Obesity Discussion Forums

[Halelani]

I am curious to know since I am a newbie here, what other people use to movivate themselves for dieting and exercise? I have good days and bad days and I can really get a consistent motivation going. All suggestions would be deeply appreciated!

[Audrey]

My initial reasons for motivation were actually very shallow...

My brother-in-law's fiance had been on Jenny Craig, and had lost 20 lbs off her 5 foot frame, and she looked awesome. I remarked so one day to my hubby, and he agreed. That ugly green monster called jealous reared it's ugly head. But it was exactly the kick in the butt I needed to get myself serious about it.

As soon as I began loosing weight, my motivation was that I could do it. It was possible. I was proving myself wrong all those times I just gave up and said I couldn't do it.

I can remember being 150 lbs in grade 8, I didn't even know what 130ish looked like on the scale.

I got down to 133 lbs, then Christmas happened, but I know I can surpass that and reach my goal

[William Wallace]

My family. I think I have been selfish by not considering how putting myself into an early grave will impact others around me.

Of course I just want to feel and look better too and save myself from all the health complications down the road.

I'm doing it for me and everyone else in my life. I've lost relatives to obesity and I don't want to be another number.

[Texa]

In the beginning was and is another person. I fell in love online. Something I never thought I would do in a gazillion years.
The guy I was with for the last 17 years likes big girls. After I fell in love online and started losing weight, he left me for another big girl.

My motivation is still the man of my dreams (he loves my heart, not my body but like me he wants me healthy so I live longer to be with him ) but once I lost my first 30lbs... that also became part of it. I thought WOW! Look at me go!

Then when my Dr. lowered my diabetic meds, that also became part of my motivation!

I can't exercise yet, as I am still nursing a foot wound.. though I did start lifting 3lb weights yesterday.
Motivation for that will be hard, until I see some kind of results.. as in more strength, lower blood sugars and more weight loss from calories burned.

[Obesity Discussion]

Well lets see, I want to live a long time for me and my family, I want to see my grandkids. I want to feel and look healthy. I want to fit into all my clothes. I want to be able to play sports. I want to be less likely to have physical injuries. The list goes on and on, but those are some of the main reasons I do what I do.

[Willow]

Great big long list, but it started with the full length mirror I put in my
room about a week ago...kind of hard to live in denial when it hits you
in the head...

[guigui812]

Hey
I've tried to lose weight for the past 7 years or so.
When i was 13 my knees started to hurt.
It was always my mom who pushed me, giving incentives ( money, trips, etc). At the end she always gave me the treats but i never lost the weight!
Anyways this xmas , i spent it with my aunt and cousins cuz they are the closest family i have in europe.
We were all around the tree, giving each other the gifts, the kids got their toys, the men their ties, women their perfume etc
And guess wat i got: a balance! Just wat i needed ! Another reminder of my obesity!
Oh yes it was great to open it up in front of family and strangers !
They didn't laugh but i could see it in their face.
It was one of the most humiliating moments of my life.
But guess wat? It's not over
As if that wasn't enough, after finishing dinner, saying goodbye to eacho other, one my cousin's asks her husband for his jacket so i tried it on to see wat size i am to get my a coat. Of course i didn't want to, but she tried anyway, just to see that oh i didn't fit me!
I looked up and i could see her husband laughin at me. I drop a tear but didn't brake down.
My point is that after a nice family xmas, i came to the decision that i needed to lose my overweight.
I can take humiliation from strangers but from my own family, that just evil.
So my motivation is to show off my new body to those MF called family!

[S. Max Gordon]

Screw your family, guigui! People shouldn't treat family that way, I'm sorry you had to go through that.

For me, it was my daughter. She was so little and perfect and amazing, I didn't want her to have to watch me go through what I watched my mother go through.

[DonnaB]

I agree with Mr Gordon....don't do it for your family. If you feel the need to lose weight, do it for YOU!

For me, my motivation comes in the form of constant pain--from fibromyalgia (not necessarily a comorbidity of my obesity, but the doctor says tremendous weight loss will ease some of the pain), osteoarthritis in my hip and back. And everytime I have to stick my finger to check my blood sugar, I am reminded of why I am doing this.

It's not easy and I find I am constantly fighting myself internally. Measuring, weighing and journaling every bite of food while trying to work a full time day job (especially this time of year during tax season) and help my husband run his small business in my "spare" time is a nightmare. Making time to stretch, go to water aerobics and take short walks is a pain in my relatively still large posterior.

But when I get the rest of the pre-Op weight off and come out of my surgery, on the road to being a thinner, and pain-free Donna, I will know that all the discipline and hard work will be worth it. As the saying goes, anything worth having is worth working for. And the silver lining to all this work? I am learning discipline.

[Chrisydj]

My motivation comes from my kids. They are 12 & almost 14 and i want to live long enough to see my grandkids, if I ever end up with any. But I also dont want them growing up to think that being overweight and unhealthy is ok. My son, the almost 14, is already a bit chunky. I want to teach him how to be healthy. So we are all going to be eating healthier.

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by Chrisydj

My motivation comes from my kids. They are 12 & almost 14 and i want to live long enough to see my grandkids, if I ever end up with any. But I also dont want them growing up to think that being overweight and unhealthy is ok. My son, the almost 14, is already a bit chunky. I want to teach him how to be healthy. So we are all going to be eating healthier.

All great reasons!

[melissa08]

my motivation is my kids, i want to be able to run round with them and chase after them when they run off lol , and be healthy fit into clothes like my sisters there all slim and i feel jeoulous of them sometimes especially when they sit there and say i feel fat and i'm thinking well be gratefull you don't look like me , but my mum helps me and said she'll join the gym with me as i don't like going on my own , but if i have my beside me i'll know that i will do it but it takes time , at the beginning i was expecting to see results straight away as i'm a very impatient person .

[torialeigh]

My motivation is time. Right now I have some, but when I (hopefully) get accepted to and upper class education cohort at my college, I will be taking 18 hours of classes three days a week and student teaching during the other two. This filp-flops for senior year, and then I go straight into teaching and paying off my student loans

I want to establish good eating habits, and a healthy lifestyle NOW not only because I'm tiered of being fat, but also that it's a lot easier to maintain than loose when your under stress, and I'm afraid that if I don't fix my bad habits now, when serious stress comes I will crack under pressure and get even bigger than I already am. That is not going to happen.