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Staying Motivated for the Long Haul
Healthy Living | Last Active: Jan 29, 2023 | Replies (499)Comment receiving replies
@colleenyoung Colleen, I have been doing well with my own diet management and getting in plenty of exercise using my fitness tracker to keep me going but for the last three days despite keeping my calories low and doing plenty of exercise I am at a plateau. I find plateaus are very discouraging and tend to make a person want to "throw in the towel" but I am staying positive, as difficult as it is, and hoping to see things budge tomorrow. When I see the my weight slowly decrease it keeps me motivated.
I lost quite a bit of weight and recently gained back about 8 pounds so that is what I am trying to lose. I have lost three so far. I may have mentioned this before, I am sure I did in one of the forums, but we are going away two times in the next few months, once on a vacation, and once to NYC to enjoy the city at Christmas but primarily because my daughter is getting married there. I am finding VRBOs (or airbnbs) to be a Godsend. I can eat more appropriately staying in that type of accommodation. Of course something like the Marriott Residence Inns have kitchens so you can do the same there. Initially I balked at the thought of having to prepare my own meals because vacation for me has always also meant a break from cooking but now I am glad that I will have that control. Of course we will eat out a few nights.
Obviously the other advantage of VRBOs is the cost. We are staying right in the center of Manhattan in December, in what looks like a beautiful condo with a doorman and a gym in the building, sharing it with my son and his girlfriend, all for about $500 a night total, which is cheap for the city. Of course you save money by preparing your own meals also.
JK
Replies to "@colleenyoung Colleen, I have been doing well with my own diet management and getting in plenty..."
@colleenyoung Thanks Colleen, that is taking a very positive attitude. I am hoping for tomorrow. I did mange to get through the day without straying off course, and I did go to my club today and spent time in the gym, rather than the pool. I think I do better in the pool but they say it is good to mix it up. The pool is definitely good for some of my muscles - knees and triceps and biceps, and it is good cardio. The gym equipment is, as I understand it, good because you are using weights. I also do the treadmill and elliptical there.
Just about to head to bed so I can get up early and get to the pool aerobics. Love the class on Wednesdays and Fridays, the instructor is the best. She is vigorous and keeps us going constantly. She herself just turned 70 today! I kid her that she must have had too much coffee some mornings.
JK
@colleenyoung , @contentandwell - I must say that being patient with ourselves if often the hardest. If we were listening to a friend or son/daughter about their plateau what would we say? We would probably praise their efforts, tell them to be patient, and maybe go for a walk with them to keep them company as they try to burn some calories. Why don't we take our advice and apply it to our own situation? We are often our worst critics... so maybe stopping the negative self-talk is just as important a lifestyle change as exercise and healthy eating.
@colleenyoung , @contentandwell - I am also learning that going up and down half a pound to a pound during the week is normal. What you should focus on is what your overall trend is. Did you go up on Monday and stay up a pound by Sunday or did you go back down? If you went back to the Monday weight than try looking at that as you stayed stable vs you gained and then lost a pound in a week. Small ups and downs are normal due to water retention and not necessarily what you ate. Look at the overall trend. If the one pound increase gets you down maybe just weigh yourself once or twice a week vs. daily.
I have also learned that even an hour or two can change my weight. If I weigh myself at 6am and go back to bed I can weight 1/2 pound to a pound less in two hours if I go to the bathroom before I weight myself the second time. Part of that might be from the meds I take so that might not be the case for everyone. All I'm suggesting is to try watching the trend, how your clothes fit, how you feel and not just the numbers. It is hard but I find it keeps the discouraging thoughts away.
@lcamino, as I just posted, my weight is going up and up. I had gained some and was working on taking it back off, had managed to lose three or four of the eight pounds but now it is back up and no matter what I do I feel like there is no stopping it. I really do not want to have to purchase yet another wardrobe. 🙁
JK
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@contentandwell , plateaus are so discouraging. But I like to think of them as times of quiet germination. Think of a young child learning. For a period of time, they may not seem to be making any progress and then, boom, all of the sudden they accomplish a new milestone. Not sure if this applies to diet and exercise and weight loss, but plateaus were a topic at the dinner table with my daughter tonight. She was getting frustrated with her apparent lack of progression in her music lessons, and then all of the sudden she got it, and the passage she was practising worked. That may be a bit of stretch to compare, but a reminder that we also have to be patient with ourselves.