I am having a motivation problem. I have all these thoughts and plans in my head for how I am going to do this...I have had success with plans that worked and I know they work...I have new ideas from reading posts from other successful people.....I just can't seem to get up and DO IT!
THE PLANS

LOW CARB - I stand in front of the fridge and turkey sounds good so I will do low carb

PORTION CONTROL - Last night the kids wanted breakfast food for supper so I thought watch your portions and have what you want

LOW CALORIE - I won't have the bacon, or the gravy, but eggs are ok and only on biscuit no butter sugar free jam

EXERCISE MORE - I'll have a little of everything and walk it off later (but I don't)

TOMORROW - Then there is always the just have what ever you want and start over tomorrow


It's nuts and I am on information overload!

I spent about 3 years endlessly daydreaming about how I would be thin and planning how I would lose weight. I came up with all sorts of elaborate plans, how I would eat only certain types of foods, how I would track what I ate, how I would get up early and exercise.

I didn't lose 1 lb until I actually started doing those things. Once I started, I couldn't believe how easy it was. The weight started dropping right away and continued until nearly my goal weight (with a few 1-2 week plateaus here and there). Doing it was EASY, it was the getting started part that took me 3 years.

What really worked for me was deciding to eat for long term health, not weight loss. All my decisions about what to eat were based around what was the best, nutritionally for me. I didn't really do low carb, portion control or calorie counting (although later I started counting calories to make sure I was eating enough to be healthy). I started eating foods that were good for me and started avoiding foods that were bad for me. Super easy plan. We all know what foods are bad for us (booze, sugary soda, packaged baked goods, fast food, fried foods, packaged foods, empty "white" carbs) and we all know what foods are good for us (lean protein, fruit, vegetable, whole grains, healthy fat, low fat dairy).

Good luck.

I have to laugh because you sound like me. I haven't found the magical combination of diet plan yet. SO this is what i have done. I found a buddy through this site. We write to each other what we eat and how much or how little we have excersiced. If we fall off the wagon we write to each other and know that the next meal is another opportunity to do better. My thing is CHOCOLATE!!!! I need chocolate. So I try real hard to eat portion controlled and healthy. Then for my snacks I try to include chocolate. Say a chocolate protein shake or bar. A glass of skim milk with 100calorie thin crisp by Nabisco. I think it is a slow process to get into the mode of dieting. Grocery shopping and eliminating junk from the house is a start..and it is hard to do. Today for dinner I am making pork chops. I know I should just have a salad with it. But my household members LOVE rice, white rice. I knwo if I make it I will have some. If I do I will just have a small portion of the rice. Even if it is bigger than I should but smaller than I would normally. I know this sounds like a lot of cheating but for me it is hard and a slow process. If I don't lket myslef have that bit i might just go back after dinner or while cleaning and having myself more than I should. I'm soryy I have no answers but I just wanted to let you know that it is hard for everyone. I really want to try the Sonoma Diet once I am really in the groove of things.
Naomi

Why not make porkchops, rice AND a salad?

I don't know where you are located, but if you are near a Trader Joe's they sell pre-cooked brown rice in non-refrigerated servings. I would make white rice for the family (although, they should really switch to brown rice too) and just microwave a serving of the brown rice for me. I would divide my plate into 4 slots. 1 slot for protein (pork chop), 1 slot for carb (rice), and fill up the other 2 slots with vegetables (salad or something else). Healthy and everybody is happy.

Worst case scenario, you eat a serving of white rice. No big deal in the long term. I still eat white rice whenever I eat sushi and it didn't stop me from losing weight or from maintaining weight loss.

Definitely the first step is the hardest. But, on these boards you will find many inspirational people to help keep you on track. No one else can do it for you. It has to come from within. Good luck and wishing you the best.

If you're like me it's not just overload -- it's a subtle form of procrastination. I love the "preparation" to change my eating habits. I set up speadsheets, blogs, do research, take pictures, make plans, print calendars, set goals, talk about it, talk about it some more... and on and on...

But then Day One comes and oh, me, oh my -- the hard part. DOING IT. STICKING TO IT. And the dreaded WAITING for the results.

It's hard. I empathize with you.

sounds like inertia, I've experienced that. You're in a comfortable groove and it's tough moving out of it.

I never have been a big believer in motivation (I've posted that here before too). For me, I've concentrated on moving myself into different habit patterns.

You can always start with a simple program and modify over time: eat more veggies, watch the fat and sweets. Plan some sort of physical activity that you like and can maintain over time.

I've been on WW and JC, so I started out in this last effort with a good idea of what and how much to eat. Does that mean I'm perfect all the time? nope.

For me the real key this time around has been the revelations (that I said I had before, but never did) that it has to be a lifestyle change and that I needed to keep at it no matter how many times I slipped or had problems. Just get up the next day and keep at it.

The truth is, probably few people have one program that they stick to throughout, you change and learn and are more capable/able to do different things as you go along.

Hang in there.

I am by no means an expert on this stuff. But here is what the program I am on has taught me. Each meal needs to have a protein, a carb, and a fat, and veggies at one meal. I don't know how you would go about doing this part, but you have to be able to figure where you need to be in calories to put yourself in calorie deficit. I know deficit sounds horrible, but it's really not. I will give you an example of what I eat on a daily basis. I am not hungry even only consuming a little over 1300 calories a day. This is also just an "induction" phase. After 12 weeks, of which I have 7 to go, I get a week off, then it's back to the calorie deficit. Quite frankly, though, I don't know if I will be able to go off of this diet after 12 weeks. Anyway, the bottom line is to stick to one thing and not switch around. I know what you mean about being on information overload, there is too much out there to confuse you. Your menu should consist of things you like to eat, and if it's fatty foods, you need to figure out how to modify the recipe to make it good for you. The other part is accepting the new way of life. I couldn't do that for a long time, and the program I'm on now has totally helped me see exactly what I need to do. BTW, it's a program that I am doing through the health club I go to, it's called Apex. There is a website, it's www.apexfitness.com. I don't know really how much info you can get from there or if it will tell you locations or not - sorry. But here is a typical day for me:

Breakfast: 1 cup cereal (I like Life), 1 egg, 1/2 cup orange juice, 1 cup 1% milk
Lunch: 2 oz. lean meat, 2 slices bread, lite mayo (I use a little, but I'm allowed 2 tsp.) with onion and lettuce, fruit (I eat grapes or a banana)
Mid-afternoon snack: 1 Clif nutrition bar, or 1 cup low-fat yogurt
Dinner: 1 1/2 oz. lean meat, 6 oz. baked potato, or 1 cup noodles, a large salad w/ fat free dressing, and usually 1 cup of broccoli or green beans, yellow wax beans, whatever I'm in the mood for

On my "high goal" days, I usually eat 1 cup of low-fat cottage cheese and some fruit at some point, usually as the mid-afternoon snack.

I hope this helps, I know I wrote a lot!!

For me, watching calories and eating small amounts at close intervals throughout the day works. It works for me because I want to eat all the time, so the less time between food the better.

I avoid deserts and fried foods... I am not one who can just have a taste - a taste leaves me with a craving. Maybe when Im small I can have little tastes here and there, but I dont want to try that now, dont want to jeopardize my efforts.

I try to get a lot of protein... on weekends I allow a higher calorie day because I feel like Im missing out on normal stuff if I dont...

Glory -- I love your solution to add a salad too! It sounds so simple once you say it, but it is a solution that could please everyone!

And the salad doesn't have to take long to make... keep it simple! And, if you're cutting up something for today, you can cut extra for tomorrow!

Procrastination, inertia, I agree that alex could be experiencing both of those. I know I did. Like Glory, though, now that I'm in the groove, it's actually not that difficult. Getting yourself to the place where you're committed to a new lifestyle does seem like the hard part...

I had the same problem you did at first and I absolutely agree with everyone else's advice here. One thing that finally worked for me was what Glory87 said, "eat for long term health". I had to start thinking healthy rather than think "diet".

I started by learning to cook a little healthier, less fats, healthier side dishes with the heartier foods, any little thing you can think of that you can learn to live with.

The next thing I did was to start exercising. The key for me was to keep both my food and exercise changes small small small! Big changes cause overload, and depriving yourself of your favorite foods completely will probably make you want to rebel at some point.

I literally started by walking 1 mile 2-3 times a week and worked up from there only when I was ready for the increase both physically and mentally. With the food, I started NOT by cutting anything out, but just by cutting back a little here a little there. All these changes soon added up to pounds lost and a much healthier me! The best part was that once I saw the scale moving in the right direction I was inspired to keep going and to even make more changes.

You may not believe me when I say that you can do this, but you really can. (I never believed it at one point either!) Just don't over-do anything. Just think 1 baby step at a time and don't push the timetable to lose!

Good luck!
Joyce

Joyce -- I'm glad you added all that info about how you got started -- I didn't have time earlier to talk about it, but I did the same thing! I started first by just watching portions and trying to "move more". I REALLY watched what I ate. After about a month I started calorie counting, then exercise. Not much at first -- a few times a week, maybe 15-20 minutes...

Now I'm on a full tilt, eating 1800-1900 calories a day, tracking all sorts of nutrients and exercising an average of 30 minutes a day! And honestly, it WORKS!!

You CAN do it! But not until you start!

info overload...whatever... I've decided "By the time I'm thin FAT will be in"
It is taken me that long to figure out the ww, jc, nc, lo carb, no carb, lo fat, no fat, south beach, atkins, zone something or other... It's enough to make a skinny person fat, and a fat person Crazy!!!

THANKS yall....this was very helpful and motivating!