What keeps you on the wagon?

I'm too lazy to walk so I figure the wagon is fine with me.

For me it's MFP and the friends I've made here. I am devoted to that logging so many days in a row and am up to 170 as of now. I think as long as I keep that motivation and the size 8 pants down from a 17 is kind of helping too Sometimes something just feels "different" you know. This just really feels different this time.

and I've met a great couple of people here and we've started our own group and do challenges and have all made amazing progress. They are all kind of a big deal to me and I kind of feel like I owe it to them too .

To be quite honest, it was just a decision I made. I was not willing to be out of shape in my 30's, knew what I had to do, and just did it. I use this site for information and tracking my calories.....it was just another tool for success.

I look at myself in the mirror every day.
I see my race times from last year.
I see my lift numbers from last month.
I know how I feel on a daily basis.

If my desire to be better isn't enough to keep me going, then nothing anyone else says or does is going to make any difference. My motivation comes from within. Do I have days or weeks where I'm not as dedicated/driven/disciplined/whatever as I'd like to be? Sure. But ultimately it comes down for my desire for self improvement.

Hm honestly, I hate being like other people. I strive to be individual, to be different. In the case of being fit, I refuse to fail, and to be a yo-yo diet stereotype. The desire to be different is also what pushed me to begin weightlifting, to be the only girl in the weight room with a bunch of boys! Maybe I'm just stubborn to a fault?

Basically, I was just finally tired of being fat.

I also refuse to feel guilty about food, so that helps. I have none of the "Oh no! I ate a cookie and I'm freaking out" stuff you seen on the forums so much. It's food - it's an inanimate object. Totally not worth investing that much emotion over.

I eat what I want, I just eat within my calorie goal. I have no "plan" or restrictions. There is no book telling me what I can or can't do. My life is not lived within the pages of the South Beach diet handbook (or Dukan, or Adkins, or whatever plan is the trendy thing right now).....my life is all over, it's real and it can get messy. My life demands that I'm ok with eating pizza on Friday nights and with grabbing a sandwich on a busy day. Once again, no guilt.

I do exercise that I love. I refuse to do exercise that I don't love. But I've learned to love a lot of exercise - I've also learned to be competitive and to try new things.

^All of that keeps me on track. The way I feel now is worth so much that I can't even consider trading it in for fat pants again.

Well, THIS TIME. I sought prayer more. I asked God to give me a plan, Just For Me. MFP has awakened me tremendously as to how many calories I was consuming a day and how many calories that are burned when you work out. So what's keeping me on the wagon? I would say PRAYER and checking on myself dailly, and of course MFP.

I totally agree with this. "Compulsive overeating" is an addiction like so many others and there are spiritual and physical aspects to it. The physical part is the easier part: Eliminate foods with added sugar, avoid simple carbs and substitute other grains for wheat (because there is a substance called gliaden in wheat---not gluten---that is addictive. I've grown quite fond of 100% whole rye bread. I guarantee, no one ever "pigs out" on rye bread the way I used to on fresh white bread.) Keep total daily carbs between 100-200 grams per day. It is good to view exercise as another kind of nourishment for your body and see "compulsive underexercising" as just as bad as compulsive overeating. But in order to maintain any kind of an exercise program you must be properly nourished and that means eating vegetables, lean meats and fish, healthy fats, fruit and whole grain. When you have a lot of body fat to lose, every calorie must be a nourishing one to get the greatest benefit and avoid regaining. I have followed these simple steps and so far, have lost 50 pounds--30 of them since I started on MFP. I still have another 50 to go til I am at a healthy weight but I believe I will get there if I stay on my current program. I have broken my physical addiction to sugar and simple carbs.

But then again, there is the spiritual part--the part that says--"Just this once, I'll have a piece of cheesecake and then go back on my diet tomorrow." When tomorrow comes, that nagging temptation says, "Probably I should just eat up the junk left over from Christmas and besides, I've worked really hard at losing weight so I can splurge a little this week." And after all of that, a week or so later, when the scale shows the 6 pound weight gain, that same voice says, "What a stupid loser I am---I should have stayed on my diet--now, look what I've done to myself!" Prayer works wonders against temptation to do self-destructive things. "It was for freedom that Christ set us free."

Photos of what I know I can look like!

I love weight lifting and I had a lot of health problems when I was heavy, so I tell myself my life depends on it.