What is your motivation?

There are many that eat all kinds of food... but also the thing is to work hard and keep your caloric deficit going to loose weight.

In other words, a good motivation could be to keep enjoying food and loose weight too...

In other words... when you have that piece of sweet or many... you need to think too... there is a good run or elliptical or whatever cardio you prefer coming..

Of course.. you still need to track it.. and try to not go crazy..

That was my problem last year. I got way off-track and would just indulge any chance I got. But the past month committing myself to training for a half-marathon again has really motivated my eating habits as well -- I'm eating less food and eating healthier foods. So for me, it was all about getting back to my normal exercise regime that motivated me to also eat better/less food.

Okay, other than my health, I ghuess it's vanity. When I was engaged to my childhood bf, he and I broke up then he saw me about 90#s heavier than he had known me@...he remarked how I let myself go. It stung bad but i went away w/ it only to beef up over another 100. Yikes, I just added to a bad enough amount. So here I am many years later w/ his words in my mind...the ridicule he directed @ me is helping motivate me. I did however marry a man while I was 316#. He loved me then but is loving my recovering a thinner version from before.

That's awesome! you want someone who treasures you - in any physicial form -- sounds like you hit the gold with your hubby. I know the ex's words hurt and if that motivates you, that's wonderful. But too often we place too much emphasis on the scale and not enough on the traits of the person. Know what I mean?

This may sound a bit morbid, but in my instance one of my motivating factors is death. My father died at age 55, his father at 43, and I'm about to turn 38. I'd like to live more than 10 or 15 years. I'd like to be around to see my nephew grow up, get married have children of his own. I'd like to see my younger sister graduate college. I'd like to not be a burden to my partner by being so big that I can't take care of myself. On a less morbid and more practicle reason, let's face it we're guys and a good motivation is sexual attraction. By passing on the sweet and spending that extra 5 min on the treadmill, you'll begin to feel better about yourself, look better, and have more self confidence. And well that's a whole heck of a lot more sexy then being a lump on the log.

I've been on here two year, lost 50lbs right off the bat and then got into a happy relationship. A year later of being in a happy relationship and all my 'skinny' pants are skin tight!

Motivated AGAIN so I don't have to buy bigger clothes!!!

wanting to meet someone and get remarried one day.

I have some normal motivators and some weird motivators.

1) Belly fat is a potential sign of insulin resistance, and you probably don't want to be diabetic when you're older. If you are experiencing some insulin resistance, there might be other changes going on in your body that could limit your health and mobility later in life. Personally don't care much when I die, but I want to be able to go for a walk until my dying day.

2) Thinking about sweets: On the one hand, I think desserts are a nice way to pass the time. Make them, share them, enjoy them in moderation, what's the problem? But on the other hand, processed food. Many packaged candies and desserts aren't even especially delicious, they just have a balance of salt, sugars, and gross binding agents that make your brain demand more. Just like I hate advertisers trying to snow me into buying something I can't use, I hate it when processed food is designed to bypass my decisionmaking and activate addictive processes. Damn the Man and his crappy boxed cookies.

3)... I'm trying to come up with motivators that would work for someone of any weight, but most of my other good ones are specific to me. One good one is having one's clothes fit well. That's not always about size - proportion is a big factor - but a belly bulge (or a random bulge nearly anywhere) usually means that inexpensive clothes will never really flatter you. If that matters to you? I confess it's not a big one for me.

I donno personally I have always wanted to be able to go out with my friends and feel like I look good. I have gorgeous friends, and I always wanted to be up to par with them.... So I finally decided to stick with it cause I don't know what the heck I'm waiting for!

My motivation is to be as healthy as possible, for as long as possible. I want to be around to see every one of my kids grow up, and I still want to be active and healthy when they have moved out so I can enjoy life!

Not being fat is pretty much all the motivation I need . . . but looking good naked has quite a few benefits.

Me. Me being healthy and fit and happy for the people I love.

Wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding....good health, great body. Wedding!

For me it was when I hit 360lbs before I was 21 and simple daily tasks become hard, I couldn't wear the seat belts in most of my friends cars and I could barely go up and down stairs at work. After I got to 199 it's purely vainity I wanna be a hot biznitch and prove to myself I can be as awesome as I have always been in my head. Now not only will I have a kick *kitten* personality from being fat and only having that to make friends but I will have
A hot bod.

Three main motivations for me:

1) My three sons are full of energy and I couldn't keep up. Then.... it happened.... my daughter was born. LIFE CHANGER.

2) My second motivation is tied to my first. I want to be around to walk my daughter down the aisle (in about 30 years! No hurry!) and I started having health problems that many out of shape people experience: insulin resistance, hypertension, lack of energy, neuropathy, joint and knee pain, constantly needing to update my wardrobe since I was gaining all the time, feeling bad about myself, clearly too short for my weight (before I started working out, I would have been perfectly proportioned if I was 10 feet tall!)

3) I am a professional photographer. Models who work with me have to look great, be in peak physical form, and here I was so out of shape and getting worse. Seems awfully hypocritical to me!

I don't know about all of you, but 2013 is going to be a kick *kitten* year. Before this year is through, I WILL be in the best shape of my life! And yes, I am always open to friends on MFP who share that enthusiasm!