Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Motivation and Lifestyle

If you are currently losing weight, or wanting to lose weight, do you know what you'll be eating at each meal the rest of the day? Do you know what you'll be eating at each meal tomorrow, or the day after, because you're prepared to make your own foods, or you know where to purchase healthier, more nutritious foods? If you want to change your bodyweight,(or body composition) you have to change what and/or how much you are eating. How you do that, and to what extent, is determined by your motivation and lifestyle.

Motivation comes first because I don't care how busy you are with obligations.....kids, spouse, family/friends/job, etc.....if you don't have the motivation to establish new habits, you will not be able make the changes you know you need to make, to do what you say you want....which is to change the weight of your body. If you insist on being a victim of "not having the time", you will indeed be a victim of not making the time. I often use the example of asking people if I was to give them $500 every morning at 4am sharp, but they would have to drive accross town to collect it, do you think they might have their asses up at 3am to make sure they were on time to get it? I think so, I know I would! So 'time' is never an excuse, anything you want in life you make the time for, we have all experienced making time for things we want.

Lifestyle is another contributor. We can make time, but how much time can we squeeze out of our busy lives to make the changes we know we need to make? I, personally, have made the time to cook and prepare the majority of my own meals....but I have the motivation to make that happen (not to mention the interest and desire). I don't expect everyone else to have the same motivation, but if you do then great! But the good news is you don't have to! You don't have to cook and prepare all of your own foods, there are plenty of great "ready made" options or ways to turn less than great options to better, more nutritrious foods. At the very least just stop eating as much as you are currently eating and you can lose bodyweight.

You would think that motivation is the most important part of staying healthy fit, and in control of your bodyweight, but in the long run your lifestyle can, and will determine these things. Our lifestyles are simply the daily habits we have established. The habit of eating crap, and/or not taking the time to move our bodies enough, are just that, habits. And we can change them if we want to (that's where motivation comes in).

I was lucky enough to have established new habits over the past 3 years, I'm in the "habit" of never missing a workout, going to yoga, walking and most importantly, training kettlebells even when I don't 'feel like it'. I'm in the habit of cooking and preparing most of my foods, and I'm in the habit of making better choices most times, and although I currently weigh 5-10lbs more than I say I want to, I don't weigh 120lbs more.

I may have not had the motivation to lose 5-10lbs, but my lifestyle, the new lifestyle that I've established, by creating new habits, will never support weighing 250 lbs again, it can't. As long as I train as hard as I do, eat the amount, and types of foods that I do I will look and feel exactly as I do.

Life is good. Motivation is great. A healthy, fit lifestyle is better!

4 comments:

LizLuvsCrochet said...

I live for these types of posts from you, they keep me moving in the right direction. I miss having you at work every week so I could suck whatever knowledge and motivation from you that I could. lol

Ann said...

Tracy, I've recently found your blog and have enjoyed reading your entries. I've spent some time going back to earlier entries and read how you got started. It looks like you planned to eat about 1000-1200 calries a day, is that about right? Can I ask how tall you are? You have made remarkable progress-The article on your website show "after" pictures but you have gone far beyond that to a new "after". Thanks for the inspiration!
Ann

Tracy Reifkind said...

Liz,

You've got the food thing down, I love your baggies of apple slices! The next level, the next stage for you is to connect with that athlete inside and train for fitness, not just someone that "works out".

Let me know when you want to learn kettlebells! Kettlebell training is like nothing else, and it can make you feel like you've never felt before....seriously. And it could happen within 4-6 weeks time. What will you be doing 4-6 weeks from now?

Tracy Reifkind said...

Ann,

My original food plan for weight loss was to "shoot for" 1000-1200, sometimes landing around, but always under 1500, because I'm not perfect! At the start of my weight loss I still had to cook dinner and other meals for my family and a taste of this, a taste of that (for seasoning purposes!) adds up. I always had a Saturday cheat day, followed by a fasting day.

My maintainence plan was to stay with in 1200-1500 during the week, again, landing around 1700, still always having a "cheat day on Saturdays (2500-400 cal) followed by a fasting day on Sunday (750-900 cal), the lower the better. Afterall, consuming around 3500 calories the day before, it wasn't like I was going to starve to death in one day, lol!

I'm 5'3". My diet and training has gone through some big changes since my surgery in Dec., and I'm just now finding my groove again. A weight that I'd like to be at and stay at is around 129-130 (currently 135).

I do need to update our website. I'd like to somehow express how I've actually have transformed my body, not just "lost weight". Big difference. Truly a miracle, which is why I started blogging in the first place, lol!