Hi everyone! With the New Year almost upon us, i have a couple of things I want to get my head around and thought you would be the ideal people to ask I didn't slip off the wagon this Christmas. Instead I pulled into the first supermarket car park I got to, loaded the wagon with all kinds of delicious foods and went merrily on my way, eating as I went with the horses pulling me along behind. Anyway, I've just about emptied the wagon now and I'm ready to pull myself together and get going in the New Year. So, my questions are these...

1. How do you keep the motivation to exercise?

I find I can get myself really motivated for a week or so and then I get bored (lazy!!!) and it all goes wrong. I have exercise DVDs that are gathering dust, a gym membership that I hardly ever use and I just hate leaving the house again after I get home at night. Thinking of how great I could look if I actually put the effort in is a great motivator for me when I first start out but once I get bored with it my mind seems to block out that motivation and it doesn't work any more. I don't even know if I'm making any sense at the moment, I can't seem to find the right words

2. What could I do instead of eat?

I find that my main problem is eating when I'm bored. I know I shouldn't eat but I still do. What I need is something to do to take my mind off food. I don't mean exercise though. Once I know how to conquer question one I should be able to do a decent amount of exercise each day anyway I mean something like a hobby. I'm open to any suggestions here, I enjoy keeping busy with something but I just can't figure out what it is I could do instead of eat Prefereably something indoors though for this time of year. It's pretty cold out there and always dark by the time I get home from work

Sorry to bother you with these questions, I'm just at a loose end at the moment and could really do with a helping hand

So you like doing puzzles? get yourself a 1000 piece puzzle and designate a table for it. If you're not patient enough for a 1000 piece puzzle, what about something like sudoku, or word search? What are you interested in? Do you have any hobbies? Maybe you can go to a hobby store and find something you might like to do? I don't know:P

When im bored and want to eat.. i get up and exercise!! haha

1. My motivations to exercise change a lot. Right now my long-term motivator is having bebes. My husband & I want to try & get pregnant in 2009, and I want to be a sexy pregnant mama. I want to have healthy pregnancies & not be high risk because I am overweight. Another motivator is health. My grandparents had some terrible health issues because they essentially drank & ate themselves into diabetes, strokes, & heart attacks. I do not want to be that way. I got to the point where I was scared that I was going to have a heart attack, and would then have a terrible panic attack. One other motivator is this. I like to get on here & do the 5Day OP challenges & be able to brag about getting thru the 30DS & being able to move my ticker to show that I am working at this really hard.

2. Instead of eating, I like to take a bath, get on the phone & get distracted, down a huge glass of water to fill my belly so that I don't even want anything to eat, clean my house, or if I just can't kick a craving, I eat one of the 100-calorie Hostess packs.

Hope that helps!

I post this a lot on the board (and it's on my blog as well). Here's my philosophy about eating well and especially about exercising.

There are a lot of things that I do in my life because I have to do them. I am not "motivated" to do them. I don't particularly enjoy them. Sometimes I even dread them. I pay bills. I go to the dentist. I get up on cold winter mornings and go to work. I pay my taxes. None of those things are particularly FUN things, but they're part of being a responsible adult.

Exercise is the same thing. It's not something that I bound out of bed and go "Yay! I get to exercise today!" It's not something I think of as "fun" particularly. It's just something that I HAVE to do if I want to be a responsible, healthy adult. So I do it. Just like I pay bills, brush my teeth, and go to work every day. Because the alternative is worse than actually doing it.

As for the 2nd question - what do you like to do? Play games? Sew or knit? Paint or draw? Write? Scrapbook? Find something that appeals to you and start doing it. Heck, start collecting stamps. Sell things on Ebay. The possiblities are unlimited.

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I am not a fan of exercising. blah. so I cut it up - I always take the stairs ( I'm on the tenth floor), do lunges, or squats while talking on the phone, or jog on the spot when cooking.

as for things to do other than eat- I like doing collages, or I go and read in the bath tub in my spare time .

Alrighty, so my main motivation to exercise is that I play lacrosse. I am one of the slowest, easiest tired girls on the team. And I really, really want to make Varsity this year. That, and I just enjoy it! Not so much right now when I can barely walk thanks to Conditioning practice yesterday, but usually. Another motivation of mine is just that my fifty year old mom can outrun me pretty spectacularly. I can run for about ten minutes straight, but after that, I'm really exhausted. I want to beat her so badly! So, being able to run three ten minute miles is my main goal and I just want to accomplish it so badly! Another thing that motivates me is that exercise is a really good excuse not to do my homework. So whenever I get really bogged down in work, I go and take an hour and a half break at the gym. Exercise is much more fun than homework!

For not eating, gosh, I need ideas! What helps me, honestly, is just not being home! If I'm not at home I never want to eat, unless I'm really hungry. When I am home, however, I do agree that puzzles, like Sudokus, help some. Also, doing things that keep your hands busy can help too, like knitting, maybe? One more suggestion, though, that is the most helpful thing for me, is to write in a journal! If you're sitting there, writing about all your health goals and stuff, I never want to go eat!

Good luck!

You just have to make yourself do the exercise. When I don't feel like doing it I acknowledge that as a valid feeling and then I make myself do it. The more you exercise the more it becomes a routine. Also, If you vary what you do, you might discover something you love to do. If your gym has cardio classes I suggest committing yourself to trying each at least once to see if there is something you don't necessarily like but dislike the least and go from there.

Sometimes I am motivated to go the gym. Other times, not so much.

But everday I am determined. I think I had to realized that being motivated and being determined were two different things, especially when it came to working out/weightloss.

1. How do you keep the motivation to exercise?

I am not always motivated to exercise, but I try to do it anyway. I always feel so much better afterward! First of all, I pay for the gym membership, so I don't want it to go to waste. I also have made a rule that I can't do anything "fun", like watch TV or play video games, until after I have worked out. It's too easy for me to start watching TV, saying that I'll work out after this show. Only to find that I *need* to watch the next one! Also, sometimes I work out when I am bored - I'll throw on a 20 minute DVD if I haven't made it to the gym that day. I also understand not wanting to go out after coming home from work, so I've been trying (and succeeding) at bring my gym clothes to work with me, so I just go on my way home. I pass by the gym anyway - if I have the clothes with me, I have no real excuse!

2. What could I do instead of eat?

This one is hard, because I tend to eat when I am bored. Depending on the situation, I try different things - on a boring weekend day, I'll go out shopping or to the library, just to get myself into a different mindset. I also read a lot, and get so engrossed in my reading that I don't eat. As mentioned before, I play video games (World of Warcraft) and when I sit at my computer, I'm set with my water, usually. Hobbies aren't something we can really suggest for someone else, though! They are generally born out of your own interests.

Good luck!

Hi Anti222,

I'm actually trying to work on the working out consistently thing as well so I can't help you with that one

BUT a friend of mine has started to crochet and she really enjoys it, that's a hobby possibility.

Now, I don't know your level of spirituality but I try to occupy more of my time with learning about Jesus and His life and reading my Bible more and getting a closer relationship with the Lord...and there's plenty to learn about him to keep you occupied for years to come

I hope this helps and best of luck to you!!

Thanks for your suggestions everyone! They all sound really good I'm off out soon so I'll have a wander round town to see if anything catches my eye that could distract me As for the exercise, well, I guess I'm just gonna have to get it done one way or another I'm gonna go do an exercise DVD now, before I go out. Maybe I'll create a new iPod playlist first to make it a bit more fun

Thanks again!

Same here. I want to give birth at home without much intervention. I know it's going to be hellaciously difficult. I don't need to be a fat blog of weakness trying to accomplish that goal.

Also, when we have a gym membership I work out with my husband. That is motivation. We like doing something together. It costs us $95 a months, so that is motivation to use the membership, not let it just go to waste!

And, I like muscle. I love muscle. I want to preserve what I've got and build more when I can.

2. Do you like to read? Or would you just want to eat while your are eating?