Need some inspiration and motivation

unknown

Guess I am needing to vent some tonight. I am an almost 55 year old female and have struggled with my weight most of my adult life. I have lost about 20 pounds since around the first of the year. I would like to lose at least 80 more. I know it is slow and there are ups and downs and I need to track and measure my food. The last week or so I am finding it harder to stay in my calorie range and also finding motivation to exercise like I should. What are tips you have when you are always feeling hungry? How do you stay motivated? Typically, summers are harder for me for some reason and that scares me. Thanks

unknown

Hi there-sorry this is so long!
Try not to give up. I lost 60 lbs in 18 months, then gained 24 back. I was feeling like I just couldn't get restarted. All it took was a Dr visit where I was told to lose 12 lbs. I don't know why, but I decided I was going to do a workout every day instead of 4-5 a week recommended. If I skip one day then I'd skip 2 and so on. I also decided not to eat after 7 PM. 14 days into this, I realized I had an MFP account from 2013 that I'd never used. So I started to measure all my food and record it everyday (portion control is a big issue for me). I have lost 28 lbs since January 1st. The first 2 months I lost 9 and 7 lbs respectively. But my loss has slowed down some in March and April. My goal is 1 lb a week or 4 a month. That is workable. I am now somewhat "food bored" but am managing to keep the workouts going. When my Dr told me I needed the workouts to reduce stress, I had an Epiphanal moment. Of course it does! I walk about 3.5-4MPH around my neighborhood (5 miles) or I workout on my Gazelle Supreme machine ($250) for 20-40 minutes each time. Music is always a big part of my motivation. I have made several playlists of fast paced and energetic songs. Like you, I am in my late 50's, so I have a huge collection of stuff from the past, and current as well. These playlists have saved my *kitten* in the motivation department! If you can find a way to "just get started" again, it will all pay off. And try to get to a point where you are really working up a sweat for at least 20 minutes.
As far as staying in your calorie range, well, I struggle as well. But it takes a while to learn to "eat small" as I call it. When I lost the 60 lbs, I didn't count calories. But I only ate certain things. Prior, I learned to not have bread, and white potatoes in my house-never! Then I slowly got rid of other things like most refined foods. Pretty much, I lived on Nancy's plain yogurt, westsoy organic soy milk, black beans,raw almonds, bananas, avocados, and Fuji apples with peanut butter. I did eat other things, but since I am lazy and don't like to cook, I was able to buy these items and throw them into a lunch bag easily. I greatly reduced my food consumption at restaurants-to maybe 1x a week. For some reason, I didn't feel deprived or bored...it just felt easy to do. I felt fantastic most of the time-really! I never thought I would like soy milk (this version is just soy beans and water) so much, nor plain almonds either. Now I crave them! Go figure. My Dr gave me the idea to eat lentils (I know...I thought ugh!) but I actually love them more than black beans! I have some other ideas that have worked for me, but this is getting a little long. Just hang in there and keep going:)