How do you keep your momentum?

Hello,

When it comes to eating healthy and exercising my motivation is in a constant cycle of wax and wane. The longest I've ever stayed on a diet before has been about 2 months. I have always slid back into my old habits and find myself once again in a rut devoid of any physical activity and a ton of extra calories. I guess my question is how do you keep yourself on track? What do you do when you feel your old self tugging at your sleeve trying to get you to go back to how you were?

Thanks in advance

Sometimes I feel that exact way too.  But I've accepted that my momentum is something that I have to push every now and then to keep it swinging.  I find that taking small steps has helped to sustain the momentum the longest.  And to take everything day by day.  I've slipped every now and then, but the slips have become smaller and smaller.  I feel bad when I do, but don't focus on it.  I go to bed and wake up the next day telling myself I'm not going to do what I did yesterday.  I envy people who can make up their minds to do something or not do it and they have no issues with sticking with it.  But I find that they're a small percentage of this world.  Just keep getting back up on that wagon and don't give up.  As long as you keep trying, eventually you'll find what works for you.  Hope this helps. 

I write up everything that I do in a way that makes me want to keep adding to it. I'm this way in pretty much all things, not just about my weight, and to combat that in school, I'm using the first page of my calendar (the one with all the months of the year on the same fold) and colour coding. That way, I can see on a larger scale when I've done good - I want lots of pink (school) and green (my walking), not blue or nothing at all. I also add little dots with a regular marker on days I have class at the start of the term - those are the ones I fill in with pink later, and I find it helps me, because I *want* to make them pink and I want to add my green x's for when I've worked out.

You obviously don't have to do something similar, but I'd recommend finding a way that makes it fun to keep track of it. If it looks good, it's even better, because then not filling it out (or even better, having to fill it out with a colour you don't like when you've not done your exercise) will make it look bad.

I find that it keeps me motivated. Because I don't want to slack off, but it's much easier to do so than to work at it.

The great thing about it is that it's a process - if you have a bad day, it's really just a bad day in a whole week of hopefully good days. It's not the end of the world, because you can get back to your diet the next day.

Find small victories. One month in on this new lifestyle, I've found two shirts- one (MASH) which was very tight on me a month ago and did not look good and one (Big Bang Theory) that was a birthday gift that flat out didn't fit- humiliating.

MASH fits fine now. I'm so happy about that I can't even tell you. I wore it out the other day and felt great about it. Big Bang I can now put on, though it's a bit tight. Partial motivation for the next half of my weight loss plan is that shirt!

Oh- and having my ex comment in a rather dispirited way that I look nice and have thinned out. Getting thin, I'm finding, is the best revenge! ;)

Amen!

I dont really know how I've stayed so good. Something just seemed to kick in one day. Instead of getting stressed and eating a plate of chili-cheese fries or having a few cigerettes, I go for a run, or play on my Wiifit longer.

I can just see those foods and drugs for what they are now, and I can't enjoy them like I used to knowing what they do to my body.

Even now I've been sick, and I almost asked my mom to bring me home some friesand burgers cause i felt like ****.... but then i just remember all the crap thats in them...