jmb3450's Journal, 09 June 2014

Motivation-

I've read a few journal entries today of people struggling with motivation. Losing weight and getting fit can be a tough journey, especially when you struggle with food addiction, self-esteem issues, depression, relationship issues, health problems, etc....(the list could go on and on but just those things are probably inclusive of most people here). We eat too much and become overweight for many reasons.
Making the difficult changes we need to do isn’t easy.

Changing our diets, cutting back on calories, denying our cravings, depriving ourselves of goodies while the people around us enjoy them, trying to figure out those stinking macros, exercising when it's hard – it hurts – and we just don’t want to. Going to the gym, being sore - exhausted - tired. Taking time out of an already busy day to log all our food and activity and try to participate on this website, maybe other sites as well. And knowing when we go to bed at night the next day brings more of the same and we just want to be at the end of the journey, at our goal and be done with all of it. Sound familiar to anyone?

I try hard to be positive, not because I’m always feeling that way but because I’ve struggled a lot at times and found that there’s nothing profitable in remaining down and discouraged. Not that I don’t get down and discouraged. It just serves no useful purpose to stay there. We live in a world where much of what goes on is beyond our control, we need to take charge of the things in our lives that we can. One of the things we can be in charge of is our attitude. Part of that is finding our motivation to get started and keep going.

I’ve been thinking about what is my motivation. I’ll continue to think about it and soon I’ll post more about it, I don’t know if it’ll be tomorrow but soon. I do want to post a couple of pictures. The first one is from my profile picture – it was taken 2 years ago and I was somewhere in the 250’s, around the weight I was when I started here in earnest 5 ½ weeks ago. The second picture was taken last Friday at a retirement party for a co-worker. I’m only around 15 lbs lighter in the second picture but I can see a difference. In my humble opinion (and I do mean this humbly) I look better in the second picture. So…here’s me before I started: (it may be necessary to click on the journal entry to open the pictures)



Here’s me at the retirement party:



Please know that I’m not doing this out of vanity, I am not a vain person. I have so much farther to go. I’ve only been on this journey for less than 6 weeks, in that time I’ve tried to get regular exercise, eat to lose weight and be healthy, and go to the trouble of logging/recording everything and participating regularly on this website. Sometimes I’ve fallen and struggled to keep it up. But in the relatively short time I’ve been doing this, I can see and feel positive results. That feels great, it feels wonderful. I am beginning to feel good about myself again. That alone is a ton of motivation.

For everyone, and especially those just starting out or struggling to keep going, I encourage you to keep going and hang in there. The struggle and pain is worth the effort. If a fat older mid-fifties guy with health issues like me can make some progress, so can you. It is worth it! I have more thoughts on this, to be continued later.

Jim

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1289 kcal

Fat: 48.27g | Prot: 106.63g | Carb: 128.81g.   Breakfast: White Cake with Icing (Home Recipe or Purchased), Coffee with Whitener and Low Calorie Sweetener (Dry Instant Powder). Lunch: Flax USA Golden Flax Cold Milled Golden Flax Seed, Hershey's Natural Unsweetened Cocoa, Splenda No Calorie Sweetener Packets, Great Value Frozen Blueberries, Spinach (Chopped or Leaf, Frozen), Silk Pure Almond Milk - Original, Pure Protein 100% Whey Protein - Vanilla Cream, Avocados, Open Nature Greek Nonfat Strained Yogurt - Plain. Dinner: Parmesan Cheese (Grated), Mozzarella Cheese (Part Skim Milk), Ken's Steak House Lite Northern Italian, Fresh Express Green & Crisp Lettuce with Iceberg and Romaine, Sea Cuisine Potato Custed Cod. Snacks/Other: Kraft Miracle Whip Light Dressing, Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh Oven Roasted Turkey Breast, Fiber One Traditional White Wrap, Hunt's Sugar Free Chocolate Pudding Snack Pack. more...

3653 kcal

Activities & Exercise: Exercise machine (moderate) - 15 minutes, Walking (exercise) - 3.5/mph - 45 minutes, Desk Work - 8 hours, Driving - 2 hours, Resting - 5 hours, Sleeping - 8 hours. more...