Exceed yourself physically

I hear a lot of people talking about looking better by losing weight. That's great, it also motivates me, but I get most of my motivation from the idea that losing weight makes me a stronger version of myself - most importantly a faster one.

Some days I work as a garbage man (to pay for university) and now that I am lighter I have become one of the fastest, which makes work more fun (paid exercise) and improves my reputation (being good at your work is important in this macho culture; though I focus more on just being a good guy to be around than showing off my work skills). Every day life movements also go better, so I can cycle to work/uni faster, I walk/run much faster (useful for catching trains and being on time for appointments). Very important for me: I improve my performance at doing exercise. I love to do triathlons now, which is possible because I lost weight and losing more weight improves my time! I also want to make some crazy trips, like to cycle the whole length of the Rhine (1233 kilometers), hopefully this summer.

Before I gained weight I was doing this stuff, but as I gained I did it less and less, because my performance (and enjoyment) would go down (so yeah there's a feedback cycle there). To lose weight I had to learn to appreciate the performance gain from where I was; I did this by measuring my running time on a 2 kilometer track. The first time I did this (around 100 kg) I ran it in about 12.5 minutes (9.5 km/h). A few kgs down I could do it in 10 minutes (12 km/h). I can do it in less than 8 now and soon I expect that I will be able to do it in less than 7 somewhere in the coming months, almost half of my first time (and who knows perhaps I can do it in <6).

All of this started because when I was 106 kg I realized that being truly alive to me means moving fast and taking physical challenges. I felt bad because I wasn't able to do this anymore, and I hoped that I could get back this. So I tried to lose weight and it worked better than I could have expected; I am more fit than ever and I have not reached the top yet!