On TV this morning I saw the trainer from the show "The Biggest Loser" in weight. He said the main thing in losing weight, which we all have a problem with, that a person has to be motivated. He and his wife the other trainer on the show both were over 300 lbs and were motivated to lose that amount of weight and put the show on the TV.
Sometimes we need to lose 40 or 50 lbs, and we need to find something that will motivate us to lose that excess weight. Otherwise, if we lose the weight we will put it right back on, like me. I am thinking of something that will motivate me. Any ideas.
Porterville

The best motivations are things which you want to do, which are difficult or impossible for you to do now. The inhibitions can be either physical or emotional, but the emotional progress is harder to gauge and to get any feedback as you progress.

Improved health itself can be a good motivator, if you are made sluggish and tired by carrying extra weight around... although many people have been overweight for most of their lives, and have no comparison standard.... so motivation from this is not easy.

Reduction in the medications you require is a good motivator.... it will save you money and give you less side effects. Elimination of some or all of your medicines may also be possible....

Your continued insurability is another good motivator. Less drugs, less weight gives you lower risk factors and makes you a more attractive client for the insuror, whether it's life insurance, mortgage insurance, health insurance, etc.

Motivation is good, but so is creating new habits. They say that it takes 21 days to create a new habit. So, if you can force yourself to go for a half hour walk every day for 3 weeks, after that it becomes a lot easier. In fact, you actually miss it if you don't do it. I started walking my dogs for an hour every day. It was tough but I forced myself, even in the pounding rain. Now I don't feel right if I don't go. Also, the dogs get pretty cranky and pee in the house. :-)

Cora

porterville,
I am sitting here looking out my window at the foggy, cloudy, drizzel, Fall day and thinking: I really should go for a walk-yuckky! Then I read your post and felt motivated, because we all face difficulty getting ourselves to do the things we should. Those things could be testing and monitoring, keeping a log of our daily activites, following our meal plans, exercising, and loosing weight. It's hard to be diligent in one of these areas, let alone all of them-at least it is for me. I have been raised with the thinking- all or nothing. Bad thinking! My attitude used to be if you can not do it all, then why do any of it? I am working on readjusting my thinking and have learned that even a small step in the right direction is progress. It takes a lot of small steps to achieve your destination, but eventually you'll get there. And because you've taken smaller steps to get there, your being able to maintain your goal (whatever it may be) will be easier to hold onto.

I have always fought a weight problem. I like to eat too much and dieting keeps food on my mind all the time. My family on both sides are overweight, some obessly so. I don't struggle with a huge amount of weight to loose, but even so, if you do not control where you are it can quickly get to be a large amount. After my third child was born, I lost about 40 pounds and have kept that off. But I still have 20-25 pounds to go. It's been 7 1/2 years that I've tried to loose the last 20 pounds.

I have a childhood friend who is about 8 years older than me. She and I were both diagnosed with T1 at age of 8+/-. I have watched her over the years get to the place that she does not function very well. Her sight is bad, she's had sugeries for various things, she uses a cane to help her get around, and she's very overweight. Eight years from now, I don't want to be where she is. That's a motivation for me to some degree.

Another motivation I have are my children, ages 13, 11, 7. They like to ride bikes, ride horses, go to the park, camp, hike, and swim. I want to be able to do those things with them and not sit on the sidelines and just watch. Because of being diagnosed with hypoglycemic unawareness (that's another thread topic with some helpful info on how to help manage it) I have to be careful as to what and when I do activities, always keeping a close eye on my sugar levels.

I also work with a service dog to assist with my hypoglycemic unawareness, and he requires exercise and training daily, so that has been a motivation as well.

So for me, my goals are:
1. reevaluate my meal plan and tighten up on that
2. Set a goal of walking 3 miles per day for three days a week (I am used to going 1-6 miles at a time, I've just gotten lazy! When I started walking after the diagnosis of hypo/unaware I walked 5 minutes a day and worked up to 1 1/2 hours over a few weeks to adjust to the exercise and insulin requirements for that activity)
3. Use my weight machine 3 times per week for a 1/2 hour session each time
4. Make one new recipe a week that's healthy and will expand my family's tastebuds. Eventually I'm sure to come across one they will actually like!
5. Remind myself:Take it one step at a time.

We each have different activity levels. My family has always been active, so for me, these things are not going from nothing to climbing the world's tallest mountain. I walk 5 days a week, averaging 1 to 1 1/2 miles each time. I've gotten lazy and need to increase my activity to benifit from it. For someone who maybe does not walk at all right now for exercise, may want to set a goal of going around the block or set a time limit of 10 or fifteen minutes at a slow pace. Of course always checking with their healthcare team to be sure that is ok and keeping a close watch on sugar levels before and after exercise so as not to run into trouble with lows later on. Personally, I do not walk unless my sugars are at least 150, I eat a bread and protein before exercise, and adjust my pump to deliver a % of less insulin for a designated amount of time, if it is more strenuous exercise. That is what works to keep my b.g. from crashing. I also check while I am exercising to make sure I am not going too low, as I no longer have the signs to alert me to that happening. The dog works into this as well, he alerts me if my b.g. is dropping so I can take action to correct it before I am in serious trouble.

I would be interested in your goals and what you come up with to help in your weight loss. It's fun to have someone who you can go back and forth with to keep each other encouraged and motivated-especially now that winter is setting in. Seasonal depression can be detrimental to goals, I always have a hard time from October to April. So if you feel "off" and find things extremly difficult, talk to you doc. There's quite a bit of help available to get through the winter blues if that would be an issue for you. Just FYI.
Maybe you'll find some point in all this yak to help motivate you. I'll be anxious to hear how you're doing.
blacklime:bouncing: