Hey!
I'm Dellen, I'm new to the forum. I have a few motivation tips and an idea, but I need your help!

Many people claim that they're not motivated enough to start or stick with a healthy lifestyle. They're just not "motivated people". See, the thing is, I don't believe that at all! If they won the lottery, I have a feeling they would be incredibly motivated to go pick up their winnings. No "I don't feel like it", no "I'll do it tomorrow", no nothing! They would run to the car and drive like crazy to get their check. Wouldn't you agree?

But why is it so difficult to motivate ourselves to diet? Well, perhaps it's all the negative associations we have to dieting. "It's hard... it's no fun... I feel deprived... I can't do what I want...." and so many others. It's really no wonder we can't stick to it, much less make it a lifestyle!

So, what do we do? We make dieting great fun! We associate tons and tons of pleasure to doing it and sticking with it, and lots of pain to not doing it.

A great place to start is to think of your Why's. Why do I want to diet? Why do I want to be thin? Go wild. Write down everything you can think of, the small things and the huge ones. What will you be able to do that you've never done before? How will you feel? What possibilities will open up to you? What clothes will you wear? How will your loved ones feel about you?

Okay, here's my idea... I think it would be great if everyone would write down their list of why's - or even just contribute what they feel comfortable with! If we get the ball rolling, soon we'll have a HUGE list of reasons and powerful emotions we're going to associate to dieting and being healthy.

Then, whenever we get discouraged, tired, sad, cranky, feel like you've failed or just need encouragement, we can go back to our list and see all the wonderful reasons we're doing this. Suddenly, we feel passionate about dieting! It even seem FUN!

I really hope this works and that we can create something that will help everyone.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Dellen

Oh, and here are a few "Why's" of my own:
1) I'll be able walk around in a bikini at the beach!
2) My friends will be so jealous (A bit childish, I know, but who cares?)
3) I'll have energy and feel great all day. No more noon naps!

I found that when you take the time and really push yourself, you get the best ones. So I'm going to sit on it tomorrow and bring you my full list. Hope it helps!

there are already a few threads here on why people want to lose weight...

a person's why is their motivation... nothing new there..

try reading the Fear of Thin thread -the why people don't want to lose weight is often more revealing.

Well picking up your check for the lottery takes what a half hour. Losing weight takes months. I think it's the time it takes to see results that kills people's motivation.

^^^^Said it in one! The motivation killer is definately the time it takes to see results and sometimes you dont notice the results when they happen your usually reminded from a friend that "oh you've lost weight". But the flipside to that the biggest motivation is seeing the results! Its a catch 22!

Motivation is within every little positive change, every time you do something good for yourself, it's THAT feeling. Keep building on it.

So many people (including myself in the past and even sometimes now) lose their motivation because they forget about the great feelings that small changes can feel like, they want it all and they want it now...or at least very quickly. This kind of thinking smothers out motivation, desire, and mental strength.

Remember to go at your own pace. If you want it to last it will not happen extremely fast. Pace, patience,positive.

Hope this helps.

Well here goes!!! I have a pretty big list.

1) To feel comfterable at my schools year end trip to the water slides
2) To NOT be a plus size
3) Be able to run long distance
4) To feel comfterable around boys
5) To generally feel good about myself
6) To not feel like everybody is watching to see if I take out a brownie in my lunch ( like seriously im over-weight and everybody watches to see If I pull out anything other than an APPLE out of my locker!)

When I started this ball rolling a year ago, 2 pounds a week seemed like a nightmare. To lose 50 pounds meant 25 weeks, 25 weeks meant 6 months and a bit, 6 months is half a year!!! Half a YEAR!!! OMG!!! I need to lose 80!!!!! Thats too damn long!!!! Why bother?!?!?!?

But then (if you can find that little something inside) you do it. And you lose those 50 pounds over 6 months (often more time than that actually) and when that 6 months, or year, or 2 years has gone by, and you lost all that weight, you think "6 months was nothing! What a Joke!!! Why didn't I do this 20 years ago?!?!?!?!"

At least thats the case for me.

I have 2 obese buddies here in China who have seen the amazing changes I have made in the past year and they still don't get it. They want to do the same thing I did, but are not willing to put in the time. They always seem to forget that I started off at 300 pounds walking 4 blocks a day, then 5, etc, till 4 months had gone by and I started running (back to 4 blocks mind you) etc. And I lost the pounds. They saw the results, but not the effort.

So what did BOTH of them do? They took their 300+ pound bodies out pounding the pavement and trying to run 5km the first day, much against my repeated advice and warnings. Needless to say, they have both suffered so many injuries and setbacks that not only have they not lost weight but in fact gained weight sitting on their couches nursing injuries with beer, TV and McD's.

I get this a lot from people around me trying to feed off my motivation. They see results but not the effort and time it took to do it. The result, failure. I don't blame them though, took me 20 years to figure that out myself. I guess it is part of human nature. We all want the fast way, not necesarily the best way.

A pity really.

sirant

Here is my list:
1. To look better
2. to feel better
3. to fit in my non-elastic shorts this summer.
4. to look better in case I run into my ex. (ha-ha)
5. to look great by my family reunion this summer. (I have 2 this year)
6. to prove to my mom that I can too get down to within 5 pounds of what I was when I got married!!!
7.to get my libido back.

My list!

1) I can take pictures with my friends and not hide myself from the camera coz I'm too fat!

2) Be able to wear a bikini and know I look HOT

3) Have my boyfriend call me sexy and I know that I am

4) Wear anything to work and not take an hour before I can go to work because it's so hard to dress up

5) Go overseas and actually have fun when I'm on holiday because I'm not thinking about how I wanted to wear something else but I couldnt coz I'm too fat

6) Minimise the risk of not having babies because of my weight

7) Be able to go to any party and know they're not thinking.. god she's huge.

8) BE HAPPY!

9) BE CONTENTED WITH WHAT I HAVE

10) BE ABLE TO SHOW WHO I REALLY AM!!

I think motivation comes from success.

We teenagers complain about hating school all the time. I bet most of those complainers have bad grades. Now if you were to look at the people with good grades, they are probably motivated by the good grades to keep doing better.

I think if someone took a few weeks, motivated or not to lose weight, they would be more motivated to lose weight after they see that it is in fact possible to do so. As far as the time goes, they just have to keep themselves busy and find something to do. I have a favorite TV show that comes on every wednesday and because I have a pretty busy schedule, it seems like the new episode (or something to look forward to) was on just the day before yesterday.

I think it just comes down to its easier to do the wrong thing than the right thing. I personally feel its easier and at the time more rewarding to eat a half gallon of ice cream than to go a walk. I love instant gratification, and thats what was so hard for me to start making changes in my life. I eventually just had to let go of that realize ill be much happier in the end without instant gratification.

Hi maleficent,

I cant seem to find that 'Fear of Thin' thread. Care to send the URL?

Thanks a lot!

Deep

I just want to feel good whatever I wear, and never come back to mind 'I look so fat today'.

AND to have more energy to do all those things I want to do and have to do .. cuz now I'm just too lazy for my wishlist of activities

Deep, fear of thin theme is from Weight loss in the media section, I think search is just not working here

Thanks Mell,

Managed to find it in the end =) Useful thread it is too!

Deep