I had a few different, smaller triggers this time:
Bad pictures- Unflattering pictures are always depressing/motivating for me. In the past couple years I began to notice that I didn't like the way my body looked in any recent pictures. And then I began to avoid having my picture taken at all. This is odd, but I noticed when I flipped through my pictures on facebook that I had very few recent ones of myself.
Clothes- I eventually noticed that I had stopped wearing certain pants because they didn't fit right anymore. For a couple years I had almost entirely refused to buy clothes (pants, particularly) in hopes I would shame myself into losing weight. At this point I could really use some new clothes, so I'm losing weight and getting them. I recently bought the first pair of jeans (size 8) I've purchased in 2 years.
Wanting to look the way friends remember me (or better)- I had a friend return home from a tour of duty overseas who hadn't seen me in person in a couple years since joining the military. Similarly I was supposed to have a reunion with my whole grad school crew, some of whom haven't seen me in over a year. I didn't want the first thing they'd think to be some variation of how I'd gained weight.
Energy- I noticed that I was having a hard time walking moderately fast for any real distance especially when it was cold outside.
Chub in altogether novel (for my body) places- I noticed that I had some flub developing causing the beginning of a diagonal crease on my back following the curve of my rib cage. My arms were also less defined and chunkier than ever. I began to see cellulite-like fat on my upper arms. And the dreaded FUPA, I had, and to a lesser extent still have, extra fat deposits on my lower stomach.
The first time I put real effort into losing weight (way back in high school), it was triggered by a terrible forced weigh-in at school (135lbs, 40% body fat, at 13 and ~5'1.5") and an awful school picture where I had a large gut and big thighs on full display in a seated pose. Unfortunately I still have the thighs, but 8th grade was the highest my waist size and body fat have ever been.
|
