How did this happen?? Need some motivation
 

Okay...so....I started off the summer on such a good pace - cooking healthy, counting calories and exercising.

As my calendar starting filling up, so did my pants. (hahaha). Seriously....between the massive amounts of showers, bachelorettes, weddings, birthdays, bbq's, holidays, etc.....I just fell apart.

I am probably a couple more pounds than when I started.

Obviously, I know what I need to do. But, I'm frustrated, I'm tired, work is crazy busy and I just need a little advice for how some of you guys tackle the motivation blues?

What helps you get up and get moving? I find it SO hard (actually impossible) to work out in the morning, then feel inspired around 1:00pm to go after work, but then when I'm done work....I'm beat!!!

What works for you?

Not letting myself shower until I've done some exercise (at bare minimum, say 1 hour of walking). It sounds ridiculous but it works if you stick to it...dry shampoo only fools people for a day or so.

Being tired is the worst. If things are super hectic, maybe you could just focus on reducing food intake and worry about exercise once you adjust to that. It's hard to get enough sleep to feel up to getting everything done.

I've had a really busy summer as well, and exercise totally suffered because of it. I got really stressed out about it, and then I thought, okay, what CAN I control? I can't control my work schedule, so that's not really allowing me to run 5 miles a day 3 days a week, but I CAN control what I put into my body.

What I've started to do is re-focus on my food intake, and I can tell that my muffin top is smaller than it was :)

Things are going to calm down in a few more weeks, and then I'll start exercising more heavily, but in the mean time this has kept me from really freaking out.

Sit down with pen and paper and write. Write why you want to lose weight, how you're going to. Write what you want to do once you lose your weight. Look at magazines etc and make a dream board (or if you're inclined make an online one, that is what my little av is). Write your goals, the big and the little.

Commit to one week, say this week I'm going to reduce cals (or whatever method you use), one week. Seven days. What is one week out of the rest of your life! After all, food will still be there after a week. Hopefully that will help kick start you back in to the right mind set and then you can tackle week two.

I find summer the hardest time to lose weight. I know there are lots of fresh veggies and the weather lends itself to being active, but...all the extra barbecues, drinks on the patio, and just not being as 'scheduled' as the rest of the year make it harder for me. We're only one week away from Sepetember 1st. Perhaps you could take this week to reflect, make a plan, then strait anew on the first of the month.
Whatever you decide - good luck.:hug:

What about working out at lunchtime? I ended up doing that for the same reasons and it gives me tons of energy to get through the rest of the work day

THANK YOU for all the responses!!! While my work takes me out of the office frequently, I am going to try to work out at lunch at least once during lunch/week. Once in the morning during the week and once after work during the week and once on the weekend. I think if I change it up, it won't be so daunting.
Also, it's nice to hear everyone struggles with summer. I fully intend to make an action plan and follow through Sept.1. I think Christmas is a good goal to look and feel better.

Thanks again

I don't know why but I get a lot of motivation from youtube transformation videos!