What is your WHY?

My wife's on a paleo kick and I've got my spring league starting soon. That's a good enough 'why' for me.

It's is just as hard to work at improving myself as it is to staying fat. I decided to work at myself. =0)

Great video on the topic of Know you Why. https://vimeo.com/169405801

I have so many reasons.

1. I keep my exercise journey going because I like the way it makes me feel. I had a family relationship go really sour about two years ago, and working out is one of the main things that kept me from losing my mind.
2. I am 28, and I feel like I'm too young to walk around with a sloppy, fat, out-of-shape body. I'm sorry if that is harsh or too frank, but it's the truth.
3. I'm 28, and I can already feel and see my metabolism changing as I get older. I feel like if I start good practices now, I can beat it.
4. I recently got married and would like to start a family. I feel like if I have a real ingrained habit of working out, I will be less inclined to let myself go after the littles get here. My mother has struggled all her life with weight, but her biggest battle I noticed was losing weight she gained while pregnant/raising my sibling and I. She didn't lose most of it until we were able to take care of ourselves.
5. I was a chunky teenager -- I weighed about the same as I do now, but my body composition was completely different-- it was all belly and fat. I don't want to go back to that.
6. I would love to be a trophy wife -- shallow I know, but I would like to get introduced at functions and have that WOW reaction.
7. I am so close to my goals. I can see abs under the layer of fat. My butt has never looked better. If I can cut about 10-15 lbs of fat, I would not feel bad in a bikini at all -- something I never thought was attainable for me.
8. I have come so far physically and mentally. I could not do a single pushup. I was embarrassed to do Zumba in a group and thought I'd fall off the treadmill, Taylor Swift style, if I ran on it. Now, I can almost do five traditional pushups without stopping and at least 45 incline pushups. I'm a Zumba-holic (and people follow ME in the class to keep up), and I run intervals on the treadmill all the time.

I've been fighting with this since I was about 17 or so (back when haha, I wasn't overweight) and I'm now about 2 years away from making that 10 years of my life. Switching from loving myself and not caring what others think (aka also eating whatever I want and ZERO exercise) to the point where I know I'm over weight now and it doesn't matter if no one thinks I look "fat"- I know I'm overweight. I have a desk job, my hobbies are sitting down activities such as video games and watching movies. I read how sitting was the new smoking and it lit a fire under my *kitten*. I'm only 15 pounds overweight and I'd like to lose probably 30, but this time things have switched.

I also have two very close family members who are dropping pounds right now and I'm jealous. SO JEALOUS. My older sister has done this before and lost 60+ pounds, gained half or so back over a few years and now has dropped more. She's a bean pole. My husband got a job working on his feet all day and I can tell he's probably lost about ten pounds and his self-esteem has boosted enormously which is changing things for us romantically.

So I want to lose weight-
1. To avoid heart/weight issues (because maternal line has heart problems and my dad is diabetic).
2. To make it easier for me to get pregnant (or at least weight not be a factor in trying to conceive).
3. To feel confident about myself and not guilty when I do enjoy my video games and movies.
4. To pass on healthy eating habits to future kids.
5. To feel not SO far removed from fiction. Whenever I watch movies/shows etc I feel shame that I couldn't possible do what any of the characters are doing (running, jumping, ice skating w/e) because I am out of shape. I know i'm not going to train like Daisy Ridley for Star Wars, but I want to feel like I'm somewhat strong like her and my imagination could actually believe I could do something like that. Idk if that's weird or just a me thing lol
6. To be the hot wife. I know I have a weird gothy/punk style (weird to most anyway), but I'd rather be the skinner weirdo than the fat weirdo. May sound awfully mean, but that's what I think in my head. If I'm going to be an otaku I can't look like a slob.

It all started just to lose weight and get healthier. Turned into seeing if I could run certain distances, turning into marathons. The only time I stopped was due to injury, and then a period after that where I guess my body decided it needed to continue the break for a bit because I could not force myself back into things as running felt like punishment for some reason. Luckily, I'm back with all the determination again after just a few months off, and not longer feel like running is such punishment.

It's all the same "why" in the end.

I do it for me, that's it. I can spin on and on various angles of that. But it all boils down to doing it for me.

Why? Because I never want my weight to hold me back from living life to the fullest. In the past I was afraid to climb the mountain for fear I'd fall, or walk the beach for fear people would make fun, or have the spotlight for fear it would be captured on film. Setting fear and regret aside...that is my why.

I have been one of those people who constantly flip-flopped between dieting and not caring. After taking an Anatomy and Physiology class for my degree, I learned into detail the damage i was doing to my body, not only from being overweight by easily 200 pounds, but because I haven't been taking my thyroid medication for hypothyroid.

I want to feel better about my self, I want to be healthier for my son since I am a single parent, and in general I want to take care of my body and health. I am tired of walking around in constant pain because of the pressure on my joints, I want to feel more secure and comfortable with myself so maybe I will get involved again with dating and friends. Plus it would be nice to be able to fit back into all my old clothes that I keep holding onto yet refuse to get rid of. My ultimate no scale victory? Being able to take a bath again, since currently I can not. Also being able to sit in the back seat of a car with friends or family comfortably, instead of being squished and getting cramps sitting in an awkward position so the other 2 people can fit into the car aswell.