I was doing so good for so long but recently I’ve felt like I’ve been steadily losing motivation for fasting. The past week and a half to two weeks i’ve been ending my fasts early or just overeating when I’m done, this is the first time it’s really happened since I started in October. I’ve been able to maintain around my current weight thankfully, but I’m definitely plateauing because of it.
I don’t have any friends who are fasting, or really anyone at all to talk to to keep me motivated. I wanted to start working out in February, but work and life has been extra stressful so I just haven’t (I know, excuses). The weather also just has me feeling pretty blah right about now. I guess I just have an overall sense of apathy that is currently finding its way into my fasting schedule as well.
Any tips for motivation? What do you do when you feel yourself starting to fall off track?
Also if you need a fasting buddy, I can add you on fastic if you want to dm me, that might help? Maybe?
Thank you in advance!
There comes a point where you burn out or get bored with whatever you’re doing: counting calories, weighing food, watching the clock, recording the data, eating the same food frequently, etc. Eating too much or too often also fills up the time. Change something up or change up everything. Focus of shorter-term goals that can be accomplished more quickly.
Life and work being extra stressful is not an ‘excuse,’ it’s a darn good reason.
I don’t know where you are in terms of weight loss (it sounds like this is your main goal) but a couple of ideas. First, maybe if you have the time, start exercising now. You can do that as gradually as you want.
Second, one of the things I ended up reevaluating as I used fasting was how to approach motivation. Andrew Huberman in one of his podcasts made the point that if you focus on the end result, it’s quite easy to lose motivation. However, if you focus on the process, enjoying it, this is sustainable. I found that focusing more on how my body was responding to intermittent and prolonged fasts helped to challenging assumptions about how much I could handle. Also devoting more time and attention to making & eating food really helped prevent overeating and binging.
But mainly please don’t worry just because you’ve found a plateau. It’s a lifestyle change and a marathon, not a sprint. Be well!
I think you just have to be ok with the ebbs and flows of your motivation. Try to continue to maintain until you get your groove back but don’t beat yourself up for less than perfect compliance to your health goals.
I don’t have any advice for motivation, I just wanted to let you know I relate. My mental health has not been good lately so I’ve not been the most diligent when it comes to my food intake. I’m an emotional eater too, so you can imagine what that does to the food choices.
The only thing I can manage at the moment is focusing on maintenance. As long as I don’t gain, I’ll call it a win.
Maybe you can try giving yourself a little break. Don’t go ham, but a small break will not undo your progress if you need it.
It’s how life goes up and down, I’ve found that making weekly goals helps me to be constant even when it feels meh. For example, this week it’s to drink black coffee (I usually put a tiny splash of cream) its kind of fun challenging myself in different ways. Last week it was to add in hiit sessions to my workout routine! And I just keep building on these goals. It’s made things fun for me because thinking of longterm consistency is so boring to me