I'm here.....again....3rd times a charm...or maybe it's the 4th. I need some serious help. I can't get motivated! I was hoping some of you could chime in on how you get motivated, re-motivated and stay motivated! I know there are quite a few of us who have fallen of the wagon multiple times...but how do you get back on it?

Last year in January I re-started on SB. I fell off the wagon here and there but overall had stuck to the SB way of eating. By October I had lost 25 lbs. Granted, I could have done better if I hadn't slipped along the way, but overall I was proud of myself and proud of fitting into my smaller clothes

I don't know what happened...but one thing led to another and here I am in June, having gained back 20 of those lbs!! UGH!!!

My biggest struggle is that I'm lacking motivation, but no matter how or what I think of, I can't get in the frame of mind to get back to eating healthy and exercising. When I get home from work all I want to do is sit around and do NOTHING!!! Just tired all the time and feeling blah...then I sit there and eat crap and feel even more blah! Then the whole cycle starts again the next day.

Can I get your thoughts, tips, tricks....anything?

My motivation is my health. I went to the doctor in May and was told I am pre-diabetic and was put on medication. That is what did the trick. The doctor always told me to lose weight and excerise, but year after year I would go in weighing heavier every time.

I was a major fast food and junk food junkie. I went home and cleaned out the pantry, frig and freezer of everything that I should not have. Now when I go to the store none of the junk food enters my house. I have been cooking all meals for over a month. (That is good for someone who does not like to cook and didn't do any for amost 20 years.)

Oh jyoyo78 that indeed is the million dollar question. Well, here's what I got, but I can't wait to see everyone else's answers to this:

1. First off, identifying the culprit for (a) going off plan and (b) staying off plan. For me, the culprit of going off plan was not doing Phase 2 properly. I needed to take it slower, and still realize that its a lot more like Phase 1 than the book makes it out to be. For staying off plan, it was the convenience factor of fast food, convenience foods, and eating out. I'm not confident with cooking and I get home pretty late several nights a week. If I don't plan ahead, the drive-thru is just too easy when I'm hungry.

2. Doing healthy things makes me feel more empowered to do other healthy things. When I'm feeling down or especially flabby, I think "what can I do RIGHT NOW to be healthier?" and I go get a glass of water, or a cup of tea with antioxidants, or do 5 push-ups, or "zip up those abs" while sitting at my desk at work, or plan out my dinner, or take vitamins. Those little things make me feel in control, which leads to better decisions and staying on plan.

3. I have a sheet of motivational quotes that spoke to me at some point. I've gathered them from all over, and many great ones can be found in people's signatures here on the 3FC forum. I'm continually adding to it. Also, the following poem (found online in various places):

Don't Quit


When you've eaten too much and you can't write it down,

And you feel like the biggest failure in town.

When you want to give up just because you gave in,

and forget all about being healthy and thin.

So What! You went over your points a bit,

It's your next move that counts...So don't you quit!

It's a moment of truth, it's an attitude change.

It's learning the skills to get back in your range.

It's telling yourself, "You've done great up till now.

You can take on this challenge and beat it somehow."

It's part of your journey toward reaching your goal.

You're still gonna make it, just stay in control.

To stumble and fall is not a disgrace,

if you summon the will to get back in the race.

But, often the struggler's, when loosing their grip,

Just throw in the towel and continue to slip.

And learn too late when the damage is done,

that the race wasn't over...they still could have won.

Lifestyle change can be awkward and slow,

but facing each challenge will help you grow.

Success is failure turned inside out,

the silver tint in a cloud of doubt.

When you're pushing to the brink, just refuse to submit,

If you bite it, you write it....But don't you quit!

4. I have not tried it yet, but have been looking into the Beck Diet Solution book. Their forum section here is really awesome (I've been lurking there). The book ($5 on Amazon used including shipping!) is about changing how you think. I don't own it yet - I'll buy it as a reward when I hit a mini-goal.

@FOA - I'm printing out that stinkin' poem!!

Thanks to both of you for the ideas, my biggest issue is at night...after getting home from work. I eat great for breakfast and lunch...even go walking for 20 minutes on my lunch breaks. It's the evenings and usually weekends that are killer. That's when I feel drained and don't want to do anything but be a slug! Maybe since I eat so healthy for b'fast and lunch...I should just start eating what I eat for those meals at dinner time...then have my hubby lock up the kitchen for the rest of the night...ha ha

jyoyo78, I'm the same - evenings and weekends are the diet-killer times. Evenings I'm exhausted, especially when I get home late (9/9:30 after horse riding) and I'm starving. I'm still figuring out a plan to deal with it (I started a thread asking people for meal planning/shopping/cooking tips - awesome stuff there that I'm incorporating), but so far the deal is that I have a super snack on days I'm going to ride, right around when I leave work at 5:30pm. Also, when I cook, I cook PLENTY, and I save leftovers for dinners rather than just gobble them up for lunch. I also always have pre-packaged salad packs and SBD-friendly frozen meals for when I'm super-duper lazy. Not great, but better than Taco Bell. For weekends, I need to just stop treating them differently from the week. I need to plan my meals for them, I still need to snack, and I need to stop equating relaxing with splurging.

I wish I knew! Some times I have motivation in spades and other times not a drop to be found. But it builds. So once I can get a day, then two, then three going, I have more success. One thing that really does help me is reaching out online. I find that if I come here when I want to cheat I might just not put that food in my mouth! The same holds true for me with the blogging community; I get a lot of motivation from my own and others.

I know that cycle only too well. It never ceases to amaze me how much better I feel when I am eating well. And, truth be told, I like myself more.

I think one of my biggest "ah-ha!" moments came when I changed from a motivation to a commitment attitude. I stopped waiting to be inspired and decided that I was going to eat right and exercise and all that good stuff because that's what it was going to take to be successful. It hasn't been the easiest road, but it's been more effective for me.

It's also really helped that my husband has been 100% on board with my getting healthy and I don't want to disappoint him, so I eat right. I also use the boards here to keep myself accountable. Every little trick I can do, I do it.

I hate exercise! To me it isn't fun. I dislike the gym and I think running is something you do when youre being chased. The key for me is to find something active that I actually enjoy. That way I look forward to it and I put more into it, thereby getting more out of it. For me it's roller derby and dancing. Its very hard for me to do either of those right now with my work schedule, but I've started getting into the games on my wii fit. The hula hoop game is a great ab/hip workout and just dance is a lot of fun. I just ordered the zumba game and can't wait for it to arrive!

I got zumba and accidentally started out intermediate and I looked like a hoochie-mama on speed it was hilarious. I'm the same as you with exercise. I ride my bike, dance, wii, and I'm trying to weight train more since I think thats the most important thing for someone like me who has a lot to lose.

As far as motivation, its totally health (I could be happy at any weight cuz I have the greatest denial system on the planet). But my mom has had 4 strokes and her daughters are prone. She is now unable to speak and can't use her right side. Its horrible and I want nothing to do with that possibility. I have hashimoto's (SLOWWWW thryoid) that I have to fight or else I'd keep gaining. I want to look as thin as I feel. All it took was seeing myself on the news for me to go SHUT UP NO WAY THATS ME! Thats all I need to keep me going. Plus I feel great on SB. Really great. And if you slip up, hop right back on. I'm not saying this is okay to do, but I went away on vaca for 4 days to celebrate my 30th and didn't think of the diet at all. I came back and lost all I had gained in 2 days (since it was water weight). I didn't lose, but I didn't gain, and once you hop back on the weight loss starts right back up. Thats really nice for me to know. Life happens, but the key is not to let it overcome you again.

What I've discovered for myself is that motivation does not last. Which is why I kept falling off the wagon for so long.

Scheduling and planning... when that becomes routine, motivation is no longer an issue.

EDIT: I should add that I could have written your post a 2 weeks ago.. it wasn't until someone finally told me to throw motivation out the window and simply remove my options and schedule myself into a work out routine that I got it..

I'll also share the comment that kicked my butt

Thanks for the reminder KicknKnit. I posted something similar in my first year of maintenance and another smart 3FCer set me straight. I still need to be reminded.

AWESOME. So true! These definitely made it into my collection of quotes. Thank you so much, KicknKnit!

Wow, ladies!! Thank you so much for the input! I knew I came to the right place. I definitely need to stick around here more! lol

Thanks again!

I remember when I started this journey, making breakfast was a huge deal... and now that I do it every morning, I don't even think about it.. I just always do it. making exercise something I no longer have to think about is my new goal