Hello all!
As great as it feels to loose weight, I haven't in a week. My inches are pretty much the same too. Usually I would be even more gun ho to change things but.... the motivation is just not there. I haven't quit this WOE or anything drastic like that. I just need some new motivation. So my question to you is...
What do you do to keep yourself motivated?

Let's see, I...

...try on clothes that used to be too small
...imagine the fat being sucked out of my cells while I run
...choose a bunch of new recipes and try them out
...think of the alternative which is me, fat again
...call someone and talk about how to stay motivated
...go out and try on clothes to see what size I am now

Mostly, I try to stay humble in the face of the success I've already had. In the past I've lost the weight, gone back to carbs and gained it all back. This time, I work hard to believe that a) I can get away with eating carbs on anything like a regular basis or (and this is also a diet killer for me) b) I have to be picture perfect all the time.

Lisa

Lisa has some good suggestions there! One thing that helps me is I have a friend who is a recent low carb convert. He is very up and excited about his weight loss and talking to him and answering questions and giving him recipe ideas seems to get me motivated.

I don't look at "slumps" as bad, I look at them as part of the process. This is for life, so there is no great hurry to get there.

When I think of all the physical and mental changes I've gone through as part of this WOL, I'm grateful for a break. It allows me to catch up and get comfortable with the changes. My sneaking suspicion is that those who lose a lot of weight quickly have difficulty keeping it off in the long term because the "weight loss diet" has not become a WOL yet and they can be easily derailed.

I know it is hard after the initial "Wheee! Look at this weight come off!" rush, but hanging tight, examining your food journal for possible problems and areas to tweak as well as pausing and reflecting on how far you've come and what you have done to acheive it is a blessing in disguise.

Karen

I agree totally with Karen!

2 things I've noticed about myself:

My body needs the occasional rest that plateaus give.
My mind needs to adjust emotionally and psychologically to the new smaller me. As I shed pounds I'm (hopefully) shedding emotional baggage too. I'm in no hurry.

BTW, a personal anecdote; after a 2-4 week period of no change, I had a 10 lb whoosh in 1 week! Normally I weigh every day but I was out of town on vacation, no scale in sight & had to wait til I got home. I could hardly wait, 'cause my clothes were much looser & I just knew somthing big had happened.

Wishing you a whoosh fairy visit,

Ruth

I did a search back to a post I wrote in July about plateaus, and the stop-start cycles of weight loss.

"Plateaus are good, and necessary. Plateaus mean a levelling off. When you're climbing a mountain, a plateau is a welcome relief, and chance for the body to catch up. Weight loss plateaus should be viewed the same way. The body is just levelling off, giving the mind-set extra time to develop the new lowcarb habits. If we hit a plateau, and cheat or binge with carby foods, it's like going back down the mountain, and the climb back up to where we were is harder than ever.

Pretty much everything we do in life is filled with stops and starts, charging full-steam ahead and then stale periods of feeling immobilized ... our relationships, education, careers ... as well as health issues. We have no way of knowing in advance how long or how often ... It's taken me many years to come to feel this way though ... didn't happen overnight that's for sure! But I guess it's all just part of life's journey.

I posted this elsewhere, but it holds true in this discussion as well ... "You CAN have it all -- you just can't have it all NOW."

Doreen

Wanted to thank you all for your suggestions and thoughts on stalls and plateaus. It is really helpful to know that someone else out there is going through or has gone through all of this too, and cares enough to help others through it.
Heather

Thanks from me too and I'm glad you asked this one Heather.

I hope I have a whoosh like Ruth, that's enough to keep me going.

Bez