What was your biggest motivation?

ilovefastcarstoo
ilovefastcarstoo Posts: 115 Member
edited November 30 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm curious what everyone's biggest motivation or turning point was to finally lose the weight? I'd love to hear from you! Also, what keeps you motivated?
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Replies

  • _kingbooble
    _kingbooble Posts: 25 Member
    Biggest motivation is to get to a healthy weight, which I have never been pretty much all my life. Also to look normal so feel better about things but primary its about health for me rather than looks..
  • Lizzypb88
    Lizzypb88 Posts: 367 Member
    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!
  • Lizzypb88
    Lizzypb88 Posts: 367 Member
    And my turning point was weighing myself after a long day of gardening and yard work I had lost a few pounds, it gave me the motivation to think, hey, I can do this! Everyone has that moment where it clicks and they make it a lifestyle change, that was mine, no special reason, but I'm glad I started and would never go back!
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    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.
  • mwood1234
    mwood1234 Posts: 60 Member
    My son's wedding in October. My first thought was "OMG PICTURES!" That was it. I'm on a mission...
  • CasperNaegle
    CasperNaegle Posts: 936 Member
    The mirror and wanting to look good naked!
  • lithezebra
    lithezebra Posts: 3,670 Member
    I have no motivation, only good habits.
  • Adc7225
    Adc7225 Posts: 1,318 Member
    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.
  • wrknonmedaily
    wrknonmedaily Posts: 203 Member
    Most of all to lower my blood pressure and to get off the pill for that. I want to get down to my per-pregnancy weight of 155. I have 2 wonderful kids, 23 and 18, and I have not seen 155 in over 23 years. I want to look good in my clothes and even better naked. I want to be pain free and have more energy and have been starting Jan 2, 2016 after cutting out a lot of junk.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 5,185 Member
    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.
  • Asher_Ethan
    Asher_Ethan Posts: 2,430 Member
    I joined a workout group and I was the most out of shape person in this group of 100 people. I decided I would continue to go to this group and I refused to be the slowest/heavyest person there.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    Middle age spread.
    No middle age spread

    Cheers, h.
  • Beaner63
    Beaner63 Posts: 69 Member
    I got to a weight and size where if I tried to bend down to tie my shoes, my gut would cut off my diagphram and I would quit breathing. So everyday I would try and tie my shoes while holding my breath as quickly as I could. I realized how absolutely absurd that was and tld myself something had to change.
  • alipie420
    alipie420 Posts: 39 Member
    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
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Losing weight really wasn't necessarily on my agenda to begin with...I turned in some really nasty blood work a few years ago and it was obvious that the path I was going down was going to have me pretty sick, if not dead in another 20 years...with two small kids, that was unacceptable and I set out to get my health back. I was also a pretty decent athlete once upon a time and I wanted to get my fitness back as well.

    Losing weight was just a nice product of getting the rest of my *kitten* together and just living a healthier lifestyle. Once I started dropping weight though, for sure a bit of vanity came into the picture.
  • endlessfall16
    endlessfall16 Posts: 932 Member
    @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.
  • ncboiler89
    ncboiler89 Posts: 2,408 Member
    I'm curious what everyone's biggest motivation or turning point was to finally lose the weight? I'd love to hear from you! Also, what keeps you motivated?

    No one loves fat people.
  • Alarae21
    Alarae21 Posts: 171 Member
    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.
  • HStheBusyBee
    HStheBusyBee Posts: 1,366 Member
    It's a combination of wanting to feel healthier, being able to do more things with my son like play football etc. And wanting to look better :)
  • SweetestLibby
    SweetestLibby Posts: 607 Member
    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!
  • ElizabethOakes2
    ElizabethOakes2 Posts: 1,038 Member
    Back in November, my husband and I both had our annual physicals.
    My cholesterol was a little high, my blood pressure was still up. (I was solidly in pre-hypertension numbers for a couple years), and my doctor said, "At least you haven't gained anymore weight..." before talking about putting me on meds for my bp and cholesterol. That's when it struck me that he had given up on me making changes for myself. Nobody gives up on me!
    My husband, however- his bad fat numbers were so high they masked his good fat numbers, he was pre-diabetic, and cholesterol was insane. Finally, he was scared enough to make real changes, but he was having a hard time sticking to the plan the doctor put him on. He was seriously depressed, angry and frustrated.

    The nutritionist working with our physician's plan was literally insane and making it worse, so I said "Fire her. I know more about nutrition and fitness than she does!" He did, we came to MFP, we did our own calculations and figured out how do this for real and do it for life.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    not wanting to be fat anymore.
  • lostgoals
    lostgoals Posts: 57 Member
    I looked at my belly hanging over my jeans and looked at the box of photos from my younger days.. turning 40 this year.... and wanting to live. The best motivation is my nonverbal autistic daughter, the longer I live the better her life will remain.
  • Buff_Man
    Buff_Man Posts: 623 Member
    Arnie's chest! If I could have that, just for one day...
  • Winter_Girl92
    Winter_Girl92 Posts: 39 Member
    I have a holiday to the gold coast in novemeber visiting the theme parks and I don't want to be too big to fit in the seats of the rides. That has really encouraged me. Plus I wouldn't have seen my sisters in over a year so I want to show them a big transformation.
  • scorpcookie
    scorpcookie Posts: 113 Member
    Motivation was basically I'm getting older and I wanted to have visible abs for once in my life.
  • Forty6and2
    Forty6and2 Posts: 2,492 Member
    At first, I just wanted to be hot. But now I just want to be fit. If I do live long, I want to still be able to run and lift weights and do yoga.

    My mom struggled with her weight and had mobility problems due to how heavy she was and how much back pain she had (from surgeries) and I don't want to end up like that. My mom, grandma and sperm donor (aka "father") all died due to heart complications. I don't want that to be me. I want to have a good life, no matter how long I live.
  • gradchica27
    gradchica27 Posts: 777 Member
    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.
  • loreefabulous
    loreefabulous Posts: 19 Member
    Health reasons. Also I hated when I used to go out shopping and nothing would fit, I don't want to go back to that anymore. I just stopped caring about how I looked. Now I just want to feel good about me. And now it feels good to be complimented on the clothes I am wearing.

    My husband keeps me motivated and is always challenging me in a way that I respond well to. Who knew I was competitive?
  • richardgavel
    richardgavel Posts: 1,001 Member
    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.
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