Ideas/inspiration needed! How did you find the motivation to get healthier? I know what I need to eat to make my body feel better, I just can’t find the motivation to do it. I have ideas of what I might like to do to move more and work out, but doing it…? Uuuuugh
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Get a Fitbit, throw on some headphones, and go walking! It’s my zen time, and keeps me in great shape !!!
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I saw something recently that said you don’t need motivation, you need discipline! Set it up like a meal plan and a workout schedule and do it, no matter what! Discipline not motivation! Good luck 
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Start small build up. Start with drinking more water
You have to see it as a lifestyle change and not just a temporary diet. Substituting a salad for lunch is easy but everyday it’s hard. Drinking water instead of soda is easy but everyday is hard.
You need to find balance in your calorie intake and cut back on portions.
I’ve lost 80lbs since January.
If you’re lucky enough to have a YMCA near, check it out. I started swimming a few weeks ago M-F at 5:30am before work. I swim for an hour, use the hot tub for 15, shower, then come home to work. I’m fortunate enough that my adult boys meet me there every morning. Definitely holds us all accountable. They hit the gym part before rinsing off & hitting the hot tub. I’ve noticed a decrease in my appetite. I’ve also noticed my day to day energy levels increased.
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Cut out sugar
Take vitamins
Eat protein
Eat scoop peanut butter in am
I wanted to live to see my kids graduate, get married & have my grandchildren
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No white refined sugars or boxed processed food.
When I have zero motivation, making small changes helps me. Small changes to activities and diet are effortless, easy decisions that don’t require a lot of mental/emotional effort from me.
Small changes I make include:
Regular size instead of large size
Going to bed 30 minutes early
Drinking one more cup of water
Drinking one less sugary drink/week
Eating one less snack/week
Changing one junk snack to semi-junky snack
Adding a veggie here or there
Walking an extra 10 minutes
I can do those things without barely thinking about it, and then it snowballs into doing more of those healthy things.
Not a lot of shortcuts, but take baby steps. Get exercises you can do in bed, on the couch, in a chair, in the bathtub. Try “Tai Chi Ch’ih: Joy through Movement” on You Tube. Easy, short, sweet instructor, & makes everything better. It’s also a form of meditation. Go for a 10-minute walk before or after dinner. Keep adding time and distance as you are able. I find the more I work out the healthier my cravings get, and once you start moving, you have more energy to move more. Start small. Park farther away from stores. Carry your own groceries.
Learn to cook simple & healthy recipes & have healthy stuff in easy reach. Put out bowls of fresh fruit and veggies if you’re always eating stuff. Make pitchers of unsweetened tea for the fridge so it’s on hand. Carry a water bottle with you. Eat healthy food you don’t like as much (beets? Cottage cheese?) while distracted with reading or screens. Eat foods you love in small amounts mindfully with full attention.
Drop one unhealthy thing to eat a week or month until you don’t miss it. Don’t change anything else so you don’t feel deprived. Then pick another unhealthy food. Substitute: seltzer for cola, plain yogurt with raisins and peanuts for dessert, air popped popcorn for chips, brown for white rice, whole wheat pasta for plain, whole wheat or other healthy bread for white. Fill your plate with colorful vegetables and whole grains. Try quinoa: boil the water, put in the quinoa and steep a few minutes away from heat & it’s done. Also it’s a complete protein. Use small plates and bowls so it looks like more. No meat portion bigger than your fist. As many non-carb veggies as you like. Half the carbs you’d normally eat.
I just don’t go down most of the inside aisles at the grocery store. I don’t buy candy, chips, desserts or sodas so I don’t have them at home. I cook much of my own food and if I’m tired of eating it I won’t eat as much. Be an avid label reader. Honey Bunches of Oats sounds healthy until you read the label. Bran muffins have so much fat & sugar to make them palatable they’re unhealthy. Regular Cheerios are better for you than the multi-grain ones.
Instant grits are an easy side dish for lunch and dinner. Add a little honey, maple syrup and/or fresh or dried fruit to plain yogurt vs. the flavored stuff with all the sugar. Use stevia and skim milk in tea or coffee vs. other sweetener & cream. Use less and less sweetener gradually as time goes on.
I double the vegetables and halve the carbs in recipes. I always have a bag of frozen mixed vegetables on hand to pour into a lot of stuff (homemade and not) and a bag of shredded carrots to toss into things. I buy those packaged salads in a bowl & add more lettuce. It’s easy and gets me to eat more salad when I’m too lazy to make from scratch. I buy those vegetarian Indian foods in pouches & brown rice 90-second bags. 1 1/2 minutes in the microwave and you have a healthy meal. Add nuts, raisins, hot sauce or cayenne and/or shredded unsweetened coconut for extra flavor.
Eat more vegetarian fare. You can always add bits of meat to stuff. Get an air fryer. Skip cheese as much as you can. Get a to go box when you order at a restaurant. Put away half the carbs & protein so it’s not in front of you. When you get home add more vegetables and fruits and you have another meal. Wendy’s and Panera have tasty salads. Eat one first and then go back for more food if you’re still hungry. Get the kid-sized frosty if you must. CAVA and Sweetgreen & Mediterranean restaurants are also good choices. KFC has pot pies. Toss the pastry top & add some of your frozen mixed vegetables.
Craving something? Drink a glass of water & go for a 10-minute or longer walk to see if that makes it pass. Put on music & dance around the house. Take the stairs. If you work outside the home on the 10th floor, walk as far up the steps as you can then take the elevator. Challenge yourself to go farther up the stairs each day.
Find movement you enjoy. Learn to tango, rollerblade, get a used bike, walk in your Rec Center pool or take swim classes from the hottie instructor. Get a walking buddy to keep you accountable. Take Alexander Technique classes. I call it my “no pain, no pain” workout. It’ll help keep you from getting injured in daily life too. Get a friend or acquaintance to go with you so you keep each other motivated. Join a friend in whatever they do. If you’re the worst in the class, so what? Unplug yourself. Roll off the couch. At least you’ll have to push yourself up to standing!
Try E2M Personal Training amazing support and group and it’s virtual. They give you everything mental health , meal
Plans , coaching , and a huge support FB group. They are amazing I never would be waking my ass up before 6 to work out and I’m up around 4;30-5 every weekday morning to workout before work and make up on weekends whatever I missed
I once read that if your great grandmother would not recognize it as food, DO NOT EAT IT.
Start with taking vitamin D it really helps
Another easy dinner: can of Goya black bean soup + 90-second brown (basmati if available) rice packet. Heat soup & rice, pour soup over rice. If motivated, add fresh lime or lime juice & grated onion on top. Serves 2 or more.
Go in the bathroom and flip the lights off just stay next to the switch. Imagine how you think of yourself. Think about what’s lifting you up and what you succeeded in this week. Think of what ales you and what your struggle is everyday in your mind.
Now picture the person that carries all you were just thinking of. All the work that was put in, all the pain you’re carrying, all the people who are around you everyday too. Imagine that person, still in the bathroom in darkness, and what they will look like after carrying the stresses and failures on their shoulders. Imagine what that person who keeps getting looked over or let down by others close or being told they’re letting others down. Think of all of it. Yeah it’ll probably be painful unless you’re swimming in success. Sit in the dark bathroom in pain and keep thinking of it.
Then looking in the mirror flip the lights on. Meet eye contact face to face with yourself in the now lit up bathroom. How does this person look? Do they resemble the person you were envisioning going through all of that and making it through all of the hardships? Do you see a warrior? A savior? A failure? A try hard?
WHAT DO YOU SEE?!?!
Alright now you can be honest with yourself. You’re fat. It is okay, you’re not retarded. Everyone of us can get fat and everyone of us can lose that weight.
fast.
Start your fast right now. Oh bad timing?
oh you have to work today? Oh your kids are stressing you? Oh they want chicken nuggs and you can’t make them food without eating a bite? Well it’s already good and I’m hungry but I can’t not eat one because my kid always tells me to try one…. They do this cute thing and it makes them laugh when I eat one so I have to….
I mean my emotions are a roller coaster without food! I get SO hungry I CANNOT HANDLE not eating every 2 hours with snacks between…
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ALL OF YOUR EXCUSES ARE YOU FAILING! NOT ONE ACCEPTABLE EXCUSE!
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Oh your mother died? Oh you lost your job? Oh you have literally NO ONE supporting you? Oh, you have not had a gf/bf in 3 years?
Oh you….
Most of you are too lazy to even read this much, or you know what imma say so you keep scrolling.
Stop, just stop lying to yourself.
You are not. You are not that weak. You are not too weak to go to gym. You are not too weak to cut that ex-lover off. You are not too weak to leave that job. You are not too weak to be alone. You are not too weak to die from one gunshot wound. You are not too weak to go to church. You are not too weak to live alone. You are not too weak to get sober and stay sober. You are not too weak to slip up and relapse then jump right back to sobriety the next day.
It is never too late to change your life.
I live alone in Oregon. If you feel helpless or you’re just tired of going it alone with no one listening, dm me.
I will listen to you.
Listen!
I will listen to you talk. I will talk with anyone about anything! Oh and you can say the worst things to me or about me. I can take it. I love you and if you feel lonely when you’re alone just lmk! I can fix your issue if you’ll let me.
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