Scale moves slow

Hey guys, how do you keep your spirits up when the scale isn't showing improvement and you know you are doing all the right things with diet and exercise?

I do a workout! No, seriously, I get up and listen to my favorite song and dance to it like a fool. For me, I have to physically snap myself out of negative trains of thought. It's easier to laugh at myself than it is to feel sorry for myself and I had a bad habit of eating my sadness.

When I first started exercising - before it became a refuge and habit - there were days where I was weepy when I started my workout. I would actually cry when I couldn't nail a burpee or complete a pushup. I stuck out the sads and found that by the end it I felt sweaty but great, like I had accomplished something. I guess my point is that just doing things that make me healthier is enough to make me happy IF I stop and appreciate that I'm doing the best that I can.

If that dancing isn't your thing there are plenty of great motivational fitness quotes and pictures floating around the web. Having a folder of those that rotate as my desktop backgrounds helps keep me in the right mindset.

Also, when the scale isn't showing me what I want to see I will stay off it for a few days. The pitfall there is that necessitates being completely honest with your calorie counting and exercise tracking.

I am going through the same thing ill lose a couple pounds then the next time i weigh I've gained and i know I'm not doing things wrong. Or at least i don't

I am in the same boat. This week I had to get my boyfriend to tell me I am doing good and look great to give me the encouragement I needed to get to the gym. I was looking in the mirror and couldn't see a single one of the 30 pounds that I had lost gone. However, he helped pump me back up and I made it to the gym.

Then I proceeded to do a 40 minute weight lifting workout followed by an hour and 15 minutes on the elliptical, a personal best for me.

I actually need people to tell me I am doing great and look good. I am having a hard time finding the total motivation within me to keep going when I am tired and don't want to work out or I want to eat that full fat baked potato. But I know that about myself so I ask for it when I need it.

Good luck to you!

Get the tape measure out!! you might not show on the Scales, but i bet you will see it in the inches! If you have never measured, do it now. Waist,hips, thighs,upper arms and bust. Jot it down, then when you weigh(i do it once a week) get the tape measure out too! If you stick to your diet and exercise, you should note a difference.Hang on in there, you are doing good!

Do you have a clothes goal? As soon as I make it into a new pants size, I run out and buy some jeans the next size down and (I'm not kidding here) hang them on the wall in my room. Jeans are unforgiving (unless you buy stretchy jeans), so for me that's the real test of where I am. Every now and then, I take them down and try them on to see how it's going. Until they fit (buttoned and zipped comfortably, I can put my hands in my pockets, I don't get red marks on my belly from them), I keep at it. Then the process starts all over. Even better, I keep at least one pair of old pants once I've lost my way out of them (I donate the rest to the Mission as soon as they're even a little baggy.) And every now and then, I line them all up on the bed and look. It's amazing. To see a pair of size 8 jeans that fit me laying on top of a size 24 that used to is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen (other than my two daughters).

Scales are only numbers and fluctuate frequently even over the course of the day (for obvious reasons.) Find your gratification somewhere else, or learn to see the "big picture" of those numbers, or you will be frequently disappointed.