Staying Motivated and Avoiding Danger Zones

Stay Motivated
Nobody ever said that losing weight would be easy. Staying motivated can be hard work, but it isn't impossible. Accept that you may hit a motivational plateau. At first, losing weight and exercising is exciting and fun. After time, many people lose their motivation. The key to motivation is figuring out how to keep going, even when you don't feel like doing so.


Don't rely on willpower -- it simply doesn't work. Willpower is driven by emotions, which can be fickle. Emotions landed you into a weight problem, but they won't get you out of it. Instead, program yourself for success and stick to the program.


Give yourself permission to say, "I don't have to want to do this all the time." By acknowledging that, you can respond to it accordingly. People who watch what they eat and exercise regularly don't necessarily want to, but they understand that their actions have consequences. They've programmed themselves for success.

Avoid Danger Zones
You can't be overweight unless you have a lifestyle to support it. Danger zones can be places, times or moments:


Places: Clean up your kitchen pantry. You can't eat unhealthy food if it's not there. Avoid fast-food restaurants and other places that don't go along with your goals.


Times: Change your routine. If you know you tend to eat junk food late in the evening when you decompress, come up with some alternative stress-reducing behaviors that don't involve food.


Moments: When you get an impulse to eat, and you're standing in front of food, fight it. Leave the room, go outside, do whatever it takes. The impulse will pass. Fight the urges moment by moment.

Thak You For That Post I Needed That Tonight

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Fail
Fail again
Fail better
- Samuel Beckett

lol there was this woman on tv that had that stomach staple thing done and lost 150 pounds. she keeps a scale right next to her fridge and a pic of her fat self in view to keep her in line.

I like her thinking

lol thats a great way to do it.

The story about the tiny frogs....

Life's lesson No. 1

There once was a bunch of tiny frogs,..... who arranged a running
competition. The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower.

A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on
the contestants...

The race began...

Honestly:

No one in crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top
of the tower. You heard statements such as:

"Oh, WAY too difficult!!

They will NEVER make it to the top."

or:

"Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!"

The tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one...... Except for those who
in a fresh tempo were climbing higher and higher...

The crowd continued to yell "It is too difficult!!! No one will make
it!" More tiny frogs got tired and gave up......But ONE continued higher
and higher and higher...

This one wouldn't give up!

At the end everyone else had given up climbing the tower. Except for the
one tiny frog who after a big effort was the only one who reached the
top!

THEN all of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one
frog managed to do it?

A contestant asked the tiny frog how the one who succeeded had found the
strength to reach the goal?

It turned out...That the winner was DEAF!!!!
The wisdom of this story is:
Never listen to other people's tendencies to be negative or
pessimistic......cause they take your most wonderful dreams and wishes
away from you. The ones you have in your heart!

Always think of the power words have. Because everything you hear and
read will affect your actions!

Therefore:

ALWAYS be...POSITIVE!

And above all:
Be DEAF when people tell YOU that YOU can not fulfil YOUR dreams!

Always think: I can do this!

Hello Everyone,
I Have a special request. I have the diet part down to a science.
My biggest challange is a Fitness Program. I have found nothing, that
I can say, has been sucessful. I have had two surgeries and I'm not able to walk. My muscles are atrophied and I am unhappy with the way I look. I
need a lot of motivation. I'm need some "No Fail" tips. Can someone help?

tulizamakini

I take it that you are in a wheel chair or some other assistant device (crutches?) if your leg muscles have atrophized? Is there anyway to get your lower muscles back into shape? If so I would start on getting the low body into good enough shape to be able to support at least a light work out and wiht the problem (surgeries and atrophy) you have described one on one physical therapy sounds necessary.

If not, perhaps you can talk to your doctor about non-leg cardio and an upper body work out. I can't imagine that pushing yourself in a wheel chair with your arms cannot be turned into a cardio/upper body work out and there are so many simple but effective upper body exercises you can do.

The cardio is good for fat burning (and as we have learned there is no spot fat reduction, your reduce fat over your whole body) and weight training will give you upper body nice form.

The best motivator is a friend who is also motiviated. That ways she/he can motivate you on the days you're feeling lazy and vise versa.

Good luck

Red,
Thanks for your reply. I've been getting myself around with a
wheelchair and crutches. I would like to be able to do more soon.
I've started to walk a little without assistance, but not very far. It really
isn't enough to call it "walking". So I can only imagine that I am holding
on to every calorie I take in. Even if it is very little. In regards to weight
training/resistance training. I understand that you need to use muscle to
burn fat. What would a person like myself burn at this point in my healing.

I think that your physical therapy and getting your muscles back into shape itself is probably taking alot of exertion and is probably burning more calories than you think... you could do some muscle building on your upper body... use soup cans for bicep and tricep crunches, do ab work, and the like. You ARE building muscles if you are getting yourself to walk around again, and so i think you are probably not just putting pounds on.

Thanks Red,
I needed some encouragement. I don't understand why
I think that a fitness program has to be Painful, tiresome, and
unpleasent. I not sure where my thought process come from.
Taking care of yourself should not be hard. It should be loving
and delightful. Just the same as when we take care of the things
we love.

I have something I am grateful for. I am able to communicate and
get feedback from people such as yourself.


Thank you for your replies you gave me some inspiration and great
Ideas.

I found it! Thank you. A lot of what you said I think I forgot about a long time ago. I needed to be reminded. I never thought of will power as being emotional and yet that makes so much sense. When you throw will power out the door and adopt a better stronger attitude than you just have to do it regardless if you have the will or not.

GREAT TIPS!

Hey tulizamakini-

Are you doing Phsical Thearpy and Occupational Thearpy?? They can help you learn how to walk agan and teach you how to become active within your new limitations. If you aren't getting that kind of thearpy you should- becuase OT's and PT's are great!

-RR

On Motivation:

When I am down and want to quit I think:
"Eating ice cream or fatty foods doesn't give you 1/10th the satisfaction that looking hot on a beach does."

"I can have ____(bad food here) whenever I want. It isn't going to go away, and there will always be a time when I can have it again."

"Remember the athrosclerotic plaques in Pathology lab? Yuck! Remember what diverticulitis looked like when you were watching the colonoscopy? Nasty! Do you want an MCA stroke? Hell no! Put the cheeseburger down, and go eat something high in fiber."

Finally, once I get past the first few days of eating well and eatng less, I always feel a lot better. I have energy, I feel pretty, I feel healthier and I don't want any greasy crap anymore. I always fail when I "punish/ reward" myself for something bad that happened by bingeing. Remembering that this is the case is motivational.

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