Lost the energy and enjoyment of being healthy

Hi All

I'm new to the site and I hope that maybe this will help get my diet/exercise back on track again. 

 I graduated college last year (May). I gained probably 15 - 20 pounds during college and just felt very unhappy about my image. From June - Dec, I naturally lost ~10lbs just from not eating college food and making better choices. I was still pretty unhealthy and I never exercised. I actually hate sweating and getting out of breath. But after seeing myself thinner and getting so many compliments, I wanted to continue losing a bit more weight. That is when I joined the gym , got a trainer and ate pretty healthy. Starting around January, my whole lifestyle changed. I felt great! I had crazy amount of energy and endurance. I would workout 4-6 times a week! 2 days of the week I had a personal trainer and we did lots of resistance training and I've toned a lot. I won't lie, I was not perfect w/my diet, but the majority of time I followed it pretty well. I made sure to eat only complex carbs, lean protein, limit sweets, lots of fiber, lots of water and most importantly - portion control. I never felt better!

But these last few weeks, I just lost my motivation. I feel exhausted and I've been eating more. I'm not even hungry and I want to eat. I don't know why. It's been so hard and I keep going on and off my diet. I also don't workout as much as I use to. My training just ended this week as well. But I don't think it has anything to do with not having a trainer. I just lost interest and I want it back!!!!!

Well I have to say you've come to the right place.  Everyone's going for the healthy lifestyle here.  

Reading your post I was thinking about myself.  It's all about balance.  I do a similar thing, totally get into healthy eating, exercise, blah blah blah, then I seem to get weary of it.  I also get weary of eating unhealthy food and sitting around doing nothing and eventually get back on track.  

I think I'm getting better as the years go on, but I'm over 50 now so I really need to settle into an acceptable routine.

I would guess that you have overdone it a bit.  Take a weeklong break from exercise, just do a bit of walking or something if you feel the need to move. 

You didn't mention, and may not know, how many calories you have been eating.  Figure out how many calories you should eat for "maintenance", the amount that you should eat if you neither want to gain or lose weight, and eat that much for the week.  I like http://www.phord.com/cc for figuring out how many calories you should eat.  Eat the Avg. Daily Burn for this week.

After the week is over, see if you feel better and then think about going back to watching what you eat.  From now on though, make sure you eat at least as many calories as the phord site recommends for weight loss and make sure you have rest days from your exercise.

Oh my I am going through this right now and I think my has to do with emotions its raining alot here and I haven't been really social lately I think that there is a lot of things that play into how you feel like if you are happy in a relationship or single or have a active social life all these things affect ones mood. at least thats whats happening to me right now.

Think about why exactly you are doing what you are doing. You want to look better/be toned/feel better. What are you doing now, and does it make you happy? Think about the feelings that you got when people complimented you on your progress and your body. Think about how YOU want yourself to look like. What kind of feelings does that evoke in you? Don't you love working out and having the sense of accomplishment that you successfully completed your workout? I know you do. Just remember the feelings, they will get you back on track.

Just pure willpower force yourself out the door one day and go to the gym/or running. When it ends, you wont be like damn, I wish I didn't go.You'll come home and be happy with yourself.

Once you get down on motivation, its tough to get back, no lie. It takes a strong person with the willpower to just truck over all the doubts that you might have. Right now you don't think that you can get the motivation to get back to the gym and eat correctly again. YOU CAN. Use/force your emotions to evoke that motivation.

GL getting back on track!

Well congratulations on taking a step in the right direction towards this site..it has helped me tremendously..I have done the same thing and let me tell you this ..get back on track right away!!!! Go back to the gym and tell yourself that you do not want to go back to your previous weight. Remember how it feels to have people look at you and you feel good about yourself. I go up and down with my weight so much since I have had my kids..I stay on track go to the gym..lose weight vow to never go back to my old ways and somehow I lose sight and start eating poorly again and skipping the workouts here and there ..and start gaining and its like oh its okay its just 5 pounds I can get that off no problem..then oooh its 7 pounds ahh i better slow down next thing you know you are where I am today and that is 16 pounds back from 20 I lost!!!! Please grab the reigns now and get control over yourself...nothing tastes as good as fit feels!!! I have to remember that myself as I remove my foot from my a**. Good luck to you!!