[godsgirltmm]

Maybe some encouragement or to know others have been where I am. I have worked so hard and lost a total of 61 pounds. But in the last month I have completely lost my motivation. I haven't lost any weight lately, and with good reason. I haven't been getting my exercise in. I haven't been eating terribly, but not on plan. I will have a few good days and think I am getting back in the swing of things and then I don't know what happens. I only have a little more to loose and I KNOW I can do it. Shouldn't that motivate me even more? Still I don't seem to want it bad enough I guess. I am definitely not happy with my body at this current weight. Plus I don't feel very good about myself when I'm not eating right or getting my exercise, so why don't I just do it? I don't know what is wrong with me. I don't even know if this makes sense to anybody else but me.

Anybody else have this happen when they got down to the last little bit? Got any advice or words of wisdom? Any ideas?

[tomandkara]

I constantly struggle with this. I've been back and forth in the same ten pounds for the past seven years, except for three pregnancies. I hate how I look at the top end and am mildly satisfied with how I look at the bottom end, but don't seem to have the motivation to keep up with the exercise and eating plan that would be required to go any lower. I get "tired" of it all - of counting calories and taking every spare minute to exercise and making good decisions about every single little bite that goes in my mouth.

What I've recently realized, though, is that I'm always making decisions about what goes in my mouth, whether they're good ones or bad ones. I'm affecting my body with every decision, so I might as well choose to have a positive result instead of a negative one. I'm the only one who controls me. Only I can take charge of my choices.

I don't know if that makes any sense, but I guess I've figured out that my choice is to either eat whatever I want and not look like what I want to, or eat moderately what I want and look more like what I want to. Either way I'm choosing something.

Kara

[Hat Trick]

You look terrific!! I know you still have some to go to get to your goal but you look absolutely FAB in your pics.

This is the third time I've been down this particular road. After my two oldest kids, I managed to lose all (or nearly all) of the weight. 'Course, I was younger then. I've never lost the baby fat from my last kid and even managed to give the weight 15 lbs for company. Um, my youngest just turned 11. Three yrs ago I lost 20 lbs. I had an xx wt loss by xx date in mind, missed it by literally 2 or 3 lbs., got frustrated and gained about 15 lbs. back. Back on the horse again about 1 1/2 yrs ago, I got those 15 lbs off -- just to do the exact same thing again and gained the wt back. (Boy, some people just don't learn, do they? )

So here I am, one BLOODY LAST time to get this wt off FOR GOOD. You are down to your last twenty. I don't know how long it took you to get to your current wt or how long you've been there, but why not take a wt loss break and just practice maintaining for awhile -- maybe a few months or so? I know you want to just get to your goal wt and be done w/it -- good Lord, don't we all? -- but the last lbs are usually pretty tough to get rid of -- or so I've heard . Maybe if you just mentally decided to maintain for awhile -- your body will adjust and you can knock those last lbs off w/ renewed determination a little bit down the road.

Don't know what exercise you've been doing, but maybe try something different? Do you do any strength training? I'm trying completely different things this time around. I had it in my head to do free wts only for my strength stuff. Know what? I don't like doing free wts only for my strenght stuff. But I do like body wt circuits, tubes, stability balls, I'm trying out yoga and pilates, and I do still use free wts -- just not exclusively. I've found that intervals on the TM for a shorter time - 30 mins max. - vs. steady state cardio for longer periods of time, has really helped me alleviate boredom, made me much more focused on my TM w/o and when I do the steady state stuff (sometimes I just like to run at a comfy pace) -- wow, this is much, much easier for me now.

Just some thoughts for ya. Congrats on how far you've come already.