I have been trying to lose weight but I find myself in a daily struggle between actually making it to the gym everyday and fighting myself from over eating or needless snacking/ treating myself with food. I feel like I have to choose between going to the gym in the morning or extra time to clean my house, and I'm not sure why I choose to snack when I'm not hungry. I need some advice or tips to help keep me motivated or on track. I did buy a few cute shirts one size too small to help motivate me to lose weight and I can't wait to be able to wear them but I need to get past this obstacle first!! I appreciate any help and thank you for your time.
Choose the gym! Make time for yourself to exercise each day and stick to it. You are worth it. I just have a time that I exercise every day and do it, no excuses.
Snacking is tough. A few things that work for me is not keeping snacks in the house. If this is not an option, when you feel the urge to snack, put it off until later. Say, I will not have this now but maybe later. See when you snack and see if you can work around that. For example, I usually snack after dinner while watching TV. I try to brush my teeth after dinner so I won't snack. I chew gum instead of snacking or try to do things with my hands like my needlework.
You can do this!
I choose to get up early to get my exercise in. There is always going to be housework for me to do because no one else in my household gives a rats behind about it. I say choose YOURSELF and YOUR health. Choose exercise. The housework will be there later and you will have so much more energy to do the housework when you have time.
Snacking - Ugh, that is tough. I can do perfectly fine all day long but nighttime snacking is my downfall. I fight with this on a daily basis. We no longer keep junk food in the house. I don't need it, my husband does not need it and neither do my teenage boys.
We keep lots of fruit, fiber one bars, cliff bars and other healthier options.
I still snack more than I should but its much easier to keep it in check when there is not cookies, chips, etc staring me in the face.
If you have kids, believe me, they do not need the chips or cookies either. Keeping all these foods around for years has not only added to my weight problem, but my whole family's weight problem.
Thanks for the tips and advice. I am going to make notes to help keep me on track and I will stick to this and not give up. I have decided to lay out my gym clothes every night that way after I drop off the kids at school I can go straight to the gym. I'm also going to keep a food log so I can see exactly how much food I have ate that day and maybe it will help me. I am choosing a boiled egg for my snack today instead of a candy bar. It's a good start to healthy eating, thanks for all the helpful tips, I do feel stronger about this now!
Don't make the changes an all-or-nothing struggle for yourself. Switching out the candy bar with the hard-boiled egg is a good choice. Sometimes you won't want an egg, but an apple with peanut butter is good too, or something else that isn't processed and full of other ingredients. Laying out your gym clothes is also great! I started by just putting the gym socks on in the mornings, because I'd get everything else done first (like the housekeeping) but couldn't bring myself to get the socks on. But once those got on my feet, the rest seemed to just happen.
Work the fix on the obstacles to making the choices you want to make. Things that led me to overeating were certain people in my life that triggered stress eating. It took me a little time, but they are now out of range and don't affect me directly any longer. And then I surrounded myself with new people who supported my goals. Very motivating!
My advice would be to have a plan and start small. Set small goals that you know you can achieve at first, that way you won't get discouraged.
For example, maybe this week your goal might be to make it to the gym twice (or however many times you KNOW you'll be able to get there). Once you accomplish this goal, you'll feel good about yourself and encouraged. When you feel comfortable, add in another day.
Congratulations on deciding on a healthier lifestyle for yourself, and good luck!
I would choose just about anything over cleaning the house LOL! The house will be there to clean all the time, definitely don't use that as a reason not to go to the gym. If you have snacking issues, keep high calorie & junky snacks out of the house.
But when it comes down to it, all of the advice and tricks in the world won't help a ton until you are truly ready to make the choices you need to in order to lose weight.
There is always going to be housework for me to do because no one else in my household gives a rats behind about it.
I've solved that problem by lowering my own standards. We have a cleaning service come in once a month (all we can comfortably afford), and apart from that I do very little housework. Somebody once told me: "Would you like to have your epitaph say that you kept a clean house?" My answer was most emphatically no.
I realized something this week about this whole motivation-to-workout thing. In the past, I've struggled with maintaining an interest in my workouts because, well, I get bored easily. This time around is different - I've stuck with it for almost 2 years and I still go to the gym 3-4 times per week, even when I'm having a horrible time with my eating.
It struck me why this time is different...because I started going to classes that I enjoy (Zumba mainly, but also cardio-strength, spin and pilates) AND, the biggest reason I'm still at it, because I made friends in class. We all watch out for each other and when one of us doesn't come for our regular classes, the rest of us are texting and on Facebook asking why. It's not about guilting each other to work out, but we are truly concerned. It's created accountability, but even more, I enjoy seeing my friends there as much as I enjoy the workouts. It has made a WORLD of difference.
Recipe for success: Find a gym that is convenient and that you like. Find some activities that you truly enjoy doing. Make friends with the other "regulars" in class.
My Daily Struggle (help)
