I know it's time. My weight has gotten too high.
I need to eat less but how do I motivate myself to
take the plunge?? I keep saying to myself everyday,
"Tomorrow I will start!" but I never do. Any suggestions?
The best way to start is by making a plan. You need to know what you can do to begin. Usually eating is the best thing to start with. Maybe check out some peoples fit days and see what kinds of foods they are eating, and start making a list of foods you see that you like, add the calories and see where you stand on food. I don't know your weight but I'd say you could probably start out at about 1800 calories and see how that works for you. But you can't do it without some sort of plan. An architech doesn't build a building without some plans first...how can you lose weight without planning first.
Yes, you should look at some different plans and see which ones appeal to you and which don't. We have lots of reviews here on 3FC--go to the main page and you'll see many options, including Search.
Also, sometimes it's easy to pick just one thing that you're going to do, and start doing it. I mean, like as soon as you read this post!
It could be--switch to 2% milk instead of whole milk--or to 1% milk if you only drink 2%. Or, it could be take a walk for 20 minutes every day. Or cut your soda consumption by half--if you drink 3 cans a day, only drink 1-1/2. Choose one thing and do it, and keep doing it for a week.
Then you'll choose a second thing to add--maybe it will be, use lowfat or fat free dressing on your salads. Only eat 1/2 cup of potato or rice with your meal. Or substitute baby carrots instead of corn chips as a snack. Just one more thing--not all of them--and do that plus the first one for a week. And so on.
That way you have small, manageable changes! And in the meantime, you can research what food program you would like to try, just for your own information.
I don't know how to motivate you or advise you how to motivate yourself.
for me the motivation was health related and also that i wanted to be intimate with my husband and that was becoming a problem due to OUR weight...
so we talked about what we liked to eat and what we felt we could live without for the most part and discovered a plan that gave us the best of everything.
what you have to do is find a plan that you can live with on a day to day basis forever. You have to accept that the loss will be slow. that it will at times appear to stand still.
you're motivation for doing this has to be HEALTH with weight loss secondary, because if you do it just to lose weight then when you slow and or plateau you may lose motivation. at least that's how it works for me. with a lot to lose you have to think really really really long term.
so let's talk.... do you like fruit, do you like veggies, what are your favorite things to eat..... let's figure out how to make a plan that works FOR YOU. because what works for ME does not work for my best friend... and I keep trying to tell her that. I LIKE veggies. i eat them all the time. I just stopped eating candy after that... (well and a few others things it's really not that simple)....
exercise. do a tiny bit
water drink a tiny bit more than usual
for me for example with water.... i used to drink NONE now i'm up to about 3 litres a day... but i built up to it... over time.
while my lifestyle now is simple its' because for the last year i've struggled to get here.... i know what i need to do now... my motivation is that i wake up and don't hurt, i have energy, my skin is clear, my head is clear, I can breathe again when i turn over in bed instead of having to catch my breath...
i can MOVE.... i feel better.... if i don't lose 5 pounds a month oh well.... i will be 5 pounds lighter than I am in 6 months.... the trend is what's important.... the day to day journey is not critical as much as the trend and then you learn to string clean days together and it starts to work....
but you have to find what YOU need to motivate yourself....
i used to do the same thing. That's how i put on an extra 35lbs. It's not all going to drop off tomorrow ( though i'd love for it to ), but a pound lost is a pound lost either way. Don't look at the entire amount you need to lose, just do 1 at a time. It's alot less overwhelming that way.
Here is what has worked for me. Maybe some of it will help you as well. Pick whatever will help YOU, if there's any thing like this in that list.
Once again, this has worked for me, and may not work for everyone. But I hope it will have given you a few ideas about how and what to start with. And I also hope you will soon find a plan that will work for you, and help you lose the weight you want to shed.
Why don't you start right now? If you say you'll start tomorrow then you're already putting if off and that's no way to start right? Start right now, go for a walk, make a healthy lunch, etc. It doesn't have to be a huge dramatic change, in fact I think that's a little counter productive because you'll be less likely to stick with it. Start with small adjustments to what you eat, and how much you eat, start exercise slowly - a brisk walk for example. I think it's important to start slow even if you ARE totally gung ho. Good luck!
in addition, after you do start, when you go off your plan, (and you WILL go off your plan) don't use that as an excuse to STAY off your plan. Instead use it as a learning experience and get RIGHT back ON you plan.
What's good motivation for me is to start tracking what I'm eating every day without dieting. Write down everything you eat, put it into FitDay or another website. Get a sense of what you're really eating now! Sometimes you will be really surprised! You'll also get a baseline for how many calories you are eating normally, how much fat, etc.
For me, just seeing how many calories and how much fat is in some of the things I eat normally really motivated me to change the way I eat. I started asking myself, "Do I really want this super-premium ice cream when it's 300 calories a HALF CUP?!? or would I rather have a cup of chocolate yogurt for 130 calories?"
I'm with Wisher and Robin ... go for a walk today, leave a little something on your plate at dinner tonight and put all of today's foods in fitday. Then ... not only will you have already started .. you'll be well on your way to a plan as well.
Softy, try not to overwhelm and scare yourself with the prospect of a "big plunge." Start with some toe-dipping, testing the waters. Like the others said, start out with some small changes you know you can handle, like finding some lower-calorie food choices, doing a little exercise. Break it all down into smaller steps...the changes, the goals...focus on a few pounds at a time. You didn't gain it all at once, you don't have to lose it all at once, although I know we sometimes wish we could! Small changes are easier to make, and when you've gotten used to them and seen that they're effective, it spurs you on to see what else you can do.
I can only echo what the others have said. Ellie Kreiger has a good weight loss book out called "small changes big results", and that is so very true. I call myself a professional yo-yo dieter, because this is my 5th trip down the weight ladder. And the thing that I always always did, that i did not do this time, is plung right in to the deep end full force. 3000 cals one day, 1200 the next (and for the next 8 months, or 5 months, or how ever long I could stick with it). Start small. when I started walking a month ago, i remember that first morning when i had to get up early and "get it over with" so i could be at my desk by 8:00am. I was like, "oh man, do i really want to do this?" but I made my self go. Now, my 1.5 mile walk every morning is just so natural, that on the days that I don't walk, I feel like I've missed something. Like the others said, make a small change now, today. give your self a week or so to get used to that, and then make another change. We all want immediate results, but in long lasting weight loss, that is a dream. It doesnt happen. and if you "dip your toes in" first, as another poster put it, and start slow, your chances of long term weight loss increase. and it is true, there will be days when you won't eat your best. dont beat your self up, just pick up and get right back on. One bad meal, or one bad snack does not ruin the whole day, unless you allow it. I highly suggest walking, I LOVE my daily walk on the treadmill. start with 10 minutes and work up to 1/2 an hour or a full hour, and give your self a couple of weeks to work up to that. Once you master each small change, THAT will give you tons of motivation to move on. doctors dont graduate med school and perform brain surgery the next day. You're going to teach yourself a new life style, and that takes time. one of my mantra's is "its not a diet, its a new life style". Good luck, and come here for all the motivation you need.
I have to get started but....
Like the others said, start out with some small changes you know you can handle, like finding some lower-calorie food choices, doing a little exercise. Break it all down into smaller steps...the changes, the goals...focus on a few pounds at a time. You didn't gain it all at once, you don't have to lose it all at once, although I know we sometimes wish we could! 
