Anonymous wrote:Slimming down and toning has been extremely challenging for me as a middle-aged woman with a metabolic disorder. I hate cardio, and can never control myself carb-wise the week before my period. I don't have that much to lose - 15lbs! - but right now it feels impossible.
Lately I've been trying to motivate myself by looking at all the lovely summer clothes and swimsuits I could treat myself to if I could fit in them and not wobble! It's sort of working... but not as much as I'd hoped. I've thought of actually printing out photos of my favorite dresses and sticking them on the snack cupboard, fridge and laptop. Or buying myself a set of cute miniature dishes to make portion control more pleasant. But I'm afraid all this is just window-dressing: it will work temporarily and come that time of the month, I'll just scarf down whatever's in the kitchen... and all my family will find it highly amusing, particularly my teens, who eat prodigious quantities of the delicious food cooked by DH and I, while remaining stick thin.
Right now I'm avoiding packing on even more pounds by going to bed earlier and watching shows on my laptop in bed, instead of snacking all evening downstairs. But I'm still inclined to eat too much and exercise too little during the day.
What do you do to keep yourself motivated?
Sheesh, I'm sorry for those early mean comments. And I hope your kids aren't actually laughing at you.
There are a lot of little fixes you can try. First of all, how much exercise are you getting? Even if you don't like cardio, you need it -- not just to lose weight, but to give you energy and keep you strong. Walk as much as you can. If you're already doing some sort of workout most days, add a 20-minute walk in the morning. When you get used to that, add another one at night.
If your neighborhood is walkable/bikeable, try to replace a couple of car errands with walking or biking.
How are you with veggies? Try having a small salad at the start of lunch and dinner. Snack on mini cucumbers -- you can put salt on them. Produce is starting to get yummier. Try clementines, berries, edamame ... all these kind of keep your hands busy for a while.