What if motivation wasnt needed?!

Trying is hard. Doing is easy.

Ok so I have been struggling with healthy living for more than 6 years now. My lowest low was 58 kg my highest high since healthy living 67.8 kg (My highest high before healthy living was 77kg). I am of sick of struggling!

I quit smoking 23 days ago. Ever since I have been reading a book called the easy way to stop smoking. The most amazing thing in that book is the concept that the hard thing about quitting smoking is the thought that you are trying to quit. Trying is hard. Doing is easy.

Can we implement that in our lives? How can we make motivation a non-issue for healthy living? Can we make healthy choices and work-outs a fact of life - no motivation needed? Can it be like going to school or work? How can we just do without the pep talks and the setting of goals we don't meet and feel bad as a result?

What do you guys think?

I'm part of a weight loss group on Yahoo, and we've discussed this many times.  Motivation, what a weird and confusing idea.  Yes, there are tricks and such to try to stay motivated, but if I waited around until I felt motivated, I'd never do anything.  We always said, "if you are waiting for the motivation fairy to come bite you on the butt, it just ain't going to happen!"

Having trouble getting motivated to exercise? (for example) Stop thinking about it that way.  Just do it.  Think of it like a job, or a neccesary task, like brushing one's teeth, and just do it.  If I waited until I felt motivated to exercise, I'd still be on the couch.

You know what does help me?  Habit.  They say it takes most folks 7 days to break a bad habit, and 7 days to make a new one.  I don't wait for the motivation fairy, because what one really has to do, is just do it!  Then, as you continue to just do it, it starts to become a habit, and it gets easier and easier.

But relying on building habits can be torn down as fast as it is built up.  Take a day off every week, for example, and you are really straining the power of habit.  Take a week off, and you are starting over from square one.  That doesn't mean I don't have treats.  I do!  But I don't take a whole day off.  When I have a treat, it's either one meal a week, or even one thing I don't usually eat in an otherwise healthy meal.  That's the sort of treat that dosen't bust up the healthy habits one is trying to build.

Original Post by tamarbee:

Trying is hard. Doing is easy.

I quit smoking 23 days ago. Ever since I have been reading a book called the easy way to stop smoking. The most amazing thing in that book is the concept that the hard thing about quitting smoking is the thought that you are trying to quit. Trying is hard. Doing is easy.

Yep, bang on. Just be the person that you want to be - act like you are already there. I quit smoking over 5 years ago, and after quitting thousands of times the difference was that I was no longer 'trying' to quit. When asked, I would simply say I quit, or I don't smoke. I've heard about Allan Carr's book, and though I haven't read it from what I know about it, it's pretty accurate. 5 years later I'd say that quitting was both the hardest thing, and the easiest thing - because of attitude.

I don't think there is any reason it can't be also applied to fittness/weight.

OK so building habbits.

Being the person you want to be today.

4 excercises a week. Healthy choices. This is the person I am.

Anyone else want to try it with me?

Original Post by tamarbee:

Anyone else want to try it with me?

 Sure!

Eating healthy, appropriate servings.

Staying hydrated.

Loving my workouts.

Strong, physically and mentally.  I am there!

I like a lot of what I've read here.  I'm gonna remember "Trying is hard.  Doing is easy." 

I've been puzzling a lot about what takes me from yearning to commitment, from desire to willingness.  Why I started many many diets/weight loss/lifestyle changes/etc. only to fail, and then one day was able to free myself from my obsessive-compulsive relationship with food.  What's the difference - what's the bridge between wanting to do something and actually doing it?

I haven't found an answer, it just seems that one day I did it, when all the other days I didn't.  When I'm on the yearning side of the bridge, it feels hopeless, all the advice in the world doesn't help, no one understands and I resent what seems like a simplistic platitude:  "Just Do It". 

When I'm on the commitment side of the bridge, I feel confused about what took me so long.  I wish I had a clear answer that would help me and everyone else cross that bridge.  But unfortunately, it just came down to one day I did it whereas the days before I didn't.  And from that day on my commitment to a new way of eating and living was more important than all the temptations along the path.  I became willing to change my life, and developed the tolerance to accept slips and mistakes.  Nothing, not even my own imperfection, is going to stop me now!

So that's why I like this thread - it affirms my experience that a mind shift into healthy living is just a choice away, for any of us!  The rest is hard work - but it's not impossible or insurmountable.

I like everything this thread has to say.  Mad4moon, what you said about the struggle to get over that bridge is so true.  That first step, that first day, can be so hard.  I had a major backslide this past year, but tomorrow is my 7th day back on track.  Now, I feel like what took me so long?  But during that year, the brifge looked very long indeed.

I have to remind myself that I have the power to change my own life.  No excuses, no rationalizations.  In a way, that can be scary, taking full responsibility like that.  But in a way, it's also really freeing.

Welcome back to this side of the bridge, plaidpooka!  If what "they" say is true, that it takes 7 days to make or break a habit, then you're solidly here now!

Personally, my habits (at least the positive ones) take far more than 7 days to instill in my brain.

This "bridge" I am getting there.

I worked out for 2 days straight just do - dont deliberate.

However today I had a rather crappy morning and I had about 600 cals of junk instead of breakfast. Also my knee hurts a little.

But the me from this side of the bridge has to say - Today I will:

1. Have a tuna salad for lunch

2. have a banana and apple for snacks

3. have a veggie burger and green beans for dinner

4. Do a pilates DVD.

If my knee feels better I may walk a little...

I think your absolutley correct.  This is exactly the mind frame you need to have.  This is the way I think when I'm in the "lose weight" mode.  I think people have a hard time wrapping their mind around this concept though because then it takes away all exscuses. 

"Do or do not, there is no try." ~Yoda