Want to lose weight but no motivation

[cookie14]

Hi everyone, I have posted something similar before but I am asking for advice again.

I am 5’3 and 29 and currently 13 stone. I know I am very overweight and I want to lose weight and better my overall health.

For some important context, I have previously suffered from a very severe eating disorder, so I have to be very careful when it comes to diet etc that I do not slip back into old destructive habits.

I work a competitive job, where I often have to start early or finish late to get things done on time. I am currently a trainee, so it’s in the phase of long hours and poor pay. Once I qualify this will ease a lot and I will receive a big pay increase.

I go to yoga classes once a week and other than this I have very limited exercise. I have another hobby I used to do which was very good for physical fitness but it was too expensive to keep up with.

by the time I finish work every day I’m exhausted and the last thing I want to do is go to the gym etc. it also means I get home and eat crap because I just can’t be bothered. I also run out of time to prep lunches so I end up buying Greggs etc which doesn’t help.

i really just wanted to see if anyone was in the same boat or had any advice on anything to do to make it easier?

Please if possible no comments about “get off your arse and do it” as I’m really struggling at the moment!

I know I need to do something but I just don’t know what, I hate being so unfit and unhealthy!

Just make 1 change, don't try to fix everything straight away.
I've been using Chatgpt as a personal nutritionist for the last couple of months. I'm finding that it helps motivate me and educate me.
I told it what my stats were, what my goals were and log my daily food and and excersise. It's got me from eating about 2500 calories a day to 1500 to 1900 without me feeling hungry or that I'm missing out, mostly by increasing fiber and protein and measuring high calorie stuff like cheese instead of eyeballing it. Now I'm focusing on moving more. I've started telling it when life is shit and I want to emotionally eat. And it gives alternate suggestions. Things like "sure have x amount of chocolate, but have some Greek yoghurt too with some raspberries to fill you up, so you stop eating the chocolate after x amount is gone"

I think the only way to avoid eating crap when you're tired or busy is to plan meals ahead and probably eat the same meals on repeat a fair amount so there's less to think about. My lunches are thrown together in a minute. Some dates, nuts, salad leaves, a mackerel fillet, an apple, edamame beans. It's like a picky bits tea in a lunchbox. I also batch cook food for the freezer. If I'm cooking one night's tea from scratch I make double or triple so a future dinner is just defrost and reheat.

Most of the change will come from diet rather than exercise so don't worry about fitting in gym sessions if that feels too much. As the pp said, have a small range of go to foods that you like and are quick and easy and just stick to them. Rice cakes with cottage cheese, houmous, cucumber, olives. That kind of thing

I've put on a lot of weight since I retired several years ago. I tried to lose weight for a year with no success so I joined Slimming World. I've made very slow progress but have lost 1 stone in the past 4 months.

It's worked for me as I now I will be weighed each week so I stick to the rules. The initial painful bit was throwing out/donating all the food I had in my cupboards which I shouldn't be eating (biscuits/chocolate etc)

I am really enjoying my meals now - I've learnt new recipes and a new way of shopping. I can enjoy "treats" but there is a limit as they are counted as SWIPS and there is a daily limit of 15 SWIPS

I really enjoy the meetings - the leader is a lovely lady and makes the meetings very interesting. We discuss so many different things ~ health concerns, exercise, fashion, cooking, new products, local events etc. I didn't plan on attending the meetings but I'm so glad that I tried it

Hope you will be able to find something that works for you @cookie14

I have LOADS of motivation and I'm trying really hard but struggling
to lose weight 🙁. I find portion control really difficult and I'm easily tempted, so I'm eating ready meals with extra veg, a lot of salad, and allowing myself portioned low calorie sweet and savoury snacks. By only having things in the house that are measured and OK for me to eat and by NOT eating out or buying extra food when I'm out (no Greggs for me) the weight is coming off slowly. and as the weight comes down it is slightly easier to be more active, which helps as well.