Evening all. Yesterday I looked at the psychology of why we can't sometimes maintain a healthy lifestyle and some tips to help. Today I decided to look at motivation: what it is and how we can keep motivation as high as we can. A lot of the stuff I have found was common sense but there were some things that were really interesting. However, I did enjoy reading all the articles, none of them bored me. I hope they can help some of you also.
Motivation for me has been all about changing my thinking around weightloss.
Here is what I have written on the subject:
Believing that you are going to achieve this instead of (sort of...) telling yourself that you will fail because that's what's happened before.
Be well prepared for your journey. Sort through your cupboards and get rid of anything that might de-rail your effort. Don't think of it as wasting, but think of it as helping you to refrain from being tempted by food that will hinder your weight loss.
Make a shopping list of healthy foods. Look up some healthy recipes - things you might not usually eat. Include lots of vegetables, tines of beans, sachets of pulses (lentils). Some fruit, but try to stick to the less exotic (lower in sugar) fruit.
Make a list of all the reasons why you want to lose weight. Find a picture of yourself that you don't like because you think it makes you look big. Stick the picture and the list somewhere where you'll see it often (in the kitchen - you can remove it if anyone visits!)
You haven't mentioned that you have any long term health issues or disabilities that might make your weight loss more of a challenge. What's more, by losing weight, you will be avoiding the chances of developing a long term illness or weight related illness (high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease).
The hardest part is taking the first step, and you've done that by joining some sort of support group (Weight Loss NHS!).
Sometimes….. our biggest barriers to doing something we really need to do (but perhaps aren’t keen to do) are the excuses we find as to why we can’t do them, rather than finding the solutions to overcoming those barriers so that we can succeed.
Because of my disability, this is something I’ve had to do all my life – attending mainstream school, training as a secretary, working, getting married, living on my own, having a baby, etc, etc. So you would have thought that I would have this skill mastered by now!!
But on this particular issue (reducing the amount I ate and increasing my exercise) the barrier was somehow bigger than anything else I had had to deal with before. It had developed over many, many years to become the size of a small skyscraper.
As determined as I am to achieve things in life, I can also be as determined to IGNORE things that I don’t want to do or tackle…. or face. Fear of the unknown perhaps, and a real belief that I might fail.
You have to know from those of us who have lost weight successfully that it works. It really does. But you have to want it to work and you have to make it work. For this journey to succeed, you have to give it your all. Give it your all and you will be rewarded.
My weight loss journey has so far lasted six and a half years (started on 24th February 2012). I started by logging and weighing food religiously. Just as the site prescribes. Slowly and surely I realised that I had been eating way too many calories and that my portion sizes were far too large for a small person of 4ft 8 inches who doesn’t move much at all.
Once this realisation had dawned on me and the weight started to drop, I was determined to complete this journey.
I lost 2 stone in a year. I then started (slowly and begrudgingly) to exercise. First swimming for an hour a week, and then kitting out my garage with some cheap bits of equipment and using them.
When I was interviewed for a Podcast on weight loss / exercise and disability I was describing my journey and the various tools I have used to make it a successful journey (logging food, portion control, calorie counting, 5:2 fasting, exercising, support from other people, recipe database, forum). These tools combine to help me along the way. But it is only myself who can make them work for me and there is a little more to add into the mix.
But I realised that my best tool by far has been commitment and modifying how I behave around food. I stopped finding excuses as to why I was overweight and why I couldn’t lose weight. I’m disabled aren’t I? I can’t exercise can I? I’m in too much pain, I haven’t the time, getting washed and dressed is exhausting enough (etc!)
ENOUGH!!! Enough of those excuses, enough of the pain. I have broken through the barrier of allowing these excuses from stopping me. Because they were just that. They were excuses.
It is harder for some of us for whatever reason. We’re busy, old, in pain, unable to exercise, have children, too short, have an illness, work too many hours……. BUT in fact if we have additional barriers, we just have to work at it harder than most.
It’s not impossible. I have proved that to myself. People who have known me for years have no choice but to believe it too. They’ve seen me go from 14 stone to under 10 stone. Reduce from a size 24 to a size 16.
It works.
BUT you have to work too, and that's the most important thing to realise. You will get from this what you put in. You just have to keep on working, keep on plodding along, not let one bad day, one calorific meal - one piece of crackling, one chocolate, one bag of crisps..... stop you in your tracks. Pick yourself up and just keep on plodding along.
You will get there. It will take months, it may take years. You may fall off the wagon completely for a time. And you will realise one day that this is a never ending journey. You will need to do what you learn to do on here FOREVER.
It will get easier. You will experience changes in the way you think about food, the way you deal with food. Food is a temptation and it will always be EVERYWHERE. You will need to learn a different way to act around food and a different way to think about the food you eat. You will learn to respect the food and make better and healthier choices. You need to learn about mindful eating and modify how you behave around food.
You can do it if you really want to. But you need to overcome those barriers that are inside your head.
Hi Pineapple27, that's a great read with some really useful tip, and also very personal in places so you thought about it a lot. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Pineapple27 - very interesting read and very true - our biggest barrier is our mind and our greatest weapon is our mind - across all aspects of our life. I say this as I'm lying in bed this morning reading with the sun streaming in - wonderful! I'm thinking do I want to get up and do my Joe W workout or do I just wanna lay here and doze? Yet I know for certain that if I do get up and do my JW workout I will feel SO much better and will feel set up for the day. What and where is my motivation. In these difficult times staying motivated is a struggle yet we know if we do certain things we will certainly feel better.
I have been keeping to a routine during lockdown. Up and out of bed and into the shower by 7.45 latest. An hour and a half of exercise (to be completed by 10.15am). Lunch at 12 - 12.30pm. That regimented start to the day really sets me up.
I just had an hour long Zoom call with friends (disabled) talking about how we are coping with lockdown and our various aches, pains and suitable exercise. All the time we spoke, I bounced on my gym ball. Earned over 400 calories and bounced over 4,000 steps!
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