Hey there,
I've lost over 65lbs so far and am still going. I wrote a long post with my thoughts on diet and exercise in the "Before it is too late.." thread (I'd link to it but my post count is too low) and recommend taking a look at it. I didn't really address motivation and accountability, though--and that seems to be your dilemma--so I'll add some thoughts on that here.
First of all, don't ever tell anyone else--and especially not yourself--that you're going to
try to lose weight. Banish the word "try" from your vocabulary. Once you say you are going to try to do something, you subconsciously open the door to failure and it's only a matter of time before you walk through it. You're not going to try to lose weight, you're just going to
do it. Failure is not an option.
Think about what happens when you wake up in the morning feeling like ****, but you still have to get up and go to work. You don't sit there thinking "well I don't feel like it today so I guess I'll go back to sleep." No--if you like getting paychecks and not being homeless, you get your ass up and go to work. And generally once you get up and get moving, you feel okay. (Of course, being legitimately sick is a different story.) You have to place your diet and exercise regimen on the same pedestal as going to work--you do it whether you feel like it or not because it's
not optional.
Also, start now.
Now. Even if that just means downloading an app for counting calories on your phone, making a workout schedule, and deciding what foods are going to work for you--and by "work" I basically mean fit your protein/calorie requirements, be easy enough to prepare that you won't find yourself stopping at Taco Bell because a long work-day left you with no time to cook, and be palatable enough that eating it won't feel like torture. Set a time limit on the planning stage and then immediately start following through with it. When it comes to getting started,tomorrow means the same thing as never. If you really want to lose weight, it's
now or never.
Looking back at the process I've gone through in losing weight, eating properly and sticking to my workouts was only difficult in the beginning. The first challenge was getting started. The second challenge was sticking it to it long enough for it become a habit. The third challenge was figuring out the right adjustments to make when I hit a big plateau (that part wouldn't have happened if I just counted my calories right from the beginning). After that, the only challenge has been patience and persistence; when you have a lot of weight to lose, it takes a while. But the diet is so ingrained in me that I enjoy my food and have no desire to cheat (that doesn't mean I don't indulge a bit, but when I do it's in a planned out way that fits with my calorie budget and doesn't interfere with getting enough protein), and I consider weight lifting one of my favorite hobbies.
I say that to give you hope that it won't always be as hard as it might seem now. Changing bad habits starts off moderately difficult in the beginning, then gets
really difficult (where most people give up), and then gets relatively easy when you've stuck to it long enough for a new, better habit to form. Get started, push yourself over that hump, and then you can hit cruise control and enjoy the ride while your friends/family/coworkers start commenting on how different you look and ask for your secrets.
