Nursing student here in need of help with motivation

I would look into your healthy habits and unhealthy habits and make a plan that is individualized.

Examples-

I'm more than likely to resistance train first thing in the morning. So set training to morning time.

If I eat chips before dinner I'm likely to eat the whole bag. So remove yourself from the place that has chips and go for a walk before dinner.

yeah, I agree with the above posts.

Every bit of weight loss is highly personal from food to scheduling food to logging, exercise, handling stress, sleep, family, work. All of it requires many different strategies.


I'd say, log your food. #1 Best Thing you can do to help you with all of the above is to learn about food and portions. Don't worry so much about what you're eating but how much of it you do eat and how well you're hitting important nutrients.

I'm going to make a slightly different suggestion......throw away your scale and focus on eating a balanced, nutritious diet and exercising regularly. Maintaining a healthy weight is one one factor in enjoying good health, exercise is probably more important and can be a great way of dealing with stress.

To be honest, I think my bigger concern is how you respond to and handle stress. I agree that tackling a huge overhaul on diet and exercise all at once to lose weight can be extremely challenging when in another time-consuming, stressful life stage. However, life is stressful, and we'd better much better off as humans learning to manage stress in healthy ways. This is even more true if one of our ways to cope with stress is by overeating, and yet we quit something very stressful yet (hopefully) very rewarding when finished to focus on eating less. I guess I'd ask you is what do you think will happen if/when you lose the weight? Are you going to go back? Then what?

I'm assuming that you'd still like to become a nurse one day, or are you questioning that choice? The reason I ask is that because while not a nurse, I do understand that like most jobs in direct health care it can be very stressful, yet rewarding. I went to and completed graduate school for a direct health care job as the profession requires. We had a full classload while also completing our clinical placements, both at the school and outside placements. On top of that, I was still managing to have a social life and dealing with young adult stuff like guy problems. At one point I was also working outside of school. I also know there were others dealing with even more than me, like being a wife and a mother. I'm not going to lie and say it was "easy," because it definitely was one of the most stressful periods of my life. However, I have faced way more stressful times and the job itself can be much more stressful than when just "warming up" to do it for real. I'm not saying this to brag about myself or scare you or make you feel bad, but I do have a point .

I had actually lost weight my senior year of college and actually felt pretty good about myself heading into grad school. Well, I gained most of it back by the time I got my master's. Granted, I don't think I necessarily lost it in a completely unhealthy, rapid way, but I certainly didn't know all I know about nutrition and amount of calories I actually needed. Low-fat was still the craze back then. Plus, dial-up internet was all there was, so there was definitely no fitness/diet apps like there are now! The one thing I continued to do through grad school was exercise purposefully, and I really think that helped with stress levels. My problem was trying to lose weight too quickly by being too restrictive, then bingeing, and going out to eat/drink too much. I also probably used food to cope with stress AND help me stay up late to study.

My advice to you is to find ways to deal with stress that are healthy. Why do you think you feel unmotivated? Does it feel overwhelming? Really take a look at the changes you can start to make to your diet and exercise that you'll be able to stick with, and start slowly. Educate yourself about nutrition, what and how much your body needs to feel and look it's best, as well as what exercise you actually enjoy. Know that there will be bumps in the road and times you may feel like throwing in the towel and won't feel motivated, but the less difficult those new habits are, the more likely you'll be able to find some ways to stick to them. Also, prioritize sleep--it really can make a difference. Finally, this place is a good place to hold yourself accountable, whether it's through simply tracking what you eat every day to finding some online friends. Motivation comes and goes, and to really complete a goal I think for most people intrinsic motivation is the best way to go, but some outside support certainly can help.

Good luck! And I hope you re-enroll in nursing school again soon!