Motivation

Well I am finally back from a great trip to Colorado to attend a cousin's wedding in the beautiful scenic Rocky Mountains. Also, I have the pleasure of having my granddaughter with me for a few weeks.
In my travels my mind kept returning to motivation. Motivation is a tough one. Or at least I have found it so in my life. You would think knowledge and desire would be enough to convince someone (i.e. myself) to change lifestyle habits etc. This has not been so in my life and I have not found it so in my observations of other peoples lives. Look at the number of healthcare professionals who drink alcohol to excess, smoke, eat a bunch of junk and get little to no exercise. Now you know these people have the knowledge. Or at least you would hope they do. Even dietitians can know how to eat and live healthy but not follow through with their own lives.
What is up with that? In my own life, I had to believe I could succeed, continually focus on the health benefits of succeeding, and keep encouraging myself each step of the way.
My most recent victory has been a loss of 48 pounds! I thought I would never loose that excess weight! When I was younger I tried everything, but just seemed to keep gaining back what I painfully lost, plus some. Whew. That was really discouraging! I finally resolved I would be heavy the rest of my life. As a nurse, that hurt, but I just couldn't do hunger or stay away from foods I loved. That contentment only lasted until I started gaining weight again without any change up in my diet. Boy was I scared. I was pushing 200 pounds! Even worse, I was getting older (59) and had border-line low thyroid function. I was convinced I would fail at anything I tried. I felt desperate.
Fortunately a coworker insisted I look at, "Let's Do Lunch". It is really not a diet. It is a way of eating. Wow! I was amazed. I have lost the weight and kept it off for almost 2 years now! If you are interested check out www.letsdolunch.com. I had to continually encourage myself in the beginning but as the weight kept coming off I knew It was only a matter of time before I reached .......... my high school weight!!!! I am still amazed that I lost so much weight. I am even more amazed that I still enjoy all the wonderful delicious foods that I lost my weight on. The message board on the website is full of a ton of people who have been successful with this way of eating and are there to encourage others who are going through what they went through. My story is under Hopefull. Because I was only hopefull that I would be able to loose weight, not sure. Woohoo! It worked!
What is so different about Let's Do Lunch"? The rules. Eat till full every time you are hungry is a must. Eat only foods you love! When you are hungry for sweets eat fruit. When you are hungry for carbs eat all the beans, peas, and corn you want. Lots of delicious healthy food. Initially I did not believe it would work for me. But hey, anytime I can be on plan by eating till full, I was game to give it an honest try! I am laughing here. Like I said, I did not believe this would work.

I have yet to find an exercise program that I am motivated to stay with. Usually I get going, overdo, then quit either out of too much pain or boredom. Motivation, still is a bit of a mystery, however, I believe whatever we are trying to change must really be important to us and seen as something we can do, no one likes failure.
Until next time,
Health Bug