What do you guys do to stay motivated?

Unfortunately "motivation" is very fleeting, and not something you can reliably maintain - for anyone. What it comes down to for me is forming habits and routines. Once the routine is established, it's much MUCH easier to just keep going. Apparently it takes 66 repetitions for an activity or habit to become routine. Just keep at it (and sometimes it is hard work to do so!) and eventually these healthy habits and choices will just become what you do.

I'm with Lemongirl. Motivation is fleeting, but having a consistent routine enables me to just plug away every day to hit my calorie targetj, whether motivated or not.

Learning to just accept hunger as a physical sensation and not something to act on is useful too.

You can't 'stay' motivated, you can only 'get' motivated.

'Motivation' is just the desire to change or start to do a thing. Motivation is just wanting it but won't make it happen without a burst of 'Will Power' to put things in motion.

'Will Power' is what makes change start happening or gives you the drive to start doing that thing. But Will Power is a limited resource that only good for getting things moving and eventually it will run out.

For the change to be permanent, or to continue doing that thing requires that the change or thing be right or at least 'worth it'. If the change doesn't feel 'worth it' or the genuine desire to do that thing isn't there then eventually the will power will run out.

for example, two people decide they want to get fitter (Motivation). They both decide they're going to start a program and make themselves (Will Power) start to run.
A few weeks later:
Person 1:
Wow! I love running. I think I might start to increase my distance and start entering some running events. This is great.
Person 2:
Man! Running sucks. It's so boring and I hate it. I don't think I can make myself keep doing this. I guess I'm just not motivated or I lack will power

Both people wanted something (motivation), both people made themselves make the change (will power) but when the will power ran out only the person who no longer needed to rely on it continued. The problem with the other person isn't a lack of 'motivation' as I'll bet they still want to get fitter. And it isn't a lack of will power since they had the will power to begin the change. The problem was the change they made wasn't right for them and you can only force yourself though sheer will power for so long.

So what's the answer? I think you need to keep trying things until you find what's right. Maybe the next week Person 2 joins the local gym, does a Zumba class and LOVES it?

Like others said, motivation is pretty fleeting - and often doesn't result in actually accomplishing much of anything.

That being said, my "motivation" comes in when I've made a decision that something is going to happen - regardless of how much effort, work, or how much it sucks to do what I need to do. "Embrace the suck" is the "motivation" for me - in order to accomplish my goal(s), I just need to do the things, and that's all there is to it. It's going to suck, there are a lot of times it won't be fun, or enjoyable or something I even want to do - but I do it anyways.

Weigh and look at myself naked in a full sized mirror every day.

you get positive emotion as you get closer to goal you clearly stated. If ya just losing weight not cause you set your goal straight you will fail to get motivation. You gotta aim at it, at this goal. Otherwise its not gonna work. And ya gotta make proper sacrifices, ya cant eat cake and get the cake.

jjpptt2 wrote: »

You either love the process or you don't. If you don't, you need to find something other than motivation to keep you going. It could be any number of things, and will likely be slightly different for everyone. But you have to find it and stay focused on it. Otherwise it's a constant on-again off-again cycle.

While I think loving the process is certainly helpful, I think it is most important to be committed to the outcome. Honestly, I don't love the process of weight training. It's ok.

What I am totally committed to is the outcome and results towards my goal of being lean, functional, strong and cheating the aging process so that I have as many years as possible with my family, especially my grandsons! The training is just the best means to that end.

So, that is my "it". My why. But I agree with others. Thinking in terms of motivation is useless. Thinking in terms of outcomes and goals and committing to them because they are part of your core values is what is most important. As others have said, motivation is fleeting.

The comments that mention habit are spot on. I had more calories than I could eat yesterday (did a 10 mile hike) and started out the day not logging, but that felt so wrong (because logging is now an ingrained habit) so I went back and logged everything.