Hey Everyone,

I am new to this site, but not new to the whole weight loss thing. I am beginning to realize that my weight is hindering me in leading the lifestyle that I want to live, however I can not seem to get motivated to do what I need to do. I am a nurse, so I know what I should be doing, ie. diet and exercise. I am just looking for some motivation to help me get my butt off the couch and out the door and on my way to a skinnier and healthier me. Any help would be appreciated.

Well. Just start.
Maybe try starting small, switch one unhealthy habit for something a bit better. Or start food journaling too, so that you can get an idea of what's going on right now, go ahead and take your measurements with your starting weight as some find that they see inches disappear at times when pounds stay the same, so that's a good motivator to keep, and others like to have a photo record.

Have you decided how you are going to go about doing this? Do you have a plan in mind (calorie counting, Weight Watchers, Beck, etc - the Diet Central part of the forum is great for jumping in and asking questions)? Maybe start off with the food part first and work in the exercise once you got that down pat?

Ask questions and explore the forums, there are a bunch of awesome people on here that are incredibly helpful!

Good luck and !

I find that I make a very specific plan, e.g. eat this amount of calories from these specific meals/foods, exercise at this time each day doing <insert exercise here> and then if I find it hard to start all of that at once i focus on either exercise or food to get going first, and then add in the other thing the next week. So I find it easier sometimse to control food but hard to get the motivation for the gym. So I would start out the first week just changing my eating patterns and then start exercise the next week. it takes some times but it seems to be more sustainable for me if i do it like that. its easier to persuade myself that I'm not doing much and its easy and if i just do this one thing today all will be good

you know, i lose my motivation all the time. I mean its really hard like when me and my bf go out to eat, and I see all these wonder foods, and I know i should get the salad, and yet I know i don't want the salad either.

I must agree with Iconised Ghost, I think the first thing I changed where my eating habits. I felt good knowing I was doing something good for my body.

And I know some people might not do this, but i took two pictures of my body naked, and I really looked at them I hated what I saw, and I hated hating myself, because life really is too short to hate your body, to have low self esteem all because I couldn't say no to a pizza or other bad foods.