Need motivation it’s my first day

Hello babygary12, welcome to the start of your attack on the bulge.

I’m brand new to MFP and I’ve struggled with weight most of my adult life after piling on the pounds in my early twenties. I’ve bounced up and down during that time, never really regaining the weight level I wanted and more importantly, never managing to keep off the weight I did manage to lose.

I think the heaviest I got was 20st, so what’s that......... (calculator out).. 280 right? Although I’ve always been shy of the scales and so for all I know I’ve been heavier. But this time around I think my starting point a few months ago was probably about where you are now. (Educated guess based on much experience.) I didn’t want to weigh myself properly when I started because I knew it would depress me and knowing how much harder it was going to be this time around, (it’s been harder every time as I’ve got older.) I wanted to stay as positive as possible. Now of course I wish I’d got on the scales from day one... but what ya gonna do.

Anyway. Point is that this time I started where you are and so as a 15st 11 (221) work in progress, (as of last Saturday) with a “realistic” target of 196 but an ideal perfect world target of 182, I can wave encouragingly from a little further down the road and say “look, I’m where you’re going to be.” And although there’s a lot still to do obviously and while mindful of how easily I can fall flat on my face, still I’m a little less daunted now by the road ahead.

There are no doubt folk here who will be able to give you different opinions and options as to which foods you “should” be eating and as you read through the good advice, you’ll decide and discover what does and doesn’t work best for you. But ultimately I believe that mind set is the most important thing. Set yourself a calorie goal and stick to it. MFP will do that for you. In fact it gave me a little more leeway than I was allowing myself before hand. But as useful a tool as it is, ultimately you are your own policeman.

In my opinion, don’t worry about how you’re going to stick to your ongoing goals in the long term, for many of us it’s too daunting. Concentrate on today. I’m not going to go over my limit today.

Finally I would suggest that while “Eat less and move more” is clearly a truism. It doesn’t appreciate our individual struggle whether physical or emotional to achieve our goals. So while what we need to do can be made to sound straight forward, the actual doing of it, for many of us, ain’t. So give yourself a pat on the back now and again because to some degree greater or lesser, all of us embarking on this are heroes, nothing less.

On a personal note I would tell you that the inconvenient truth I have eventually arrived at five and a half decades in. Is that a “diet” is not a transient affair as we’re encouraged to believe so that companies can sell their latest food plan to us. But rather “diet” is literally “what” we eat, whether it be good or bad. So making the right choices has to be a permanent lifestyle choice. Damn, now that’s harsh!

Sorry about the long post. I’m not a big forum poster generally, but you brought it out in me. (Actually I suppose I “am” a “big” poster at the moment. How puntastic is that? )

Badger

If you aren't self-motived on your first day, you're in trouble.