Where do you dig your motivation from?

No one can make you care. If you don't care about yourself, your husband, your future plans, then you're not going to lose the weight. You need to believe that it matters, that YOU matter. This is not about being a gym rat or fitting into clothes; this is about your health and your life in the long run.

Think ahead into the future, a good 10-15 years. What do you think of? What might your life look like? I'm not saying make a plan; I myself have a dozen different ideas about what might happen when I ask myself these things. But what I realized is that NONE of them involve being overweight. If I ever want to attain any of those goals or dreams in the way I imagine, then I've got to get healthy at some point.

What you have to recognize is that if you EVER plan on losing the weight, you have only one option. You will eventually have to adopt a healthy lifestyle, like it or not. That is the only way to get there. If you don't, then you'll stay where you are (or, as many people do, continue gaining weight). For me, that's enough motivation. Hopefully it might help you.

Everyone has their own reasons for starting this journey and motivations for sticking with it. I for one just got tired of being tired. I realized I always looked forward to the weekends to just sit on my azz and not do anything. I don't take the kids to the park or to do anything. I had become completely sedentary.

I'm 49 lbs lighter now and my motivation is 2 things (other than getting healthier so I can be there for my kids):

1. At 41 years old, 49 lbs gone isn't something to baulk at. I'll be damned if I allow myself to gain them back.
2. I made the decision on 10/31/11 to start this journey. I made an appointment with my doctor for a physical about mid-November 2011. I hadn't had one in quite some time and wanted to see how my bloodwork would come back. I basically wanted a baseline to be able to compare to at a future date. My overall cholesterol was 196. Yes, within normal; however, broken down my "bad" cholesterol is 5 points over normal and my "good" cholesterol is 3 points under. My glucose level was 102. 2 points over normal. This was a couple weeks into joining MFP and having lost 12 lbs prior to the bloodwork.

The second point above is what truly opened my eyes. If I'd continued the path of eating habits and gaining weight that I had been on for years, I would literally eat myself to death. I was waving the red cape like a bull fighter at the bull (diabetes, heart attack etc.) I know I'm going to die some day and would MUCH rather it be later than sooner!

Now, if I can only get the motivation to exercise on a more consistent basis I know my results would be far better. *sigh*

I just had my 3rd baby in 5 years.... My motivation comes from my kids.. it got to the point that I had no energy to play with my 2 older kids and I was always exhausted! I dont want to be like that anymore, I want to be able to enjoy my family life And also my husband is army, and i hate how fit he is and im not lol..

I have a deep desire to be healthy and to have every organ inside me working as properly as it can, I want to enjoy life and I cannot do that with an unbalanced emotional,physical,and spiritual body. Life is about pleasure and you feel the best when your at optimal health in every aspect.
-Kiera

I hear people who have lost weight say, "nothing tastes as good as being thin feels" but I just can't identify with them...

Looks like you've gotten quite a bit of good advice already, so this is purely for enjoyment.

My parents and soccer.

A few years ago, my dad and I moved a lot of furniture and other stuff into a 2nd floor condo with no elevator. Every time I was getting tired/sore/cranky, my dad would simply say "Cowgirl up" and it was enough to get me moving. After all, he was 57 and I was 27.

Fast forward a few years and a few countries, I was driving across the US to move to California for a fresh start. And I hated how I looked in so many pictures. I felt so fat and ugly. So instead of wallowing in depression, which I used to do, I decided to do something about it. My first step was eating better. My 2nd step- more exercise. I don't work right now, so I don't have any extra money for a gym membership. But I have a pair of walking sneakers. I started doing 4 miles a few days week, going up to 5.5 and finally up to 7.7. And I started Couch to 5K.

This is leading me to soccer- my favorite sport. I love watching it on TV (EPL, Bundesliga, MLS), and I loved playing it. Haven't been able to in years since I was too heavy and too out of shape. I want to play soccer again. I want my parents to be proud of their only child (they are anyway, honestly. Just extra proud).

I will play soccer again. So getting a US men's national team jersey when I reach goal weight. With Dempsey's name & number.

Myself. I have been called a pit bull.

This may not be what you were looking for, but I get my motivation from looking in the mirror in the morning and feeling fu*king disgusting.
I don't want to feel like that anymore.

Before I lost 100lbs, I had so much trouble finding the motivation I needed to even get started let along dig for anything. I often say when I saw the scale say basically 300lbs that I decided that night I was going to do it. It wasn't that easy though. I had a sit down in front of the mirror and reflected on a lot of things. What do I really want in this life? Do I want it to be short, do I want to be a burden to family when I am older because I can't get around? Do I want to see my kids grow up at all when I have them?

I really want to have a family and grow old with someone, and have Kids and watch them grow old and have kids. I want to be able to play sports like I used to without getting tired and kicking @*kitten* at it. most of all, I want to live. I just couldn't do that the road I was going down. I never got depressed, because I am always an upbeat person. But while I was sitting down staring at myself, in the mirror I asked myself is this me? Am I OK with this? When I thought about all that stuff.... I got angry. I got angry at myself for letting myself get to the point I got to.

That same night. I went to the Gym. I literally kicked my @$$. I burned about 1500 calories. I kept up that feeling, that fire inside for about 6 Months I went to the gym everyday. I Lost the 100lbs. I am at 200lbs now. And I am happy, but not content. I still have that fire inside to push myself. I never ever want to go back to where I was or feel like I did. There are days were it is hard as hell to stay on the right track. But the Beautiful thing about this journey is 1 day does not undo everything you have done. Your body is shockingly resilient, and 1 days worth of damage is a drop in the bucket. As long as you don't let to many drops accumulate overtime then you will be fine!


My journey still has a long way to go. And Just because I got to my goal weight, doesn't mean it's time to stop. Gotta keep going.... I have to for me and everyone I care about or will care about, once I realized I had all that to look forward to nothing was gonna stop me.

/end life story lol