I've been on weight watchers for about 3 weeks. I walk with my pup every morning and have been eating pretty healthy. I cut out eating gluten because of stomach problems so I've been trying to eat a lot of fruit in order to get down from 220 to around 145 ish. It's only been 3 weeks and I find myself losing motivation quickly. I want this so badly but i'm nervous i'm going to burn out and give up again. How do you guys stay motivated?
I feel a lot happier and energized with I eat well and exercise, so that keeps me going. I also found an activity that I love (running), so I don't try to get out of it. haha. To ensure that I would stick with it I also signed up for a race in October.
Think about why you want to get healthy. That should be your motivation.
For me it's all about commitment. I have bad days where I have absolutely no motivation at all and I may eat way over my calories but the important thing is I'm back at it and trying to do better the next day. I just take each day as it comes. I'm bound to make mistakes and mess up every now and then, but I always come back to my senses. It's really tough, I'm still working on it.. sometimes I'll go off plan for weeks, but as long as I see my mistakes and learn from them, it's all progress. Also I find picturing myself at goal and how much better I'll feel really spurs me on
I hope this made sense..
For me it's all about commitment. I have bad days where I have absolutely no motivation at all..
Yep. I am the queen of excuses, so far today it has been "The livingroom carpet smells like death, so, I guess I don't need to work out" :P I don't get motivated. Ever. I rarely have that firework-y feeling of "YES! Let's go run everywhere!" ._. So. I just force myself to do it. It doesn't need to be fun, I don't need to be excited about it, I see it as a job. If I want a paycheck (or a gorgeous body and great health) I need to show up, I need to get stuff done, and then I clock out.
That was more about working out, though.
When it comes to eating, I personally think that if you don't find foods you absolutely love..this is going to be tough. Because I don't think most of us are 'going on a diet' I think we're changing our relationships with food (not trying to make a blanket statement btw so if I offended anyone I'm sorry :c) So spend some time googling around for delicious meals that fit your plan. :3 Because everyone loves yummy things! I do, at least, or else I wouldn't be on this forum right now lol
ALSO.
You will do this <3
You will not burn out <3
You are fantastic and strong and dedicated, and everyone has rough days or weeks or months or years but if you show up and you power through it you WILL get to where you want to be.
I had this really big "AHA" moment and decided that I no longer wanted to treat my body like a garbage can. I stopped viewing healthy living as 'deprivation' and started seeing it as actually, fully, totally, 100% LIVING. I don't need to eat trash and feel like trash to do that .
I have no desire to feel like I used to feel. NONE. I want to be healthy and happy and have energy. A slice of cake will not get me to my goals.
I'm very easily distracted. I have the attention span of a five year old, so I have to make the process interesting and fun, or I get bored, which often leads to some poor choices, then feeling I've "blown it" and then deciding to "start fresh" soon, but not immediately (giving myself time and permission to keep bingeing.
I remind myself that there is no starting over, just moving on - and I can choose to move on, or I can choose to wallow. I don't give myself permission to wallow anymore. If I eat off-plan rather than thinking "I've blown it," I get on the scale and say to myself, "See you didn't gain 5 lbs from that bite of ______, and the only way to turn that bite into a gain, is to keep making more and more bites (and if I do make another unplanned choice - I get back on the scale AGAIN, and tell myself the same).
The scale helps me move on, because when I didn't use it that way, I couldn't move on until the next "starting over point." I didn't realize that I had internalized the "dieting rules" that tomorrow is the starting over point and I can binge until then (unless it's past Wednesday, then the starting over point is Monday, unless it's mid-October and then the starting over point is New Years.....)
I also didn't realized that I when I decided to quit one plan, and start another, I had a ritual of bingeing between. Now I realize I can change my plan anytime I want, but I have to make the transition without the inter-plan binge. Just another dieting "ritual" I had to give up.
It also helps me stay motivated when I look at making healthy food choices, and finding fun ways to exercise as ways to pamper myself rather than ways to endure suffering until I suffer myself thinner.
I make it a food-adventure to try new fruits and vegetables (and even if I HATE the new food, I choose to see it as a having a food adventure, not as a failed experiment).
I use sticker charts and other visual aids to help me SEE my weight loss. I have two bead/charm bracelets (a cheapy version of Pandora and similar donut bead jewelry) and add a bead for every 5 lbs. Right now I have 20 beads filling one bracelet (and representing 100 lbs) and I just started a second bracelet with one bead.
I have already selected by next bead, and I wear it on a bead holding ring, and I wear that every day (the bracelets are pretty heavy, so I usually wear those only out to eat - the weight of the bracelet helps remind me to make good choices). But the ring I'm going to earn, is always on my finger, to remind me that I want to earn this bead. When I get to 184, I'll transfer that bead to my bracelet, and will put a new bead in the ring to earn that one.
It may seem silly, but for me that's half of the fun. Making weight loss fun, rather than a grave responsibility, has helped me stay focused and motivated.
For me, I've not had much difficulty with motivation, because the only option I don't give myself is throwing caution to the wind and giving up entirely. I can decide to slack off, but I can't decide to quit. That's where the daily weighing has helped me.
I also focus on "not gaining" so that I don't feel like I'm failing if I get on the scale and don't see a loss. It means I get to celebrate most weigh-ins, so that even my very slow weight loss still feels like much more of a success than all my previous weight loss attempts where I always expected to see a loss and then would be dishearteningly disappointed when I didn't.
I've been kind of thinking about it along the same lines as Dandelion. It's not about motivation, it's about commitment. It's like a job. It's like all of the other obligations in life that we do because we have to, not because we want to. Like paying the utilities, cleaning the house, or getting up early to go to work. We are rewarded with electricity and water, a clean house, and money. With weight loss, we track our points and activities because we have to, but we'll be rewarded with weight loss and health.
I'm 3 weeks in to WW too. I'm also kinda' blah. I've been counting calories for a year. I've been dieting for 2 years. I'm tired of it. I'm bored with it. I want to move on already.
But the reality is, since I'm never going to get fat again, I know there's no moving on. I will, forever, be counting calories, looking at what I eat, and tracking my exercise. I've gone fat to thin to fat again, and each time it's because I think I can eat whatever I want, and I do. That's not the case for me. This is a life long commitment. I know I'll be able to relax a little. I won't have to keep this up at the same level as I do now, but I will never "move on".
So anyways, I'm kinda' blah about it, but that doesn't mean I have stopped following the plan. I haven't been careful about my calories for the past 4 days, but I've continued to record what I've eaten. If nothing else, there's that. Today I'm on plan.
I love excerisizing. It helps with my depression and I feel really down if I for some reason I can't work out. And if I mess up a day, a workout helps me "restart" and helps me feel like I am in control again. Once you start really working out and get some of those endorphins going, its easy to get hooked on that feeling and need it everyday. As far as food goes, that's a little harder for me, as I love to eat, but I always remind myself of how sad I was all the time. I hated shopping etc. I never wanted to go anywhere...I am much more social now. Someone has a tag line here that basically says that its hard to be fat and its hard to stay in shape...pick one. I know that isn't the exact words, but its so true. Its hard to feel bad about yourself, but sometimes its hard to get started and just do it. I have days when I don't feel like sticking to it, but then I tell myself that I refuse to abuse myself or punish myself anymore. I am going to love myself and my body even when I don't want to. I have to almost look outside of myself and remind myself to care for myself. If I actually even think about not working out I say to myself out loud..."You will not do that to yourself!" Be good to yourself...forgive yourself and others and JUST DO IT. Don't think about it too much.
I'll second the "commitment" part. I like to see it in terms of "you've gotta do what you've gotta do". I don't expect "motivation" to kick in when I must go to work day after day, and if I had to count on that, uh, I'd have been fired a long, long time ago. ^_^; So it makes sense to me that as far as weight, food and exercise are concerned, it goes the same way.
Maybe it'll help if you think about it in terms of benefits ? E.g. the job:
--> Why do I go to work every morning? To earn money. If I don't go, I don't earn money. If I don't earn money, I can't buy books, clothes, I can't pay my bills, can't pay my rent, and will end up on the street. =/= If I earn money, I don't have to worry about being out of a house, I can buy things I like...
--> Why eat in a healthy way? To be healthy (duh). If I'm not healthy, I'll end up sick / won't be able to do enjoyable things / may die before my time and won't enjoy the presence of my family / etc. =/= If I'm healthy, I can do plenty of activities, I can move my body freely, etc.
(I use 'healthy' and not 'thin' because being thin isn't everything. One can be thin yet horribly disordered eating-wise, thinking about food and indulging in behaviours all day long... and that's just destructive.)
There are 2 things that keep me motivated:
1. My daughter. I desperately want to be a good role model for her, and the last thing in the world I want is for her to end up like me (when it comes to weight and food).
2. This indescribable fear of gaining the weight back and erasing all the hard work I've put in and returning to that girl who HATED the way she looked and lived in fear of running into people who hadn't seen her since she gained all the weight.
I agree with the commitment thing. The only thing I would add is that, like with any other commitments, you have to find a plan that will work for you. Do you have two hours a day to commit to exercise? If so, and you like it, do it. If not, plan something that works for your schedule. Also, plan for contingencies. On Friday, my new boss is making me lunch for my first day. I will be eating that lunch, even If it's 5000 calories of nastiness. I will try to adjust meals around it, and may have to settle for a slow or no loss week. Occasionally going off plan will not destroy my commitment.
How do you stay motivated?
I am the queen of excuses, so far today it has been "The livingroom carpet smells like death, so, I guess I don't need to work out" :P I don't get motivated. Ever. I rarely have that firework-y feeling of "YES! Let's go run everywhere!" ._. So. I just force myself to do it. It doesn't need to be fun, I don't need to be excited about it, I see it as a job. If I want a paycheck (or a gorgeous body and great health) I need to show up, I need to get stuff done, and then I clock out. 
