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All right ladies. I've had it in my mind that I need to lose weight but I haven't been able to translate that into motivation.
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Well, don't do what I did-- my hair fell out and all by bloodwork went haywire. I was so massively stressed out I thought I was almost on the edge of a breakdown.... The first thing I did was an aqua-aerobics class, and I started to feel better. Going to the class became a sanctuary against business stress for me, as I could not answer the cell phone in the water. So gradually, I got more and more into it, until it became a pleasurable habit.
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I'm a lazy person by nature and it seems that a lot of the time sitting in front of my computer takes precedence over exercising or planning healthy meals.
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Don't say "I'm lazy," "I'm weak," "I'm bad," I'm this, I'm that. Don't characterize yourself in negative terms, the self-talk is destructive and self-defeating. You need to be your own best coach. Find positive things to say about yourself and keep repeating them even if you don't believe yourself at first. After a while, you will brainwash yourself into a more positive frame of mind. And a positive mind can change the world.
I never, ever plan meals. I'm not even on a "diet." I just read a couple of books on nutrition, and I buy groceries with the principles in mind. If it's not good for me, it DOES NOT go into the shopping cart.
As for exercise, it's evolving more and more every day. At this point, I think I need to start running seriously again. So I went from 220, pretty unfit, to where I am now. It's a gradual process-- the more you move, the more you lose, which makes it easier to move more. Newton's laws of motion.
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What do you do when you don't feel like getting off the couch?
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I usually go out anyway, unless I'm sick, and I make a deal with myself: "look, just do it for 20 minutes, and if you still don't feel like it, you can go home." That works. Or I think of MEL, the lady who uses a wheelchair and sings, she posts in the blog section. If she can exercise, what's my excuse? Or the poor guy who played Superman, who's paralyzed. He works out and does P.T. every day. I've seen quite a few people at the pool missing a limb or two, but they swim laps--fast! So I don't feel like I've got an excuse-- if I wimp out somehow it feels like I'm letting down the whole team...
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How do you deal with cravings for pizza and chocolate cake? What keeps you on plan and moving instead of going back to the way you used to live?
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I don't keep foods I can't resist in the house. Period. My husband eats what I eat. Period. If I want a treat we go out to dinner for it. I keep a food journal, and weigh, measure, and write down everything I eat. Every single day without fail. That has been a tremendous help. And I don't think of this as a "diet" as if I were going off it sometime. I just can't eat pizza, nachos, beer, burgers, fries, etc. every day. That's just the way it is. I can have that stuff every once in a while, maybe once every two weeks, a treat. But I just can't eat like I used to ever again. Period.
You have to accept that-- you have to be ready to deal with the "foreverness" of it. If you try to have it both ways, and still eat stuff you know you shouldn't, you are condemning yourself to a lifetime of yo-yo dieting, emotional self-torture, or possibly, eating disorders. So, given the alternatives, I choose to restrain myself, because being healthy feels good, and it causes me the least amount of emotional turmoil. Also having my hair back. I'm afraid if I eat like that again, I'll be bald again. I'm terrified of baldness....
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Hopefully I'll find some motivation for myself... I'd really like the scale to drop below 190!
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You really need to want this BADLY to make it work, I think. I can't tell you how to find that spark, but that's what has to be found, IMO. But you can get the ball rolling, just take it bit by bit, and success tends to make you want more success. Just don't give up. Eventually you can start to crave weight loss and a healthy body. Really.
I got a lot of these ideas from the book "Thin for Life" by Anne Fletcher. She basically talked with people who had lost weight and kept it off for a long time. The book is essentially a compilation of their techniques-- the tips that really worked for them. I've read that book 5 or 6 times now, part of my self-brainwashing. I recommend it. Good luck!