Hi

I;ve been told to loose and to be honest I;ve known for a long time I need to do so. My problem is getting motivated to do so, I;ve cut out all bad stuff from my diet and I thought I was being good drinking pure apple juice but I found out it contains 500Kcal per litre Its just really hard yet I really want to do it. Does that make sense at all? I know part of my lack of motivation is due to depression (I;m on anti-depressants) but it doesn't help.

Also I think it os really unfair in a way because I do eat relitively healthily and yet I have friends who eat takeaways 2 or 3 times a week, don't do much exercise and are as skinny as rakes.

How can I get motivated?

Hi Annii,

Why not try using the "diet plate". My mum cannot stick to a diet to save her life so I brought her a diet plate and she lost 8lbs in the first week and is now loosing about 2lbs a week.

Wow BB - that's brilliant.

Anni, I cut out juices and drink a lot of no sugar squash, Tesco's orange and mango is lovely.

Motivation is difficult - only you can do that, maybe you really want to be able to wear certain clothes, or look good in a bikini. I know a lot of people swear by sticking up pictures of these things to keep you going.

I find it really hard because ultimately I'm lazy and a bit of a piglet so don't like having to cut out the 'nice stuff', however if you make sure that you're diet isn't boring, maybe get more into cooking - it helps.

The diet plate sounds a great idea, where can I get one from?

I;m going to try to drink just water today, I have problems drinking the recommended daily amount anyway so I;m going to try to drink a glass every hour. I figure that if I drink enough I;ll feel fuller anyway.

Thanks for your advice
Ann

Hi Annii, hmmmmmm, motivation I really do think comes from oneself...you sound like you're close to having some though

One thing I would tell you to do, is to stop thinking about your 'skinny' friends who eat what ever they want, don't exercise, and stay the same. They may not carry weight on them, but they're probably not as healthy as some people eating healthier food who are larger than them.

It does seem unfair to most of us who carry weight, to see 'skinny minnies' stuff their faces and look lovely with their figures, but it doesn't neccessarily mean that they are completely happy within themselves either.

This is a good place to come to when you need motivation, the girls who come regularly are a great support team, wheather you're having a good day or bad.

Start off small, you don't say how much you want to or need to lose, but don't look at the big picture, if you need to lose 20 pounds, set yourself a goal for losing five by a certain date...some of us are already doing this in the Halloween challenge. Come and join us there and also in the monthly chat....we're all here for each other, welcome aboard

Hi you can get a diet plate from:

http://www.thedietplate.co.uk/index.php

It was developed by a woman who did not want to weigh portions or count calories so she developed the plate to help her keep to 1300 - 1500 cals a day
There's load of info about how it works on site

The girls are defintly right the diet plate is a good option , or even joining a group WI like Weight watchers /slimming world/rosemary conley as sometimes the idea of a public weight in is enough motivation in itself to lose the weight.

My motivation is to lose the weight is because i want a baby , i have PCOS and the weight causes problems and dont make me ovulate so everytime i feel like cheating or feel like i could give up i tell myself the reason why and that keeps me on the straight and narrow.

I hope you can find something to motivate you , and good luck with your weight loss.

Teresa

Hello Anni
I think motivation is very much an individual thing. For a long time I have lacked the motivation to lose weight, even though the doctors kept telling me that I need to do so, because I have a few health problems.

But I got my motivation back when my boyfriend proposed, we are getting married next month and I need to fit into my wedding dress!

I just hope that I carry on being motivated well after the wedding.

How about this....

Take a piece of paper, draw three columns on it. In the first column write down a list of goals that you want to achieve.... i.e. lose half a stone, drop a dress size, run for 2 minutes, walk for 30 minutes, lose 10% of your start weight - mix it up, don't just look at the weight you have to lose - think of exercise goals... maybe dropping dress sizes. I listed about 20 mini goals. Then, in the middle column list a series of affordable non-food treats - stuff you wouldn't normally buy yourself - maybe books, CDs, nail varnish, facial - maybe activities you don't normally do like horse-riding or paint-balling - put cheaper ones towards the top of the list and the more expensive ones further down. Then in the final column put down the date that you achieve each goal. Put the chart where you can see it all the time. Then each week put £1 in to a pot plus £1 for each pound you lose then then, as you hit your targets, take the money for the treat out of the pot.

The other thing you can do is buy an expensive item of clothing in the size you want to be and hang it on the outside of your wardrobe door where you can see it every morning.

Like Chris says, don't think about other people being skinny - that'll just depress you and depression is a killer for successful weight loss.

Hi

Thanks guys. One of my main problems with things like using an exercise bike is that I get bored. I used to be on medication as a child for hyperactivity and lack of concentration and to an extent I think I have some of the issues as an adult. My hubby went out today and got me a nifty little thing for the playstation2, it is a camera that you plug into the machine and it comes with a disk with games you operate by making movements on the screen. It really feels like a workout. Maybe I have a good excuse to get a Nintendo Wii .

Annii

I looked at that Annii for the Ps2 but i ended up getting a dance mat instead but i might buy that game yet , do you think its worth the money ?

Teresa

I enjoy it, I think you could probably get it cheap from a second hand shop. You do feel like you have had a workout once you have played it for a while. There is another version of it called Eye Toy Kinetic which is specifically aimed at getting fit. I think they are definately worth looking into.

Annii

OH thats the one i say the kentic one , im finding teh dancemat quite a woekout cos i do it for an hour a time and about 10 songs , and i like ot get the calories up to about 300 cals burned , but i think that the fitness trainer one is a good idea too cos its getting you to do specific things so i might buy that too. Keep me posted on how your doing with it.

Teresa