Trying to stay motivated

I want to lose weight. I really need to lose weight. I've been overweight for as long as I can remember, and it only has gotten worse since my arthritis started. At least before then I could work out and try, but once the pain started I could barely move. Finally, 10 years later and I have a diagnosis, medication, and most of my range of motion.

I look at pictures to motivate me, of women with the body that I want to have. These days it makes me want to cry, not try harder. I can persist for a few days, sometimes a week or longer. But eventually I get depressed again, and the motivation fades. I've been feeling badly lately, and I just can't get motivated to move. I've been eating poorly and I know I've gained weight. I want to get back into my workout routine, but I don't want to do anything. I try to look at pictures to motivate me, but they just make me sad. I don't know how to push myself to keep going.

Hi PN, I heard some expert on TV say that the key is to find an activity you actually enjoy for exercise. It's true for me. At first I started swimming, and then after a.break with that while I had eye surgery, I started just walking. And I never quite went back to swimming, I don't remember why. But I think it's pretty solid advice.

I've heard that advice a lot too. I try. I love biking, but my strength isn't back to normal enough to go outside and bike, so I have a stationary bike. It helps that I can read or watch TV to get a little distracted while I exercise. I wish I could afford a gym membership again. I used to love swimming and using the elliptical and treadmill.

I agree, it does help to have distractions while you do a workout on a machine. If I can let my mind wander it goes faster.

I have the same problem. I know what I NEED to do, but either can't make myself start or can't stick with it more than a week or so. I used to be better at it. However, I am trying to use social media and online support groups more to be motivated.
Also, instead of looking at women you wish you look at, maybe only find women's photos where they have posted their real before and after photos - that might be more motivating - where you can see what they were like before they reached that ideal weight or shape.
I've also heard the advice to find an activity you like. Unfortunately, my favorite "activities" are not very ACTIVE LOL. But, I do enjoy walking and playing with my dogs. So one thing I am going to do is be more active with my dogs. Especially one of them. She is high energy and needs the activity as much as I do. She loves to play chase with me and I need to NOT think about how I look running around, and just do it! Good luck!

I do see quite a few before and after pictures. They seem to have the same effect on me, in terms of wishing I could do that too.

Take advantage of the time you have to be active like that with your dogs, you're lucky to have it. I wish I could run around with my boyfriend's dog. She would love the attention, and I'd have a good challenge to keep up with!

I'm not sure this is so much about motivation. I feel like giving up on trying to lose weight right now. I use the site My Fitness Pal to track my calories and exercise, and at the end of every day it tells you what you'll likely weigh in 5 weeks if every day were like that day. My days don't vary much, and it always says I should be down about 20 lbs in 5 weeks. Well, it's been several months and I'm not anywhere near that weight. I can't see an answer to this anymore.

I know weight loss is the main goal of yours, but why not change that? What if your main goals were to eat healthy and exercise because it helps with your mood? Focusing too much on the numbers takes away from the good choices you're making for your body by eating healthily and moving regularly.

How often do you weigh yourself? Weight can fluctuate naturally for many reasons so doing so every single day is unnecessary, once a week is just fine. (In the morning preferably, when you are at your lightest).

I am guilty of weighing myself daily. I started with the excuse that I was trying to track some sort of pattern, but now it's just a habit. I'm not sure if it's really a bad one, I'm not so good at remembering weekly tasks sometimes.

I'm not sure that I really know how to eat healthy, without it costing too much anyway. I've always been so much more focused on how many calories I'm eating, and maybe that's becoming a problem. Even if I'm under my goals, eating unhealthy food is worse than eating something that's good for me. I think I get stuck in ruts with exercise too. There's only so much I can do, because of physical problems, and eventually I either get bored or my body gets used to what I'm doing.

I just put up a ted-talk video that really helped me. repeat it once a day for a week and it becomes part of your way of thinking. hope you find it helpful

I'm not sure this is useful to anyone, but I've been using a website called Eat This Much. It's pretty much the only thing that's worked for me. At the same time, it's basically taken me several years to learn to use it effectively, and that's with a paid subscription. Soo... All there is to add is that I'm available to explain how I managed to make it work for me, at least so far (it's been a real uphill battle though).

thanks for sharing this website, Arche

Feel free to ask for help, though. I'm kind of in a love-hate relationship with it (if that even makes sense), and I really want to spare others the pain. At the start it can generate some really terrible menus, before you tweak the settings, especially if you're not located in the US.