How to stay disciplined and motivated while losing weight?

Question

I am 18 and have been overweight ever since i can remember. The past few years I've really been trying to lose weight but just can't stay motivated. While living at home I have no control over what my parents buy to eat. When they buy junk food I just can't get myself to resist it 100%. My basic meals and everything are usually pretty good, its just the stuff I eat in between, even when I'm not hungry.

So my quesiton is to anyone who has gone through this. How did you stay motivated while losing weight. Is there a good way to stay disciplined and not eat a bunch of crap all the time even when its there. I know if I can do these things I can reach my goals. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Sometimes keeping a food diary can help. Sometimes we don't remember how much we have snacked on during the day. The food diary can help you see if you are snacking excessively or help you see a bad habit.

If snacking is your problem you can look into a couple of options. You can cut down on your snacking or plan for healthier snacks. Don't drastically change your diet unless you know that you can stick with it. Otherwise you just gain all of the weight back because you go back to old habits. Just change a little at a time. Try having two "healthy meals" a week. Something as simple as having grilled food, instead of something fried.

Also, to lose weight you really need to do some type of exercise. Find something that you enjoy doing. You will be more likely to stick with it. Maybe walking, swimming, yoga, dance, aerobics. Just whatever you find interesting. If you bore easily you may want to try doing more than one thing. For instance, walking with friends on Monday and Wednesday, yoga on Tuesday and Thursday. The next week try dance on Mon. and wed. and aerobics or Tues. and Thurs.. You just have to find what works for you. The most important thing is to keep it fun and interesting. Take time and try some new things!

I hope these suggestions were helpful. Good luck and just keep the faith in yourself. You can do it. You just have to decide that you are ready to.

Answer 2

I am in the same position you are. I've looked into "fat camps" which I think are a viable option, if you go to the right one, Wellspring Camps are a good one. Don't be frightened by the price, some of it is covered by health insurance and what-not. If a camp isn't an option for you going to groups like "Overeaters Anonymous" helps, it's easier to lose weight with that peer pressure pushing you along. Every time you want to eat some Doritos or that candy bar you think that everyone will know next week that you messed up because you'll weigh more than you did last week.

Answer 3

OK a person, hard to work with something unidentifiable, what I did (Im a man) was get an old picture of my wife and myself when we first met ( I was toned at that time) and clipped it to the refrigerator. I started a workout program to get back in shape (went from 210lbs to 180lbs). Every time I wanted to shove food in my mouth I saw the picture and decided ok veggie time and ate veggie snacks (prepared a day in advance) then next to the pic I put one of a my wife's pic and I at the beach (we were both fit) and wrote a small paragraph stating my reason to get motivated, while looking at my wife's pic. So "A person"be you a man or woman and married or not, design your motivation and stick to it and in 6 to 8 weeks you will see a difference. Weight yourself before you start and in 4 weeks weight yourself again to see how well your progressing. If the results are not improving then you need to motivate yourself to really make a difference. Good Luck

Answer 4

You simply have to want it badly enough. There is no trick. Sometimes it takes reaching a day when you look at yourself and are so unhappy with what you see that it sticks with you and helps to drive you to be strong. You can't control what your parents buy to eat but YOU CAN control what you put in your mouth. Again you have to want it badly enough. If you're not doing it and you're eating crap then you don't want it that bad. You're ok with being fat and less attractive than skinny girls.

If you do get up the will power I suggest going to this site to find out how many calories you should be eating a day to lose weight. If you decide to watch your calories then you're going to have to eat meals that are high in protein and vitmins so you don't wind up being hungry. The reason is that if you lower your calories and eat crappy food your body will not be getting what it needs. You should jojn a gym if you can. It's hard at first but get mad and make yourself do it. The longer you go the easier it gets. Do it for yourself.

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

Answer 5

I always found that having a "weight loss buddy" helped. You both keep track of what, and how much you eat, and any exercise...and then compare notes. It's easier to stay on track when you have someone to compare things to. It motivated me to have a friend going through it all right along side me, and I think what keeps you going is the fact that it almost turns into a competition of sorts, because you try to keep up with their weight loss, or they try to keep up with yours. Nobody wants to fail, so they're just going to push harder to succeed. It's also nice to have someone to talk to about the "up's and down's" of losing weight, for example when you hit a plateau! No fun! But with someone right there to help you through it, you'll do just fine. As far as not being able to control what you eat, maybe you could try visiting Weight Watchers for a few weeks. They teach you a lot about nutrition. I had a lot of success with them!! -50 lbs!! Best of luck to you!!!

Answer 6

www.fitday.com
It will track your calories eaten and burned. It has thousands of foods with nutritional content... you will be surprised how quickly snacks can add up! And some foods you might not think are "that bad" you will just about die when you see what is in them!
Drink LOTS of water. A lot of the snacking happens because your body is slightly dehydrated, but the feeling comes on as a slight hunger instead of thirst. Drink water before all meals and always have a bottle of water next to you.
GIVE UP SODA!! If you drink regular sugary soda, it is adding literally hundreds of empty calories per day. I went from 20 oz. Mountain Dew per day to 12 oz. Diet Coke per day and I dropped about 6 pounds in a few weeks without even trying.
Finally, tell your parents that if they love you and care about your health, they will stop buying junk food. Or at least hide it, keep it in their cars, etc. You don't eat what's not in front of you.
Good luck!

Answer 7

Here is what you need to do, if you are serious about losing weight and keeping it off. Eat 6 small meals a day about every 4 hours. Here what that will do for you, your metabolism will increase (i.e. Loose weight) and you will have more engry. If you go on a diet and eat less, your metabolism will slow down and store to fat. That is why diets dont work. Only the size of your fist, carbs (examples:baked potato, pasta, oatmeal, beans, corn, melon, apples, fat free yogurt, whole wheat breads)in one and protien (examples:chicken breast, swordfish, shrimp, turkey breast) in the other. You can also eat vegetables and salads with any meal, they dont have none or little fat). 30min cardo exercise every day. Any of these(examples: walking, jogging, swimming,running, biking, ect), Monday cardo, tues upper body (arms: curls, tricep extensions,pull ups, front press)(abdominals: leg pull crunch, leg raises), (chest: bench press, butterfly, pullover)(shoulders: front press, arm pullover, cross county skier machine)(back:seated row, lat pull downs, back extension)(YOU DONT HAVE TO DO IN ONE DAY, mix it up) wed cardo, thurs lower body (legs: leg pull,leg press, squats, lounges) fri cardo, sat upper. Sunday eat anything you want and dont exercising, you do this on sunday so your body doesnt go into starvation mode. YOU NEED TO TAKE SUNDAY OFF. If you stilck with this you will have a great body. also drink aleast 8oz of water daily! Stay away from Mcdonals, Wendys, ect because there is nothing good for you on the menu's even the salads are bad (beaon bits, cheeze, dressing, ect) Good Luck :)

Answer 8

Well... im on a diet also the way i stay motivated is that if i want a candybar or pizza, i need to workout harder and longer(not killing yourself). Just eat half of the meal and have snacks inbetween meals. you should eat every 3 hours. like a 1 hr and 30 mins later eat some fruit, veggies,yougrt,half a candybar,pretezel and etc. My dad to me to wake at a certain time every day to workout. last but not least DRINK WATER!!!!!!!!! ( Like 5 20 oz water bottlle)

Answer 9

One technique I've used is finding a friend who wants to achieve similar goals. And whenever I had a moment of weakness to call him up and talk him down. I'd do the same for him. We'd go on runs to Whole Foods for the lunch at the salad bar. I was 300 lbs, now 220. Increase your fruits and veggies. The American diet is overloaded on meats and carbs, not enough on veggies.

Answer 10

keep visualizing what your objective is and most of all imagine yourself as you want to be. also you may not be able to control what your parents buy or what you eat but if you start running you will be able to control your appetite. the addreniline and palmotoil glycolosis in your body activates when you are pushed to limits. what this does is it makes you burn fat straight away, but most important it triggers the realease of adrenaline and hormones that will eventually help you control your appetite. however you have to run every single day 5 days a week to the point where your sore the next day and eventually the soreness eill go away and you will be able to run more and more for longer perionds of time. if you keep that up you will be able to shed about10-40 pounds in 2-3 months also try to write insparational quotes and put them on your wall so when you wake up you read one and it will inspire you to get to your goal. start out with this one...

"pain is only weakness trying to leave the body"