1. < Healthy Living

Staying Motivated for the Long Haul

Posted by LindaF @fessmom, Jun 29, 2017

My biggest obstacle to maintaining a healthy weight is a seemingly invisible "switch" that goes on and off in my brain. When it's "on" I am in the zone and can avoid the most decadent temptations and will exercise faithfully. But, about a year to 15 months into my healthy lifestyle, the switch turns to "off" and I lose focus and revert to my bad habits of poor food choices (both in what I eat and how much I eat) and I become more sedentary. I am at that point now and I feel a slow panic building as the number on the scale inches upward. I know what I should do, but I am at a loss as to how to get my mojo back. Suggestions, anyone!?

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JK | @contentandwell | Aug 24, 2017
In reply to @JustinMcClanahan "Jane, good luck at the club! I hope I didn't add more confusion to a topic..." + (show)
@JustinMcClanahan

Jane, good luck at the club! I hope I didn't add more confusion to a topic that already has so much to think about. I actually began college studying exercise sciences and took some nutrition, exercise, and excercise planning courses.

You are correct in that BMR is the amount of calories your body theoretically burns just to maintain your current body. The more muscle tone you have, the higher your BMR is because muscles burn more calories.

The best way to burn fat, and keep it off long term, is to do excercises that get you breathing hard for longer periods than 2 minutes. Don't overdue it if you have any health concerns, but oxygen is what actually burns fat, so moderate excercise that elevates your heart rate and has you breathing a bit harder is what actually burns an animals fat deposits! This of course all goes hand-in-hand with a good diet. But, simply cutting calories is not always a long term solution! I hope this didn't muddy the waters more! These are the same things I struggle with daily. The diet is hardest for me as well.

Jump to this post

@lcamino Lynn, I didn't make it this morning. Not only was I tired because of so many nighttime bathroom trips but I don't have as much incentive to go to the pool on Thursdays, I am not familiar with the teacher, whereas I love the teacher on W and F and usually the two who alternate Saturdays.
The rest of my life is OK, although I could do better around the house.
JK

REPLY
JK | @contentandwell | Aug 24, 2017
In reply to @JustinMcClanahan "Jane, good luck at the club! I hope I didn't add more confusion to a topic..." + (show)
@JustinMcClanahan

Jane, good luck at the club! I hope I didn't add more confusion to a topic that already has so much to think about. I actually began college studying exercise sciences and took some nutrition, exercise, and excercise planning courses.

You are correct in that BMR is the amount of calories your body theoretically burns just to maintain your current body. The more muscle tone you have, the higher your BMR is because muscles burn more calories.

The best way to burn fat, and keep it off long term, is to do excercises that get you breathing hard for longer periods than 2 minutes. Don't overdue it if you have any health concerns, but oxygen is what actually burns fat, so moderate excercise that elevates your heart rate and has you breathing a bit harder is what actually burns an animals fat deposits! This of course all goes hand-in-hand with a good diet. But, simply cutting calories is not always a long term solution! I hope this didn't muddy the waters more! These are the same things I struggle with daily. The diet is hardest for me as well.

Jump to this post

@JustinMcClanahan Justin, I am really on a run with the pool. I really like my health club and the people are all really nice there so that helps. I just hate the whole getting in and out of the bathing suit thing, having to take a shower get rid of the chlorine on my skin, all of that. The W and F instructor always keeps us going at a good pace to make it good cardio.
Ahh, ice cream, definitely a downfall with me too so I do not keep it in the house except when my daughter and her fiance visit. They are such addicts that she got an ice cream maker and they frequently make their own. I recently had a toasted coconut flavor at a little place that makes their own ice cream. It was incredibly good so I am thankful that was in Maine. It would be way too tempting if it was more close by. I mentioned to my daughter that I had an incredibly delicious ice cream there and before I told her the flavor she knew what I was going to say because she had it last year up there!
I tried that new lower calorie ice cream but it just did not cut it with me. Halo Top I think?
JK

REPLY
Mentor
Rosemary, Volunteer Mentor | @rosemarya | Aug 24, 2017
In reply to @contentandwell "@rosemarya @fessmom I neglected to include some of my best helpers in losing weight. I have..." + (show)
@contentandwell

@rosemarya @fessmom I neglected to include some of my best helpers in losing weight.
I have a fitness tracker. You set what you want your goal to be and it lets you know how you are doing. It really pushes me to get to that goal and beyond.
Next, I use myfitnesspal to track everything I put my mouth. I have not been doing that recently because I know have been not eating correctly but I am getting back on track with that too. It also syncs with my fitness tracker and adds to my allowable caloric input, the amount being dependent on how much exercise I have gotten.
Last, I have a scale that tells me BMI and fluid retention. I know it is not professionally accurate but it does give you a good gauge of things, primarily my fluid retention (you have to have bare feet for that to work). If I gain weight and then see that my fluid retention is high I don't feel as bad. It measures fluid against BMI so when my fluid retention is high, my BMI is low, like in the teens and we all know is not true for me. Still, it does help me. When I start seeing my weight going down it spurs me on to stay with dieting. Sometimes if it goes up I sort of throw in the towel but I getting beyond that mindset now.
This type of scale is not as costly as you might expect. Mine is a Tanita that I got on Amazon and if I recall it was around $45.

I have included a screenshot of one day this week with my fitness tracker. I took this to send to send to my son. I did really well that day, one of my all time bests.
JK

Jump to this post

To All,
I have found that I need to depend on the positive approach to weight control and exercise. For instance, counting calories and 'depriving' myself', leave me frustrated, grumpy, and hungry. And my mind constantly reverts to eating and cravings.

Trust me when I say, "This is not a paid endorsement".
I purchased a copy of the Mayo Clinic Diet book in the bookstore as a souvenir in 2009. I feel that I have benefited tremendously from the pro-active and positive approach to healthy eating. I am learning to make better food choices that leave me satisfied. It is easy to refer to when I begin to slip into my 'old' eating habits.

This is just a suggestion of what is helping me, in addition to keeping an exercise routine.
Rosemary
.

REPLY
Mentor
Rosemary, Volunteer Mentor | @rosemarya | Aug 24, 2017
In reply to @JustinMcClanahan "Jane, good luck at the club! I hope I didn't add more confusion to a topic..." + (show)
@JustinMcClanahan

Jane, good luck at the club! I hope I didn't add more confusion to a topic that already has so much to think about. I actually began college studying exercise sciences and took some nutrition, exercise, and excercise planning courses.

You are correct in that BMR is the amount of calories your body theoretically burns just to maintain your current body. The more muscle tone you have, the higher your BMR is because muscles burn more calories.

The best way to burn fat, and keep it off long term, is to do excercises that get you breathing hard for longer periods than 2 minutes. Don't overdue it if you have any health concerns, but oxygen is what actually burns fat, so moderate excercise that elevates your heart rate and has you breathing a bit harder is what actually burns an animals fat deposits! This of course all goes hand-in-hand with a good diet. But, simply cutting calories is not always a long term solution! I hope this didn't muddy the waters more! These are the same things I struggle with daily. The diet is hardest for me as well.

Jump to this post

Justin, Ha Ha ! Ice Cream has become my "beverage of choice" aka my indulgence, since my liver transplant!

REPLY
JK | @contentandwell | Aug 24, 2017

@rosemarya Rosemary, I guess that's a good way to look at it, a "swap" for my glass of wine with dinner. I am trying hard right now though to lose the weight I regained that I am not adding anything non-essential in, and not purchasing anything that will tempt me.
JK

REPLY
2011panc | @2011panc | Aug 24, 2017
In reply to @contentandwell "@rosemarya @fessmom I neglected to include some of my best helpers in losing weight. I have..." + (show)
@contentandwell

@rosemarya @fessmom I neglected to include some of my best helpers in losing weight.
I have a fitness tracker. You set what you want your goal to be and it lets you know how you are doing. It really pushes me to get to that goal and beyond.
Next, I use myfitnesspal to track everything I put my mouth. I have not been doing that recently because I know have been not eating correctly but I am getting back on track with that too. It also syncs with my fitness tracker and adds to my allowable caloric input, the amount being dependent on how much exercise I have gotten.
Last, I have a scale that tells me BMI and fluid retention. I know it is not professionally accurate but it does give you a good gauge of things, primarily my fluid retention (you have to have bare feet for that to work). If I gain weight and then see that my fluid retention is high I don't feel as bad. It measures fluid against BMI so when my fluid retention is high, my BMI is low, like in the teens and we all know is not true for me. Still, it does help me. When I start seeing my weight going down it spurs me on to stay with dieting. Sometimes if it goes up I sort of throw in the towel but I getting beyond that mindset now.
This type of scale is not as costly as you might expect. Mine is a Tanita that I got on Amazon and if I recall it was around $45.

I have included a screenshot of one day this week with my fitness tracker. I took this to send to send to my son. I did really well that day, one of my all time bests.
JK

Jump to this post

@contentandwell, oh probably. I was trying to be so smart and put the name of the person's post. We all see how well that worked out this time! lol I'm glad it finally got to you anyway. Everyone on this site is so helpful. Thank you all.

REPLY
JK | @contentandwell | Aug 24, 2017
In reply to @contentandwell "@rosemarya @fessmom I neglected to include some of my best helpers in losing weight. I have..." + (show)
@contentandwell

@rosemarya @fessmom I neglected to include some of my best helpers in losing weight.
I have a fitness tracker. You set what you want your goal to be and it lets you know how you are doing. It really pushes me to get to that goal and beyond.
Next, I use myfitnesspal to track everything I put my mouth. I have not been doing that recently because I know have been not eating correctly but I am getting back on track with that too. It also syncs with my fitness tracker and adds to my allowable caloric input, the amount being dependent on how much exercise I have gotten.
Last, I have a scale that tells me BMI and fluid retention. I know it is not professionally accurate but it does give you a good gauge of things, primarily my fluid retention (you have to have bare feet for that to work). If I gain weight and then see that my fluid retention is high I don't feel as bad. It measures fluid against BMI so when my fluid retention is high, my BMI is low, like in the teens and we all know is not true for me. Still, it does help me. When I start seeing my weight going down it spurs me on to stay with dieting. Sometimes if it goes up I sort of throw in the towel but I getting beyond that mindset now.
This type of scale is not as costly as you might expect. Mine is a Tanita that I got on Amazon and if I recall it was around $45.

I have included a screenshot of one day this week with my fitness tracker. I took this to send to send to my son. I did really well that day, one of my all time bests.
JK

Jump to this post

@2011panc Got it! 🙂
JK

REPLY
JK | @contentandwell | Aug 26, 2017
In reply to @contentandwell "@rosemarya @fessmom I neglected to include some of my best helpers in losing weight. I have..." + (show)
@contentandwell

@rosemarya @fessmom I neglected to include some of my best helpers in losing weight.
I have a fitness tracker. You set what you want your goal to be and it lets you know how you are doing. It really pushes me to get to that goal and beyond.
Next, I use myfitnesspal to track everything I put my mouth. I have not been doing that recently because I know have been not eating correctly but I am getting back on track with that too. It also syncs with my fitness tracker and adds to my allowable caloric input, the amount being dependent on how much exercise I have gotten.
Last, I have a scale that tells me BMI and fluid retention. I know it is not professionally accurate but it does give you a good gauge of things, primarily my fluid retention (you have to have bare feet for that to work). If I gain weight and then see that my fluid retention is high I don't feel as bad. It measures fluid against BMI so when my fluid retention is high, my BMI is low, like in the teens and we all know is not true for me. Still, it does help me. When I start seeing my weight going down it spurs me on to stay with dieting. Sometimes if it goes up I sort of throw in the towel but I getting beyond that mindset now.
This type of scale is not as costly as you might expect. Mine is a Tanita that I got on Amazon and if I recall it was around $45.

I have included a screenshot of one day this week with my fitness tracker. I took this to send to send to my son. I did really well that day, one of my all time bests.
JK

Jump to this post

@lcamino Hi Lynn, how are you doing? I am really back on track, and hungry 24/7. 🙁 I think in some ways the hunger helps me because it reminds that i am working at losing weight. My scale has started to show a loss so that helps to spur me on, both in my food choices and in nudging me to get to my club. I won't be able to tomorrow unfortunately because we have a party to go to, 1 3/4 hours away, beginning at noon. I would go in the morning before that, but if I did that would have to be awfully early to get home and get ready to go.
I hope you are getting on track too.
Jane

REPLY
JK | @contentandwell | Aug 26, 2017
In reply to @contentandwell "@rosemarya @fessmom I neglected to include some of my best helpers in losing weight. I have..." + (show)
@contentandwell

@rosemarya @fessmom I neglected to include some of my best helpers in losing weight.
I have a fitness tracker. You set what you want your goal to be and it lets you know how you are doing. It really pushes me to get to that goal and beyond.
Next, I use myfitnesspal to track everything I put my mouth. I have not been doing that recently because I know have been not eating correctly but I am getting back on track with that too. It also syncs with my fitness tracker and adds to my allowable caloric input, the amount being dependent on how much exercise I have gotten.
Last, I have a scale that tells me BMI and fluid retention. I know it is not professionally accurate but it does give you a good gauge of things, primarily my fluid retention (you have to have bare feet for that to work). If I gain weight and then see that my fluid retention is high I don't feel as bad. It measures fluid against BMI so when my fluid retention is high, my BMI is low, like in the teens and we all know is not true for me. Still, it does help me. When I start seeing my weight going down it spurs me on to stay with dieting. Sometimes if it goes up I sort of throw in the towel but I getting beyond that mindset now.
This type of scale is not as costly as you might expect. Mine is a Tanita that I got on Amazon and if I recall it was around $45.

I have included a screenshot of one day this week with my fitness tracker. I took this to send to send to my son. I did really well that day, one of my all time bests.
JK

Jump to this post

@rosemarya Thanks Rosemary. I think we all need to find what works for us. Many people of course love Weight Watchers but I find the idea of being a group and getting weighted to not be something I want to participate in. I do best with my methods. I find myfitnesspal helps me because it makes me more aware of the nutrients in everything -- calories, fat, carbs, sodium, etc. When I am on a roll, which I am right now and hopefully will manage to sustain it, I am very aware that if I have it I have to record it and that helps me to not casually snack on something.
As I mentioned in a different post, when the scale begins showing a loss that helps me a lot too.
JK

REPLY
IWantToBelieve | @IWantToBelieve | Aug 29, 2017
In reply to @contentandwell "@rosemarya @fessmom I neglected to include some of my best helpers in losing weight. I have..." + (show)
@contentandwell

@rosemarya @fessmom I neglected to include some of my best helpers in losing weight.
I have a fitness tracker. You set what you want your goal to be and it lets you know how you are doing. It really pushes me to get to that goal and beyond.
Next, I use myfitnesspal to track everything I put my mouth. I have not been doing that recently because I know have been not eating correctly but I am getting back on track with that too. It also syncs with my fitness tracker and adds to my allowable caloric input, the amount being dependent on how much exercise I have gotten.
Last, I have a scale that tells me BMI and fluid retention. I know it is not professionally accurate but it does give you a good gauge of things, primarily my fluid retention (you have to have bare feet for that to work). If I gain weight and then see that my fluid retention is high I don't feel as bad. It measures fluid against BMI so when my fluid retention is high, my BMI is low, like in the teens and we all know is not true for me. Still, it does help me. When I start seeing my weight going down it spurs me on to stay with dieting. Sometimes if it goes up I sort of throw in the towel but I getting beyond that mindset now.
This type of scale is not as costly as you might expect. Mine is a Tanita that I got on Amazon and if I recall it was around $45.

I have included a screenshot of one day this week with my fitness tracker. I took this to send to send to my son. I did really well that day, one of my all time bests.
JK

Jump to this post

Well my husband and I started Jenny Craig on Saturday and I have lost 2 lbs thus far. They say the first week is usually water but since I'm on a med that empties my body of water I'm inclined to think I might have lost some fat. The food is prepared which is making it possible because I'm learning how my lifestyle does not give me a lot of time to prepare food. I know this will change once my youngest is in college next year. You still add fresh fruits and veggies. My husband and I are starting with strength training every other day and once we have done that for about 2 weeks we are going to add cardio. It really helps to have someone to do it with. In the past either he or I have attempted to lose weight but never at the same time.

The hardest part is that I still have to cook for my youngest daughter and she had a birthday party on Saturday, special bday dinner tonight (her actual bday), and we had a cookout with our church group last night. For last night we went to the cookout but had saved our fruit portions for the evening and I brought a fruit salad so we ate that. I'm hoping to be down 26 lbs by Christmas. Having the prepared food makes it much easier to eat well because when I'm in a rush something healthy is ready. You do feel like you are eating all day because you eat three meals a day and 3 snacks. I have had minor hunger pangs which have been warded off by drinking water

The best part is that the sodium intake follows my doctor's orders and so does the protein. In fact, I think I'm eating less protein now than before and that is good for my kidneys. I didn't think I could find a diet program that would follow the restrictions I have for my kidney but Jenny Craig diet is set up by dieticians and approved by the Heart Association. It is probably the healthiest I have eaten in my entire life. In such a short time I'm seeing how you can eat good food with portion control.

Thanks for checking in on me!

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