If you lost a lot of weight, how did you keep up motivation?

[IchGlaubMeinSchweinPfeift]

Hi everyone,

Just looking for some advice / tips please.

Start of January, I technically had 6 stone to lose. I decided to do it very slowly, concentrate on 2 stone this year and 2 next year. Even if I can lose 4, I'd obviously be in so much better shape than now .

I lost the first stone between January and end of April. I maintained for a month which I was fine with. But for around 3 weeks I've been trying to get started on the 2nd stone and I'm struggling. I mentally gear myself for a good week then I just eat too much sugar in the evenings which sends me over my calories and stop tracking.

I can't shake this rut. If you lost a lot of weight and had moments like this, could you please help me with how you stayed on track? Or pushed through these difficult phases?

Thanks everyone

4.5 stone off & maintained for nearly 5 years.
I don’t know, I think I just liked seeing the numbers changed on the scales. I didn’t do it as in ‘one stone off and maintain, then start on the second one’, I just kept chipping a little away each week. The plateauing was annoying BUT I knew that if I kept up I would eventually get to where I wanted to be, whereas if I didn’t get back on track after a blip, I would remain miserable and full of self loathing like I was right then.
I followed a few people on Tiktok who had been over weight but lost it, they were full of tips and motivational posts.

here’s a post about getting back on track
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeb2dF6a/

examples of some of the posts that kept me going. You’ve done brilliantly losing a stone, so you know what to do, just go back to ditching the sugary treats and you will get to where you want to be.

These feelings are very normal, let me validate them! Also well done! You have done so well.

Whenever you feel like giving up, remind yourself of how far you have come already and what sacrifices you have made, also picture where you want to be in a months time, don’t look too far ahead as it’s overwhelming.

sometimes it can be better to break all the goals down a lot smaller. So you can say ok I’m not having the best month, but I aim to find something else to do in the evenings that I enjoy to try to shake me out of my rut. This could be going for a walk, meeting a friend, reading a book. Move your mind away from the repetition of ‘stop eating the food’ and focus more on alleviating the boredom or stress at that time. Sometimes it’s worse to set yourself a goal NOT to do something that it is to set yourself a goal to do something especially if you enjoy it

also remember to be kind to yourself and not too hard, being off kilter a few days or couple weeks isn’t setting you back to square 1.

my motivation is feeling good
I like waking up in a good mood and not feeling tired

I won’t lie initially it was vanity but I moved past that a while ago, now I am more bothered about how I feel than how I look. Yeah don’t get me wrong I do still evaluate bits of me but I try to be nicer to myself about them

It’s good to see your body in what it can DO not what it looks like.

so whenever I am having an off day I try to hang onto the nice feeling I get waking up in a good mood or when I have pushed myself in exercise and been proud of my progress. I started lifting weights and doing Pilates and I can now move/bend differently from before and it’s really fulfilling. The times I wobble less I am so chuffed with myself inside. I can run up some stairs and not be out of breath

You need to find the little proud moments to hold on to and talk to yourself that you are worth investing in, and worthy of being happy and fulfilled

I just plodded my way through, a lb a week mostly.

Yes I had bad days where Id eat everything in sight, still do even though Im maintaining, I just make sure each meal is balanced and healthy and filling , so the snacks are just small snacks not fillers - ie Im not filling up on the snacks I am filling up on fruit/veg/protein/grains , so the packet of crisps that I suddenly crave is just a small from a multi pack bag - not the family bag

Trying to eat three meals a day is really important, spaced out equally so you dont get so hungry that you fall at the first hurdle. I cant stomach breakfast and I work 12-4 so I was coming out of work that hungry - Sausage roll and crisps - not a bother. Now I take a small portion of chedder, cubed small, to eat in the car on my way in. Then about 2pm when Im flagging - a cup of soup - vegetable based and thick - tomato and red pepper, leek and potato, lentil and bacon - real rib sticker stuff. It keeps me going till I get in. If I feel like my throat is cut whilst Im prepping dinner - hard boiled egg, chicken drumstick, a couscous salad

Motivation for me was age. Im 60 soon. I dont want to be 60 and be barely fit to walk, for the BP to remain stubbornly high, for my joints to hurt - and its paying off - BP meds are halved, I walk with no shortness of breath, Im first on and last off the dancefloor :) I have energy and stamina and best of all Im off my antidepressants

Losing the weight wasnt easy, it took a long time being put on and it took a long time coming off. But plod I did. Even if I had 2 bad days where nothing but chocolate and cake was going in, I didnt say fuck it, I started again with the next meal