What motivates you??

I'm a happier person now, than I was before I lost 30 lbs. I'm a better friend, family member, significant other, because I'm happy in general. I feel good about myself, confident. I've found running, which is amazing and I just feel much healthier (physically, emotionally and mentally) than I ever did before.

After you get this way, why on earth would you ever want to go back?

I knew I had to lose weight but it was always someday. Then I had some blood work done for my physical and my sugar was at 125. This blood work was done through my job for free. I took the results to my family doc and when he saw my sugar level he immediately decided to put me on medication. I tried to talk my way out of it saying I would lose weight just to stay off another med. Already I was on cholesteral meds and meds for acid reflux. My doc said he would take me off in 3 months if i lost 15-20 lbs. Well that was motivation enough to get started. This was just before my 3 weeks vacation in July 2013. We had plans for our trip, visiting family in Ohio and New York, baseball games on the road. All involving eating out and little exercise. Well as it turns out only a couple occasions on the trip did I overeat at a BBQ and one other occasion I believe. Other then that I set my mind to eating right and not overindulging. Sure I had some hot dogs at ball games but I pretty much limited myself to one and munching on sunflower seeds the rest of the games. After our trip getting home was another story. I saw that I had lost some weight on the trip without really counting calories but I wasn't sure if I could sustain this so I needed a guide. That brought me back to MFP. I set a goal and now my motivation is not just to get off the meds but to get down to my Army days weight. I'm at the brink of getting just below 200 lbs for the first time in a long time. I already feel better and will continue to lose because I know how and am learning how to be a better version of me! Sorry for being long winded. Hopefully this is a good answer. :bigsmile:

Living with my illness, I have to do it for my health. That, and all the great people on my friends list

What motivates me? I battle Bipolar Disorder & therefore depression is part of the package. I honestly thought that with my meds, I would continue to gain & gain & gain. Being at my highest weight ever (226 labs) added to my depression. I worked with my Dr to finally find a combination that ended the endless weight gain & allows me to lose weight.

So, what motivates me is to maintain emotional and psychological stability.

BTW: If you also suffer from bipolar and need a pal, feel free to friend me. Or if you don't you can still friend me.

My husband sent me a picture yesterday entitled "my motivation". It was a picture of the bench he was working on in the gym with his wedding ring in the middle of it. So sweet. I have to say ditto for me. It's my family and the fact that I want to be a good example for my children, and remain a "sexy" wife for my husband.

Pictures of people with great bodies motivates me too. I have a folder of pictures I look at, mostly B&A pictures, whenever I think I'm about to do something bad. Snatches the hunger right out of me. But nothing motivates me more than June 2014. Just that alone makes me daydream and feel pumped.

People modivate me...talking and flirting modivate me,,,,seeing my progress!..having energy and feeling great!

First of all u,have,to,enjoy,going to workout out...what motivates me is seeing all the hard work paying off by just looking at my body becoming tighter and clothes become looser:) I never weigh myself..never weigh yourself! ladies! Just go by ur clothes and how u look always..its a different approach positively rather than negatively to see ur weight prolly not drop on a scale. Inches loss are waaay more important:)dont let that scale bring you down. Stay off of it!

Knowing that this is something I have control over! The only reason I can't walk into a shop and buy the clothes I want, is me. I can make positive action to change it. There is nothing stopping me from looking the way I want. And that's so exciting!

I started getting crippling depressive and anxiety symptoms over the last year and everywhere I looked for help, the first piece of advice was to change your lifestyle, exercise more and eat healthier. So I said *kitten* it, and I did.

I haven't had any major symptom since, so instead of thinking about my appearance, I am concentrating on my mental health instead. I've learned to be ok with my appearance most of the time, which made it harder to keep me motivated. So the fact that I am feeling happier and better is definitely more motivating for me to keep myself on track.

We all have something that drives us to stick with it. Something that gets us back on the wagon when we fall off-and most of us do fall off from time to time!!

What motivates me is fear. I'm down almost 75 lbs. since mid April. I weight 196 lbs. right now. If you do the math I started at 270 lbs and I was still gaining. Now, for those of your who have never been really big it can be hard to imagine what it's like sometimes. Shopping for clothes at the speciatly store because you can't fit into anything from wal mart anymore!! Being so tired and rundown all the time. Not being able to get a towel to go around you. Having your thighs rubbed sore from the friction of them rubbing together. And just not feeling healthy!! Walking up the stairs to go to the second floor of my house used to beat me out!! So, what motivates me is fear. I'm afraid that if I stop I won't be able to start again. So I eat healthy and I do my workout (I have to admit I really find my workout fun though!!) because I'm terrified if I don't then I will end up right back where I started from!! I don't want to go back there anymore.

So, that's what motivates me-what motivates you??

I didn't like the 228 pound me. I was gross. Going to buy new clothes made me want to cry. I didn't like going to the kids' school because I just KNEW all the other moms were thinking nasty things about me. I had health conditions that were made worse by my weight.

Once I joined the gym, and started making strides towards getting fit, it was a matter of proving to myself that I might be fat, but I can DO this. I'm 20 months into this, and have changed SO much. I haven't lost as much scale weight as I would like, but I look totally different! I remember when walking on the treadmill at 2mph had me dripping with sweat and my legs ready to give out. In April I managed to do 4 miles in 55 minutes! I was tired, but not super tired. I've started lifting, and yesterday I squatted 150lbs! Now when people look at me at the gym, it is in awe

ETA: my profile pic is a net loss of 5 pounds or less. I gained about 35lbs after the picture on the left was taken, and I have now lost about 37 pounds. I am wearing the exact same shirt!