I'm bored. I'm motivated. I'm depressed. I'm determined. I'm discouraged.

The scale is still waivering between the same two pounds for the second week now. I could come up with multiple reasons of why this is happening. Valentine's Day. PMS. Lack of exercise. Portion mishaps (yeah, like that extra scoop accidentally feel on my plate). The possibilities are endless.

Yesterday, was a new day. I did so good until about 2pm. I even walked for 30 minutes without having to stop (for the asthma). I was stoked!!!! I used to have to stop every 10 mintues Then, I got home. And totally blew my great day. I could have stopped eating but I chose not to stop. It was a very conscious decision. I tried to pick my spirits up a bit by trying on some clothes I haven't attempted to fit in. The stuff from last year fits soooo much better than the tight fit they were last year. I have a pair of pants that are still too tight (size 12) but I did get them zipped. This didn't help me at all though. I've seriously considered backing off again for a week or so and regrouping my goals and why I'm doing this. My frame of mind is just not consistent with successful weightloss right now.

It's been so cold here (except for yesterday and today and then it's back to cold again) and I'm bored with my food, which is why I think I'm having such a hard time staying on track.

I soooooo can't wait until Spring. I need something fresh and new. I need to get my hands in the dirt. I want to feel excited about this journey again but the circumstances around me seem to be concealing anything hopeful at this point.

Thanks for letting me rant.

Hurry up Spring!!!!!!!!

I too need some motivation. I've been doing pretty good on the eating side but I've stopped my exercise. I just can't seem to "get into it" like I did when I first started.

Hmmm ... I wish I could help but I'm pretty much in the same boat. I haven't got 'low' for a long time .... ya know ... the inability to make myself do even the most simple things on a regular basis. And I've got a bee in my bonnet about being a 'good example' lately. Not just health wise ... all in all. So I'm not only heaping on the self recrimination (sp?) I've got this guilt thing happening.

Let's all go find something really motivating and cut and paste it here ....
That sounded so lame!

Find something fun and different to do. Snow tubbing. Revamp your master list of foods to eat. Do research (since you guys love coming here so much it should be up your alley). Find new things to make, eat, freeze, etc.

Do a group activity (or as a family).

Tour a new city.

Live your life and find excitement in it and let the weight take care of itself as a natural consequence to good choices.

This weekend I'm thinking about exploring an outlet mall in a new city. I don't really wish to buy stuff, just to walk around and look. That's if I get over being sick and if a friend will go with me.

Had fun snowtubing last weekend.

I want to go watch a performance that is a lot like the riverdance next month. Then for my boy's birthday a trip (our first) to Hershey Park.

I have to say that this past week has been a CHALLENGE for me too. It seems like my common sense sort of flies out the window when I have PMS/period. BUT.. that was then and this is NOW. It's over and done with AND my husband came home late last night. He had been out of town since Monday. (Lucky dog -- he got to miss the whole "period" thing, I sure wish I could have!!)

Actually, thinking over yesterday, I did pretty good. I had my normal breakfast of cereal, banana, skim milk. I had to drive to the office yesterday (90+ miles one way) for a meeting. Thankfully we did NOT have donuts. We DID have lunch brought in from a local pizza joint. We could order anything we wanted. Now, while I could have ordered a salad, I ordered a "Little Joe"... which is a personal size pizza... in the Hawaiian style. It was good. No morning snack, no afternoon snack. I did stop at the grocery store on my way home and bought the fixings for lasagna AND a Milky Way candy bar. I ate the candy bar on the 30 mile drive home. That was also good. I put the lasagna together and waited for my husband to call me to tell me he was leaving the office. (He had planned on getting back to Fargo by mid-afternoon.) The phone rang at 6 pm and he told me that he was actually just leaving Minot... which meant that he had about five hours to drive. Oh. I put the lasagna in the fridge and heated up leftovers. Sooooo... I really only had TWO days totally off-track. I was kind of bummed that there wasn't a Biggest Loser on last night. I really have found their latest shows to be very motivating. I have the book, so I guess I should work on reading that.

Reading books, magazines, Success Stories, etc., really helps to motivate me. Willpower is a myth, I think. Yes, there's that initial excitement when starting anything new (lifestyle changes, relationships, etc.), but you do have to WORK at them.

So... 1dayatatime... take a look at your online name. One Day At A Time!! That's all we have to do is to take it one day at a time.

BTW, speaking of cold weather, our HIGH temp today is supposed to be 3 degrees. The high!! Tomorrow's high temp is -10º. Ten degrees below zero. Yikes!

Kimberly

I know how everyone feels. One thing that has helped me is...even when I go totally off track (i.e., eating a whole cadbury bar on V-Day even after Mexican food for dinner) I try to think about what I did good that day. And that particular day, I did *not* buy a candy bar from the vending machines at work. I did not drink soda with my mexican food. Sure I was about 800 calories over my "range" but add in an extra candy bar, some soda, some horrible snack at work...could have been much worse!

You have to think as every bit of bad food not eaten, or each good choice, as a step in the right direction. You said you did good until 2pm, and that you walked for a half hour. Those are excellent! 2pm is past lunch, over half your day! Sure, dinner wasn't everything in *could* have been, but nothing ever will be. I think you had a good day because you exercised AND you did good up until 2pm. We are always our own harshest critics, and while it's good to strive for perfect sometimes you just have to take what you can get. If it's only one bad meal, or only one bad day, or only one bad week, or only 1 bad year, or 1 bad decade out of a LIFETIME than it's nothing compared to all the good you will do and strive to do.

Ahhh, thank you all so much for the support, ideas, and help. It's good to know I'm not the only one needing more motivation than I've gotten lately (not counting a great support system at home and here).

I've done really great for six weeks. Sure, I had imperfect days but nothing huge. I guess I've just lost my focus so, I'm going to refocus. I would like to say that tomorrow is another day but with how I feel right now I don't think I can start fresh tomorrow. Morning may change my mind altogether.

Today is another day! Never wait until tomorrow, or the next hour, you can always start - because you never stopped! So just keep on going!

Miles is right ... instead of sitting here surfing for something inspiring, I went to exercise. One hour of hoppin' and boppin' ... watching hockey I feel much better.

I'm not calorie counting, I'm doing Atkins, but for me it is still SO much fun. I think it is because the weight comes off pretty quickly. Every day I anticipate that number on the scale the next day. I have evidence that I am burning fat all the time (ketosis), and I can take measurements and see the difference, almost from day to day.

Maybe a change of diet would help?

I know that not everyone can go to a tanning bed, or feels that tanning beds are safe, but- when I get bogged deep down in the Winter Blues, a visit to a tanning bed helps me a lot! Even just five minutes of fake sunshine is a mood booster for me. And laying there in a bathing suit almost always gets me motivated to get my rear in gear, weight-loss-wise too, lol.

But, I know that sometimes the need for motivation goes deeper than that. I found a really good article online, and one quote in particular resonated with me. The author (a life coach) said that one reason why people trying to lose weight often lose motivation, is because their "objective is motivated by self-rejection rather than self-respect". That hit home BIG TIME for me. Maybe our lack of motivation comes about when we start thinking about fitness the wrong way? When we let the "wrong reasons" for losing weight push the "right reasons" out of the way? I know that it's a lot harder for me to stay on track when I'm disgusted with myself, and a lot easier when I realize that I'm doing this to take care of myself. Just a thought.

Here's the entire article if anyone is interested. She has a whole list of reasons why motivations fail:
http://www.successconsciousness.com/...motivation.htm

I had another thought about a negative way of thinking being why I often lose motivation and get off-track. It fits in with one of my favorite Dr. Phil thoughts about how you won't change something if you are getting a payoff from it.

I am really going to start thinking of weight loss and fitness as something decadent- something that I am doing just for me, to take care of myself because I "deserve it". After all, more often than not, that's why I crash on the couch instead of getting exercise- because "I'm tired and I deserve it". I'll eat a third slice of pizza or a candy bar because "It's been a long day/the kids are getting on my nerves/it's the weekend/I'm out with friends/I've been so good- and I deserve it".

So, now I'm going to have to switch my thinking to "I'm going to stop at one serving because I deserve to be healthy", or "I'm going to get my butt up and get moving because I deserve to be healthy". Yikes. That's going to take 31 years of undoing, but, I think that's what it will take to get me to lose weight.

It sounds like you have a case of "scale-itis" and are listening more to what the scale tells you than your body is telling you.


What you're body is telling you has you stoked! What the scale tells you has you discouraged. While it would be nice if they always told you the same good news, that is not always the case. The scale often tells the truth but it does sometimes lie. Your body is a truer indicator.

When your body tells you are making progress, flip the scale the bird and go try to walk for 35 minutes without stopping!

Update:

No offense to Atkins, but I know people that have done it and all of them are larger than when they started. Thanks for the suggestion but I believe deprivation would only make cause for failure. It's why I love Calorie Queens - I'm learning to live with food - not without it.

Scales don't bother me. I know from what I said it would appear that way but there is just so much going on outside of weightloss that I think I took it out on the scales. Here's the deal...The ex-husband called a couple weeks ago and griped in my ear that he isn't allowed to claim our three children and he pays $12,000 per year in child support. He has seen his children for 20 minutes in the last 18 months. He has holidays and 6 weeks in the summer he can have them but he doesn't take advantage of the holidays and last year he didn't get them for the summer (he lives in another state). I'm now not receiving ANY child support. Thank goodness I don't count it in the household budget! Oh, I just can't wait to rid myself of this man completely! Anyway, my point is I let him make me feel terrible about myself and that carried over to my progress. I can't NOT talk to him but I sure as **** don't have to let him make me feel worthless. I take care of my children 365 a year and THAT'S why the courts gave me the ability to claim them every year. Okay....I'm over it....

I'm also going to go to the tanning bed soon. I figure if I'm gonna look good this summer I might as well be tan

I made a menu for the next week and did my shopping off of that - a good thing. It's snowy and wintry outside so this will be a good time for me to re-organize the pantry and make a "food bank" box to deliver.

I'm really enjoying finding new foods I LIKE, such as acorn squash, and cabbage (I put in salads now), and grapefruit. Try some different, healthy food!