Afternoon all! I have lost 21lb and have another 21 to go. I am thrilledd of course and look and feel so much better. However, I am struggling to keep going. My motivation is really falling and it is showingnon the scales as I am not loosing. I'm not gaining either, so that is a blessing. I am still exercising hard, but little treats keep creeping in. Please give a good kick up the rear to get me going again!

Maybe you should imagine yourself at your goal weight and lookin' good.

I know. I was almost at 20 pound loss and had 20 to go, I have gained a few pounds back.

I am out of steam. Shedding the last 20 is so HARD! I am tired of counting everything. I am tired of having one bad day and scale sky rocketing and staying in high numbers for days or even a week.

I feel for you You are not alone. -- I just want to be at my goal. This makes me wonder, how many people actually reach their goal or just settle? The last pounds require so much will power and staying on path.

Maybe it is time to reflect upon the thoughts and feelings that spurred you to action in the first place. What motivated you then? How badly do you want this? That is not an idle question. How badly do you want to be at goal? Really bad? Well, the goal is twice as close as it was when you first started. Go get it! You can do it, you just have to remind yourself how sweet it will feel when you achieve what you set out to do.

Hello, wow that's amazing you lost 21 pound since Feb. can you tell me how you did it; I just joined today. Any advice

That is a very good question. I started out for a few reasons. The big one was that my Dad died of cancer a three years ago, and I learned more about cancer than I ever wanted to know. Of course what I learned is that obesity is one of the contributing factors. At peak weight I was 14 stone, when I started seriously loosing weight I was 12 stone 11lb.

Although 21lbs is a significant amount of weight, it is not an enormous amount, but my body has changed so much. With the good food and exercise, I don't look super slim, but I look athletic, and I wonder if subconsciously as I start to approach a normal weight I feel like I am out of the "danger zone". Before any real loss showed, I only had to look in the mirror to get my motivation, now when I look I see a much more healthy me. Does that make any sense at all?

Thinking through your questions has been a really interesting process. I can now see that my motivation is about my health and somehow I need to hang onto that to keep me going.

Thank you! *hugs*

Well...

I have MS, so I try to eat well, but my portion control was dreadful. I was also a little bit too keen on biscuits. So, I went cold turkey on the sugary snacks, and had none at all. I also started to count calories, and am on 1200 a day. On a sunday I allow myself to eat as much as I like of healthy food, which for me is usually fruit. I am not sure it is good for me to be on a restricted calorie intake everyday. Interestingly when I have a free hand on Sundays I normally only eat about 1500 calories, so I don't seem to go overboard.

In terms of food, there is no process food at all, it is all cooked from scratch. It is organic as far as we can manage too, but that is more about controlling my MS than weightloss.

On top of the diet, there was exercise. I do cardio three times a week and weight training twice a week. For cardio I am mostly doing interval training as I really like it. The weights have made a massive difference to my body shape. As I said earlier, I am starting to look athletic. I do pilates too, and that is starting to make my muscles sleek. I am quite well built and and quite tall at 5'6", so am never going to be petite, but I like athletic!

However, the thing that I think has made the biggest difference is something called NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis). If you Google it, you will find lots of info, and a book called Move A Little Loose A Lot by James Levine is really helpful.

It is a theory that to keep your body and metabolism ticking over you should try and move around as much as you can. Now, I have an office job and am effectively glued to my desk all day. So, I started to stand to take telephone calls, to pace around when reading papers, walk up and down the stairs instead of take the lift etc. It all sounds like peanuts in comparison to an hour in the gym, but over a day it makes a huge difference. Recently I realised how big a difference. I spent 2 weeks in all day meetings, so I couldn't do any NEAT activity at all.... I lost no weight at all. Despite doing everything else that I normally do.

I also weigh everyday. There is another thread on the pros and cons of this, but for me it seems to keep me on track and I can adjust as I go along of I need to.

I hope this helps. I think the main things it to give something a go, if it doesn't work or is making you anxious, try something different until you feel comfortable.

I hope this helps & good luck, let me know how you get on, I'd love to hear your progress!

Fancy supporting each other through the last few lbs?

Congratulations on losing so much weight! That is quite an accomplishment. But since you are looking for a "kick in the rear" I would like to help you find the motivation to reach your final goal.

The first half of the journey you were trying to escape from health problems, and so that was keeping you going. But now that you are in a healthy zone and are looking and feeling more athletic, the health "emergency" has diminished, which is great, but now you must find a different motivator to keep you on the path. Maybe it is an article of clothing you would like to fit into,or some other goal you can work towards? That way, the closer you get to your goal, the more excited and energized you will be. Losing weight to escape a negative is a great motivator, up until the point you perceive you are far enough away from the danger, then the motivation wavers a bit. Finding something to reach towards will keep you getting more and more excited, the closer you get. I hope that makes sense.

Take encouragement from the fact that you are halfway to where you want to be, and re-energize your motivation with a clear picture of what you want to be like when you reach your goal. Good luck!

Absolutely.

I am a regular poster here at 3FC.

I was going to do 3 day belly fat cure last week, but TOM changed my plans. -- BUT this week I am kick starting my weighloss with http://www.jorgecruise.com/storage/B...REE%20Menu.pdf
Join me?

This weekend has been a ral struggle. Family visiting has meant there is food everywhere, and it isnt the healthy sort! Tomorrow I will get back on plan. I ave to.

A bit of an update. i stuck with it, and weighing this morning, i am now 143lbs. 3 lbs from goal. A couple of weeks more and I will be there! Now I need to worry about keeping it off...

I'm really trying to think of some good advice to give you because I don't want you to gain the weight back. I have gained back 20 pounds of what took me a couple of years to lose, in a year and a half. When I got down to that weight it was not budging also and I still had 20 to go and I think it got me down and so I said fudge it and started eating badly. But also because of stress.
Know you're not alone because we all hit plateaus. Just try not to gain. Not losing any more is better than gaining trust me.

have you considered just doing maintenance for a while? i know that when some people are struggling, they just try maintaining their current weight for a while.