if you eat healthy foods, but you can eat unhealthy ones in small portions still if you want. Healthy food is better for improved health, but calorie deficit is the main thing needed for weight loss.

Also if you're sick of chicken for your lean protein you can try:
Eggs
Egg whites
Shrimp
Prawns
Greek yogurt
Cottage cheese
Turkey
Ground turkey
Halibut
Tilapia
Crab
Lobster
Turkey jerky
Protein powder/shakes

Or you can also make chicken more interesting with different flavorings, slow cooking it, sauces, lemon, roasting it whole, herbs, salsa, etc...

Healthy food doesn't have to be boring if you make an effort and get creative

Large cuts of beef and pork in a crock pot are easy and you can make all sorts of different recipes and flavors. Also look into curries, you can change the taste of veggies or meat and they are surprising easy to make.

Both are good for meal prep as well since it is easier to make a pot full and the refrigerate well.

Most importantly make the small changes you can live with for the longer term. If it is too much of a change will power gives up. Health is a wonderful gift, enjoy it.

Truth be told, I don't always eat all that healthy, but I still lost weight (19 lbs so far, 11 to go). So don't try to be too restrictive, else it might not be sustainable.

Some keys to losing for me have been to make small changes and work on one thing at a time. Here's a few key steps from my journey, maybe some will help you...
1. First, keep your calories near your deficit goal (within 50-100 calories plus/minus) with whatever you currently eat. You can eat less healthy, which will likely have less nutrition from your food, but you will still lose. You can 'eat healthy' and still eat too much. Track everything you eat and just start focusing on staying near your calorie deficit goal initially.
2. Remember extra cardio helps to make your calorie deficit higher if you feel like you need more calories. Cardio doesn't have to be super crazy either - go for a walk, mow the lawn, just get more active. Track cardio very conservatively. It is better to overestimate your food calories and underestimate your cardio calories - most people do the opposite.
3. Next focus on trying to balance your macro ratios (proteins, carbs, fats). This starts you in the process of making healthier choices as you try to meet those macro goals. Do I have a glass of empty calories with wine, or have a protein drink because I need to get more protein today? Some days you may still chose the glass of wine just because it's been one of 'those' days, but other days you will start to make the healthier choice because you know you need to get more protein and will feel better if you have that instead.
4. If eating healthier is your goal, next start learning healthier substitutions for the things you consider less healthy in your food diary. Maybe instead of a piece of candy, you choose a piece of fruit. This is another good place to do it one step at a time. Too big of a change is overwhelming.
5. Eat foods that fill you up and you still enjoy. It's going to be different for everyone, so this requires figuring this out for yourself. Remember to make this sustainable for your life.
6. Give yourself a lot of grace in the process. It's going to take time to get it all figured out, and time to lose the weight. You'll have a "bad" day; just don't let it turn into a "bad" week. And if it does, then get back on track as soon as you can. We all have 'off' days and 'f--- it' days. It's how we react to those bumps that affects the ultimate outcome. Don't beat yourself up because you had a 'bad' day...just fix it and get back on track the next day.
7. Finally, motivation is an inside job. Have a goal and stay focused on it. If the goal is too far in the distance, establish some intermediate goals. If you make your goal, reward yourself. If you miss it, reset it and keep moving forward toward it. Figure out what will motivate you...a picture of yourself now, or maybe a picture of yourself now that you draw on to show how you want your body shape to be at goal, or joining a challenge where you are accountable to others in the group, or a promise of a reward if you meet an intermediate goal (like a new article of clothing). Motivation is different for everyone. You have to figure it out for yourself.

Honestly, I'm in a motivation lull right now too, so I'm trying to shake things up a bit to keep me working out since I'm finding it hard to workout 4-5 days a week especially as we're moving into fall/winter. I joined a gym where a number of my friends go, so we're going to be accountable to each other. Plus they have some classes that I've been wanting to try, and I tend to do better with live classes than working out with a video at home. I've noticed that my eating after 5 months is starting to veer off track again, so I'm branching out to try some new things to keep it interesting and I'm trying to get back on track with my macros to get me back to making better food decisions. It's a process, and like weight loss, it's not always linear...sometimes it's quite recursive. But you just keep moving forward toward the goal.

You can do it!

For motivation, someone suggested that we eat a meal in front of a mirror, naked. Just thinking about that gives me motivation!

Healthy doesn't mean bland or boring...basically cooking at home using scratch, whole ingredients is going to be pretty healthy...

mysteps2beauty wrote: »

Try making your favorite fast foods at home but use healthier ingredients. Like burgers, use ground turkey meat. Like nachos, same thing...count out the calories for the chips, put ground turkey meat on it, cover with shredded cheese and salsa. Get a salad from a fast food place but don't use their dressing, make your own vinegar and oil. Fish is easy to make at home, along with a veggie like broccoli steamed with lemon butter on top.

Your being here means you realize something has gotta happen, either you will lose, stay the same or gain. Do you really want to be here next year? So, I keep posting here, even on days that suck. I know I will see a post here that will change my outlook even for just a few days. Look at the success story thread. Full of inspirational stories.

The only thing I'd say about this is that there's this illusion that ground turkey is so much healthier than ground beef...the difference between 93% ground turkey and 93% ground beef is...wait for it...nothing. This is where actually looking at nutritional information can be important.