Motivation is fizzling out
 

So, I started as I usually do, very motivated and committed to exercising every day. After about 6 weeks I look better, although the scale has only shown a 3 lb. loss. (Ideally, I'd like to lose 15 pounds overall).

But now I'm really losing my motivation.

At this point, I am sort of frustrated. My eating habits are very good (I eat the right thing 95% of the time...fruits, veg, chicken, fish, skim milk, etc.). I am pretty active...yet I don't look the way I would like to and the weight just doesn't fall off of me like it did when I was younger. Also, the tedium of having to work exercise into my schedule every day is getting to me. It just sort of feels like, "what's the point?" I have to deprive myself of tasty foods and satisfying portions AND exercise as a fiend, and yet the scale still barely budges?!

I'm good about exercising if I have a class or an appointment with my trainer or a friend, but not when I'm left to my own devices.

How can I get my motivation back so I can get back on track?

Since you are asking for the advice, I will give you my two cents and it is coming from experience.

I felt much like you did before I made some big changes. The decreased motivation comes from feeling like you are depriving yourself of tasty food and working out like a fiend.

You want to lose 15 pounds. "Not too tough" is what most people will probably say. Well, 15 pounds is a lot of weight to lose, no matter where you start.

Here is my advice. Try not to eat processed food, try not to eat or limit the number of times a week you eat in restaurants. Learn to make your own tasty food. I realized before the weight loss started clicking for me, I wasn't tasting ANYTHING when I ate. I was just eating to feel full. For me that meant adding lime juice, vinegar, pepper, different flavors to food to accommodate my palate. Be really "present" when you eat. Pay attention to how the food tastes. Taste it how a wine aficionado tastes wine! Count all your food intake accurately. Use a scale.

Don't work out like a fiend. Just try walking 30 minutes a day with some vigor, about 3- 3.5 mph. That should burn around 100 extra calories a day, and in a month without working out like a fiend, you should lose a pound. In a year you will be at your goal. Want to lose faster? Then you will know what to do. It isn't magic, it is work. I'm nearing a loss of 50 pounds, and it has taken roughly 2 years. But it is slow and steady, and I don't feel deprived, I don't work out like a fiend.

On Motivation: Are you fit enough to save a life?
 

Max Richardson here just chiming in. It might sound extreme but the will to survive is what motivates me. I live in New York City where things can get crazy. I also live by the idea that we are a natural disaster or a bomb away from pure chaos.

You only need to look at what happened during Hurricane Katrina to see this. Once the Hurricane hit and the city got shut down it only took a matter of hours for chaos to engulf the city.

Can you run to save your life?
Is your grip strong enough to pull some one from danger?
Can you climb a fence?
Can you lift enough to be able to save people trapped?
Can you knock some one out to protect someone? If not I write about that here and show a video of how here.

You don't even have to start that extreme.
Can you run to catch a bus? This is a sort of every day survival.

These are the things that I think about when I train. I don't train to look sexy, I train for function. It just happens that functional training can make you look sexy. I believe that if you train for survival you will always be motivated and losing fat and building muscular endurance will be a natural result.

So don't think about the pounds you can loose, just think about the lives you can save by being fit. If you commit to this the first life you will be saving is your own.

Hope this helps.

Step your game up.
Max Richardson

mintchip:
It sounds like you are on the right track but just need a few tweaks to achieve the results you want. Here are a few suggestions to look at.
--What is your calorie deficit? You only need a 500 calorie deficit per day to achieve a 1 pound loss per week.
-- What is your Protein/Carb/Fat percentages? Many have found that getting 30% of their calories from protein helps them lose more easily. (You may need to experiment to find the right ratio for you.)
-- What do your workouts consist of. Are you including weight/resistance training? If so are you lifting heavy (weight appropriate so you can only perform 4-6 repetitions before failure)? If your workouts consist mostly of cardio (which are great for burning calories) then you may be burning off muscle as well as fat stores. Since muscle drives your metabolism you want to have as much as possible. Thus the suggestion to include weight training.
-- Are you spreading your calories out through the day? If you are ingesting most of your calories at one meal your body will see many of those calories as excess and once your glycogen levels are replenished the rest of the calories will be stored as fat.

Let us know if you have more questions, I am a believer that a good plan means you aren't feeling hungry or deprived all the time. Maybe you need to allow yourself a cheat meal or day every so often so your mental attitude stays fit also.

In my opinion, the emphasis on 'the right foods' or 'good foods' is important, but calories override all of the 'best' and the 'good.' If you watch your calories, you'll find you're going to feel a real pinch in your eating - because you can eat all the 'good' and the 'right' stuff, but you'll have to eat less of it.

Not to disparage the good and the right stuff - it does tend to make you feel full longer and also meets your nutritional needs. Realy, the problem with the bad stuff, even if it adds up to the same amount of calories, is that it doesn't really match the good stuff for nutrition and satiety, although it tastes wonderful (I had a Big Mac recently and it was heavenly). If it adds a caloric wallop and then you are not satiated very long, you're back where you started, but that much over your caloric limit. If you are watching your sodium, something like a Big Mac can mess with your salt budget, too.

fitday gives you a good picture of calories but also all the other good nutritional information (basics) that might influence your diet. Keeping a food log, you can see what you want to 'tweak.'