Instead of focusing on a big picture of "motivation" focus on making small
habit changes over the course of a year. If you create new healthy habits, then you don't even have to think about it any more. Let me ask you this, every morning when you wake up, do you have to cheer yourself on and give yourself a motivational pep talk before you can brush your teeth? Probably not. It's because you have been brushing your teeth since you were very small and it has become a habit. You can turn exercise and healthy eating into a habit as well...
Pick
one habit a month that you want to focus on. Only one. Changing or starting a new habit takes time and energy...so it's easiest to only focus on one at a time. Put all of your mental energy into just that one habit. Doing this will break the journey down into smaller, easier to manage steps. For instance, for the month of June, you could pick a habit of "
I will eat at least two servings of vegetables a day" .. July could be, "
I will exercise at least 30 minutes 3 times a week." By the time July rolls around, chances are, you don't even have to think about eating veggies, it will have become an automatic habit by then. And if it hasn't, just keep the same habit for July.
Progress might seem slow but it is much easier and a much safer (fool-proof) way of changing your life. And just think, in a year... you could have created 12 new, strong life changing habits.
Here are some great articles from the site that taught me about changing habits:
Good luck!