Where do you find your motivation? (I'm struggling) page

[mcpheenom]

So I have been struggling as of late. I can't seem to go more than a day doing the healthy things I want to and used to do. I am young and relatively fit. It is certainly nice to say about myself but it also hinders me in a weird way. its as if I am constantly (subconsciously) convincing myself that I can afford to eat pizza, bread, drink beer now and tomorrow will be the day I will change...This has been sort of a recurring trend. I have put on weight in the past without caring much and eventually kick it into high gear and get back into six pack mode only to stop caring about maintenance and improvement once I get there...

So my question for all of you is....where do you find your motivation? Do you struggle? What do you do when you do? Do you have cheat days? How do you respond to struggles/cheat days/lack of discipline?

[Blah]

For myself, I want to be the best that I can, so I have quite high goals, such as swim 1k in the open sea, run a marathon (atleast once), do an ironman, and a whole lot of feats of strenght such as planche and human flag. Slowly working towards these things keeps me motivated to work out and eat well, and so long as I stick to that most of the time I don't feel bad when I slip up. I have no end date, or time set on many of these, and if I do its fairly broad such as end of the year or this summer etc.

Hope that helps

[ChocoTaco369]

What helps is to have a true interest in nutrition and getting healthy. This website completely turned the way I think upside-down. Everything I grew up believing I learned to be completely wrong, and for the first time in my life, I UNDERSTAND how to get healthy and how the body works. Now that I have all this knowledge, I'm obsessed with putting it to the test. I love doing this because my diet is the complete opposite of what everyone else thinks is healthy, and it's funny watching them look at the way I eat like I'm crazy. And yet, everyone's attitude is changing as they watch me eat twice as much food as them, yet my body fat drops lower and lower as theirs becomes higher and higher as they get older and more entrenched in the typical American 8-5 workday, sitting on their ass all day. Now, they're starting to come to me for advice, and it's gratifying.

My advice is to turn it into a challenge. Start flaunting the way you eat for the shock value. Your friends and family will initially be concerned for your health - since you're gonna die of a heart attack from all that saturated fat right? - then as they see you get thinner and thinner and healthier and healthier, they'll start coming around and before you know it, you'll be the nutrition guru of the group. That's my motivation - to get myself healthier, and to get my friends and family healthier, too. If I so much as help turn one person's life around, it's worth the hundreds of crazy looks from everyone else.

I'm putting my body through all kinds of experiments on this site for all to see. I find it fun to be a guinea pig, and if my experiments start to help others and turn their lives around/offer them motivation, then mission accomplished.

[Griff]

Well, my motivation comes from not wanting to be in severe pain all the time. Wheat, even a little bit, will make my joints swell and ache and hurt for days; I'll get IBS and migraines and asthma, and I'll be miserable.

Motivation? I'd say that's a hell of a motivation, wouldn't you?

Maybe you should start associating the fake food with dirty production facilities, dead bugs and rat droppings being beaten into the batter, moldy food being put into your pizza. Make yourself sick to think about eating or drinking that stuff and you'll be able to find all the motivation you need.

[Ivey]

Well, my motivation comes from not wanting to be in severe pain all the time. Wheat, even a little bit, will make my joints swell and ache and hurt for days; I'll get IBS and migraines and asthma, and I'll be miserable.

Motivation? I'd say that's a hell of a motivation, wouldn't you?

Maybe you should start associating the fake food with dirty production facilities, dead bugs and rat droppings being beaten into the batter, moldy food being put into your pizza. Make yourself sick to think about eating or drinking that stuff and you'll be able to find all the motivation you need.

It's the same for me, I used to just ache all the time, I no longer hurt all over. This is all the motivation I need to stay on the straight and narrow, so far, since January I have not eaten off my plan

[Griff]

It's the same for me, I used to just ache all the time, I no longer hurt all over. This is all the motivation I need to stay on the straight and narrow, so far, since January I have not eaten off my plan

Exactly. I wish I could give this pain to people so that they wouldn't even feel the need to cheat.

[DFH]

So I have been struggling as of late. I can't seem to go more than a day doing the healthy things I want to and used to do. I am young and relatively fit. It is certainly nice to say about myself but it also hinders me in a weird way. its as if I am constantly (subconsciously) convincing myself that I can afford to eat pizza, bread, drink beer now and tomorrow will be the day I will change...This has been sort of a recurring trend. I have put on weight in the past without caring much and eventually kick it into high gear and get back into six pack mode only to stop caring about maintenance and improvement once I get there...

So my question for all of you is....where do you find your motivation? Do you struggle? What do you do when you do? Do you have cheat days? How do you respond to struggles/cheat days/lack of discipline?

Just picture yourself 20 years from now, weight out of control, tons of symptoms, and you are going to a dr that is no help and it just gets worse. Everything you have been reading about what to do turns out to be wrong. Then, you find out that you can reverse the problems if you just do it this way. Would you do it, or stay huge and sick? It's going to happen, you just haven't been there yet.

[ChocoTaco369]

Exactly. I wish I could give this pain to people so that they wouldn't even feel the need to cheat.

While I agree with staying as motivated as possible, I still feel that "cheating" - i.e. cycling heavy carbohydrate sources on heavy workout days - is healthy and ideal. I still argue that humans are natural carb cyclers and did not eat low carb every day. Hell, when Grok stumbled on a watermelon patch or a mango grove, you can bet your ass he ate himself into a glucose coma. Why would you hunt for food when sugar doesn't run? My theory is that Grok packed on a little fat from sugary sources in the spring/summer, then, in the fall and winter, he ate a low carb/high fat diet and the cycle repeated itself. I think it's in our optimum health to cycle carbs. Just pick your carbs from good sources like potatoes/sweet potatoes, white rice, soaked beans, fermented soy, etc. I wasn't losing any body fat on Primal until I started cycling carbohydrates. Since then, I've lost about 7 pounds of pure body fat and my strength has increased marginally.

[Midlyfechrysalis]

So I have been struggling as of late. I can't seem to go more than a day doing the healthy things I want to and used to do. I am young and relatively fit. It is certainly nice to say about myself but it also hinders me in a weird way. its as if I am constantly (subconsciously) convincing myself that I can afford to eat pizza, bread, drink beer now and tomorrow will be the day I will change...This has been sort of a recurring trend. I have put on weight in the past without caring much and eventually kick it into high gear and get back into six pack mode only to stop caring about maintenance and improvement once I get there...

So my question for all of you is....where do you find your motivation? Do you struggle? What do you do when you do? Do you have cheat days? How do you respond to struggles/cheat days/lack of discipline?

I'm am middle aged and unfit. I had my fun with beer and pizza. I could say that I look into the eyes of my children to get my motivation. That would sound good, but it would be a lie.

I am here, finally, because (as my user name suggests) life happened to me around 40 and I had a choice to go downhill or get better. For the last 5 years, I've been doing the best I can in every area except weight/diet. And now, it's time.

That said, I do struggle. Last week, I got terrible news that I used as an excuse to eat poorly. I reigned it in as best I could and got back on track. Getting over being a perfectionist helps me have some perspective and less anxiety. The fact that I feel better eating primal/low carbish also helps.

I also have a spiritual element to my life that helps, puppies, kids, and a graduation date in December.

[mcpheenom]

While I agree with staying as motivated as possible, I still feel that "cheating" - i.e. cycling heavy carbohydrate sources on heavy workout days - is healthy and ideal. I still argue that humans are natural carb cyclers and did not eat low carb every day. Hell, when Grok stumbled on a watermelon patch or a mango grove, you can bet your ass he ate himself into a glucose coma. Why would you hunt for food when sugar doesn't run? My theory is that Grok packed on a little fat from sugary sources in the spring/summer, then, in the fall and winter, he ate a low carb/high fat diet and the cycle repeated itself. I think it's in our optimum health to cycle carbs. Just pick your carbs from good sources like potatoes/sweet potatoes, white rice, soaked beans, fermented soy, etc. I wasn't losing any body fat on Primal until I started cycling carbohydrates. Since then, I've lost about 7 pounds of pure body fat and my strength has increased marginally.

I agree....I have always completely disagreed with people when they say Paleo/primal=low carb...just doesn't make sense. Low carb is just as dangerous as other diets.