I have a growth on my upper sinus which when my blood pressure is higher causes some horrific headaches. Losing weight caused the frequency of these headaches to drop from once a week to once every other month.
At 300 lbs my lower back was sore all the time. Now? Never.
Being in better physical condition has re-ignighted aspects of my marriage which are not appropriate to go into detail about but you can use your imagination.
At this point - the rest is purely vanity which would probably explain why I haven't lose any weight since July, and I may have even gained a lb or two.
JohnP, my son was getting those horrible headaches because of his sinus also.
Then he tried a couple of spoons of yellow liquid Triaminic. It gave him relief real quick. It is an over-the-counter medication. You don't need a prescription.
I don't know if it would help you, but it's worth a try.
I am on a diet...OMG...It seems like forever... I just want to get my energy back. Of course I will look good in my clothes. That just goes with the territory.
IF GOD HAD MEANT US TO BE THIN, HE WOULD NOT HAVE CREATED CHOCOLATE.
I hope you don't mind if I use this thread to admit, once again, that I really don't have any reason other than vanity.
I don't really give a flying fig about my health. It's not that I'd like to get sick, but the remote possibility of maybe getting sick some day is just simply not enough to light a fire under my rear and get me to do the very hard work of losing weight. It is just too vague, too amorphous, too potential a reward to have any effect on me. I don't have kids, and I don't want kids, so being there for my kids or being a role model for them isn't going to do it either.
So, vanity it is. I admit it. Vanity is the only thing that was powerful enough to make me do the hard work. For folks who have motivations that might seem more noble or less shallow, go for it - that's great. For me, though, all I've got is the powerful desire to be the lean, strong woman I see in my head.
There have been other benefits that have come with losing weight, besides being happier with the way I look. I'm glad not to have as much pain in my knees. I'm glad to have more energy, to be able to do more and enjoy an active life more. But none of these motivated me. None of these were the reason I wanted to lose weight, or the reason I want to keep losing now. It's just plain vanity. I'm not ashamed of it, either!
Carter already said it for me.
But now that I HAVE lost the weight, I have found that there are tons of benefits. Many of them are vanity-related, but not all.
Just a few of them:
- I don't sweat hardly at all anymore, even during exercise
- I have way more confidence. I just thought I was a shy and introverted person, and didn't think this would change even if my opinion of my body got better. But when I started being happy with how I looked, I really came out of my shell for the first time in my life. I *enjoy* talking to strangers, I speak up, look people in the eye, smile, enjoy going to social events, etc.
- No more chub rub.
- And this is sort of a vanity feeling, but really more of a feeling. I love the feeling of being light and graceful and athletic. Just walking around or bounding up the stairs or anything, I don't feel like I'm lumbering around anymore.
I want to be healthy for myself and my kids...I want to be a healthy role model. Somewhere after having kids my dh and I got fat. Now he's on high blood pressure and cholesterol meds and has sleep apnea. The best way to encourage my husband and kids to have healthy habits is to change myself. To be honest...it's extremely hard to stay focused some days but I know that if I don't change, he won't change and my kids will keep picking up our bad habits.
I guess that's the big picture reason behind me wanting to lose weight but I'm looking forward to looking good in my swimsuit when I take the kids to the pool, having the ability to go on runs with my son, and enjoying shopping again!
Health, comfort a bit, and feeling I can control something about my body again. When you have a medical condition that leaves you housebound and often bedbound, that's a huge thing.
It's cliche, but I wanted more energy. I was starting to have to give extra effort to get off the couch and going up the stairs winded me far more than I was comfortable with.
But it really does happen! I'm like a freakish Energizer Bunny now! LOL It just feels going when my body moves in ways it couldn't before and at the times when I can feel individual muscles moving and doing their job. Kinda cool.
I have plenty of vain reasons, and plenty of purely health-minded reasons... and reasons that crisscross between them. Since this thread specifically mentions the non-vanity reasons I'll try to keep my list to that.
1) To feel fit. I have never in my life felt fit.
2) To live longer. This is all I've got. I might as well aim to make it as long as possible with what's in my control.
3) Better quality of life. Living long is nice, but if I can live long and keep healthy (with what's in my control, again) then all the better!
4) More energy.
5) Less joint pain. My knees are very thankful for the weight I've lost so far, and they're asking me politely to continue losing.
6) Less huffing & puffing while walking and climbing stairs. I HATE losing my breath. The more weight I lose... the more I exercise... the better my lungs feel.
7) Sleep better. This is one area where I've already improved. Up at 330 pounds, I had trouble breathing while laying down. It made getting to sleep frustrating. After losing 30 pounds this problem went away almost completely. Now, I don't have many problems getting to sleep. So, already improvements are showing!
8) Avoid high blood pressure. This one runs in the family. So far I'm good, but I definitely don't want to encounter it. If I can keep my blood pressure at a healthy level (even for MOST of my life), then I will be quite content.
9) Less to worry about at the doctor's. I know I'm fat, but I like it when I can make my doctor happy for me. And then, we don't have to go into all those "You are at risk for...." lists.
10) IF (and this is a huge if) IF I ever do choose to try and have little spawnlings of my own, I refuse to try while being obese.
Mental Health -
Let me just note that I really like myself. I have no issues with self-esteem. I think I'm the bee's knees. But there are mental health benefits to this journey.
1) Life will be about more than when the next meal is.
2) I don't necessarily avoid going out, but I have been wanting to do more things. (More energy!)
3) I will feel more in control of food, instead of just succumbing to food whenever there's an urge.
This last thing is a big deal to me. Most of us see that Obesity number rising higher and higher in the US. Something like up to 2/3rds of Americans are overweight.
I am sick and tired of being an obese American. This is not out of vanity, but pure annoyance. I'm tired of hearing that statistic over and over and being among it. I'm done being obese. ... Okay I'm not done, yet, but I'm working on being done by losing weight.
One day a couple years from now, I'll hear that statistic (hopefully it'll be down, though *crosses fingers*), and I can say "Not me! Not anymore!"
At this point, the weight I want to lose is vanity pounds. But I have some non-vanity reasons. Yes, I want my body to look strong, but I want my body to feel strong. I love knowing that I'm physically capable of doing pretty much whatever I want- whether that's things in daily life, tackling projects, going on adventures, whatever.
I also have developed this driven, focused need to finish what I started. I've never really had that kind of drive and intention to my actions before and it feels like an important milestone to achieve. I need to know that I can.
I also want to hang on to the amazing benefits that have come from overhauling my eating/exercising habits over the last few years. I never want to go back to a time where I hated exercise and woke up feeling tired and accepted my own BS excuses for giving up on myself. I never want to be obese again.
I want my attitude about my body to match my attitude about my intelligence/competence. That is to say, I want to be confident in myself and my ability to get and stay healthy.
I want to be able to walk/bike/teach a full day of classes without sweating through shirts or looking like I've taken a shower.
I want to stop turning down invitations to outdoor activities because I'm (worried I'm) not fit enough to keep up with everyone else.
The weight I want to lose is all vanity weight, but I have other reasons too. I'm a perfectionist and to me my body as it is now looks and feels wrong. I know that I'll never be skinny, unless I somehow lose a ton of muscle mass and I happen to like my muscles, oversized as they may be. But I want to be lean. I want to feel comfortable in my own body. I want to feel more confident in myself and peel off that layer of fat that hides my muscles so I can show them off properly. Ok, I guess that last one *is* vanity. :P
I keep a list of 100 reasons why I want to lose weight and many of them are vanity, many are health reasons, and several are simply an issue of being comfortable and being able to do things I have never done at my higher weights. I have been overweight my entire life (44 years), so I am ready to experience something different for the next 44.
