Definitely not alone in that!  When I went to WW before - I wore the exact same outfit every week - even when it was starting to get too big!!  If someone only ever saw me on weigh-in days, they would have thought I only owned one outfit! :)

Now, if I do brave the scales, it is usually first thing in the morning before I jump in the shower, so I have nothing on!  I swear my clothes must weigh 10 pounds - and I don't need the help! LOL!

Kimberly - I so feel your pain on this one!!  I have been struggling so much.  I used to work out on a regular basis, but I haven't done anything remotely close to exercise in at least 3 years.

My doctor once told me that to lose the weight I would have to exercise for at least an hour every day at a level that I wouldn't even be able to talk!  Did that encourage me??? Heck no - it made me think that if that is what I had to do, I wasn't going to be doing it.  There is no way I can exercise at that level for an hour!!  I recently hired a personal trainer, and I told her what my doctor said - she basically called him a jacka$$! :)

I do agree that you have to push yourself a litlte - but you have to do it at your own pace.  When I go for my training session she has me do 10 minutes on the eliptical trainer.  My first time, I couldn't make it to 2 minutes without a break!  After about 4 weeks, I still needed breaks, but I started pushing myself by adding time onto the 10 minutes to make up for the breaks.  If you had told me 4 weeks before that I would willingly add time - I would have called you crazy!!  My trainer did not push me to do that - I felt I was ready to do that on my own.  Just as you will know when you are ready.  You are right  - 10 minutes on the treadmill is better than 10 minutes on the couch.

And, it is nutrition that will have the biggest impact on your weight loss.  Yes, exercise is important, but even if you were on the treadmill for an hour every day, if you eat too much you won't lose any weight.  This is where I am struggling now - I don't want to watch what I eat!  I seem to be having a major pity party - why does this have to be so hard?? Trust me - it is getting me nowhere!

Keep doing what you are doing, and you will get there.  I am 38 (almost 39), 360 pounds, and I can honestly say that I did notice a difference in my strength and my cardio after about 4 weeks.  I don't think I can run a marathon or anything, but it is improving, and that feels good.

Heather.

WAHOOO you SUPERSTAR you!!!  

Enjoy the high.  Bet it makes waking again today even easier and even more enjoyable!!! 

That's good, you deserve a little fame and recognition for what you've accomplished. 

Thanks for the reminder, I'm gonna have to remember to pay attention to my appearance from now on, i'm really bad when it comes to that, I've totally let myself go but recently i've been thinking I should go shopping and get myself some make up and I haven't bought new clothes in eons, I'm basically a mess but the more weight I lose the more I feel like fixing myself up

Interesting stuff....thought I'd share....
Here's a link to the whole article on-line. 
www.sparkpeople.com/resource/wellness_articles.asp

Become Your Own Best Motivator

Take this Quiz, Never Lose Your Motivation Again!

-- By Dean Anderson, Behavioral Psychology Expert

SparkPeople advertisers help keep the site free! Learn more There are several kinds of motivation problems that people run into, and each requires a different set of strategies. Let's start here with a little quiz to find out which motivational problems you might be dealing with.

Get out a small piece of paper to mark your answers to the following five questions. Respond to each statement with "True" if you think it applies to you more often than not or "False" if you think it doesn’t apply most of the time. Next, indicate on a scale of 1-10, how big of a role you think the statement plays in your motivation problems. If you think it plays almost no role, give it a one. If you think it is by far the most important factor in your motivation problems, give it a 10.

1. True or False: My motivation seems to depend on what the scale (or tape measure, fit of my clothes, etc.) says. I feel motivated when I see results, but unmotivated when I don’t. SCORE (1-10): _____

2. True or False: I feel like I am in a constant battle with myself. In my “normal" state, I want to eat whatever I like, whenever I want it, and/or my body just naturally gravitates towards the couch. It’s very hard to make myself do what I know I need to do. SCORE (1-10): _____

3. True or False: I really want to eat healthy and exercise most of the time, but I just can’t seem to resist the temptations that I run into most days. SCORE (1-10): _____

4. True or False: I think I would do much better if I had more control over my life and my time. There are just so many demands on me that I can’t fit exercise and healthy meals into my day as often as I want to. SCORE (1-10): _____

5. True or False: I do well for a few hours (or days or weeks), but then I have a bad time and things really go downhill. All I see is what I did wrong, not all the things I did well. I get flooded with negative feelings, and just want to give up. SCORE (1-10): _____

Interpret Your Results: Identifying Problems & Solutions
QUESTION 1
If you marked this statement True, and gave it a high score (5+), you are relying too much on external (extrinsic) forms of motivation and need to work on developing your internal (intrinsic) motivation.

There is nothing at all wrong with extrinsic motivation—we all need to see some concrete, measurable progress towards equally concrete and measurable goals. But, since these external results are so fickle and unpredictable when it comes to weight loss, you also need some internal motivation to keep you going when the scale (or your body) isn’t cooperating with your expectations. Here’s a simple exercise you can do to find out which sources of internal motivation might work best for you:

Imagine you live on a planet where scales and mirrors have never existed, where everyone wears one-size-fits-all unisex robes that effectively disguise their actual physical appearances. There are no standard height and weight charts, and your doctor has never heard of the Body Mass Index or waist-to-hip ratios. How will you decide whether your body is the way you want it to be? If you decide some changes are necessary, how will you know whether you are making progress towards those changes?

For example, ask yourself how you’re handling everyday tasks, like squatting down to pick something up, getting up from a chair, or working on your feet all day. If you’re carrying some extra weight, it may begin to affect your performance or comfort level when doing these activities. To make things easier, you may decide to reduce your calorie intake to get back down to a manageable size and building strength to make moving easier. Set a concrete, measurable goal that will make you feel better—like getting up out of the chair without using your arms—and set up an exercise program that will strengthen your muscles and improve your endurance. Keep track of your progress by noticing changes in your ability to handle your daily activities.

Use the same approach if your physical condition is causing problems with your moods or energy levels. Remember when you felt mostly good and ask yourself what you did to feel that way (not what your weight may have been). Start doing more of what you did then, as best you can, and experiment with different exercises and foods until you come up with options that help you feel the way you want to.

You get the basic idea here: weight is not the real problem, and losing weight is not the real solution. The problem is how you feel and what you can do. The solution is doing things that make you feel better (physically and mentally) and improve your functional abilities. To find out what those things are, you need to look inside yourself and observe what happens when you try different things.

Once you have some ideas along these lines, try to turn them into specific goals and measurable outcomes you can incorporate into your SparkPeople program.

QUESTION 2
If you answered True to this statement and gave it a high score (5+), you may have some inaccurate assumptions about what motivation means and feels like.

Many people seem to think that "being motivated" means not having to struggle with opposing desires. Not so. It is our nature as human beings to pursue both the gratification of our senses (eating what we like when we want it) and the psychological gratification of achieving meaningful but more abstract goals (being healthy, fit or attractive).

Judging one of these pursuits as superior to the other is to deny half of what and who you are, and set yourself up for endless inner conflict and turmoil—not exactly the stuff motivation is made of, right?

Your motivation will be much stronger and consistent when you focus on making conscious choices about what you can do consistently to meet all of your needs and desires.

QUESTIONS 3 and 4
A True response to either or both of these questions and a high score (5+) indicate that you may be assuming that your behavior is dictated by external factors (the needs of other people or the “appeal" of tasty foods), rather than by internal factors (your own values and decision-making processes). It is very difficult, if not impossible, to stay motivated when you believe you have little choice about what to do or how to manage your own feelings and desires.

One thing you can do to begin transforming these assumptions about who or what is controlling your behavior and choices, is to put the "I" back into your vocabulary. Take a closer look at how you define problems and situations in words. When you start using "I" statements to describe problems, as suggested there, you will automatically reprogram your mind to look for ways you can put yourself in control of what you think, feel, and do.

QUESTION 5
If you answered True to this and gave it a high score (5+), you probably struggle with some strong either/or and all-or-nothing thought patterns, as well as an overdose of perfectionism. These habits are real motivation-killers. The emotional upset they cause when things inevitably don’t go perfectly makes it impossible to stay focused on what really matters: what you can learn from your slip-ups to do better next time.

Unfortunately, just telling yourself to stop being such a perfectionist and to start thinking in both/and terms rarely solves this problem. You need to learn more about how this problem develops and how to effectively break the cycle of pessimism and self-defeat. See The Challenges of Maintaining a Healthy Weight - Part 2 for more help.

For a more detailed look at these issues, read:
Mastering the Mysteries of Motivation - Part 1
Mastering the Mysteries of Motivation - Part 2

This article is Step 5 in SparkPeople's Mind Over Body series, a 10-step program to ending emotional eating and creating a permanent healthy lifestyle. View the full series here or continue to the next step.