Looks like I'm fashionably late to the QOTD, as always :D

How do you keep yourself motivated? What tips or tricks can you share?

I'm always looking to find new things to keep myself interested in weight loss. New workouts, new podcasts/blogs, or new foods. Chopsticks really help me slow down and enjoy my food, lol. I've found that I'm very goal-driven, but I need a goal besides a number on the scale of I'll make myself crazy. Small accomplishments go a long way towards motivating me. Getting up to work out when I don't want to and thinking about how it will be worth it when I'm shopping for a swimsuit in a few weeks, or eventually running a marathon.

Black bean brownies are NOT motivating or helpful to me. I tried making them once. And I'm used to weird food! (See: spaghetti squash, mashed cauliflower, homemade sweet potato chips.)

Wow, keillynsmom, you are kicking some major butt! Two weeks in a row, awesome!

And congrats to Dee, River and Cheree too. You girls rock :)

river, I've also got to give you props on your run. Very nice ;)

and DEE!, 50 lbs GONE!! :cool: Woooohoooo!!!!! You are so awesome. You get a carrot AND a banana for that :carrot: :cb: I'm following your motivational tips for awhile, heh.


Rhonda, very glad you're still with us :hug:

angeline, I'm glad you had a good vacation. I'm so jealous!

Well, I went for my run first thing this morning, made a bunch of good food and am looking forward to having the rest of the day to relax and (possibly) spring clean. It's right around the corner, I can feel it.

Hang in there, girls.

How do you keep yourself motivated? What tips or tricks can you share?

I look at old pics of myself and look at the way I use to look and then notice how good I look now. I have the motivation and support of my friends. I also notice the way my clothes fit. I have pics of certain celebrities posted so that I have motivation to work hard.

Blue team - you're on your own today, I'm going to leave work in a few minutes and go to the beach for the rest of the day. Have fun, and feel free to talk about me while I'm gone. :D


:sunny:
:swim:


:beach:

psssstttt- hey team, have you heard how great our leader is doing? shhhhh, she's losing a lot and broke her plateau!

Anyhow, I am in a serious funk yesterday and today. Bad, bad bad. And I don't mean just diet and exercise but basically mood and life's direction. If anyone has any helpful quotes or ideas (besides just telling me to skip the self pity) I'm all ears.

Do you have access to a punching bag? Take it out on the bag. Or do some shadow kickboxing. Or get on a gamesystem and kick some butt. I like to get out one of DH's fighting games and smack some bad guys around.

Or, watch some cartoons while you paint your toesnails a fun color. That's my plan for the evening. I'm thinking green toenails or maybe orange. I highly recommend the new Batman cartoon on Cartoon Network, it's very campy. It's hard to be bummed or stressed while watching Batman pun and punch.

OMG. Dee, are you only 5 lbs from goal?

Thanks for the tips. Hitting things really helps me, I trained in karate and KBox for quite a few years and miss it bad. Maybe I'll go hook up my wii and KO someone in the boxing game. Also, I haven't seen the new Batman and have the toon network so I'll check that out. I'm sad to say I was down another lb since my weigh in but am swimming around a champagne bottle now and know that will show on the scale :(

I finally got in a good cardio workout today (Zumba). First one in a week! I've been really congested and hacking - so much so that my chest and throat were killing me. Thankfully most of that is gone!

I did manage 3 yoga workouts and I taught one class during that cardio break.

It was a little difficult getting back into my calorie range but as of the last week, I've been really good. The scale is actually showing that I'm down a pound...too bad I didn't come up with that reading for our weigh-in this week. Oh well, there's always next week...wonder if I can add another pound to it.

I'm closing in on 40 lbs gone, gone, gone.

Sorry I have been MIA for a few days. Just couldn't get back into the groove after a terrible weekend of eating.Yesterday was a good day. I foolishly bought crackers when I went shopping. Had to have dh get rid of them yesterday. There are just somethings I can not have around. At least the scale was back to 175.8 this morning. Feeling better today. Will start journaling by hand all of my food again. I log it onto the site every other day so I was mentally keeping track of my calories. Since I am mental anyway (LOL!!!) that is not a good plan! Too much delusion in there! Writing on paper makes it more real for me. So I am sure I will post a better loss this week.

Hope all is well.

Rhonda & Me4life-Where are u????

Dix-only 5 lbs for goal! You ROCK!!

River-Step away for the bubbly!

Angeline-Woohoo on getting back into the cardio!

Have a great POP Thursday!!!

Hiya, Bluesers! I miss everyone. I've never seen it get this quiet before.

Are you getting enough sleep? Lack of sleep is making me extremely moody. What I do is log onto Pandora, choose some kickin' music, plug in my ear buds and dance like nobody's watching! And, sing like I'm on American Idol. :D

So glad you are feeling better. Being sick is the pits.

Physically, I'm feeling much better these days. Mentally...well, I'm feeling just a bit stressed. I got very behind with my workload while I was sick and there are just not enough hours in the days to make a dent. But, like that little hamster in the wheel, I keep running.

Exercise has been a big fat goose egg and food has been whatever can be grabbed in a rush. This weekend, I need to sit down and plan meals for the week and my exercise schedule. Until then, I will try to make the best choices possible in food selection and not eat when I'm not hungry. Also, I seriously need to start turning of the TV going to bed earlier. Lack of sleep is making me wonky.:dizzy:

Have a great on-plan day.

I may be taking a freebie this week. I'm up 4 pounds, but I certain it's water retention from where I've been getting too much sun. Hopefully it will all be gone by Sunday. I have a 5K this Saturday, so that should help.

Just wanted to stop by and say Hi, having my own personal struggles these days. DH is making me crazy, not sure what to do, but I know I can't live like this much longer, too much to get into, just needed to get this off my chest. Thanks for listening.

Mary, no bubbly for me today I PROMISE! Maybe club soda mixed with crystal light if I really need some bubbles. :o

Rhonda, I have been getting my sleep in for sure. I've been exhausted and a bit depressed, so I have been sleeping at least 8 per night. Hope you get your sleeping back on track soon.

Dee, what's this about getting too much sun? I went for a mini run to exhaust my pup last night (so she would behave) and I'm still running on damn ice!! :( Enjoy that sun.

:( Put yourself first.

I have lost more inches than pounds since January, and I'm not yet thin enough. For me, it's going to be a combination needed, I have been enough sizes/weights in the past that I know approximately how much I will weigh and what size I will be when I feel and look best. (145 and size 4 approx).

I am up 2 pounds! And I had lost a lb since last weigh in! TOM is almost here and it's been a h*llish week. This morning when I got up I decided to take a vacation day today and I will be doing yoga today and going for an indoor run. I'm sticking like glue to my food plan all weekend.

MJ - Not sure I'm understanding your question, lack of caffeine has made my brain fuzzy. (and it's 530am)

That's pretty much where I am this week, the scale is wonky, up 4 pounds, but my clothes have decided to fall off my butt again. The scale progress lets me know without a doubt that something is working, but inches can be sooo abstract unless there's actually a tape measure in my hand.

Months ago I was looking for a present for my cousin and my aunt told me she's a size 3 (and 5'-9", how darned unfair is it that I was born into a family of amazons?) I was looking at the size charts for Old Navy and decided that I wanted to be a size 8 (or was it 10?) anyway, I wrote down the measurements on a pink postit note and taped it to the wall above my monitor it looked like this:

37

29

39

Now that I'm within an inch of those sizes (except the bust, I've accepted that dresses are going to aways need alterations) I've decided that I need new goal numbers. But it makes me very happy to have set what I thought was a almost impossible goal and to have (almost) met it. So at this point I'm much happier about the inches than the scale, becuase that's what determined clothing sizes. Does that make sense?