[sweetgirly1]

It just seems like no matter how hard i try not to eat bad, i always tend to give in. I am 5'6" and weigh 238 pounds. I am very fortunate that i carry my weight well but i still hate what i see in the mirror. Im sick of feeling bad about myself and always having to watch what i eat. I gain weight very easily so it really sucks. I have to work just as hard to maintain my weight than to lose it. Before i can start to lose weight, i need to get motivated. Motivation is what helps me to eat better and work out. I use to work out atleast 5x a week now its more like 1x or 2x a week. Any suggestions on how to get my motivation back?

[Gabbah]

Actually, you can do fine just without motivation. If you manage to create a daily eating plan that you can follow without problem that creates a calorie deficit at around 3-500, that's all that is needed. Give it a serious try. One should try and make things as automatic and easy as possible. No reason to work hard for the sake of working hard.

[Lori Bell]

Oh, motivation is great thing to have to get a person started on a healthy lifestyle, (weightloss included). For very few people, motivation is all it takes to get on a healthy eating/excercise plan and to stick with it for life. Unfortunately...for most of us, motivation is an intermittent emotion that comes and goes as quickly as weather conditions.

When I first started down the road to a healthier lifestyle, I was highly motivated. My motivation came in the form of fear of death. I was so sick, and so heavy and terribly unhealthy, that at a final point I felt I was about to take my last breath. My motivation began at that moment.

After a few months the motivation wore off. I was feeling so much better, I no longer had the fear of sudden death, I looked better, I could breath and walk and all that good stuff. Problem was, I was still over weight and I knew that if I would give into my newly emerging "Non-motivation" I would be back to where I started in a matter of a month or so. That's when the commitment kicked in. Actually I like the word perseverance the best. I just persevered though temptations, though the desire to eat crap and be lazy and just did what ever it took to continue on with good health.

NOW, for me, at maintaince, it's even harder. Oh, I get motivated to brush my teeth and go to work, but the motivation to eat healthy and keep active is non-existent. I know I have to keep at it in order to stay healthy. I just have to do it, I have no choice or I'll be back to square one. I don't want to go back to the pain and suffering I once had, so I just keep going day after day.

I just stick to it, because I have no other choice except misery.

Maybe this newish attitude has come with age, or because I am stubborn, and don't want to lose weight over and over and over again. But I think more than anything I have just come to the realization that this is for life. For the rest of my life I have to eat like a sane person, or I will lose the battle.

No, motivation has nothing to do with it anymore...for me.

[Zoseph]

Wow Kara, that's a really good way to put it. I had never thought about having a motivated attitude vs. a committed one, but that's actually how I'm handling my weight loss right now. It's hard to always be motivated, but once you've hit a pattern, even after a few days, it's so much easier to stick to it out of commitment, even if you're not motivated. My mind is blown

@sweetgirly1: What I recently did was create a collage of women around my age whose bodies I admire. I don't want to look just like them, but every time I look at that collage, I think about how committed they have to be to diet and exercise to look the way they do, and it helps me stay on track and remember my goal. And I don't know if this is true for everyone, but for me, if I fall off the wagon, it's very hard to get back on, but if I'm able to just have a couple good days, it's sooo so much easier to stay on track after that. Aim to have just two good days where you exercise and eat well, and that might make it easier.

[Beach Patrol]

I agree with the motivation vs. commitment theory. But regardless of what you call it, the sheer fact of the matter is that you have to create a calorie deficit in order to lose weight. Then once you've met your weight loss goal, you must maintain that weight loss or risk being right back where you are right now.

Decide what you want, then do it. Simple? Yes. Easy? Not so much. But anything worth doing/having is mostly never easy.

[sweetgirly1]

Thank you all for your advice : )