Question:
what kind of things did people do to get motivated to lose weight im having a hard time?
arrenaud81
2005-12-28 12:39:47 UTC
what kind of things did people do to get motivated to lose weight im having a hard time?
Five answers:
YouKnowIt
2005-12-28 13:05:03 UTC
Motivation is a hard thing. I've lost right at 150 lbs. & I'll try to explain the thought processes that led up to the weight loss, hoping to help you in the process :)



For me, part of it was a result of marrying my husband. He could care what I looked like but for some silly reason, I suddenly developed a sense of vanity...don't know why. Maybe because I am older than him, I don't know. Anyway, here's the real meat of it.



To tell the complete & honest truth, I was getting dressed one day & having one of those days where you don't feel comfortable in your own skin; nothing wanted to sit correctly on my body, I was in a bad mood to begin with &, well, I was just having a case of "bad nasties". I went through the entire day in this state & ended up walking by a store...Victoria's Secret, to be exact. My husband, the saint who managed to put up with me that day, commented on something in the window. He mentioned that he liked the item & wondered if he might find a place on the internet that made it in my size. It didn't make me feel bad, per se, because he accepts my size as a fact of life & has never been mean about it. But it just hit me oddly. I looked at the outfit &, though I knew that we could probably find it online somewhere, the idea of how I might look in it really bothered me.



That's what did it...that's what started the whole process. By the time we got home that night, my thoughts had worked around to the fact that I was tired of always being tired, tired of always feeling bad, tired of always not fitting into the clothes that I'd like to wear. I was tired of being fat, plain & simple. Even so, there was no easy way to take care of it &, having been overweight all my life, I knew that a simple diet wasn't going to cut it for me. So, here's how I handled it...



When I eat, I eat ANYTHING I want...I'm not kidding. True, I try to keep mindful of what I'm eating but I also don't beat myself up about it. If I want a banana split, I darned well have a banana split. When I looked at what I ate, when & how I ate it, I realized that I ate in cycles during the month &, though I love sweets, my natural inclination was not to have them very often. The big problem for me was breads.



Anyway, I just kept mindful of HOW MUCH I ate, not so much what I ate. I trained myself to realize when I was full & to make myself stop eating. As for this trick, you must always remember that it takes about twenty minutes for your stomach to signal your brain that it is full. So, I'd eat slowly, chew my food twice as long as I used to &, sure enough, I felt full rather quickly. Once I had that under control & truly listened to my body, I was constantly giving away nearly half of my food every meal.



It has taken me a number of years to lose the weight & the last 50 pounds has brought along a new re-evaluation of how small my stomach has gotten - we've wasted quite a bit of food over the past few months in that little quest - but I've gotten to the point now that I can go to Victoria's Secret & at least try on a few things :) I'm not into what I really want to wear but, hey, you take the successes where you can.



As I started to lose weight, the main thing that kept me going was how well I felt as well as clothes. I realized that, while I am not your regular clothes horse, I like the little game of moving from one size to another. I was in tears the first day & was able to purchase clothes off of the rack &, recently, when I was able to buy panties off of the racks instead of in the packages...OMG, I thought my husband was going to go insane. It took me over four hours to try on undergarments until I was satisfied with the look & fit! But you know what? I feel better about my body than I ever have & I thoroughly enjoy the look my husband gets on his face when he sees me! That's motivation, I can promise you...



My suggestion after all of this is to make changes to the way you eat as part of a life plan, not a diet. You will stick to it if you change the way you eat as opposed to eating what someone tells you is right. Take the junk food out of the house & only buy one serving when you have a craving for something special. Make yourself cook your food rather than eat out as it gives you more time to consider what you are eating. Most of all, GOOD LUCK!
Bianca
2005-12-28 20:45:45 UTC
There are many motivating factors but for each person it seems a different thing gets them started. One person I know had a lot of different sizes of clothes (skinny clothes and fat clothes, etc) and wanted to fit into the smaller sizes. That was her motivation. Another friend was getting married and she was motivated by wanting to look good on that day. You will have to find what motivates you. Either find some event or some reason to lose weight that will work for you, or maybe promise yourself a treat if you lose a certain number of pounds - like a new pair of shoes or a new clothing item or something. NOT food! ;-) Good luck! :)
jelly
2005-12-28 20:45:39 UTC
I go to the store and buy clothes one size smaller so I know I have to lose weight. I go tanning and do my nails and then realize the rest of me needs to go with these actions I took to get a better look. If you can give up pop and juice-- you can lose at least 10 lbs in a month and drop a size.
gsschulte
2005-12-28 20:44:39 UTC
i put pictures of thing i want to do around the house. i want to scuba dive but would rather not cram the gut into a dive suit. and then i have a couple mountains up would like to climb but dragging extra weight up will not work. it has helped down 35 in 6 months not to bad could be a lot better.
NONAME
2005-12-28 21:36:36 UTC
WOW! youknowit, that was a great story. very motivational. watever i have to say will not surpass wat she just said.

it was a long anecdote, but very worth the read!


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