What do you say to yourself?

Sometimes it helps to look in the mirror. Sometimes I check out the "success stories" forum. I also follow a lot of fitness people on YouTube and Instagram so I'll check those out when I need motivation. Also like to think about my "why"- my reason for doing this (health, confidence, to be a role model, to live longer and to enjoy my life more, to like what I see in the mirror, to be strong and fit and beautiful...)

If I don't feel like exercising, it's because I'm not well or I'm really, exceptionally and unusually tired ... and I need a day off.

But it helps to incorporate exercise into my day. I walk as part of my commute. I need to go to work, and in order to get there, I need to walk. Can't get around that! I walk to run errands at lunch. Stuff needs to be done and I'm not going to get it done unless I walk.

As for eating, I make plans to take diet breaks periodically. I can stick to a diet without any difficulty at all ... as long as I know that in a few weeks, I'll take a weekend off. Craving cake or potato chips or whatever? That's OK ... no problem. I'll have them on my diet break. Just not right now. Funny thing is that when I get to my diet break, I think I'll have a long list of food I want to eat, but often the cravings have passed and I eat reasonably normally.

And the exercise I do every day allows me to eat more ... that's so much more of an incentive than saying some happy words. When I cycle a long distance on the weekend ... I can have pizza and ice cream. It all makes staying on my diet so much easier.

If I'm not moving forward, I'm going backwards to where I started. Don't want that, so I keep going.

Good question. I have a lot of motivational songs and quotes and so forth on my phone, but I don't really think about them when it comes down to the wire. What I actually do is picture my life how I want it to be, doing the things I want to do - traveling, contributing to the world around me and helping others, involved in many activities, confident, fit, nicely dressed and groomed, and as healthy as possible.

I didn't start out thinking about that on purpose, the images just kind of popped in my head, and they were quite vague at first, but the more I use those images to battle detrimental eating behaviors, the more focused and powerful they become. Wow. Just now really realized this was happening when you asked, lol - thanks.

It truly is helping me. I don't want to give up those dreams for a moment's pleasure. I really, really don't. It looks like the more time, thought, and energy we invest in our dreams, the less likely we are to just toss them away so easily - maybe. There's still a lot of retraining of old habits and plain old work to be done, naturally. It's a renewal process, really, and it takes time, but having those psychological tools can really help us stay the course.

I just look at myself in the mirror. Not being where I want to be, is motivation enough. That and I slam some preworkout and get *kitten* goin!

MelanieCN77 wrote: »

I'm more likely to eyeroll than feel inspired by a clever quote or lyric as nothing is ever as simple as that.

right! Even if I managed to be inspired, I am probably still rolling my eyes

I managed to lose a lot of weight years ago by stealing the Nike slogan "just do it". I waa so busy making excuses before that I just needed to tell myself to suck it up and just do it. Self tough love. That helped.
Now I have a play list of songs that I pretty much only listen to when working out - a lot of empowering girl power type stuff lol. But when I hear it, it's so fused with exercise in my mind that it makes me want to get up and be active!

I don't say or do anything if I feel like not eating right. I've been eating a balanced nutritious diet for decades so if I have a day where I want to break from that and eat junk I just do it. It's not something I want to do often.

Exercise is another beast. During nice weather I'm active enough that I rarely exercise just for the sake of exercising. During the colder wetter months it is a challenge. I usually just think of the reason why I should do it, the history of obesity and disease in my family and go with the Nike slogan. I 'just do it'.

timeforwork wrote: »

Iv set my phone PIN number as my current weight and update it once a week so every time I use it I see how I'm doing both good and bad!

Nice idea!

When I am swimming or running and I want to stop I usually say to myself "Come on Giulia, you'll never be able to get the scholarship/finish your project/do something else related to my job or life if you can't even complete the training you planned". I might sound a bit harsh, but I find it very motivating for the other stuff I am doing outside the diet too! Is like "if I can finish my run for sure I can also solve the coding problem in my project"!

It's not a 'should do' - it's a 'MUST DO'

I make healthy choices I have respect for myself,
I'm the only one in control of my eating habits I can Always resist something if I choose to,

I listen to Music to uplift my mood and I'll even look on IG #weightloss to get inspired and back in focused and know it's a Journey always be patient with yourself and enjoy it.

TimothyFish wrote: »

It's okay to talk to yourself, as long as you don't respond.

It's even ok to respond and dialogue with yourself, as long as you don't bite your own head off.