As someone who has good intentions to stick to a plan,but not having much success. I was wondering if someone who has been sucessful can tell me what 1 thing ,or more than 1 thing is making you stick to your plan.
Thank You
Tracy

im still going myself, but results, make me stick to my plan.

(i eat small amounts of what id crave occasionally, ie, i ate ice cream the other night (only a few scoops), but maybe if you get a little of what you want, you wont binge later on it)

I still have problems sticking to my plan, but in the past attempts, I saw that as a sign of failure, weakness, and lack of committment, and an omen that I wasn't "able" to succeed.

This time, I decided that I didn't have to be perfect, I just had to be better. Some of my initial changes weren't enough to result in much weight loss, or I'd stall frequently, but instead of getting mad at myself, I just looked at what I was willing to put a little more effort into. For me, sticker charts and little contests with myself, really helped alot. I decided, for example that for ever 5 stickers (each sticker being a pound lost), I would give myself a little cheap (or free) reward, that I had written down. I didn't have to never buy myself a treat, unless I lost 5 lbs, but I couldn't buy the treat that I had written down (for example, I might write down a paperback book title, I could buy other books, but I couldn't buy THAT one, until I lost 5 lbs).

When I got under 350, I had a bigger reward in mind, that coincided with my birthday, and I had chosen an MP3 Player. I filled it with songs that with a fast beat for walking (mostly irish drinking and rebel marching songs and irish rock - I'm a sucker for celtic music).

Making the process as fun as I could, I think made a lot of the difference. I don't see dieting as "medicinal" like I used to. Before, diet and exercise weres something horrible I had to endure to get what I wanted, and sometimes I made it so horrible, that it made it hard to want to reach goal more than I wanted to end the awefulness.

well, many things make me keep on track. But there is one in particularly that just got to me this past weekend and that is really working...
I was at a friends house and she has a roommate who is just like me (food addicted) and she just didn’t stop eating during the whole time I was there. Seeing that made me realize how I am. I looked and said: That is me! I just have no control! I love food more than myself.
From that moment on I said to myself: I am not going to be like that anymore. I need to love myself more than food.
We just love food so much that we forget about ourselves and give up to temptations....
So every time I see some food I couldn’t resist before I tell myself: I wont eat it because I love myself more than this food. And that has helped me a lot... I know it just happened but I can feel it will follow me for the rest of my life...
Hope I helped you...
good luck
Bele

I know this is probably a bad way to think about things, but it is one of my biggest motivators. Every time I see someone else eating something totally nonnutritious - fast food, soda, doughnuts, cake, whatever it may be - I look at them and say, do I want to look like that? And more often than not, that's motivation enough to not eat it. Sure, sometimes I see skinny, attractive people eating poorly, but then my mind usually shifts to thinking "they're probably not as healthy as they look" and that is good motivation, too.

The one thing that's made me stick to my plan for almost three years now? It's very hard to pinpoint one thing. Hmmmm.

#1 - Fear. I was afraid I wouldn't live much longer and there would be no one to look after my daughters. I was certain that it was only a matter of when, not if, I was going to either drop dead from a heart attack or develop some deadly totally avoidable disease.


#2 - Quality of life. I was miserable. Just miserable. I was barely living, so in actuality I was dying. Every day was torturous for me. I was terribly, terribly unhappy and it was all directly related to my being morbidly obese. I was missing out on so much. Every day was - hard. Really, really hard. I simply could not take going on like that any more.

So, I made the decision to change it, since it was something that I had the power to change. I *finally* realized that I didn't have to be fat if I didn't want to be. So, I made the commitment to do what is necessary to lose the weight - and keep it off. I made a plan, made it work for me - and stuck to it.

Losing weight really and truly is a doable thing. You just need to want to do it very, very badly. The desire to be thin must outweigh the desire for the food. And when that happens, sticking with a plan - is a whole lot easier.

I'm finally done with being fat. Being fat is a choice. One chooses to overeat/not be active rather than eating on plan (whichever plan works) and being active. I used to overeat and never lifted a finger to exercise, then I moaned about how unfair it was I was so fat. Well, I finally figured it out. My bad choices = being fat. Now I'm making good choices, and eventually I will no longer be morbidly obese, obese or even overweight. I'll be a normal, healthy weight. Yay!

So, choosing not to be fat anymore (and wanting to get there as quickly as possible) keeps me 100% on plan.

Constantly revising my recipes and menus to make sure I love them. It really helps when your only thought about what you're going to have is, "Yum!" The funny thing is how much more I love food than before, and before I thought I was loving my food!

I made a plan I could stick to and wasn't afraid to tweak/make changes as I went. My plan is so easy for me - there isn't anything to want to stop/change, this is just my life now!