"Healthy" and losing motivation

sarah44254
sarah44254 Posts: 3,078 Member
edited October 1 in Motivation and Support
So my goal is still a few lbs away, 12 or 14 or something like that. It is a truly frivolous goal, just a weight in the center area of my 'healthy' BMI. But it is a goal none-the-less and I feel the desire to reach it.

I also feel the extreme lack of motivation since I am no longer 'overweight'. I feel like I can tell myself this is good. Like I can say I've made it far enough, why try to get smaller?

Then other days I feel so big in my body, I tell myself 'if only my thighs were a little slimmer' or 'if I keep running I'm sure I will see the weight drop more, gotta see that weight drop!'

How do you stay motivated when you aren't pushed to your goal by the BMI scale any longer? How do fit people fight the urge to stay put and continue to become fitter?

Replies

  • juliapurpletoes
    juliapurpletoes Posts: 951 Member
    my first thought is ~~~when you adopt a healthy lifestyle with food and exercise, there is no pressure anymore......your ultimate fitness can't help but happen.

    Goals for a certain number are important, but for me, I think about being happy and wanting my fitness to feel natural, not forced. and, something I can sustain for my life.

    have no idea if that makes sense or could help :)

    best of luck!

    p.s. the questions you ask are good ones! keep thinking about how you would answer them if someone asked them of you!
  • LisaMariaCallow
    LisaMariaCallow Posts: 170
    You have to do what makes YOU feel good. Staying motivated is sometimes hard, but knowing that you're improving your quality of life should help propel you forward. I love the endorphin rush I get from working out, it's a great stress reliever. Weight & BMI are just numbers-you need to feel comfortable in your own skin. Take this journey one day at a time.
  • Becky1971
    Becky1971 Posts: 979 Member
    My motivation is mental/emotional stability. So no matter what I weigh or look like, I have to keep at it to maintain that. But doing it regularly, and then not doing it, my body feels sluggish and weak, so just physically I have to keep at it. But reaching goals I never dreamed of reaching feels amazing. So i just have to keep giving myself a goal, no matter what it is.
  • sarah44254
    sarah44254 Posts: 3,078 Member
    Thank you everyone

    My lifestyle for the past month has kept me lightly active and maintaining weight-wise. It feels very easy for me to stay as I am right now for a lifetime. It is good to know that I can at least keep up at a pace considered 'healthy' on a scale like BMI. I have about 26-27% body fat and I'd love to see that get lower, which is why I keep trying to get to that goal.

    I will keep thinking on these questions for myself :) it is a good reminder of where I'd like to end up
  • RBXChas
    RBXChas Posts: 2,708 Member
    If you find out, I'd love to know. I once got down to around 150 (I'm 5'7"), which is within my healthy BMI range (anything under 160 is considered healthy for me). For whatever reason my "magic number" is 135, just always has been, not sure why :) Anyhow, about 10 months before my wedding (5 years ago) I started losing weight and got to just above 150 (a 30-lb loss). For some reason I never went past that and even gained back a few pounds by my wedding. Even now that I'm in the 190s, I look at pictures from my wedding and think that I look thin, but that's only because my wedding dress wasn't tight-fitting on the bottom... if I look at pictures from my honeymoon, which was immediately after my wedding, and I am wearing shorts, I think my legs still look fat. To be honest I didn't exercise at all during that weight loss stint...

    Point being, I think I got to a certain point where I was "good enough" and got complacent. What I didn't think helped was people's comments, e.g., "Oh, you've lost so much weight - I hope you're not planning on losing any more!" In some sense I think even all the non-backhanded, positive comments contributed to my complacency. I was ok with where I was, and, though I would have liked to have lost more, I didn't find the motivation to keep pushing.

    Another thing that may have contributed to my losing motivation was that my eating was SUPER boring, and I had a lot of things going on at that point in my life, so I started letting things slide. I think I just get bored with a plan.

    My advice I guess (and hopefully I'll take it myself) is to not think of it so much as a numbers game as "Am I happy with myself," which means you will do whatever it takes to get to whatever point you are happy with your body. If that means you stay the same weight but tone up, then so be it.

    It's hard to give advice when I've struggled and been ultimately unsuccessful with the same issue, but perhaps in looking at where I've failed we can all learn something.

    Best wishes to you!!!
  • tjradd73
    tjradd73 Posts: 3,495 Member
    I have been in my healthy BMI for sometime...and although I have a few reasons why I picked MY goal to help me stay motivated...I still feel like stopping some days, just to stop, and to be done! 1 new thing that I have been doing: setting inches lost and a body fat % goal...this insures that I stay focused on my diet and exercise every day! shooting for less then 20% body fat to be on the border of fit and athletic!
  • MikeK51
    MikeK51 Posts: 317
    Sarah, your questions are great. It was like you put into words my exact story too!
    I keep telling myself I worked hard for so many months, and I reach my weight goal, so I cut back on exercise and being as strict on my meals. But although my weight has stayed within a few pounds, I feel too that I still need to work on getting my mid-section toned. So I looked for something completely new (running) and found that has helped me start to get my motivation back.
    Now, I just need to work on getting back to eating well EVERY day, or at least only have treats once a week.
    I'm hoping the change of season will also help a lot of us. I think the summer months make it hard to stay focused and dedicated.
    Good luck!
  • VeganGal84
    VeganGal84 Posts: 938 Member
    I'm listening in, and grateful for everyone's advice on this! Thanks for asking this question, because I am in the same boat.

    Some days I feel as if I'm done, because I am pretty darn happy with myself at this weight.

    Then there are the days when it's obvious to me that I'm not quite done losing yet, and that I really want to tone up a lot more, even if I don't lose any more weight.

    I hear ya.

    What's helped me lately is planning for a future that has no scale in it. I'm still working towards getting to my goal weight, but I'm focusing more and more on measurements and how my clothes feel, as well as how I see myself and feel about my body, than the number on the scale.
  • Becky1971
    Becky1971 Posts: 979 Member
    Everyone keeps mentioning being done, wanting to be done, feeling like their done etc... To me, done is no longer eating healthy and exercising. Done is giving up. Maintaining a certain weight is not done. Since we came from being over weight, we easily could go back there again, and if we were done, that's exactly what would happen. I know that maintaining is going to be just as much if not more work. I haven't passed my lowest weight in a year, it's been a lot of work trying to keep my weight down while I haven't been able to lose that last five pounds I once thought I wanted to lose. I don't know if I will be able to or not, but staying with in a few months for a year has been work. It's not being done, to stay at the healthy weight we are at.
  • agthorn
    agthorn Posts: 1,844 Member
    Everyone keeps mentioning being done, wanting to be done, feeling like their done etc... To me, done is no longer eating healthy and exercising. Done is giving up. Maintaining a certain weight is not done. Since we came from being over weight, we easily could go back there again, and if we were done, that's exactly what would happen. I know that maintaining is going to be just as much if not more work. I haven't passed my lowest weight in a year, it's been a lot of work trying to keep my weight down while I haven't been able to lose that last five pounds I once thought I wanted to lose. I don't know if I will be able to or not, but staying with in a few months for a year has been work. It's not being done, to stay at the healthy weight we are at.

    Completely agree! We are never actually done - which is why I hate seeing all these diet pills, shakes, HCG, etc etc that people expect to do for a short time and then be "done" with the weight loss.

    To answer the original question - once you're in a healthy weight range, the scale goal becomes less important. Body composition goals (% body fat, inches, etc) and fitness goals need to become your main motivator. Eating healthy is still important but at that point it becomes more about fueling your body to meet your fitness and activity goals, rather than eating to lose weight.
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