How do you motivate yourself?

[RaydensMama]

OK I really need to loose some weight before my wedding. I gained 48lbs when I was pregnant and I only lost about half of that. I find it so hard to motivate myself to get going and work out. It seems by the end of the day Im just so drained that I can't push myself to do it! I know if I don't lose weight Ill be miserable though!

So how do you motivate yourself to do it??

[TATrisha]

Well, I've been blessed all my life. I've always been rather thin. Which means, I ate WHATEVER and WHENEVER I wanted. That is... until about a month ago. Dang age catching up with me finally! So, after never working out, motivating myself was very difficult. So, what I do, is my boyfriend works out with me. It's much easier when we do it together. And on days when I don't want to do it, he pushes me, and on days when he doesn't want to do it, I push him. And on the other days we stand on the scale!!!

[TammyB]

ROFL.. umm I'll make something up since I've been really bad lately.. :-)

 

Do this find those sexy pair of jeans you want to fit in, hang them insight and everytime you sit on the couch look at those jeans and think, "ya know, I can work out right here doing hand weights, abs, and lunges, while I watch this show" Then every month try on those jeans and see if they start to get easier and easier to wear.

[SusanK]

#1 Join a gym! Try out some group classes! Get a workout buddy!!!! ...Or if you have a few bucks to spare, a personal trainer!

#2 Start a food journal... You can workout as much as you want, but if you nutritional habits are poor, it won't make much of a difference. Writing down what you eat makes you accountable.

#3 When you are especially drained, is often the best time to workout. Many people have the ill-conceived notion that working out tires you out. Not true, I'm sure you'll find the opposite to be true. Exercise gives your metabolism a boost! You'll love how you feel afterwards.

#4 Start out gradual, and build up from there...many people start out with a bang, overdo it or hurt themselves, and then give up.

#5 Make sure to add a couple of days of strength training in! Women often worry that weights will bulk them up. So not true! We do not have the horomones for that. The women you see that are built like men, are not like that because they lift weights....they are taking hormone supplements, or are on a specialized diet for the purpose of "bulking up". Muscle mass takes up less space than fat. When you turn fat into muscle you will loose inches.

#6 Try Pilates...I swear by it. I have been dong for about 5 years now, and have totally eliminated back pain from my life..and my abs have never looked better.

 

I'd be happy to give you some more suggestions about how to get started, cardio, strength training, fitting workouts into your schedule, etc. This is my passion

[LadyP]

I am in the same boat. I gained 65 pounds when I got pregnant with my son. I lost most of it and then found out the I have what is called irritable bowel syndrome. What this means is that certain foods (all the ones I love) make my stomach swell up. I look about 6 months pregnant no a pretty sight. What I do is I joined a martial arts class. 3 nites a week I take karate (tang so do) if not I try to run around with my son. If your son is like mine he likes to run.

 

The weather is trying to break. After dinner before you clean up while the son is still up go for a walk. My boop and I walked around the block looking at shapes spelling words, and saying the colors of the cars we pass. Not only does it help your son learn the important things for school but you are working off your day of bad eating and tiring out you son for bed.

 

Cable stations Comcast has on DEMAND work out stations. they have 5 min work out for abs andthings. For me it is just doing it watching what I eat.

 

****GIVE UP SODA AND SWEETS AND I PROMISE IN 30 DAYS YOU CAN LOSE AT LEAST 3 POUNDS

[tvt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tlseege Well, I've been blessed all my life. I've always been rather thin. Which means, I ate WHATEVER and WHENEVER I wanted. That is... until about a month ago. Dang age catching up with me finally! So, after never working out, motivating myself was very difficult. So, what I do, is my boyfriend works out with me. It's much easier when we do it together. And on days when I don't want to do it, he pushes me, and on days when he doesn't want to do it, I push him. And on the other days we stand on the scale!!!

LMAO!!!! But we do the same thing! We do it together. Plus we have 2 dogs so we get up in the morning and go for an hour walk at a fairly fast pace. Then at night we'll go for a shorter slower walk to unwind and discuss our days. Just doing this I lost 4 lbs in one week. Oh, I'm doing WW (half assed) too. And I get on the scale 3 times a week. Usually Wed, becasue thats when I start loosing my motivation to not hit the snack bar at work, and on Friday so I can make it through the weekend, then again Monday to guage how I did.

Also, I have 4 WW cook books and most of the stuff in them are easy and tasty!

[RaydensMama]

Thanks everyone for the great ideas.

Writing down what I eat sounds like a good place to start. When I see that Ive eaten 4 cookies in the afternoon I feel gross! Hopefully that will help.

I have been getting out more now that its FINALLY warm! I take my son for a walk every morning. OK so it is to Tim Hortons, but I need coffee or Ill fall over! LOL I would love to work out with my FH but he leaves at 4:45am and gets home around 7pm each day. Plus he works for an Excavating company so he does manual labour all day. He is in really good shape!! Thats one of the things I feel bad about. He looks great and Im a mess! Thankfully I know he loves me no matter what.

 

Susan, you said this is your passion? Do you work in an exercise field? I would love some suggestions on how to get started. I do have an Elliptical at home. Basically its all in my belly though due to the pregnancy weight,

Thanks again everyone for all your suggestions!

[TATrisha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LadyP What this means is that certain foods (all the ones I love) make my stomach swell up.

AHH! I have that! I have been wondering what in the world it is for SO long now. My entire family makes SO much fun of me. For me, it happens when I eat carbs. Yummy! But, I bloat up like crazy! it's bad! I'm not a big girl at all, so it's VERY noticable! One of my big fears is that on my wedding day it'll happen and I won't fit into my dress! (nightmare!) It's so exciting to know that someone else has this issue! My stomach actually bloats up when I work out too. I always joke that I'm the only person I know that gets fatter when I work out!

[*JillD*]

Laura, I'm really bad with motivation too, it helps when I log on here and see the did you exercise today thread, but it doesn't do the exercise for you, lol! I've been so unmotivated lately and I think part of it is my job, not really happy with it right now and its starting to effect other parts of my life.

 

Anyway, enough about me, start using your elliptical. Do you wake up before your son in the morning, could you workout then? Or even when he's awake can you do the elliptical while he watches sesame street or plays in his playpen or something?

 

When I work out in the morning I'm so much better off because if I wait until night time I do everything possible to talk myself out of it or find an excuse!

 

Writing down what you eat is also a great idea, I think that will really help.

 

We also have a WW thread around here, you could join ww and start counting points, that will help too.

[*JillD*]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Susan101207 #1 Join a gym! Try out some group classes! Get a workout buddy!!!! ...Or if you have a few bucks to spare, a personal trainer! #2 Start a food journal... You can workout as much as you want, but if you nutritional habits are poor, it won't make much of a difference. Writing down what you eat makes you accountable. #3 When you are especially drained, is often the best time to workout. Many people have the ill-conceived notion that working out tires you out. Not true, I'm sure you'll find the opposite to be true. Exercise gives your metabolism a boost! You'll love how you feel afterwards. #4 Start out gradual, and build up from there...many people start out with a bang, overdo it or hurt themselves, and then give up. #5 Make sure to add a couple of days of strength training in! Women often worry that weights will bulk them up. So not true! We do not have the horomones for that. The women you see that are built like men, are not like that because they lift weights....they are taking hormone supplements, or are on a specialized diet for the purpose of "bulking up". Muscle mass takes up less space than fat. When you turn fat into muscle you will loose inches. #6 Try Pilates...I swear by it. I have been dong for about 5 years now, and have totally eliminated back pain from my life..and my abs have never looked better. I'd be happy to give you some more suggestions about how to get started, cardio, strength training, fitting workouts into your schedule, etc. This is my passion

susan, a question about pilates. I never do pilates or yoga because I don't feel like I've done anything when I finish, it doesn't really feel like a workout, probably because I'm not sweating my butt off! Am I doing something wrong, or is that just how it is and you just eventually start to notice a difference in your body. Also, do you have videos at home that you use, if so, which ones are good?