What is Your Motivation? Why do you want Change?

At first it was my chronic pain and my fertility problems. Well, 2 kids and over a year and a half pain free, it's now my kids that get me moving every day. I want them to see healthy living modeled in our home.

I'm all about dem gains !!! that keeps me motivated (by gains I mean adding muscle to my body if you didn't get it)

Results motivate me the most. All the effort I've put in over the last couple of years is not worth wasting by sitting on the couch. Finally seeing muscle on my body. Going from not being able to do a single push up a few months ago to doing 3-4 sets of 20. The best part is when an exercise that seemed like pure hell months ago, is now a warm-up

:mad: I was tired of my parents telling me I was "putting" on weight as if I was suppose to stay the same size all my life.....and I hate my back fat rolls so I needed to make a change.

My son! I was raised eating garbage but was so active it didn't make me overweight. Then the real world hit and I got old(er) and gained 40lbs. I'd rather teach my kids how to eat right and stay healthy so they don't struggle more later on. Plus, you feel SO much better when you aren't eating junk and you are exercising!

My father died at 62 from a hearth attack.
My father's sister died at 62 from a hearth attack.
My fathers father died at 64 from a hearth attack, 2 years after having a stroke and a earlier H-A.
My father's younger brother was so paranoid when he turned 60 that he had a complete physical. Doctor said he should have done it a year earlier. Had advanced colon cancer. Died at 61.

I celebrated my 60th birthday last November by riding my bicycle 100 miles.... My tenth century in the past 3 years.

Initially it was wanting to feel better in my own skin, feel healthy, become active.

Now its trying to find a balance between being active and pushing myself. While going to the gym and exercising is now routine, just like making healthier choices in food- I don't want to become complacent. So I am always trying to find a way to push myself physically- doing a new/different exercise, setting new goals, or signing up for races/competitions to give me something to strive and push towards. Otherwise I would get bored and not make the most of the exercise that I am doing.

Because I needed to LOVE MYself again.

I read posts from many who get in shape for appearance and comfort reasons as well as vague references to better health. All of those apply to me, but I also have witnessed a thing that scared me into this. An eldery relative, after a lifetime of poor nutrition and sedentary habits, had the inevitable fall and broke her arm. She couldn't get up from the floor untill she was discovered by someone. It put her in a situation of needing a round the clock caregiver until she healed because she didn't have the core and leg strength to get up from a chair or bed (or toilet) without using both her arms to hoist herself to her feet.

Many of the physical problems of ageing are just passed off as what happens when you get old. But many things like poor balance, poor strength, brittle bones and incontinence can be at least improved if not avoided altogether by keeping yourself fit and eating a nutritious diet.

My mother is currently battling cancer. Before that she was diagnosed with a laundry list of diseases (type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and others I can't recall off the top of my head). I watched my mother fluctuate in weight significantly between her 30s and 50s. I also saw that she did not make wise dietary choices during that time.

Here she is now, 62 years old with stage 4 cancer on her breast and lymph nodes. A voice inside of me can't shake the thought that if maybe she would have kept her weight in check, not eaten as many as those "bad foods" and kept active that she would not be in this position. (especially knowing that cancer does not run in my mother's side of the family). My mother is my prime motivator. I don't want to chance developing any of those diseases.

I want to bump up my level of health, shed off some of the unwanted pounds I gained in the past couple of years and overall live a better quality of life. :flowerforyou:

ps - and yes...I want to look damn good in the process.