Hi all,
I was wondering what some of your weight loss goals were; not in number of pounds, but in things you want to do/be when you are at a healthier weight, whatever that may be for you. I find it is very important to have goals, and to try to keep sight of them when I'm tempted to eat something unhealthy.

Here are some of mine:

I want to lose enough clothes sizes to get out of the "plus size" category.
Related, I want to buy and wear pretty clothes that are my size (not a size bigger, as I've done almost all my life). I don't want to have to settle for what I think of as "fat people clothes".
I want to wear shorts without feeling ashamed of myself.
I want to have a stomach that doesn't hang down.
I want to wear pretty lingerie.
I want to eat/exercise in a way that teaches my son healthy habits so that he doesn't go through what I did, and so that I can be with him and hubby as long as possible.
I want to get comfy with not being "the fat chick". I've spent most of my life hiding behind my size and being invisible to a lot of people. I think the people on this board will understand what I mean. I have to be OK with being "seen", if I'm going to make my changes stick.

Hopefully this is helpful to others as well!

Hmmm non scale goals,

Do a 5k
Wear short shorts and a tanktop! (and look damn good!)
Be strong
Have someone not recognize because I lost so much weight.

I can't wait to see this happen to me! (if it ever does lol)

I am striving to be a healthier weight! As I gained I felt like things just got worse, asthma, joints, couldn't do things normal 20-something year olds could do (rock climbing -was a disaster last time I tried and the rope was too small to go around my butt-AWFUL experience!!). I just want to be in better shape while I'm still young!

...and of course to look good in clothes, vanity has a lot to do with my weight loss attempt this time around! (sad but true!)

I totally agree with you there. Rock climbing is pretty embarrassing...

- I want to stop over eating and binging
- I want to be one of those people who occassionally forgets to eat
- I want to not have an eating disorder
- I want to feel confident in how I look
- I want shopping to become a pleasant experience
- I don't want to feel self conscious about my weight
- I want to have more energy
- complete a 5k
- take a dance class without feeling wiped out 10min into the class
- wear high heel stilettos comfortably again
- I don't want to be a diet weirdo, I want to eat all the things I like without having to make strange accommodations for me everywhere I go.

I have some hikes on my bucket list that I'd like to accomplish in the next few years. Last year I turned 30 and realized that if I kept up my poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyle, I either wasn't going to be able to do the trips at all or I was going to struggle miserably the whole time. That's why I joined this site and got serious about getting back to a healthy weight and getting fit!

Imagining myself sitting at home growing old, fat, and sad with my junk food just...no. I'm not willing to cast my dreams aside for a life of regrets. THAT is what keeps me going every day. When I feel tempted to fall back into old habits like eating out nearly every day, all I can think is, "You're going to choose that over the Inca Trail? Or Everest base camp? Seriously???"

It's silly, I know, but it works for me!

I want to look great. Not "great for being 33" or "great for being a mom." I want to look great, period. I want to look the best I ever have.
I want to feel confident because... yeah, I'm a grown up woman and this is the body I was given so it's time I embrace it and let my confidence shine. It's there, somewhere.
I want my tummy to be flat. Not like a washboard, I'm ok with a bit of curves, but just not the muffin top.
I want to go back to wearing low-rise jeans without said muffin top.
I want to show my daughters that you can have it all. I do have it all, and I want some more. I'm ambitious and I love setting and achieving goals, I want my daughters to see that in me. That I work, I study, that I'm a mom, I'm a wife, I strive to be better physically, mentally, spiritually... I have it all and they, too, can have it one day.

I would like to fit in with the sinewy, functional fitness-bodied women at hippie festivals, and exhibit similar comfort with showing skin without self-consciousness.

I want to be healthy and beat the familial early death sentence. My dad was gone at 53, my mom at 60, and my brother at 45. I'm 54 going on 55 - scary!

A lot of this was life choices (heavy smokers, drug use, drinking) but so is overeating. My drug of choice has always been food. Trying to change that. On the other hand we have clean living relatives who lived well into their 80's.

lotsakids - you have perhaps the most inspiring non-scale goal, yet!

I, on the other hand, am a bit more narcissistic motivations.

1. I want to wear a two-piece swimsuit with confidence, for the first time in my life.
2. I want to not think twice about putting on running shorts; I want to not give a moment's thought to my thighs while I am jogging unless it is because they are tired
3. I want to take photos without hoping for the best
4. I want to feel strong and energetic... bounding up a hill on a jog? what a great idea!

I'm basically striving to feel good and be able to keep up with the world. And be smaller. I'm always going to be "big", just by nature of height and bone structure, but that's not an excuse for all this extra weight.

I'm also vain. I want to feel confident naked. Rock a short dress. where a slinky top....



Lotsakids I totally agree. I lost my dad very young because of obesity, and I'm determined not to be a repeat.

Krampus I'm never going to look like that, but I definitely strive for "functional" fitness. I'd rather be able to say that I can carry the water jugs across the lawn and up my steps, or pull myself up on to a tree branch than say I could "bench" whatever number.

I just wanna keep what I got - I've always had my personal dream body type, just not exactly the dream body fat content. I think Martin Berkham once said that the secret benefit of being lean is that it frees up a lot of mental energy that you can devote to other things, so I'm moving on (beside just keeping up simple routing) to career and hobby related goals.

I want to stay far away from the Diabetes that runs in my family.
I want to be a kick-*** runner.
I want to buy and wear all the cute dresses in the world!
I want to feel sexy in sexy lingerie instead of feeling like I'm playing dress-up.
I, too, want my future children to observe healthy habits from me.
I want to be fearless!

I would like to be happy and to love everyone around me. I would like to love myself no matter what I look like. I would like to have energy when I need it but also the wisdom to know when I need to relax. I would like to be comfortable in my skin and I want to find and bring out the beauty in other people so that they feel comfortable, too. I would like to hone the skill required to know when my body needs nourishment, rest, and exercise.

My goals are pretty boring, but they're important to me. In order from most important to... least most important (?):

1) Be healthy. I don't want to get diabetes or any other disease related to my weight, and I don't want to lose my uterus.
2) Live a long life!
3) Get pregnant and have a healthy baby.
4) Avoid getting gestational diabetes while pregnant.

My husband and I spent 3 years trying to conceive. This past October, I had to have a hysteroscopy and after looking at the pathology results, my doctor said she'd advise a hysterectomy if I was 10 years older. I also found out that I have hormonal problems and my insulin levels are messed up. She said losing weight is the best thing I could do to hold onto my uterus (for some reason I really don't want it gone, even if it's not doing anything), not get diabetes, fix the hormonal issues, and have a baby. So, here we are! I'm down 32 pounds so far. I'm hoping to be down to 175 by the middle of June, which is when my doctor is going to start me on fertility treatments. She's very pleased with my weight loss so far and said that if I keep everything up, she thinks I could live to be an old lady.

It might seem odd that I put having a baby as #3 on my list. I'm desperate to have a baby and love kids, but would choose living a long, healthy life free of diabetes over having a baby and dying early from health issues. If/when I do get pregnant, having a healthy baby will instantly become my #1 goal, though!