What was your biggest motivation?

I have a few...
To be there for my kids and hubby
To be happy
To go on vacation- hubby and I will go on a cruise next year if I get to my goal weight
To stop having to use powder under my c section fat fold.. I actually am almost to the point where I don't need to as my stomach is shrinking! It's the little things that add up!

Originally, I was mostly motivated by my general medical health and wanting to feel better physically. Now I am motivated to continue my good health and continue feeling good but there's also a lot more vanity involved.

The mirror and wanting to look good naked!

I have several . . .
Health was the first one, I wanted to get off high blood pressure meds.
After losing some weight I was dumped so then I had the Revenge Dress Motivation thing going for a while.
Then there was the realization that some of my co-workers were betting if I was going to keep the weight off (from Christmas 14 to 15) Heck Yeah!!
Now I am motivated to just be the best I can be, the healthiest and happiest I can and fit my clothes because I have no large clothes.

It changes and I think it should, you need to set goals that are reachable and then move on to new goals to keep up the motivation.

I didn't have just one. I have been overweight for several years and even though it bothered me, it didn't really bother me enough to do anything about it. But finally this past September I realized that I weighed 195 (almost 200) and I weighed more than my husband who is 7 inches taller than me. Combine those two things with me just getting tired of being fat and I finally started logging seriously. What keeps me motivated is seeing the graph showing my weight going steadily down. Last summer was my 25th anniversary and we went on our first cruise. I don't know why I didn't get motivated a year ago. My goal was to lose 60 pounds and so far I am down 36 pounds so I am a little more than halfway there. I really feel that I can do it this time.

Middle age spread.
No middle age spread

Cheers, h.

I've tried so many times to actually be serious and I'm honestly just tired of failing myself and I need to learn better self-discipline. A great motivator I have is my cousin; she was more overweight than me growing up and now she has lost over 50 pounds and now is working on crossfit training. That makes me insist that this is my time too and i can do it.

@cwolfman13

That's also more or less my reason/motivation. The notion of me wanting to lose weight or "really really want" never works for me. I have to attach concrete, important values to it to be successful. The more impactful and emotional and bigger than yourself the reason is, the better chance you succeed, I believe.

What triggered it for me and to stick with it was the realisation my wedding was 8 months away. I wanted to look good standing in front of my friends and family, look smoking hot for my future husband and for vanity when looking back at pictures!

While that started it, it has now evolved to being healthy. I have never been 'skinny' and while I was accepting of my body, I have never been proud. I want to be proud of myself.

I have been tracking for close to two months and joined the gym. I even love the gym! I never thought in a million years I would say that, and that is something I am massively proud of. Soon, the body will follow.

Serious answer: Keeping myself healthy enough to donate a kidney to my sister if/when she needs it. She's type 1 diabetic and has been through kidney failure twice now. There was nothing more painful than the doctor telling me I was a match but I wasn't healthy enough to donate - I was 5 foot 4.5 and 215 pounds.

I managed to get into the best shape of my life (120 and 16% BF) - I started dating my boyfriend and I changed jobs (I have my dream career now!). I've picked up a bit of weight with the change.

I'm still healthy enough to donate to my sister if she wants to try again but I realized that I liked my active lifestyle more at 120. I don't want to use my job as an excuse for gaining weight. There's a happy balance that I found before that I need to find with the new job.

not serious answer: I miss having "smaller" boobs! I mean the smallest I was ever able to get to was a DD but I'm back up to a F (heading back to a G if I keep gaining weight). I like running darn it and these things make it difficult and expensive!

not wanting to be fat anymore.

Arnie's chest! If I could have that, just for one day...

Motivation was basically I'm getting older and I wanted to have visible abs for once in my life.

I want to go back to being fit and strong and feeling like an athlete. Which is hilarious bc I was overweight and totally unathletic as a child, until senior year of HS.

And I want to look good in my clothes. I don't want to be the frumpy mom--I homeschool my four boys and will probably have more kids...I don't want to fit the dumpy denim jumper stereotype. I like meeting people and having them be surprised that I have four kids and/or that I run half marathons. Plus I know if I let myself gain/keep a few pounds with each kid, I'll easily end up like my mom (diabetic and at least 225 after two kids). I don't want to limit myself and our family by my weight and health.

My biggest point is to look bettter. Co motivation is better performance racing in running and triathlon events. But vanity does play a significant role.