<p>How do you motivate yourself to do things that you would rather not do–whether exercise, or eat carrots instead of cookies–when the “natural” reward is distant (you don’t lose weight right away if you forgo the cookie) or maybe is just the absence of a negative (like avoiding a heart attack)?</p>
<p>My best exercise motivator is to buy a shower gel, soap, lotion, etc. that I really love but don’t allow myself to use it unless it’s after working out. Otherwise I use H’s Dial soap. It’s a little more instant gratification than the other benefits of exercising.</p>
<p>One of my son’s coaches once told the boys to use the tv commercials…during one commercial do push-ups, during another commercial do crunches or lunges, etc. Not ideal but I get in more exercise than just sitting there or walking in to the kitchen for another snack.</p>
<p>When it comes to exercise, I don’t give myself a “choice.” A few years ago I decided that I will exercise every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, unless I’m sick or there is an unavoidable conflict. That way, I don’t have to ask myself if I actually feel like exercising, because the answer would always be no, even though I’m glad once I’m done. It has just become a part of my routine.</p>
<p>A few things - </p>
<ul>
<li><p>I know too many men roughly my age that have had major health issues - in several cases exacerbated by their poor eating habits and lack of exercise. There are too many people I know who have had strokes and who have died of heart attacks and/or have had heart surgeries to unblock arteries. Watching someone else about my age who I’ve worked with for years barely be able to walk due to a stroke or who have suddenly died due to a heart attack can be a motivator.</p></li>
<li><p>I know others who are so out of shape that they have some level of mobility issues as a result from not being able to reasonably climb a set of stairs to just foregoing anything that would require physical effort - like walking along the beach or going places that would require more extensive walking or hiking. I’m referring here to people who have mobility issues due to their lifestyle - not those who have some other physical condition causing it. Seeing people like this can also be a motivator.</p></li>
<li><p>I know others close to my age who have died from cancer. In some cases the cancer can be prevented and/or cured through screening (colon cancer, skin cancer, breast cancer, etc.). Seeing what someone who has the disease has to go through can be a motivator to go have that colonoscopy or other screenings.</p></li>
<li><p>I know I feel better when more fit. I like the fact that I know I can easily walk for miles and miles whenever I want with no issues. I can visit a city like London, Paris, Rome, DC, etc. and can walk it all day long for multiple days and see lots of things with no pain.</p></li>
<li><p>I understand the physiology, evolutionary, and historical aspects behind the food impacts on us today - i.e. the fact that humans evolved to desire fat, sugar, and salt since they’re basic to survival yet in the age of corner grocery stores that have everything available, affordable restaurants fine tuning their offerings to what we want (mostly fat, sugar, salt), and the means to pay for all of this, our evolutionary innate cravings no longer mate well with our society - i.e. getting enough calories to survive is no longer an issue for most of us. </p></li>
<li><p>I know I’m not getting any younger yet would like to conitinue to get older. 
I know that what one can get away with in their 20s to mid-40s they can’t necessarily get away with from their mid-40s through their 50s, 60s, and 70s. At one time in my life the age of 60 seemed very distant yet now it’s very near and a lot of health issues it people at these higher ages.</p></li>
<li><p>I like being a ‘normal’ size rather than a larger than normal size. This really isn’t as much of a motivator for me because I don’t care so much what others think of me in this regard but given the choice between the two the former is more preferable.</p></li>
<li><p>My dog likes it when I go do long walks with him.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I find different tricks for different things. </p>
<p>Enjoyment for exercise: While it may take awhile to get into, if after a certain point, you are not enjoying the experience you probably are not going to continue to do it. So for example, spouse runs every other day. LOVES run and has done so for more than 20 years. I could never get into running to maintain it, but I found an exercise class (a combo of strength training, yoga, pilates) that I love love love and look forward to going to. Its the only thing that works for me. I think you have to keep trying things. </p>
<p>Company for exercise: And research shows- at least for women, not suer about guys- that having a friend along really helps one stick to it (since its more of a social experience you look forward to, and you make dates with your friends and won’t bail on them). </p>
<p>Shopping well: Eating well, for me what works is to apply the discipline in the grocery store. Go while full and satiated. Go with a spouse. Buy tons of quality food and that is whats in your cupboard when you are home. Also planning in advance, making lunches and dinners, helps too (we eat worse when we want to grab something and too hungry to wait). </p>
<p>Regarding eating well, if you just eat anything that is not processed, it would make a big difference and its pretty straight forward. What do they say? Shop the outer aisles. You know, basic food your grandparents would recognize, with ingredients that you recognize and can pronounce. </p>
<p>Role Models: Hanging out with people who are really healthy helps. We lucked out I suppose being a particular demographic and region where the norm is to be really healthy (normal weight, organic or vegetarian eating, everyone does sports). And that sort of constant social pressure helps a lot. Of course you probably can’t pick up and move but if you are trying to get into the swing of things, choosing some encouraging good role models might be useful in the short run. </p>
<p>Little changes: I think doing little changes gradually is important. Will power and the ability to change is dependent upon finite resources at a given point in time. And your goal is lifetime longterm changes. So pick an easier thing to incorporate and do it. Then when that is entrenched move to something else to add in. So gradually you add in more and more small habits that collectively will make a big difference. </p>
<p>Make it easy: Finally I think convenience has a ton to do with it. Make it as easy as possible. Pick the sport that doesn’t require a huge amount of ‘hassle’ to do each day. The gym that is close by or in your home. The food bought in bulk. Or if its at all possible, use $ to buy into it (be it hiring a personal trainer or a healthful chef to make you food you can reheat during the week). If you have $$, there is absolutely no better way to spend your money than on things that will make you live longer and without disability.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes. That has been a big part of a recent exercise kick for me. Schedule workouts for Monday, Wednesday, Friday. There’s no “should I or shouldn’t I”. It’s just is. I’ve only missed four of those days since February: one was the day a new exercise bike arrived and I had to ride it instead of doing my usual workout. One was the week it was 100 degrees and the house was just too hot to work out, so I walked in the evening instead. One was the week I had the flu. And one was the day I was doing colonoscopy prep on Monday, so I did my normal workout on Sunday instead.</p>
<p>I have found that there is always a point a couple of minutes into a workout where you just aren’t feeling it. It’s part of the normal warmup. You just have to push through that to get the heart rate up and the body warmed up, then it’s fine.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>a) It helps to vizualize concrete benefits you will achieve. For example, in quitting smoking, you can take a non-smoking break, stopping to take five or six deep breaths, focusing on the cool air starting to reach deeper into your lungs, and vizualizing how great it will be to be able to walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded.</p>
<p>b) Set small goals and celebrate each win. For example, back in February, I set a goal of losing five pounds. When I hit that goal, I gave myself a little fist pump and set another goal of losing just five pounds. Another way to put it is: be patient, enjoy the process. This benefits in two ways. A lot of victories are motivating. Plus, you aren’t asking yourself to think of dieting as an eternity in hell. When I was looking at the calories on can of Pringles in the grocery store aisle, I wasn’t asking myself to never eat Pringles, just to not eat them long enough to lose 5 pounds. That’s not so hard. Anybody can go a couple of weeks without eating a cannister of Pringles, right? A funny thing happened on the way to the forum, in the process of losing 5 pounds 11 times in a row (so far), I didn’t eat Pringles for long enough that I no longer even really have any big desire for junk food. See c) below:</p>
<p>c) The goal for diet and fitness has to be to do it in a way that becomes sustainable. Crash diets don’t work. There’s no point is believing the fantasy of “The Biggest Loser”. The tortoise definitely wins this race because the changes have to be long term and sustainable lifestyle changes, not self-deprivation. I see it in smoking cessation circles all the time. People who view the process as “giving up” cigarettes (something they actually believe they enjoy) are destined to fail because “willpower” is simply not enough to overcome a physical drug addiction. Those who attack the problem by actually changing the way they think about smoking and focusing on gaining their freedom from something that has been a ball n’ chain are more likely to succeed.</p>
<p>^^ Good points by the previous posters - I agree with the idea of figuring out what works for the individual and making it as easy as possible. After all, part of what got many people into the mess was how easy it is to eat the wrong foods and perform almost no physical activity (driving everywhere, elevators, escalators, internet shopping, food delivery, etc.).</p>
<p>For example, I don’t like doing the workout machines so I do an elliptical for 15 minutes at a reasonable level and then go outside and do a 5 mile run/walk. I’m too bored silly running on a treadmill but I’m not when I run outdoors. Fortunately I live in a location where I can reasonably do the outdoor workout almost every day of the year. Some people prefer to do only the workout machines and some prefer to work out by following a DVD routine - i.e. P90X or something. It all works and is just a matter of selecting what works best for you.</p>
<p>There’s also food that can be relatively convenient and fast yet still reasonably healthy. Just making some choices about the type of bread, emptying the innards out of the tortilla (and throwing the tortilla out), hitting those ‘outer aisles’, and making sure there’s usually no ‘bad food’ in the house to help with lat night cravings can make a big difference.</p>
<p>If you want to eat healthier food, buy it where it’s freshest. Farmers markets have rules about how recently something has been picked, as opposed to a place like Costco, where the veggies may have been out of the field for a week or longer.</p>
<p>Spend one or two days a month learning to cook new recipes with your bounty.</p>
<p>When you are preparing fruits and vegetables, cut up extra for snacking or the next meal. It saves prep time, and makes the food easy and appealing to eat. If you cube a melon, for example, store it in smallish containers so people can grab those for lunch or a snack rather than mass production foods.</p>
<p>One other key point. Many of us start a fitness journey from a point where we are so de-conditioned from lack of exercise that we really don’t have to fitness level to do a decent workout. Add on to that the challenge of trying to exercise while carrying a lot of extra weight, like fifty pounds of rocks strapped to your back. Then, you see all these crazy workout programs on TV, that are totally impossible to do in that condition and the whole thing becomes a very negative experience.</p>
<p>A lot of the really top trainers in the country start those clients on a simple program of walking for a few months, just to get them to the point where they can start doing real workouts. I think there is a lot to be said for that. It also emphasizes the need for patience and a little sense of humor about the whole process. It’s all about eating less and moving more. Starting to move more will begat even more moving more down the road.</p>
<p>Very simple: be diagnosed with T2 diabetes. It is no longer a choice. It is life or death. Fear of diabetic retinopathy is a great motivator.</p>
<p>Post #11 - what he said :)</p>
<p>Seriously, I think you pointed out the two components - motivating yourself to do the things you SHOULD do and motivating yourself to cut down on what you shouldn’t do. </p>
<p>They probably require different approaches. </p>
<p>Raised as a Catholic, I adhere to the wisdom of the Act of Contrition, “Avoid the near occasion of sin.” </p>
<p>Don’t have things in your house that you can’t stop yourself from eating. My downfall is Coke. It is ridiculous. I now will only buy those tiny cans on PSU football days. I have one and whatever is leftover from whoever else is tailgating with us, I either send home with them or throw out. Now that means I am buying the overpriced small cans each week, but that is better than having the darn things in my house.</p>
<p>I can resist ice cream, so we have some non-fat ice cream for DH, I don’t care. He gets some healthy cookies, I am not interested in them. So I just eliminate whatever I can’t stay away from (Doritos, cheese, and of course, the coke). Instead I have tons of apples, grapes, etc. in our house.</p>
<p>On the other hand, you have the things you SHOULD be doing. I mark those things down on a calender when I do them. Only the good things. Lifted weights - mark it down, Walked, mark it down, Drank lots of water, mark it down. I really take note of it as I mark it down and think what a good day I am having. It helps me. </p>
<p>Good luck to you. Oh, one more tip. Don’t make your goals too lofty and getting off track doesn’t mean that tomorrow can’t be a better day.</p>
<p>“Very simple: be diagnosed with T2 diabetes. It is no longer a choice. It is life or death. Fear of diabetic retinopathy is a great motivator.”</p>
<p>Yet for many people - even this is not enough.</p>
<p>I was feeling pretty overwhelmed last year with house, job, single parenting, estate executor responsibilities, etc. I really let my exercise habits slip some, and could NOT seem to get back into a pattern. I am back on a pattern now, and here is what it is:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>20 minutes when I get up in the morning. I think for a long time I thought I needed to do at least 30, and I never felt like I had time in the morning. But then I was too tired before bed. I recently had the revelation (duh) that 20 was better than nothing.</p></li>
<li><p>I have never felt like I could do an intense workout when I first get out of bed. So… I gave up on intense. Again, something is better than nothing. I find if I go easy for the first 5 minutes, I can push harder for the next 15.</p></li>
<li><p>I walk the dog at night when I have time. Usually 30 minutes. But again, if the weather is bad or for some reason I don’t have time for 30, we do 10 or 15. Better than nothing…</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I just keep this up every day (weekends included), and it has been working for the past few months. The other thing I have is a sport I really like and do whenever I have time in season… but it is cross country skiing, so really only good for a few months a year. But it is so much fun that it doesn’t feel like a workout. So I advise finding something like that if you can, too. If you do it for fun, it doesn’t feel like work!</p>
<p>One more thing I do is watch “junk” 
while I do my 20 minutes in the morning. I row and exercise bike. So I rent Netflix of stuff I really want to watch (not much interest in DVD = reset on the alarm!) and watch 20 minutes a day until it is time to return. Working my way through the 2nd half of last season’s Glee right now. And I listen to podcasts while walking the dog. If you don’t have an iPod or iTouch or iPhone, invest in one for this purpose. I think this TV/podcast approach works because I find exercise boring (except skiing!), so these things allow me to multitask with something I do enjoy.</p>
<p>I remind myself how good it feels to be at ideal weight and fitness level and think about my peers with major problems. So I get up and exercise and skip the fat.</p>
<p>Setting small goals and cheering myself on, like always parking farthest from the shops, extra exercise to & from and no door dings. Always taking the cart back to the corral, same thing.</p>
<p>Livestrong.com/myplate</p>
<p>you can log your food, including all the info for nutritional values, I think twice about whether I want to type in something when I am tempted.</p>
<p>I also record my weight and my exercise loops so I can go back and see how I was doing, see if certain things are making a bigger difference than others.</p>
<p>I think of times when I am being good, but not losing weight not as plateaus, but as giving my body a new set point. You know how we read that people yoyo diet and the body seems to have a subconscious ‘normal’ weight? Well, I assume that lose 5# then take a month or two to stay at that weight means my body is becoming accustomed to that new weight as ‘normal’ Not depressing, exciting. I also am usually a bit less obsessed with being very very good on my eating and allow myself more calories. I pretty much have to do 80–1200 a day for a week or two to lose 5#, then if I bump to 1500-2000 a day for a month or two, I do not feel deprived and am excited to own that new weight.</p>
<p>I mostly walk every day, we have a big dog who needs a good walk to sleep well…2-3-4-5-6 miles. Rain or shine. We walk nearly every single day of the year and the better I feel the longer I walk. I had surgery this year and am impressed at the better energy I have with the evil parts gone, instead of a 2-3 mile walk, it is a 4-6 mile walk.</p>
<p>We learned this habit thanks to the dog, but now it is a habit wherever we are (dog or not) and we awaken in the AM planning for a walk, planning the time for it.</p>
<p>Now that I feel more energy, i also walk faster, add arm exercises, etc.</p>
<p>When you need to lose weight and first begin, it may not feel great, you may not feel energetic, stay positive about what you do, not negative about what you skipped. If you walk 1-2 miles, not 5-6, great, that is 1-2 miles of exercise AND all that time you were not eating :D</p>
<p>I finally broke down and bought an ipod and I can check out audiobooks from the library for free, like the poster above, I am bored by the exercise and have not done yoga long enough to have that mature inner serenity, but with a good book I can walk for miles and enjoy it.</p>
<p>Sometimes when I want a later night snack (I aim to stop at 8, or 9) I will walk to the end of the road and back, 5-10 minutes, but more exercise is better than less.</p>
<p>I love going to casinos. I used that as my reward for doing daily exercise. I set up a target that if I went to Gym 13 times, I would go to a casino. I was even paying myself $7/gym visit (after every casino visit the clock starts at $0). I still do.</p>
<p>Now I don’t have to drag myself for gym - I love it. Then eating carrots, cutting down salt, fried food etc followed.</p>
<p>This may sound trite, but I can’t eat right unless I’m happy. When I’m unhappy at work, those French fries at lunch may be the best thing about my day. When I feel happy and fullfilled, it is easy to eat healthy foods. But when the day is going badly, I feel like I deserve a candy bar for the ride home. So the first step is to be in a postive frame of mind.</p>
<p>The exercise piece is hard for me. Going to a gym seems like one of the most unnatural acts ever. For much of human history, mankind got too much exercise and too little food. Two years ago I started working out every day because of a planned trip to walk down and up the Grand Canyon. Once that trip was over, I had nothing to motivate myself.</p>