How you stay motivated LONG TERM?

By saying this is it. This is me now, not a thing I am doing.

I am nearly 5 st down but loss has definitely slowed recently and that is tough. I won't be at target by Christmas, which I had hoped, but the improvements already are brilliant. I have been able to do far more things with my kids and I look much better, so even though I am not there (another 2st to go) it is already paying off.

Find the good things and know they'll just keep on getting better.

Nothing wrong with being honest and saying it is getting hard to keep at it.. However, admitting that is okay..giving up is not. You have some good advice here. If you're getting bored and unhappy with the long haul.. start making some changes to your diet. Find new recipes and foods to make your diet seem not like a diet. Why not have a cheat meal once a week? It may slow down your progress but make things more easy to manage. Try new exercise. I think taking progress pictures and looking at those help also.

It is natural to feel like .. blah... who wants to keep doing this. WE all have days like that. Just push through ..keep at it. that is what separates successful people from those on the other side.

First of all, 1st 6lb loss is really good! You're already doing well!

How do you feel? Are you happier, or have you lost this much weight by denying yourself constantly?

If you're already happier, you don't need to stay motivated! All you need to do is recognise the bad habits that you've given up, and commit to not doing them any more. They didn't make you any happier anyway. And just decide to keep going with your current healthy habits.

If you are constantly hungry and miserable with your weight loss, you need to totally change how you're losing weight, probably take it a lot slower, and make changes to your diet and exercise that you can make permanent. This is a marathon, not a sprint. 3st sounds like a lot, but even at 1/2lb per week, you'll hit target weight after 18 months. And stay there forever, because after 18 months of doing it right, you'll have a healthy diet and exercise, and people with healthy habits don't put weight on!

For me my focus has been on fitness rather than a number on a scale. So I made a decision to lose weight, but as you know, that is a very very hard target to track and keep motivated by.

My goals then are these:

To eat delicious, fresh and nutritious meals. That may include burgers and chips.

Result – I am seeking out new recipes using plenty of vegetables, and balancing my macros. On the way I have discovered I am the sort of person who needs protein in the mornings, and will happily chomp away on less carb heavy meals, but will sometimes need to ‘carb-load’ once a week or so.

To get fitter – I took up running, and have surprised myself by really enjoying it and firmly identifying as a runner. I aim to run 2/3 times a week with an off-road half marathon planned for Spring. Then I want to get back on my bike.

Result – I am on target, have completed a few races, and have joined a running club who are taking me in the dark through fields and woods, when I might be tempted to stay home. I’m doing Stronglifts over the winter months as have heard that this is a great way of improving running strength, plus I seem to have primarily lost weight in my butt which makes my silhouette look sad.

To have more energy and feel better – I am careful to fuel my workouts. I eat all of my exercise calories given by my fitbit, and feel pleasantly tired at the end of the day. My morning workouts whilst difficult to do at 6am, by 6.30am I am feeling ready for the day ahead.

Result – I am slowly getting there. There are days where I feel sluggish. Those days tell me I probably have overdone it either on the exercise, so I might skip a workout, or I haven’t eaten enough, so I choose something healthy to fuel me. I have never been a junk food addict so am more likely to have a yoghurt or similar to keep me going. There are also days where I feel bloated. This tells me I have made some bad food choices, maybe that heavily processed nutritionally empty pizza wasn’t such a good idea, and I make better choices next time (like the sourdough pizza from the artisan place down the road)

Maybe think of some non-weight related motivation to keep you going? You’ve done well so far and don’t forget it!

I once heard an interview with a woman who made the comment that she had decided to go to law school because the next ten years of her life were going to pass by regardless of what she did with the time. She just decided that ten years from that time she could either have a law degree or not have a law degree. That idea totally resonated with me and I used it to motivate myself to attend university part-time for 11 years. I use that thought to also keep me going with weight loss. That, and the idea that this is just who I am and what I do now. There isn't really a choice about it. I hated that life of being fat and slow and sluggish and bloated and gross. It is beyond me why it even crosses my mind to think I would want to return to that.

You don't. It's discipline.