How do I stay motivated when I over eat and don’t feel like exercising?
It is two weeks into the current Venus Transformation contest. Whether you are in the contest or not, we are all striving to be our best and make positive changes in our lives. We all want our dreams. Keep the dream, go for the dream, live the dream!
You might be on a motivational roll, or you might be in a motivational slump. We all have these ebbs and flows and need motivation to get back on track.
If you find yourself in a slump know this is normal. It happens to all of us. Don’t give up. We are all human. We all make mistakes. We all have to motivate ourselves to get back on track. None of us gets a free pass on this.
Listen to Dr. Nicola and John in our free podcasts:
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Ask Nicola; Learn to Love Your Body
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Ask Nicola; Can food be a reward?
Ask Nicola; What is closet eating?
Ask Nicola; Emotional Eating vs Emotional OVER-Eating
Ask Nicola; Identify Emotional Eating
Why the Venus program works
All of us love food. This is where we learn to manage it in a healthy manner for life. All of us have learned how to diet, and all of us have learned how to eat too much, but we have a hard time learning the middle ground. It is swimming up stream against society and social pressure to constantly eat high calorie foods. So we all have to learn to manage it like a budget.
Once the debt is paid off then we simply learn to have a one or two deficit days to offset the higher eating days. We balance it like a checkbook for the week or over a period of time. It takes a bit of effort to get used to and then it just becomes second nature.
Just like kids who get money from their parents when they are young and don’t have to worry about where it comes from or how much is in the checkbook; we all have to grow up and become responsible with food intake. If not, we spend calories like it’s a credit card with no limit and then we get into fat debt again.
There is a lot of science behind why the workout is designed the way it is, and why the eating schedule is designed the way it is; both of those give you an advantage as well as keep leptin up. But also not depriving yourself of foods you love is KEY. Most other diets restrict you from foods you love and you go crazy eventually and over compensate for depriving yourself.
I don’t like working out
Just do the best you can. It does not have to be all or nothing. Do something every day. Do just enough to so that you don’t dread it. Think of ways to make it fun. Is it music, time to yourself, a new piece of workout gear, shoes, clothing, something new to look forward to, spending time with friends? Try something to make it fun.
The more you do it the more you will see things about your body change and that will motivate you. It might just be walking to the end of a driveway without getting winded anymore. For some of us who are older we find our arthritis doesn’t bother us as much. Rejoice in the health changes.
The more conditioned you become the better you will feel, and the more good biofeedback you will receive to keep you rolling on a positive trend.
Any little effort you put into exercise gives you “skin in the game” to keep rolling with all your other choices like food and not let the day go to wasted effort.
How to deal with over eating?
None of us are perfect. As John says in the in the Fat Loss Manual, give yourself “Permission to be Imperfect”; It’s a great message. We are not machines, we are human, so we bumble along the best we can. The process still works if we are patient and don’t let peak eating days go on for a long string of time endlessly. Just increase awareness, live life, learn some new tools and tricks, be patient, and give it some time.
Day to day effort is all it takes. It is the daily choices.
You are not alone when you feel like you always want more food. Pretty much all of us want more, especially on a deficit. For three years while mostly on a deficit I had to constantly remind myself after every meal, and after finishing my small portions; “I can have more next time!” Drink a big glass of water or tea and walk away and get busy on a project, work, chores, whatever. Keep busy. Get away from food and get your mind on something else. I still have to use this technique today.
My biggest advice on the over eating is that you can STOP whenever you decide to stop. You don’t have to think this is the end of the world and that you are doomed just because you over ate (and thus keep eating for no reason), just stop!
You may have to bump up your calories a bit. Anything under maintenance is a deficit. A slower more sustainable deficit is better than too low and then binging. Sometimes binging is a sign that it’s too low of a deficit for you. You might have too much stress in your life. You might have some emotional issues to deal with (we all do); it does not mean there is anything wrong with you. Hunger is our body’s natural reaction to any stress.
It does not matter what others are doing. Quit comparing what you eat with what someone else eats. What they do does not matter. You need to find what is right for YOU. All you need is a slight deficit over time, more deficit days than maintenance days, and keep the peak eating days to a minimum.
Looking at your string of positive days often
If you are using a calorie counting tool like MyFitnessPal then look at the 30 and 90 day calorie charts often to make sure your peaks are not too high, and not too often.
Get a calendar and use some fun pretty sparkle stickers for all deficit days, a different sticker for maintenance days, no stickers for over maintenance peaks, and a different sticker for workouts. No negative stickers!
Remember that maintenance eating days are always a WIN. They are not backsliding. They are eating normal. It’s the way you were meant to eat. It is just enough. The calorie deficit is not the way you were meant to eat; it is corrective action to fix a health problem. None of us are meant to stay on corrective action forever. We need breaks from corrective action. Corrective action is stress.
Then be motivated by the string of stickers or the graph of progress you see over time.
We all make mistakes. Every single one of us. We are all human, not machines.
Just stop where you are at if you are not on track and decide to get back on track.
Just DECIDE and DO IT.
Know you don’t have to be perfect.
Know you start with little steps.
Know you will feel pain.
Know you have to break through your fears.
The simplicity of Eat Less, Move More
The simplicity of “eat less and move more” is powerful. Sometimes we get far too caught up in the tools and letting them mess with our heads, when deep down we all know it’s just go to the gym and eat slightly less. Listen to your body when you need to eat a little more some days (not binge!) Rest from the gym when you need it. People figured this out before the age of technology.
Sometimes the age of technology is information overload, when this happens take a deep breath and listen to the simplicity in your heart and mind, it’s there. Then after a breather start looking around and navigating the technology if you want.
It doesn’t always matter about “counting” calories, so long as over all the calories in are less than the calories you ate to get you where you are today. That can mean smaller servings, or one less pudding, or don’t drink soft drinks.
Likewise, it doesn’t matter about being perfect with the exercise, doing something is better than doing nothing.
If you want to get stronger that doesn’t have to be perfect either, as long as the amount of exercise you did this week is somehow a little more than the amount of exercise you did last week. That can be going a little longer, or lifting a little heavier, or walking a little faster. Bodies take time to change, and lives take time to change too.
I hope this helps!
-Coach Roberta
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