i want it and i want it now
 

I know weight loss is a long journey, not an overnight thing, but I'm such a sucker for instant gratification. I'm working hard on staying focused and take this one day at a time, even when I'm not seeing results. I'm telling myself the same things in weight loss that I'm trying to tell myself with getting debt paid off. It's all about one baby step at a time, and I know that, but it's hard to stay focused on it like that. So what do you guys tell yourselves to keep going?

The first thing I had to tell myself is it's going to take time. :)

Thinking it will happen overnight only sets us up for disappointment. All I could do was take it one day at a time. Reviewing my exercise accomplishments and perfect-on-plan food log at the end of the day started to be a snowball effect, with me wanting to see how long I could eat properly and get my exercise in. Here is 10 months and counting, I have met 99% of my food and exercise plan and the only reason I missed any was due to medical procedures that stopped me from exercising. I was addicted to my success and it became my motivation!

If you told me 10 months ago I'd be here right now, I never would have believed you. But I'm telling you, you can do it and we will be here every step of the way to cheer you on and celebrate with you!!!

I share your penchant for instant gratification. One saying that sometimes helps me is: "Discipline is substituting what you want the most urgently with what you want the most."

F.

I'm just like you! One thing I like to do is take measurements, because most of the time if I'm not losing on the scale, I'm losing in inches! and i like to wear my older (tighter) clothes, they make me feel like I'm getting somewhere lol.

The easiest way for me to keep motivated is to set mini-goals. I never saw the importance in this until about a month in when I hit the discouraged point. If you set a mini goal of losing 5 pounds, then losing another, and another. Eventually you'll have lost a lot of weight. It's much easier to lose 5 pounds, 4 times; versus losing 20 lbs. It's such an easier and more attainable goal to reach, in a short about of time.

You can use that for fitness too. "By July 1st, I want to be able to walk/jog a mile in under 15 minutes" (don't know how long it's supposed to take, I'm in km over here lol) Or, I want to do 20 squats tomorrow, and then 30 the next day; by next month I want to do 100 in a row.

little goals can help to keep you on track and feel accomplished and proud of yourself sooner. Also, taking measurements is such a more accurate way of seeing results, then the scale. I step on the scale every day, twice a day. But I only 'officially' weigh in once a week, and take measurements once a week.

For me, it's really been about wanting this for myself and my health. I want it more than I want that cookie or Big Mac. I want it more than my favorite pants right now.

I've posted it plenty of times on here, but it will always ring true:
In 6 months from now, you're going to wish you started today. That has been a huge motivational quote for me, as I've gone through fad diets, crash diets and "plans" only to let them fall from beneath me out of laziness. If I would have started getting my health on track back in HIGH SCHOOL, I'd have achieved this goal so long ago. Instead I waited, and am now juggling working out with work, social life (darn alcohol!), tutoring, going back to school and just.. life.

You can do this. Find a plan that works for YOU and can work for the rest of your life. Good luck!

My toddlers also demand instant gratification. The difference between me and them is that I have the impulse and exercise wisdom and circumspection regarding my response, whereas they feel that urge and only react in an instant, binary way.

Don't be a toddler. Don't be a petulant teenager, either, feeling self pity when you see the potential consequences of your choices and want to brood over your sorry state instead of confidently and logically move forward with what is best.

Be an adult, and recognize the truth of what you said - that weight loss takes time. Be cogent, too, of the fact that it isn't some long-out destination but a daily adherence to more health promoting choices that brings you along your course. The end date is death, and if you're looking at your diet as a phase or inconvenience it is going to make the lifelong conglomeration of choices an awfully bitter pill to swallow. So keep the correct perspective - it isn't the future, weight loss is now. This choice now is the one that matters. Not those you've already made, not those you'll make tomorrow. The one you have right in front of you to control and conquer in a most satisfactory, healthy way.

My toddler sees cauliflower and want the chocolate instead. A teen sees the cauliflower and hates that he both knows it is best and still doesn't want it. An adult sees the cauliflower and realizes that between that and a bread roll, one is going to advance their goals and one will advance another path. Don't react, don't brood, but use that life-earned wisdom and knowledge to make yourself stronger and healthier instead. Because what the elderly adult (hopefully) knows that the mid-life adult may not, is that at the end of this life we aren't usually grateful for our moments of instant gratification or phases of internal conflict or conciliatory indecision - it is when we pursue a course, even when it is hard and long and doesn't always feel good - that the accumulation is the sweetest reward of all.



I hope this wasn't horribly confusing

wow, you guys are awesome :high: I know I can do this with your help

I never thought about it until I read Remington's post.

That's what my flowers in my signature do for me. They are my mini-minigoals. When I lose 2lb I instantly think, only 3 more pounds and I get another flower, and the day I add another flower you would think I'd just won a raffle.

There are times I look at my bigger minigoals (also in my signature) and think "It's going to take forever to get there!" but I still have my flowers.

I have the MyFitnessPal app on my phone. At the end of the day when I'm done eating and logging food the app tells me:

"If everyday was like this (meaning if I ate like this every day) you will weigh XXXX in 5 weeks!"

Sometimes XXXX is a number I want to hear, other times it's not. It kind of keeps me oriented on what will happen in the future if I keep eating like that. Anyway, it helps me.

I also like to hang a cute piece of clothing that I long to fit into in my closet so that I see it every time I go in there.

While I agree that motivation is helpful, I wouldn't say it is necessary. As we often say on 3FC, motivation comes and goes, but commitment is a constant. Once you've made the commitment, you can plow through periods of low motivation. Probably half the time I exercise I'm not motivated to do it. It's the commitment that keeps me going.

F.