My self motivation is slipping

lmf1012
lmf1012 Posts: 402 Member
The big water weight losses of the first two weeks have faded off into the sunset and the last 3 weeks have only seen 2.8 lbs lost. While I know 1lb a week is realistic, it is at the same time very demotivating.

It’s only been 34 days and already I feel the beginning of that slippery slope where your diet starts to slip a little, you start missing workouts. How am I supposed to do this for 10-12 months?!

I have not gone over in calories but on two occasions recently I ate more chocolate than my daily allowance and I ate more bread than I wanted today, in fact more dinner than I wanted.

It’s been a week since I have been to the gym and I have zero motivation to go.

Help!!! How do I get a renewed fight to keep on this journey for the long haul?

What keeps you going day in and day out when you don’t want to exercise?
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Replies

  • penguinmama87
    penguinmama87 Posts: 1,158 Member
    I think the really hard part is transitioning from "yay I'm excited about this new thing!" to the part where it's just routine and you do it because you do it and it would feel weird not to! Sounds like that might be where you are. It's not easy, but it's not hopeless, either!

    For exercise I do best if I do it first thing in the morning. I set up everything the night before so I have fewer chances to back out and say no. I set my alarm, go to bed on time, and roll out in the morning very first thing. Once it's done, I still get to do my day pretty much like normal, and I usually feel good *after* exercising even if I don't feel good *during.*

    I hope this is helpful! You can do it!
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,048 Member
    Re: workouts, I found the trick for me is finding a sweet spot between being challenging enough to be interesting on a good day but attainable enough to know that I can get through it even on days where I’m not my best. I like cardio outside (it’s torture for me on gym equipment), so that requires less motivation, but even still, there are days I’m not feeling motivated but I do it anyway because I know I’ll start feeling angsty and fidgety if I don’t. I don’t love strength training, so my trick there is a super compact routine— 15 minutes. It’s hard to make excuses when it’s only 15 minutes. I alternate upper, lower, core with weights and body weight, but on any given day — 15 minutes. What I lack in intensity I make up for with consistency.

    Re: food, it sounds like you’ve got that dialed in. Sure, some days I have more bread or chocolate than planned, but I cut back on something else. That’s life. It’s nice to have that flexibility. The key for me here is eating food I genuinely enjoy in appropriate quantities. Undereating for more than a couple days is a binge waiting to happen for me. I’m already pretty lean and can’t sustain a deficit >250 cal/day. Being patient makes the whole process much more enjoyable.
  • clayfield0813
    clayfield0813 Posts: 32 Member
    Your not alone- I feel the same way- my motivation gets low and I give up- but I can’t do that- I am determined- don’t be too hard on yourself- give yourself grace- start over and try again
  • lmf1012
    lmf1012 Posts: 402 Member
    @penguinmama87
    You are spot on! It is the transition from the new lifestyle determination to the routine of it. I am somewhere in the middle… the exercise is just not a habit yet. I was originally waking up at 4:45am three days a week and going to get it out of the way like you do but that was just really tough to sustain!

    @ahoy_m8
    I really do not know how to make exercise interesting or even mildly enjoying. I hate it all really lol. I think what you said about even just doing 15 minutes on a consistent basis is better than not going.

    @clayfield0813
    Thank you! I do need to give myself a little grace but need to push myself before a week without exercise turns into a month or more.

    @goal06082021
    Discipline… you are so right about that! It is something I have always struggled with. Just doing what needs to be done. I was able to do that for the first four weeks but then just fell off and let myself make excuses and tell myself I will go on the next day.

  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,613 Member
    I make it a habit and part of my daily routine. I get upset now if anything interferes with my schedule. Find something you like to do. Something that challenges you and you can look forward to. As for the diet, just keep going. I had to cut out most bread and chocolate just to keep myself from going overboard, but everyone is different.
  • INTJmom
    INTJmom Posts: 15 Member
    One thing hit me at one point: my goals are still there even when the “want to” isn’t.
  • lmf1012
    lmf1012 Posts: 402 Member
    NovusDies wrote: »
    lmf1012 wrote: »
    The big water weight losses of the first two weeks have faded off into the sunset and the last 3 weeks have only seen 2.8 lbs lost. While I know 1lb a week is realistic, it is at the same time very demotivating.

    It’s only been 34 days and already I feel the beginning of that slippery slope where your diet starts to slip a little, you start missing workouts. How am I supposed to do this for 10-12 months?!

    I have not gone over in calories but on two occasions recently I ate more chocolate than my daily allowance and I ate more bread than I wanted today, in fact more dinner than I wanted.

    It’s been a week since I have been to the gym and I have zero motivation to go.

    Help!!! How do I get a renewed fight to keep on this journey for the long haul?

    What keeps you going day in and day out when you don’t want to exercise?

    To the bolded... You aren't.

    You are supposed to do this for the rest of your life.

    With that in mind what can you do to change your system so that it is easier to sustain? What can you change so that you can execute a daily process without added motivation? Don't start with the things you must do, start with the things you can do and then modify over time.

    Remember that you do not exercise to lose weight. You exercise to improve fitness. You can lose weight with no exercise. Establishing a new exercise habit while also trying to establish a new food system is not always a great idea. If you are miserable in one it spills over into the other. Consider if you go to the gym doing less until you feel more grounded in your food system or pick an activity you look forward to doing (at least most days).

    Thank you, some good questions and ideas to think about. I realize that most of fat loss has a lot more to do with eating than with exercise though a lot of what I have read points to a lot of value in adding strength training into the overall healthy lifestyle changes.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    lmf1012 wrote: »
    NovusDies wrote: »
    lmf1012 wrote: »
    The big water weight losses of the first two weeks have faded off into the sunset and the last 3 weeks have only seen 2.8 lbs lost. While I know 1lb a week is realistic, it is at the same time very demotivating.

    It’s only been 34 days and already I feel the beginning of that slippery slope where your diet starts to slip a little, you start missing workouts. How am I supposed to do this for 10-12 months?!

    I have not gone over in calories but on two occasions recently I ate more chocolate than my daily allowance and I ate more bread than I wanted today, in fact more dinner than I wanted.

    It’s been a week since I have been to the gym and I have zero motivation to go.

    Help!!! How do I get a renewed fight to keep on this journey for the long haul?

    What keeps you going day in and day out when you don’t want to exercise?

    To the bolded... You aren't.

    You are supposed to do this for the rest of your life.

    With that in mind what can you do to change your system so that it is easier to sustain? What can you change so that you can execute a daily process without added motivation? Don't start with the things you must do, start with the things you can do and then modify over time.

    Remember that you do not exercise to lose weight. You exercise to improve fitness. You can lose weight with no exercise. Establishing a new exercise habit while also trying to establish a new food system is not always a great idea. If you are miserable in one it spills over into the other. Consider if you go to the gym doing less until you feel more grounded in your food system or pick an activity you look forward to doing (at least most days).

    Thank you, some good questions and ideas to think about. I realize that most of fat loss has a lot more to do with eating than with exercise though a lot of what I have read points to a lot of value in adding strength training into the overall healthy lifestyle changes.

    I have no intention of discounting those points. I am suggesting that it is not necessary to add all the shoulds right away.

    If you have 2 bathrooms in your house that both need renovating is it a good idea to tackle them at the same time or is it better to get one far enough along so that it is functional before tackling the second?

    A healthy lifestyle is also more than diet and exercise. It can require changes to improve sleep, stress management, mental health and more. It is hard to adopt a completely new lifestyle overnight or in a month. It usually requires time and nudging your lifestyle towards healthy.
  • lmf1012
    lmf1012 Posts: 402 Member
    NovusDies wrote: »
    lmf1012 wrote: »
    NovusDies wrote: »
    lmf1012 wrote: »
    The big water weight losses of the first two weeks have faded off into the sunset and the last 3 weeks have only seen 2.8 lbs lost. While I know 1lb a week is realistic, it is at the same time very demotivating.

    It’s only been 34 days and already I feel the beginning of that slippery slope where your diet starts to slip a little, you start missing workouts. How am I supposed to do this for 10-12 months?!

    I have not gone over in calories but on two occasions recently I ate more chocolate than my daily allowance and I ate more bread than I wanted today, in fact more dinner than I wanted.

    It’s been a week since I have been to the gym and I have zero motivation to go.

    Help!!! How do I get a renewed fight to keep on this journey for the long haul?

    What keeps you going day in and day out when you don’t want to exercise?

    To the bolded... You aren't.

    You are supposed to do this for the rest of your life.

    With that in mind what can you do to change your system so that it is easier to sustain? What can you change so that you can execute a daily process without added motivation? Don't start with the things you must do, start with the things you can do and then modify over time.

    Remember that you do not exercise to lose weight. You exercise to improve fitness. You can lose weight with no exercise. Establishing a new exercise habit while also trying to establish a new food system is not always a great idea. If you are miserable in one it spills over into the other. Consider if you go to the gym doing less until you feel more grounded in your food system or pick an activity you look forward to doing (at least most days).

    Thank you, some good questions and ideas to think about. I realize that most of fat loss has a lot more to do with eating than with exercise though a lot of what I have read points to a lot of value in adding strength training into the overall healthy lifestyle changes.

    I have no intention of discounting those points. I am suggesting that it is not necessary to add all the shoulds right away.

    If you have 2 bathrooms in your house that both need renovating is it a good idea to tackle them at the same time or is it better to get one far enough along so that it is functional before tackling the second?

    A healthy lifestyle is also more than diet and exercise. It can require changes to improve sleep, stress management, mental health and more. It is hard to adopt a completely new lifestyle overnight or in a month. It usually requires time and nudging your lifestyle towards healthy.

    All VERY valid points! I am a very analytical person, an auditor by trade. Part of what makes this process "easier" for me is to focus on the mechanics or science of it. So I threw myself into the research aspect and found everything I could find on being healthy and losing fat. I focused on what I will call the fundamentals that came up time and time again from multiple sources. This did include getting enough sleep, managing stress, staying hydrated.

    I am not an emotional person by nature and therefore did not really think about the difficulty or toll of trying to do everything at once. It just seemed to make sense in my brain to maximize the benefits by adopting several of the "shoulds" at once.

    Time to re-evaluate my thinking and approach it seems. And cut myself a little slack in the process.
  • MsCzar
    MsCzar Posts: 1,039 Member
    edited May 2021
    IMO, the biggest hurdle to overcome is to stop thinking of healthy eating and exercise as an ON or OFF proposal. We're either 'being good' by carefully limiting and logging every calorie and diligently exercising every day OR we're 'being bad' by chucking it all and eating junk food and takeaway whilst putting down roots on the sofa.

    When you are a very analytical type, it's tempting to look at everything as an either/or, pass/fail. I'd suggest concentrating on simply building up daily healthy habits. One year and 5+ stone ago, I started with a mere 5 minutes of exercise a day... well, umm... most days. ;) For sedentary obese me, those five minutes were challenging! But the habit eventually took and now I rarely skip my daily 30 minute work-out.

    You don't need to become a gym rat or flawlessly commit to a vegan no-sugar existence straight out of the gate. It's probably better to concentrate on cumulative small changes that will eventually take you to where you want to be.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    edited May 2021
    lmf1012 wrote: »
    The big water weight losses of the first two weeks have faded off into the sunset and the last 3 weeks have only seen 2.8 lbs lost. While I know 1lb a week is realistic, it is at the same time very demotivating.

    It’s only been 34 days and already I feel the beginning of that slippery slope where your diet starts to slip a little, you start missing workouts. How am I supposed to do this for 10-12 months?!

    I have not gone over in calories but on two occasions recently I ate more chocolate than my daily allowance and I ate more bread than I wanted today, in fact more dinner than I wanted.

    It’s been a week since I have been to the gym and I have zero motivation to go.

    Help!!! How do I get a renewed fight to keep on this journey for the long haul?

    What keeps you going day in and day out when you don’t want to exercise?

    The bolded is where I think there has to be a change of mindset. It might take you 10-12 months to lose the weight you want to lose...maybe less...maybe more...but what then? I think one ultimately has to look at the bigger picture which is the whole process...losing weight and getting to some "happy" number is just one small part of the overall process. The reason so many people yo-yo diet and fail long term to maintain that "happy" weight is the mindset of that weight being the end game and then it's just back to "normal" when in reality there ultimately has to be a new normal. It's not really 10-12 months and then you're done. And really, there is a lot that goes into forming a healthy lifestyle and bunny hopping those things throughout the process rather than turning them on and off like a light switch is likely to be far more beneficial long term.

    To that end I believe there has to be something more than a magic number or more to it than, "I just want to lose weight" and then I'll be good and I'll be happy. One great benefit to this part of the process (losing weight) is that it is pretty slow and you can take time and focus your energies on learning good nutrition and how to nurture your body and fuel it properly and to move and exercise in a way that keeps you healthy and at minimum, functionally fit and capable now and into the future...and then there are things like mental health (sometimes we also just need a rest), proper sleep, etc.

    Ultimately, everyone has to find their own "why", and in my experience, a magic number or a certain physique or look or clothing size or whatever is a fairly limited "why"...not that those things can't be a part of the "why"...I think most of us probably have a vanity streak to some extent or another...but those goals tend to be limited in their capacity to affect change long term, especially as one ages and priorities change. I mean, I'm pushing 47 and there's no way I'm ever going to be a Calvin Klein underwear model, but I can most certainly be healthy and fit and a highly capable human being for a very long time.

    I got into this whole "good living" thing about 9 years ago. I honestly wasn't particularly concerned about the scale or my weight...I was 38 years old and just figured, "yeah...well, people get fat when they get old." It wasn't something I particularly cared about one way or another. What I did care about was the fact that I had, at the time, a 2 year old (now 11) and a newborn (soon to be 9) and a doctor telling me that if I didn't get my crap together and start taking care of myself that things could go very bad in the not so distant future. Add to that, most of my life I was lean and fit and spent a good chunk of it as a competitive track and field athlete who also dabbled in other sports...and at that point a walk around the neighborhood with my dog had become good cause for a nap because I was so out of shape. Basically, the thought of not being around long enough to see my boys become men and to be unable to engage and play with them because I was so pathetically out of shape was a non starter.

    I really just started focusing my energies on what I could do to be a healthier person...I started eating a more nutritious diet...cooking at home more, getting in my veg and fruit, eating more fish and other lean proteins and healthy fats...I started exercising regularly (mostly walking to begin with) and really, the weight thing kind of took care of itself and was more of a biproduct of good living than it was and "I gotta do this" kind of thing. All in all I lost about 40 Lbs in 8-9 months...but the real kicker for me in regards to maintaining a healthy lifestyle after losing weight was my dad passing away in December of that year at the ripe old age of 61. I was at one time headed down that very same road as he was a guy that just refused to take care of himself. That really cemented things for me in terms of good living being a life long endeavor. What happened to my dad could very well have been me...and who knows, it still could be, but I'm doing everything in my power and control to avert any such situation. When I'm 60 I hope to be scuba diving in the Caribbean with my boys who will be in the early 20s, not in a pine box under ground.

    As exercise goes (or nutrition), I'd say nobody is "on" day in and day out all the time into perpetuity. That's just completely unrealistic. People have good days and bad days and good weeks or bad weeks, etc...that's just life. But overall, I'd say that if/when you find physical activities that you enjoy, it really ceases to become a chore to engage in them. IMO, being physically active overall should be primary in regards to your overall health and general fitness...more specific fitness goals would further dictate your workouts and/or training.

    I spent about 5 years really engaged in endurance cycling and those events and races...I had a lot of fun, but I eventually grew tired of it or more so grew tired of the substantial time commitment that had to be made to train for those things. I haven't done any of those now for a few years, so the vast majority of my exercise isn't really "workout" or training related...my exercise is for the most part just recreational activity. I still ride my bike quite a bit, but not training...I enjoy hiking and kayaking. I do a lot of fun physical activities with my boys like going to the skate park and riding my scooter around with them. Pretty much every morning I get up early and spend about 10 minutes doing some yoga stretching and then take my dog on a 2 mile walk. I just like being active. The only gym workout that I do is 2x per week in the weight room. My goal there is to remain functionally strong and capable in middle age and beyond...I'm not bodybuilding or power lifting so I don't need to spend a ton of time in the gym...2x per week for 45 minutes or so is just fine.

    I'm really only pointing this out because I think a lot of people have a very myopic view of what constitutes exercise and that it has to be done in a gym on some machine and it has to be some unpleasant sufferfest or something to be beneficial or that you have to spend everyday in the gym lifting...this is simply not the case for general health and fitness goals. For my money...go outside and play. Your body will thank you and it's fun.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    lmf1012 wrote: »
    NovusDies wrote: »
    lmf1012 wrote: »
    The big water weight losses of the first two weeks have faded off into the sunset and the last 3 weeks have only seen 2.8 lbs lost. While I know 1lb a week is realistic, it is at the same time very demotivating.

    It’s only been 34 days and already I feel the beginning of that slippery slope where your diet starts to slip a little, you start missing workouts. How am I supposed to do this for 10-12 months?!

    I have not gone over in calories but on two occasions recently I ate more chocolate than my daily allowance and I ate more bread than I wanted today, in fact more dinner than I wanted.

    It’s been a week since I have been to the gym and I have zero motivation to go.

    Help!!! How do I get a renewed fight to keep on this journey for the long haul?

    What keeps you going day in and day out when you don’t want to exercise?

    To the bolded... You aren't.

    You are supposed to do this for the rest of your life.

    With that in mind what can you do to change your system so that it is easier to sustain? What can you change so that you can execute a daily process without added motivation? Don't start with the things you must do, start with the things you can do and then modify over time.

    Remember that you do not exercise to lose weight. You exercise to improve fitness. You can lose weight with no exercise. Establishing a new exercise habit while also trying to establish a new food system is not always a great idea. If you are miserable in one it spills over into the other. Consider if you go to the gym doing less until you feel more grounded in your food system or pick an activity you look forward to doing (at least most days).

    Thank you, some good questions and ideas to think about. I realize that most of fat loss has a lot more to do with eating than with exercise though a lot of what I have read points to a lot of value in adding strength training into the overall healthy lifestyle changes.

    Resistance training and/or weight bearing activities are important to maintaining overall health...especially in regards to maintaining muscle mass and bone density (especially important for women) as we age. There are a variety of ways this can be accomplished and it's not only in the gym weight room. I personally do lift...I'm not at all a gym rat and it's not my favorite place in the world, but it is efficient to accomplish what I want to accomplish and I only need about 45 minutes 2x per week so I figure no biggie. Conversely, I have a friend who doesn't do the traditional gym thing at all...he's big into rock climbing and you can find him at the indoor climbing facility a few days per week and usually somewhere out on the mountain on weekends...that is the bulk of his resistance training. Another friend of mine is very into yoga...she goes about 3x per week and while not traditional weight lifting, many of the poses are bodyweight bearing. The primary thing is to use your muscles...the way you preserve muscle mass is to use it and there are a variety of ways to do that.

    Also, as mentioned before upthread and I think it's a very good point...you don't have to add everything in all at once. This is a process where various pieces are likely to come together at different points in the process. I'm 9 years into this whole good living thing and still working the process and still learning and implementing new things for my overall betterment. Embrace the process.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    And just to be clear no one is saying that you should wait a year or even 6 months. A month to 6 weeks should be enough time to get your hunger controlled and get some of your new food habits and logging down. If you can do something light and fun in the beginning that is great too.

    It is extremely important that you remember that you need to be kind to yourself. It is okay to push yourself it is not a good idea to shove yourself.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,451 Member
    CONSISTENCY will help change HABITUAL BEHAVIOR. And once your behavior is consistent, you don't need much motivation. Think of brushing your teeth. How much motivation do your really need to do it? When you apply consistency, then it just becomes normal in your routine.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

    9285851.png
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    CONSISTENCY will help change HABITUAL BEHAVIOR. And once your behavior is consistent, you don't need much motivation. Think of brushing your teeth. How much motivation do your really need to do it? When you apply consistency, then it just becomes normal in your routine.

    This is true but starting in starting a new habit the thing to avoid is demotivation. That is why adding exercise to a new deficit can sometimes be troublesome especially if it turns out that you are not eating enough. Anyone that has spent time in the gym during an energy dip will tell you is is worse than a grind. It sucks the wind out of you and if it is bad enough and you don't stop it can leave you with a headache or worse. If you have been doing it for long enough then you have enough positive to offset the occasional negative. However, if you are just starting and you pair your new habit with a lot of negative association of feeling bad, hungry, or miserable you won't just lack motivation you will be actively demotivated. Another way of looking at it is you will be highly motivated to avoid exercise. You can fight through it but why start on the wrong foot?
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,451 Member
    NovusDies wrote: »
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    CONSISTENCY will help change HABITUAL BEHAVIOR. And once your behavior is consistent, you don't need much motivation. Think of brushing your teeth. How much motivation do your really need to do it? When you apply consistency, then it just becomes normal in your routine.

    This is true but starting in starting a new habit the thing to avoid is demotivation. That is why adding exercise to a new deficit can sometimes be troublesome especially if it turns out that you are not eating enough. Anyone that has spent time in the gym during an energy dip will tell you is is worse than a grind. It sucks the wind out of you and if it is bad enough and you don't stop it can leave you with a headache or worse. If you have been doing it for long enough then you have enough positive to offset the occasional negative. However, if you are just starting and you pair your new habit with a lot of negative association of feeling bad, hungry, or miserable you won't just lack motivation you will be actively demotivated. Another way of looking at it is you will be highly motivated to avoid exercise. You can fight through it but why start on the wrong foot?
    I believe demotivation in people happen for a couple of reasons. Too much expectation and lack of knowledge. In weight loss people usually go in with good intentions, but lack knowledge on how to properly lose weight. They just figure if they eat "healthy" add in a little exercise, the weight loss will automatically happen when we know it's more than that. And expectations are usually much higher than they should be based on how many diet programs have testimonies or "guarantees" getting people to believe fast weight loss is easy.
    I find that if PLANNED CORRECTLY and expectations set where they should be, it's much easier to stay motivated even in the beginning. That's where the forums help.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

    9285851.png
  • lmf1012
    lmf1012 Posts: 402 Member
    This is not my first rodeo - I lost about 40 lbs roughly 10 years ago with good old fashioned diet and exercise. Lack of knowledge or unreasonable expectations is not the issue for me. I read a lot, everything I can get my hands on in fact.

    I think having reasonable expectations (.5 to 1 lb a week) doesn't mean you won't also get down or frustrated with how slow the process is. I KNOW .5 is reasonable but when I see .2 for the week, I get discouraged and I think that is totally normal.

    Also, I did not frame my initial post very well probably. I KNOW this is a lifelong change, not a temporary one. I was just thinking about the first phase and not the maintenance phase.

    One of the things that struck me in all the responses is the difference between discipline and motivation. It is true that in the beginning we are excited and self-motivated by the starting a new lifestyle and can see great progress in the first couple of weeks due to water loss but then discipline needs to take over because progress slows WAY down and it just becomes a grind before it becomes second nature. I am in that grind place... and I have to be disciplined, which is not easy for me personally.

    I have really appreciated all of the responses and perspectives, they have given me some great insight and valuable ideas to help.
  • MsCzar
    MsCzar Posts: 1,039 Member
    edited May 2021
    For me, it never once became a grind and never required any great discipline. Maybe because when I feel the need, I take a week or two (or three over the holidays) at generous maintenance and never once forced myself to exercise on days when I simply wasn't feeling it. The other thing that helps me a lot is that I love to cook. Planning my meals and then making them brings me joy. In fact, I feel a little cheated when I merely reheat a meal rather than make it from scratch.

    I get what you are saying about this not being your first rodeo. Don'cha just hate it when people seem to think it is?! For most of us, not only is it not our first rodeo - but we've got our own VIP parking spot!

    Anyway, for me losing weight has been all about a mind shift to 'This is the way I eat now' rather than Phase One, Phase Two, etc. which implies that there is still some magical higher calorie 'normal' out there and that you must work through these temporary annoying phases before you arrive there.

    I've come to like not being winded by climbing a flight of stairs and that my thighs look better in jeans... not in a poser way - but just in a way that rewards and reinforces my daily practices. I almost said 'efforts; - but just making all those tiny daily shifts hasn't felt like much effort at all. Doing that - the scale takes care of itself.

    Best of luck!