Lack of Motivation

I went from a total couch potato to competing as an athlete in a couple of years starting just before I was 50 (47, IIRC), and I wasn't always competing unsuccessfully either, in terms of age group results. This was right after full bore cancer treatment - surgery, chemotherapy, radiation - the whole 9 yards. (I figured out that I needed to do some exercise in order to regain strength, energy and even happiness, and was lucky enough to stumble into a sport I loved.)

Unfortunately (because I'm an undisciplined, hedonistic aging hippie flake, basically), I stayed overweight/obese for another decade or so, even though I kept working out 6 days most weeks, and along the way got surprisingly fit for a fat 50-something woman. (Why did I stay fat? Simple: I kept eating too much.)

Finally, at 59, nothing else I tried had brought down my high cholesterol and very high triglycerides. My doctor was getting increasingly insistent that I take a statin. I didn't want to, so I finally committed to try losing weight. Soon after I started, I suddenly had severe acid reflux and heartburn very regularly, something I hadn't experienced previously. Tests showed that I had gallbladder adenomyomatosis (which isn't stones or sludge, rather a different condition that can mask gallbladder cancer). When they took it out, it was an ugly, thickened cholesterolized thing with actual holes in it. That sealed the deal on weight loss.

You mention health issues. At the start of weight loss, I also had borderline to high blood pressure, some osteoarthritis (mostly knee and hip), a torn meniscus (probably 2, but only one was scanned/diagnosed), osteopenia, severe hypothyrodism (medicated), and maybe some other things I'm forgetting.

As I lost the weight, my cholesterol came into the normal range (and has been there ever since, almost 9 years), my triglycerides ditto, high blood pressure ditto . . . without meds for any of that. After the weight loss had a bit of time to sink in, my arthritis pain gradually became less severe and less frequent.

More than a decade on from diagnosis, I haven't needed the knee surgery my orthopedic surgeon said was in my future (though it's probably still somewhere out in my farther future, realistically). I'm much stronger, and have better endurance, so home chores that were very tiring for me in my 40s are easily achievable at my current 68.

Yeah, I've still got osteoporosis and hypothyroidism, but I guess a person can't win 'em all. Those aren't much bother at this point.

Getting fitter (even while staying fat) was a big quality of life improvement. Getting to a healthy weight was a huge quality of life improvement, too. The combination is absolutely gangbusters. I feel better at 68 than I did in my 40s, more capable. Life is better.

I'm not some kind of super-special motivated person. Like I said, I'm a hedonistic aging hippie flake, and I have a limited budget of motivation, willpower, or discipline. I figure that if I can do this, pretty much anyone could do it.

I don't (never did) huge hours of exercise daily, just started with something manageable and increased gradually (duration, frequency, intensity or type of exercise) as I got fitter. Before I retired, which is when most of the fitness improvement happened, I was only working out for half an hour to an hour most days. (I do a bit more now, in retirement, because it's fun, but it still doesn't overwhelm my daily schedule.)

I don't eat crazy bunches of exotic health foods or deprive myself, I just try to fit reasonable amounts of nutrition into my eating routine and calorie budget via foods I enjoy and find filling, plus a few indulgent treats just for joy.

This doesn't necessarily require some miserable diet of low-calorie "superfoods" with no treats ever, or a punitively intense, unpleasant exercise routine (let alone both). Being unfit or fat aren't sins we need to expiate by suffering.

Honestly, I was surprised to find how much simpler it was to lose weight than I'd thought. (It wasn't psychologically easy every second, of course, but it was manageable, and the mechanics were simple.) I'd also been surprised how much pleasanter (fun, even) it was to become reasonably fit, and how it could happen within a manageable daily time budget. (I think there are a lot of things people convince themselves are daunting, so they don't need to try. I did that for years.)

Apologies for the long ramble.

TL;DR: People can change at 50, if they decide to do it, and take positive but manageable steps in that direction. In my experience: Life can get better. Health can improve. A person doesn't need to make themselves miserable in order to make progress. It's more than worth the effort.

I'm cheering for you to commit, and to succeed: The improvements are soooo worthwhile, IME, I want them for everyone.

Best wishes!

I’m 55, I’ve recently found my mojo for the first time in years! I’ve lost 2st 9lb and I have 13 lbs to go to goal….you need to do this for your health, it’s not about how you look, or how your clothes fit or the numbers on the scale…that is just an added bonus. I was on my way to diabetes or worse and I knew it, I was addicted to sugar! I no longer have any sugar, sweeteners or anything with flour in it, I have fruit with breakfast and after lunch but that’s as sweet as it gets. None is so much easier than some! And the weight has dropped off in 6 months xx