What is your motivation?

Throughout my life I have always had something major happen in my life to trigger myself to lose weight.  When my first wife left me I lost about 50 pounds.  When I decided to take up a physical sport I lost about 35 pounds.  My wife is doing wonderful on the "round" of the diet.  I know when we diet together, she gets discouraged because (and I hate saying this out loud) when I try to lose weight, it just drops off.  So since she has been doing so well, I haven't really wanted to get back on the wagon. 

However, I started going to a trainer a few weeks ago and am starting to watch what I eat.  The problem is... and again, I hate saying this... I really don't care right now.  I have nothing to really "do this for".  And doing it for myself... Just doesn't work for me.

So, I'm just kinda coasting right now.  Eating what my wife eats and working out twice a week.  I have been feeling better and can tell when I walk around that I am not as winded.  I guess the point to all of this is what are your motivations?  If it is a divorce, or a wedding.  I want to hear about it.  Whatever it is.  Maybe i can read someone else’s post and get something out of it. 

Again, I'm doing fine now.  I don't want to eat bad... But I haven't really been to tempted.  And at the rate I feel now, I can guarantee I will quit trying soon.

Thanks

I started with the motivation of looking better for my husband. After a month of doing CC I have decided my motivation has changed, its less about how I look and more about how I feel.

I am happier with less mood swings, calmer and sleeping better. I like how I feel and know that all of these things will help me to live a longer healthier life.

I want to be the grandmother who still plays on the floor and can get back up without help.

Find something/anything even the smallest item that you want that you will/can not do now and use it as your motivation once you reach it choose another..and so on..

 

My first was to make it to the top of the stairs to my bedroom without getting out of breath..

 

Good luck to you and your wife on your journey to a healthier and happier life.

My health and new founded strength are both my motivation. When I slip up and start to gain a little weight back, I feel SO sluggish and disgusting inside. My digestive system even goes hay-wire. I'll never go back to my old ways. There's just no way I can imagine feeling like I used to feel back then.

But when you go to the doc and they check your blood pressure/heart rate and you're clear, when you get on that scale and they tell you you're healthy (and you don't have anxiety getting on it), when you get the blood test results back and your cholesterol is perfect, all your counts add up perfect. When you go up a flight of stairs and aren't winded. I can run for a flat 60 minutes straight on a treadmill...

I can't imagine how that wouldn't motivate someone :) Eff those pounds. I've moved on :)

Thanks to both of you.

It is nice to hop on a scale and see a lower number than the last time.

Also I did have some "above average" results to some tests lately.  Maybe that is triggering something to make me at least try again.

Maybe when I hit those numbers again it will shove me more.  I'm 6 foot 5 and was over 350.  I'm at 344 now.  I'd like to see 330 so I can play Wii Fit again...  Maybe that will drive me... I hope so.

Thanks again...

Up until a few months ago, my motivation was wanting to look better.  I've been changing alot recently; including deciding with the hubby that we'd like to start a family soon.  I'm resuming my college education in August and we'll be in the market to buy our first home in the next year.  I do not want to be overweight when we start trying to conceive.  There are more risks involved for mother and child and that's not something I want to jeopardize. 

Also, when I complete my degree in a little while, obviously I'll be in the market for a new job/start of a career.  IMO, I do not want to appear like I can't/don't want to take care of myself.  I'm being really honest with myself when I say this: the only reason I'm so overweight is laziness and overeating (no medical conditions, etc.).  I do not want any potential employers to be turned off from hiring me especially in this economic environment if they assume I treat my work like I do my body.

There...sorry for the long post, but I just came to these conclusions in the last few months and wanted to put it out there.

Thanks for the reply and the honesty!

I am in the same boat with you.  If I try, I lose weight.  I did go down with a bad back 2 years ago, and had back fusion a year ago.  But no one put the multiple hamburgers and pizza in my mouth.. I did.  And I actually lost a ton of weight after the surgery (during physical therapy)... but put it back on and a ton more.

My wife happens to be a recruiter for a Fortune 50 company in the IT department.  (Not trying to name drop or anything... just an important point).  She is back on track and working on her weight also because of the perception that may give to people... right or wrong.  Unfortunately weight seems to be an accepted discrimination.  It's still socially ok to make fun of fat people...

At any rate.. thanks for the response.  And good luck.

Since I've lost weight, one health problem has cleared up.  I was diagnosed with sleep apnea 4 years ago.  Since then I've slowly lost about 60 pounds total. 

I just had a sleep study.  Normal is a score of 0 to 5.  Mine was 5.8.  That's close enough to normal that I don't need treatment.  The sleep doc said it's all due to weight loss, and that if I lose another 25 pounds, it will likely be gone for good.

That's a big boost in my motivation.

My joints -- I have a family history of joint trouble, I have had some issues in the past few years, and I didn't want to be crippled when I hit 60 (8 years, but still looming).  My brother, only 3 years older than I, not obese, is have knee replacement this summer.  As someone else said, this is the only body I get, I need to take better care of it.

I've had several triggers I suppose.

Graduating college and wanting to start the next chapter of my life as the healthy person I imagine myself being is a reason.

Wanting to be a healthy role model for my daughter is a reason.

Just tired of feeling limited in certain ways because of my weight.

I hope you find your reason to make it stick this time.

 

 

I have a few things that were my motivation to get started.

1.  I have a husband that's 11 years younger than I am.  I don't want to die too much before he does!  He'd get snatched up in a heartbeat by some scheming woman...and I'd have to watch from heaven and not get to do anything about it!

2.  I couldn't walk across a parking lot without being winded and having minor chest pains.  I have a heart murmer due to a bad valve in my heart.... relates back to reason #1.

3.  He loves me and made me promise him that I would stick around with him.  (I know....he's a mental case, but he's cute)

4.  I was tired of sitting around at home because I couldn't do anything without discomfort.  Even grocery shopping would wear me out.   Now we get out and do different things that I couldn't even consider last summer...

5.  The biggest reason?  I'm worth it! (So are YOU!!)

My wasted youth.

I can't even think of how many events and opportunities I missed out on because I knew I would be focusing on what I looked like instead of having fun. It's a self-esteem thing, I know, and weightloss isn't going to help me by itself, but I've got to start somewhere. I chose this journey because I want a tangible measure of achievement. I'm doing it for me, so I can prove to myself that I don't quit just because the going gets tough.

I want to know what it feels like, for once in my life, to be able to go into a store and slip into a size 4 or 5 instead of my usual 11 or 12.  To start the day happy, throw open my closet and decide what I want to wear because I want to wear it, not because this particular outfit is best I can do to disguise my butt or cover a muffin-top. I want to be able to show off my killer legs without having to worry about jiggles or cellulite.

I've put it off for too long. It's seriously not that hard, but it's my depressed/anxious brain that's telling me it is! So on the other hand, it's also me wanting to stick it to my depression. Give myself one less thing to be depressed about, to worry about, and, once I accomplish my goals, my body will be a promise for the other successes I can enjoy in my life.

So you see, I've made it so pivotal for the sake of my own sanity! That's a lot of pressure, and it is what drives me every. single. day.

To echo the poster above, I'm doing it for ME.

 

 

Actually, I spent a long time thinking about it, and while I cannot pin it on ONE major reason, I still would like to share.

I am 21 years old and I have high cholesterol.  Why?  Simply, I love food.  Even simpler, I love eggs.  And bacon.  And cheese.  On a buttered english muffin.  Or bagel.  Anytime of day.

By BMI standards, I am obese.  Now, I'm only "barely" obese, but it's still not something i like to hear. I am five-foot three with huge boobs, so half of this "obese", I swear, is breast fat.

If I ever make it to 135 pounds, I'm going to get my breasts reduced. YAY.

I had been on a strong diet in which I lost 40 pounds.  I gained 20 of it back.  Talk about a buzzkill!

I don't want to die before the age of 50 (like my grandfather did).

I don't want to die before the age of 75 (like my other grandfather did).

I think that's it.

My motivation is a combination of 1) being healthy and not dying due to weight-related things before my time, 2) looking better, and 3) not dishonoring the God who gave me my body by not taking better care of it. 

And I would add that the results (on the scale and in the mirror) provide additional, ongoing motivation.  I just today hit 274.5 (started at 345, down 70.5), which means I have less than 100 to go (goal is 175). 

A few other things come to mind, but these are the things that dominate my thoughts as I ponder the question.

look in the mirrior when im naked and seeing how much of me jiggles when it shouldn't when i move

What a great question! For me, motivation is the whole key to my weight and how I feel about myself. I'll start with the data: I'm 58 yo, 5'3", weigh 166. Motivation, for me, has a lot to do with the phase of life I'm in, or my age, I suppose.

For most of my adult life, I was a size 8 and weighed 135 lbs with a very fit body. I worked out with weights several times a week and walked fast for an hour while wearing ankle weights about 5 days a week. I danced ballroom, Latin and swing, and I bicycled. I hiked a lot, too. I was looking for a partner. That was always my motivation--to attract a life partner. I did enjoy looking good, altho I basically thought I was ugly when I was not at all!

Somehow, I never managed to find a partner and now I've given up on that. So I lost my motivation and have been struggling to find something to get me going again. I just mostly tell myself, "I"m old enough to be a grandmother so I might as well cut myself some slack and just let myself be." Nobody else cares how I look. So I've gained 8 more lbs in one year.

Things come along that should motivate me, like my 40th high school class reunion coming up this summer, or a trip I'm taking with strangers in a tour group to the Amazon rainforest in Peru this coming August. But even those things have not motivated me. I think I should want to look good for the reunion, but hey, I'm not going to see those people for another 10 years, if ever. I no longer live in my hometown. I think I should want to be in shape for the hikes through the jungle and to be able to handle the thinner air in that high altitude. But I've still been sitting on my butt eating every night in front of the TV while my exercise equipment collects dust.

HOWEVER! I received a letter from my doctor recently begging me to lose weight and exercise because I'm pre-diabetic. I am not one to be able to prick myself for blood testing every day, so I DO NOT want diabetes! And I got a letter from my 79-yr-old mother whose spine is deteriorating from arthritis. She now has a bone with a split in it that needs surgery. She's already had two surgeries, has a battery pack installed with electrodes up her spine to try to control pain, and she takes morphine every day now for pain. I DO NOT want to live like that--so I know how important exercise is for me! Now I'm motivated!

I've lost 3 lbs in 3 days on a raw/living foods diet this week and that alone is motivating me! If I can see some progress, I feel a whole lot more motivated to keep going. It feeds on itself. I see some possibility that I could actually look good again and feel good again! YAY!

But I hear ya, dangerdoug, motivation, or what it will take, is a constant conversation going on in my head!

When I started 2 months ago, my motivation was to get to a healthy BMI.  I had been slightly overweight for the past two years and overweight for at least four years before that. I hit the normal BMI range a week and a half ago.  I've lost (seemingly) a lot of fat from my arms, legs, waist and back and paired with the strength training I do I now have a more muscular-looking body.  Now my motivation is to look as trim and lean as possible.  Another goal of mine is to finally feel comfortable wearing a bikini.  I think I'm real close to that goal...too bad I don't have any bikinis lol.

Thank you again to everyone who has wrote here.  I respect every one of your reasons! 

I think I got a bit of motivation this weekend.  My nephew got married and my whole family got together.  Lots of pictures.  My two older brothers were there and usually I was the smallest of the three (heavier family).  Not even close.  I was the biggest.  My dad was on me all weekend on how big I was.  A lot of people with a lot of comments that really weren’t meant to sting, but it did.

Let's hope this helps.  I did beyond well this weekend.. almost too well...  I didn't eat anything at the reception (dry reception, I was working on stuff and really wasn't hungry) and I dropped a considerable amount of weight.  We did a lot of physical activities I haven't done for a long while... (Football, swimming, basketball) and it felt good!!

I almost feel bad that as little effort I have put into this, the amount of weight I have lost.  This isn't that hard... yet....  This website is wonderful!  I check my calories and if I'm under I can eat... What can be easier than that?

So again, keep them coming with the motivations... Nice to see all of them... But I think I may have found one... Thanks again!!!