How to get motivated to lose the last 10 pounds?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Way to go, FG.

I am just starting to lose the fifteen lbs I put on recently while on cortisone, (off the cortisone now) so I am looking for motivation myself.

I have put a large picture of myself when I looked the way I want to look now on the door of my fridge. I have given myself a time limit. I want to be such and such by the time that party comes. etc. And I have promised myself a reward after I reach a specific goal - say 4-5 lbs here. It does not have to be a food reward. I have refused to buy new clothes and have only a couple of things I can get into. So my closet full of nice clothes is my incentive.

Once before I had gained 20 lbs and a gang of us had a contest that whoever lost the most weight in a month got a bottle of wine from each of the rest of the people. I was really motivated and lost the most. I did it by realizing that I did (still do) most of my damage around 4 - 5 pm. So I set my workout time for the minute I got in the door from work instead of eating crap then. And since I love to dance, I did aerobic dancing and changed up the music every day. I kept that weight off for 35 years till I was put on cortisone a year ago.

I need to drink more water and cut out sugar of any kind. Bad fats go with sugar. I have developed some bad habits lately. If the body is missing a nutrient, it tends to keep looking and tells you to keep eating. And if I am craving something, I go brush my teeth. Sometimes that works to get the taste out of your mouth if you want second helpings. I try to eyeball the size of my portions and never count calories, although I do look at calories listed when trying to not eat something.

Your body gets used to your exercise routine, so do some different activities than you are doing now and change it up every so often.

Writing down what I have eaten does not work for me but rotating more foods more carefully according to food families helps me to stay on course.

I have never gone to the gym but have free weights and flat bands and an exercise program set up for me three times a week. I photocopy the program I set up on Excel and check off each exercise. It also has my weight for that day on the sheet. Building muscle is supposed to be more effective than cardio for losing weight. Cardio and walking are on the other days. I rarely take the elevator etc. And if I skip a free weights workout, I have to do it the next day as well as the cardio.

However, I am older now and it is not so easy to lose weight,

Maybe we could have a little contest here? :slight_smile:

22

Addition - I had a personal trainer teach me how to do the weight lifting exercises properly at the beginning years ago and I always use a mirror while exercising to check myself. That is important so you don’t get injuries.

And I do have a healthy lifestyle for the most part. I just need to cut out the extra no nutrient snacking and sugar addiction habits I have developed.

(One and a half pounds lost this first week.)

23

As hard as it seems sometimes to do the losing, the harder part IMO is learning to be who you need to be to stay at that weight.

You seem to have learned how to live as a “goal weight+10”-pound person, although 4 months is not a long time to maintain.

I would focus still on maintaining, and also think about what you would be willing to change permanently to be a “goal weight”-pound person. I think you do need to reframe it and not see it as “quitting” - what are you quitting? You still need to be doing the same things you were last week, last month, 4 months ago, to be at the weight you are. Quitting would be stopping doing it which leads to gaining weight back.

If you want to make changes, more muscle will consistently burn more calories, but then if you gain more muscle you might not lose weight - though you will lose fat and gain muscle, which is probably more important.