Topic : Staying Motivated

 I have begun training in earnest again. I see that I have gotten pretty soft. If I'm going to make a climb this year I need to step it up. I used to get very discouraged when I would lapse and have to go back to the beginning in my routines. But as more and more time goes on, I find that I just love the movement for itself and don't get so caught up in the distance I go, or the weight I lift, or the speed I accomplish.
 Don't know if I mentioned it, but I'm pushing 50 myself, I'm 40 years young and finally living my life for me. My husband and I are doing alot of the things we never had a chance to do when we got together. We each had a small child from previous marriages, so it put a damper on some of the things we could do while dating.
Here are some things I've learned: don't buy into that "no pain, no gain" mentality. If you experience pain from workouts, the chances of you getting discouraged and quitting are very high. That mind-set only applies to people who are working out to win awards for their muscles. It has no place in healthy life-styles where you want to incorporate enjoyment into movement.
Also, start at half of what you know you can do. For instance, if you know that you can walk a mile, start out at only half a mile a day for the first week. The reason is because it's easier than you think to work up to farther and faster distances. However, the real challenge is starting, and keeping, the new habit. So if you "only" do half of what you know you can, it's easy to fit in. And last, make a committment to do something EVERYDAY. The prevailing belief is that you need a day of rest between heavy workouts, which is true, but can sabotage new habits. Ever wonder why some habits are easier to get into than others? Usually it's because we do them everyday, like brushing our teeth and washing our hands after the toilet. If you are replacing your bad eating habits with exercise, you must exercise everyday, just as you must eat everyday.  So, if you do weights one day, and need to rest the next, still do SOMETHING the next day, even if its only a stroll around the block. Make sure that you tell yourself this is for your weight and fitness program too, and is helping you to build your active habit, not just for pleasure. (But of course, pleasure should be part of it too!)
Good luck to you too!

My weight constantly goes up and down and when I say I'm gonna diet, I stick to it for maybe three or four days and then BOOM and I freak out and start pigging out then after about a week after I feel guilty so I don't eat fora couple of days. I'm so frustrated with trying to lose weight. I really don't know how to go about doing it anymore. And I know the older I get the slower my metabolism will be. My boyfriend thinks I'm fine the way I am, but when I---Me myself personally look in the mirror, I hate what I see and no matter what people tell me, I have no self confidence and don't really believe what people tell me. I would like to lose 10 pounds but the idea everyday seems so far fetched and the goal seems so unreachable. At the same time, I'm trying to stay positive, it is really hard to though. Any advice, help, motiviation, anything, would be greatly appreciated.

I can imagine being at the stage when you and your husband want to do new things. I am amazed how high you are aiming and extend my support in your training goals. Even though I am not planning anything quite on the scale of a climb,  I can empathize with working towards strengthening up and getting back in the shape you'll be proud of. It is a challenge to push yourself forward, yet not so hard that you can't exercise fthe following day for having overdone it. It also takes patience to allow the body the time to adjust. The main thing is the mind, where the thought about what we will accomplish will originate.

 You will have to be willing to look at your negative thoughts as a starting point. Look at what you said: "I hate what I see and no matter what people tell me, I have no self confidence and don't really believe what people tell me." How can anyone or anything get past that kind of obstacle?

Hi Im from tas australia I try to get plenty of exersise involving freinds and family so far I have lost almost 20 kilo in the past 8 months.I find that losing the weigh slowly it seems to stay of easyer

 I made a mistake in my previous post. I'm 49, not 40. (Freudian slip?)  And I don't know about aiming high, I've seen some people far older than me RUN up the mountain!
The thing about aiming high is that even if you fall short of your dream goal,  you're probably still farther along than you would have been if you had a cautiously optimistic goal.

Dream big,  you'll be so much more content with yourself and what you do accomplish than if you play it safe.

Actually for me, taking off the extra 10 pounds and fitting into my clothes and getting in those 4 to 5 intense workouts a week, is already my greatest challenge. I am 55. The risk for me was leaping out of a safe but burned out job, into a high stress leadership role job with competing priorites, difficult conversations with people and numerous lessons in human behavior. This past year has been such a major change, that gaining weight became the saftey net. In aiming to regain my balance and lose these hardest pounds of my life, this goal is my mountain to climb.

Congratulations on losing 20 kilos! It shows that you have made many wise choices along the way. Keep up your great work!

motivated by setting goals. i go walking with a striding group here in new zealand. and i have already down a 21.5 k walk and i am going to be doing my first proper 1/2 marathon in august and so that gives me the motavation to keep going i am thinking of training towards a triatholon early next year so set goals find somthing to motivate you im glad i am doing i have lost 5 kg so far but i am toning up lots and have gone from a size really tight 16 should have been in 18 but was in denial to a 14 -16 depending on the garment

It is wonderful to connect with people with various insights and perceptions and ideas and suggestions, all to reach similar goals. This past week my goal was to lose at least another pound. I exercised harder than usual and was more active; however my weight did not budge. While I did give in to some moodiness and despair today I wanted to post that I will not give up and will continue so I can see the loss next week.