Hey, I've been there and its not an easy journey, so I hope to provide some weight loss inspiration. I succeeded in losing my weight and keeping it off.
You will have to make short-term sacrifices if you want success. Make no mistake, during the time you are trying to lose weight, you will have to significantly cut back the fattening foods that most of us love.
However this is only temporary, until you reach your target weight. Often when a person starts a new business, he or she scales back their lifestyle to support the new business, giving up dining out, entertainment, even buying new clothes. Do they start the business so they have to live a meager lifestyle forever? Of course not! They start the business so down the road they can enjoy more. Likewise, you cut out the junk food other delicious but fattening foods, for a short time, so that you too may enjoy again, while still staying slim. Since I have lost my weight, I have in many ways enjoyed more of my favorite foods than before I started. Realizing this concept was the biggest mental breakthrough in my weight loss journey and that seriously triggered my motivation.
Motivation. Your inner game, that is the biggest battle most people face when losing weight. It really did help me when I exposed myself to motivational materials. The really great stuff draws out the motivation already inside you, otherwise it is only pep talk. Pep talk has its uses, mind you - indeed this page is sort of a pep talk. Pep talks can only get you fired up for a little while but only inner motivation can sustain you on a long-term weight loss journey. I have mentioned before, the two materials that fired my inner passion were Brian Tracy's CD Psychology of Achievement and Dr. Maxwell Maltz Psychocybernetics; they got me started, but I am always reading and listening to other great materials. The good news is that successful mastery of your inner game in one area, such as weight loss, really does carry over into other areas of your life, I can say this without qualifications.
Start then by changing your view. Most of us begin by wanting to lose weight. Many people will tell you to change that to "you will lose weight". But great, motivational people go even further and tell you to change that instead to "I have lost weight". This change of belief will influence your attitude, subconsciously influencing your behavior. In other words, by believing you are already slim, resisting desserts will be easier, even natural, and sticking to a daily regimen of effective physical activity becomes considerably less difficult. I know this from first hand experience. So no, you cannot simply think your way to weight loss, but your thoughts will have a powerful influence (direct from Brian Tracy) on your attitudes, actions, and behavior, which in turn will fire up your own weight loss inspiration.
We are all human and we will slip up, slack off on physical activity, stuff ourselves with fattening foods. If you do, brush it away and stay focused. I can tell you personally I goofed many times, yet I still managed drop my weight. Do not allow slip-ups or slacking to dampen your weight loss inspiration. Think of weight loss as guiding a spacecraft to a distant planet. The spacecraft does not fly straight to its target, it must make numerous mid-course corrections. Likewise, I found when I slipped once in a while, it directed me to stay focused on my long-range target; it was the weight loss equivalent of a mid-course correction. This served and continues to serve my weight loss inspiration and can do the same for you. I will go as far as to say indulging myself occasionally actually helped me on my weight loss journey. Toss aside mistakes and press forward with your weight loss journey. Just do not make it a habit.
Setting goals are important. Goals do not simply keep you focused - they are your focus, they are what will ultimately sustain your own weight loss inspiration. You should set a long-term goal along with intermediary short-term goals. In my case, I started with a long-term goal of reaching 150 pounds in 12 months, with the first month goal of losing 8 pounds. Be flexible with your goals based on your current results. By my third week, after losing 18 pounds, I became more aggressive and changed my goal to be at 150 by 6 months. After four months when I reached 160 and could not consistently get below that weight, I changed that to my target weight. Now, recently I have decided to increase grow my muscles. You too will need to adjust your goals based on your outcomes, and by taking the time to re-evaluate and redefine your fitness goals, that too will sustain your weight loss inspiration.
Finally, seek encouragement from your friends and family. Positive feedback goes a long ways. Stick with people who support your weight loss desires. Avoid those who are discouraging, and you may encounter some who resist or even resent you for successfully losing weight. While most of my peers were encouraging, some were very resentful of me, and had I allowed them to, they would have killed my weight loss inspiration. I simply avoided those people. You, too, will need to spend more time with positive people to sustain your weight loss inspiration.