What sparked you to get healthy?

[december2020]

I have about 5-10lbs to lose. It's not loads in the grand scheme of things but I'm short so it doesn't carry well. It makes me a bit uncomfortable and it's also excess weight for me.

I know what I need to do to lose it (drink less alcohol, snack less, less takeaways etc). But for the life of me I can't seem to stick to it and break the cycle.

Partially I'm just too tired and can't be bothered after long work hours, commuting, toddler and house chores (DH pulls his weight). And partially I just have zero will power, consistency and persistence.

So I'm looking for answers, hopefully spurred by your stories on what sparked you to finally get healthy and break the cycle?
How did you do it?

Going through the menopause I felt so achy and trying to pull 12 hr days with 20 somethings in a physical jobI decided to do kettlebells and start to run.
I also gave up booze and you would be surprised at the calories as I only drank a few units a week But some weight loss occurred.
Small changes done consistently do make a huge difference.

That's incredible - what did you do to keep yourself on track and consistent or did it come quite naturally?

I'm also short and petite so every extra lb shows especially the midsection.
I gave up alcohol and lost over a stone in a month putting me to where I needed to be.
Unfortunately I just can't drink and have the body I want so I had to choose.

That's fantastic! Did you find other perks of giving up alcohol? Did you find it hard to do that or was it fairly easy for you?

I recently saw something that said its not motivation you need, but discipline.

I have a lot more to lose than you OP, that in itself should be sufficient motivation. I'm just not disciplined and not sure how to make that change.

This is also what I'm finding the hardest - finding and maintaining the discipline!

Would love any tips from MNners who have nailed this and how they did it!

At the beginning of the year I decided to take better care of myself. The penny dropped that no one else was going to tell me to drink less, or eat better, or go to bed earlier, so I had to do it for myself. Sounds corny, but it just clicked and I’ve fallen in love with taking care of myself. I try to do something every day that makes me feel good. Could be a face pack, nice long bath, cooking a new recipe, getting a book from the library. Eating well and drinking it’s of water makes me feel good too so I’ve been doing that every day. I’ve lost 2.5 stones and don’t feel like I’ve even tried.

I think reframing it as taking care of myself made it feel like self care and not as punishment.

I had terrifying repeat liver function test results in the years around my 40th birthday that finally led me to get healthy. I’m not perfect 100% of the time, but I’ve built healthy habits and feel so much better as my health continuously improves.

I didn’t want to be one of those middle aged women wearing a T shirt top out over her menopausal belly.

So last year I joined SW - started going to the gym 5 x a week and stopped drinking. I lost 31lb in 18 weeks, dropped to a size 10 and feel fabulous.

Fear. Shame.

I weighed in early January for the first time in many years and was medically obese. That was the “shame” bit.

I was 50 at the time and a number of Facebook friends from my school year or the one immediately above it, had suffered from stroke or heart failure in the prior couple of years. This was the “fear” bit.

Your situation is different because you are not obese. And actually, it can be hard when you don’t have lots to lose because motivation is often unforthcoming, and people are less supportive because they don’t regard you as “fat” - they think you’re being faddy if you eschew a biscuit or a cocktail, so they press you to accept it and you feel pushed into doing so. But when you’re obese, people understand and are respectful of a polite “no thanks”.

Your situation is also different because you’re not medically at risk so you haven’t got the fear of being ill or incapacitated or worse.

I am now at the stage where I have about ten pounds to lose and have run out of steam a bit. I feel ok about it because I’m fitter and my BMI is much better. But I don’t know where the motivation for the last push is gonna come from!

I recently went to visit friends who I have not seen for six years. They are a few years older than me and in their mid fifties. They have never been active or exercised. I was really shocked to see them. They have very noticeably started to move like slow, stiff old people. I had been trying to get into a regular exercise regime before I saw them but that gave me a real kick up the arse. It really showed me what the future holds if you don’t respect your body and keep it moving. Now I keep to my activity plan, even if I have to force myself out of the house. I just visualize that and that gets me up and out.

I am similar to TenniswithDeborah. I was ashamed of the way I used food and alcohol to destress and fed up with telling myself will do it tomorrow always. Was obese and needed to go on blood pressure tablets. Something just clicked. Have barely drank alcohol since August, have cut out caffeine, eaten healthier and lost 1.5 stone. Did more exercise but mainly walking or yoga so think I need to do more there but trying not to add pressure on myself.

I can still see myself slipping back to old ways though on stressful days.

I body double with a friend. We don't miss gym sessions or booked classes because there's someone else to hold us to account.

I also do reformer Pilates which is eye watering my expensive so I wouldn't miss that because it costs too much!

Finding out I'm going to be a grandma next year

I had accepted putting on a few pounds and although I was really unhappy looking at my flab in the mirror I was trying to love the body I had and so ordered a bunch of summer clothes in the next size up, and when they arrived, I couldn’t get the shorts over my bum. That was a massive shock to me tbh and I realised that nobody else was going to sort this out for me! I carry weight very evenly over my body so I didn’t look obviously fat or even overweight, but I was sharing photos of myself - the double chin, the thighs…it just didn’t look like me.

So I just started logging calories and working out. Making myself get up early to do it and logging everything, every day. I’ve been doing it for 4 months and I’ve lost over two stone and I am in the best shape I’ve ever been in. I have muscles! I can do push ups! And it’s all ME. Nobody told me to, I decided to by myself and I owe all the success to myself. That feels 100000 times better than any sweets or junk food ever could. Better than an hour in bed.

I also follow some fitness influencers on Instagram, and one person said something like “it’s hard to put in the work. You start to wonder why you can’t just do what the average person does. But the average person is unfit and overweight. So if you want to be better than average you have to do more than the average”. That resonates. And reading up on health and exercise and the extraordinary effects it has on your healthy lifespan. My dad died in his 60s and he had an unhealthy lifestyle. Some small changes could have made his life more comfortable, longer and happier. And I’m in the position to make these changes so…it’s crazy not in IMO.

Little changes. I needed to lose a similar amount, I was generally healthy (statistically and looked ok) but I knew I wasn't making healthy choices. Tried so many times to "start on Monday" but put too much pressure on myself to make too many changes, one misstep and I was making worse choices waiting until the next Monday.

This time, I have just tried to make some mindful changes. I have a gym membership, some weeks I go 4 times, sometimes I go once. I try not to snack but if I want to, I do, and I don't punish myself for it. I've made my portions a little smaller. Trying not to drink alcohol. But mostly each time I make a decision "I want something to eat" "I don't want to go to the gym" I really think about it, the alternatives, how I will feel after. Some days I make excellent decisions, some days I do not...but that doesn't define the next day or the next decision. I'm not on or off a wagon.

I've lost 4.5lb in a month and I was pretty chuffed with that, no calorie counting, no wagon, just small, collective, better choices.

Being fit and healthy for me is just about making life a bit easier - can easily walk up stairs at work if the lift is out of order, can sprint for a train or bus without too much effort, can carry heavy bags or go for a long walk or roughhouse with DS without getting tired or putting my back out.

I’m quite overweight at the moment and the difference is startling - my knees ache, I snore, and I get out of breath at a fast walk; it’s embarrassing.

The thought of my beautiful clothes going to waste as they don't fit me

Finding an exercise programme that I enjoy so I don’t dread doing it (Team Body Project) has helped a lot and the guy on there is so motivating. Agree it needs to be discipline rather than motivation as motivation won’t always be there but if you’re disciplined and it’s a habit then it becomes easier to stick to.

Horrific anxiety that levelled up to unfathomable awfulness and had me uncontrollably pacing and ringing the doctor saying that I was having a heart attack. I took up walking (tapping into the pacing thing) gave up all caffeine, dairy, gluten, alcohol and monitored everything I ate. The anxiety reduced a lot and is now manageable, I'm now overweight instead of obese and much fitter and can cheer myself up with new outfits from eBay instead of bars of chocolate

Pain. I had pelvic girdle pain on a couple of my pregnancies, and I got a shock when it arrived again six months post partum, from the weight of carrying my large baby on my hip. The physio told me I just wasn't strong enough, and that was because I wasn't exercising at all, other than walking. Somehow it finally resonated with me...not exercising properly or using your muscles eventually catches up with you. I have now been doing morning workouts four times a week for the last three months, for the first time in my life! Lost the last of the baby weight and 10cm off my body measurements. But most importantly - the pain is gone, I can carry my hefty 10 month old around pain free, and I no longer hate exercise! I'm actually proud of what I can lift and the strength I've built up. It's early days but I've no intention of stopping!

I’m like you only 10 pounds to lose but would try for a few days then stop / give up. I just realised that unless I did it I would always weigh more than felt comfortable. I did as others and made very small incremental changes: more water, more movement, less snacking, healthier meals. But I didn’t do it all at once. Just built on an additional better habit every week, couple of weeks. What’s had the most impact is asking myself ‘am I thirsty?’ If not sure drink a glass of water. ‘Is it nutritional?’ If no, don’t eat it, or eat a very small amount. I’ve just had a large glass of water and one marshmallow, when I would have previously eaten the whole pack. I buy different flavours of sugar free gum as this replaces the snacking habit. I’m 6 pounds down, I’ll be happy when I get 4-6 more off.

Covid was a massive worry as I was in the morbidly obese category but I didn’t do anything about it. The first lockdown lifted and after a few months something went off in my brain that made me think ‘enough’. The next day I joined Weight Watchers and have not looked back.

Weights. I absolutely cannot believe how much better I feel and I really hate not being able to do it now.

Cos of Parkinson’s, my life since 45, bad menopause, now 61, on going health issues, adding extra weight won’t help