What got you motivated?
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kt_kat_88
Posts: 74 Member
I have been trying so hard to get motivated for a long time now and I just end up making excused. So many times I thought I had hit a point where I would change. Hitting the 200 lb. mark, being put on blood pressure meds, even vacation and high school reunion. Each time those events happened I would think to myself "this is the time to change" but it never happened.
So what helped you get motivated to finally make a change to a healthier you?
So what helped you get motivated to finally make a change to a healthier you?
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Twice in my life I've gone on huge weight loss kicks. The first was when I was 28 (235 lbs) and realized that I was being left out of activities with my friends, because they didn't think I could handle the activity. Also, my younger brother pointed out to me how unhealthy I was AND my sister's wedding was in 6 months and I couldn't fit into the LARGEST bridesmaids dress offered. I lost 90 pounds over the course of 2 years.
Fast forward to today (started at 215, now at 187). I just decided that I would NOT be starting my 50s as an overweight person. I just turned 49 on Sunday (the 24th), and as I already mentioned, down 27 pounds from January, with 27 to go. I think I can lose those additional pounds this year for sure
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Twice in my life I've gone on huge weight loss kicks. The first was when I was 28 (235 lbs) and realized that I was being left out of activities with my friends, because they didn't think I could handle the activity. Also, my younger brother pointed out to me how unhealthy I was AND my sister's wedding was in 6 months and I couldn't fit into the LARGEST bridesmaids dress offered. I lost 90 pounds over the course of 2 years.
Fast forward to today (started at 215, now at 187). I just decided that I would NOT be starting my 50s as an overweight person. I just turned 49 on Sunday (the 24th), and as I already mentioned, down 27 pounds from January, with 27 to go. I think I can lose those additional pounds this year for sure
Awesome job! My motivation is similar in that I was to feel fit and healthy well into my 50's, 60's and beyond. I love being active and trying new activities that a physically demanding and I don't to have to pass up on anything that interests me. I see my mom, who is 57 now, and how she struggles with her weight, but also with having enough energy, stamina and strength to do alot of physical activites. I don't want to feel limited because I didn't take care of my body when I was younger.0 -
I have always been very healthy. Started counting calories when I was in fifth grade (terrible, I know...I suffered from a lot of body image issues, OCD and the death of my brother emphasized that). However in October I decided to go on a 9-day Yacht vacation to Croatia with a bunch of friends (who are all in unbelievable shape - great bodies, even though many have paid to have work done) and my boyfriend where we will be in bathing suits 90% of the time. That kicked my butt into gear to get serious and incorporate lifting, see a nutritionist, etc. Now, here I am 6 months later with a good amount of progress and 64-days to go to grow my glutes, define my legs/back/shoulders/arms and lose the little amount of fat left to reveal those abs. I went from eating 1,000-1,200 calories x day and doing cardio non-stop and having a flabby, undefined body, to eating 1,400 calories x day (sometimes more) and cutting down cardio (until recently...summer is right around the corner, gotta bump it up to lose fat) and weighing around the same but being closer to my dream body (although I still have a ways to go, getting nervous...64-days isn't all that long). It's amazing how much has changed!1
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I just decided that it was time..I had done the "I'm losing weight for (insert event)" this time I did it for me. Just ME. I started slow and have consistently built going on a year and a half. I lost 60 lbs total and have totally transformed my body. I have days where I have no motivation..but it is my discipline that keeps me in gear. I have worked hard for it all..and I still have goals to reach...I'll never become complacent again.
Each thing you do towards your goal..be little or big..is a step in the right direction. Good luck!!1 -
I think what makes it hard for me is I lost a bunch of weight my senior year of high school without even trying. Between 2 PE's and being on my feet working fast food. I went from and 18 jeans to a 12 in a year in a half and ate whatever I wanted. But once I moved to full-time work at a desk, I gained it all back plus some and have not been able to lose it.0
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I have been trying so hard to get motivated for a long time now and I just end up making excused. So many times I thought I had hit a point where I would change. Hitting the 200 lb. mark, being put on blood pressure meds, even vacation and high school reunion. Each time those events happened I would think to myself "this is the time to change" but it never happened.
So what helped you get motivated to finally make a change to a healthier you?
look in mirror and breathing hard my clothes so type on me I am trying it not easy.0 -
For me, I joined a fitness challenge with some work/community friends. Didn't plan on losing weight, just wanted to be fitter and more healthy since I'd given up on losing. But as luck would have it, I joined MFP to help track things for the challenge and started losing. So I've kept up with it. I've lost 24lbs, still have 20+ to go but I've learned a lot about myself and what I want out of this, a healthier me.
It's difficult since I also work a desk job and I am sooo not a morning person. So I workout at night. It fits my schedule. MFP has helped a lot. I know I'm in this for the long haul. I'll probably be a lifetime logger even after I reach my goals.1 -
I had 2 motivation points. The first was January 1, 2000. Having reached the new century alive, I decided that I had the genetics to live to be 100 and I should start acting as if I wanted to. In the following year I lost 100 lb without even trying. That was just an attitude adjustment. The second was 3 months ago when my Dr. told me that my HDL was low.0
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In college I gained the standard "15 lbs". Then after college I started working two jobs and got engaged. People asked us if we were "trying to lose weight for the wedding" and we joked, "No, we're getting fatter!" (Which turned out to not be such a joke, because it was unintentionally true.) Then I settled into married life and working 2 jobs: 10-12+ hour days 4-5 days per week and I worked on almost all weekends for more than a year. I was too busy and stressed out to care much about my weight, though I did notice my clothes weren't fitting quite right anymore. Then I found a scale at work and stepped on it out of curiosity and I was shocked that I had gained another 15 lb since college! But... I told myself that I was still under 200, so I was ok. Every time I stepped on it I told myself "I'm under 200. So, I'm ok" until one day the scale read 201. I knew then that I had to change what I was doing otherwise it would just keep going up. Around that time quit one of my jobs and life got a little easier, so, that started my first little burst on MFP where I lost a few pounds, but eventually stopped keeping track of myself and it all came back.
Now my husband and I are thinking about starting a family soon. I want to be as healthy as possible before trying to have children. That, and I'm just so tired of not liking what I see in the mirror. I finally just decided that I'm ready now to make a real change for myself. It's hard sometimes, especially since I haven't seen much real change in the mirror yet, but I do feel stronger. I know it all takes time, so that helps keep me going!1 -
Purging my room of what no longer fits me, and what stopped making me happy. Serious life changer!0
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Success. Achieving small goals. I knew I was fat and out of shape but I didn't really feel strong motivation to change until I had achieved smaller successes.
In December I started hiking regularly.
Hitting that goal I started changing my diet.
For the first couple of weeks in January I drastically cut back on sweets.
After being successful at that I spent a couple of weeks tracking my food.
Then I started tracking calories.
Then I started cutting calories.
Then I joined the Y with my family.
Then I started swimming.
Then I started lifting.
Then I started running.
Each success proves to me that I am capable of more. And it is motivating, empowering and so freaking cool. BTW, I'm about halfway to my goal of losing +/- 70 pounds.3 -
A lot of things motivated me this time to really stick to it. A lot of things have happened over last few years that resulted in a lot of stress, bad habits, and weight gain. I'd make half attempts to lose weight, but wasn't consistent. I think a lot of people who know the old me, did kinda pressure me to get back to my normal self. But that nagging just made me dig in my heels and resist.
One day I just went out and bought a FitBit and I got serious. I didn't tell anybody...I just quietly started going to the gym, I quietly quit drinking soda, I quietly started counting calories...it was like my secret thing; I didn't feel the need to tell anyone, my actions would speak louder than anything that I could say...and I figured that at some point when I finally made enough progress someone would notice and then they would know.
I got tired of going out with my bf and having people be like oh is that a friend or a cousin, or something equally ridiculous....and for him to have to clarify that I'm his gf, like we don't look like we should be together. I got tired of breaking into a sweat just from walking (the worst!). I use to be able to walk in a store and buy anything I want and know it would look good....but it became a struggle to find anything that would even fit anymore, and I refused to say well maybe you need to look in plus size! I missed wearing heels! On the day that my bf and I get married I want to be able to say I got the wedding dress I wanted....not the dress that fit. I don't want to look fat in wedding photos. I didn't want to be on high blood pressure medicine or get diabetes. I'm not the same person at this size...I'm not confident, I don't want to dance in public or do anything that might bring attention to me. I genuinely didn't really care about my appearance anymore. OMG the list was endless!
One day you'll just get tired...tired of it all, and make the decision that YOU have to change! It's not easy and there are days that I want to just say forget it. The weight isn't coming off as fast as I would like, there are weeks when I feel like why am I doing this because nothing is moving (not an inch or lb)...but I truly believe that this time I'm going to get there. I shake off the bad days, because yes they will come...but I just get right back to it.
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My motivation was at 48 my daughter got engaged and was being married in Maui. I had been in the 190's for a VERY long time. I decided I didn't want to be the fat Mom on the beach. I started a diet and exercise program 8 months before her wedding. Then my son announced he was getting married 7 months after her. I lost 35 pounds by my daughters wedding and 65 when my son got married. Reached my goal and kept it off for 2 years. I had told myself all along that I wanted to be in the best shape of my life on my 50th birthday and I accomplished that.
My husband got extremely ill and I have been caregiver, business owner, head of household for 2 years now. We live 3 hours from his specialists and hospital so many days driving and staying out of town in a hotel. Last time he spent almost a month in the hospital. The stress caught up to me and I have managed to gain it all back.
I returned to MFP just 10 days ago to start over.This time my sister is coming to visit and I haven't seen her for nearly 10 years and I have a nephew graduating from High school. I didn't get 8 months notice but in 6 weeks at least I will feel better about myself and know that I am on a journey once again to improve my health.2 -
Three motivating factors:
Developing Type 2 Diabetes and staring mortality straight in the face because of my appalling lifestyle.
My family depend on me.
I want to see my Grandchildren.0 -
I can't really pinpoint my motivation, other than to say that for some reason, I decided it was just time to live a healthier life. This time, I wasn't "dieting," I was changing the way I was living by eating healthier and getting active. This was 8 months ago and I think because of the changing my life mindset (vs. dieting), I hasn't felt like a struggle. Don't get me wrong, I've had some frustrations when the scale wasn't moving and it's been a lot of hard work but it hasn't felt like a chore like it has in the past when I've dieted.0
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When my scale said "too heavy to give reading" this morning. Time to put in work! 222 to lose.0
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In my opinion, it's got to be intrinsic. External factors come and go. Certainly, my wife and kids have served as motivation at some point, but it always comes down to me. Reaching a point where I'm just disgusted with how I feel or how I look, and deciding to make a change.0
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I've always been in the range between 180lbs to 200lbs. If i hit 200, I'd be motivated to work my way back down. But always i'd slowly creep back up to 200.
I'm 200 now. But this time I am doing it for a different reason. I've been having nagging foot injuries - plantar fasciitis, achilles tendonitis etc. It may be from playing too many sports on consecutive days so maybe I'm getting a bit older and I need to rest my body more. But these nagging issues have made it even difficult to walk for long periods at times. It's very frustrating to be in this immobile condition so I'm working on losing the weight to reduce the stress on my feet. Being able to walk around pain free is my motivation...0 -
I hated being overweight but didn't understand how weight gain/loss happened. I would be thin for some years and bigger others. I had gotten bigger than ever and needed to know why. I just reached a point where I found out HOW to loose weight after it being such an elusive answer for years. The first 30 practically jumped off and that helped keep me going. After a while it gets harder to loose which is where the determination and perseverance come in. Motivation will never be there all the time or every day, but it's really up to how bad do we really want it and not how bad do we think we want it. That's helped me through really bad days. Good luck on your journey!0
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After being overweight for many years and not really caring because I was basically healthy and felt good, my heart started doing weird stuff and I got a pacemaker for no precisely identifiable reason, my blood pressure went up and my cholesterol went up. I basically had a choice, start taking care of myself or live on pills for the rest of my life. Te decision was a no brainer. Im down 25 lbs with 39 to go.
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