For once in my life I want to wear a two piece bikini on the beach! Is that too much to ask? I at least have to see if that's still possible after years of yoyo'ing and 2 babies. I'm going to give it my best shot!

Of course I want to be healthy and all those other non-vain reasons.

Me. I am my motivation, I want to be healthier and happier. In my past attempts to lose I always wanted to lose weight so that other people wouldn't judge me or because i thought that I was somehow worthless because of my weight. Now I understand that my worth isn't my body, it is my abilities. This time around I am doing it for me and me alone.

I've gone up and down in the last couple of years. I'm currently UP from this spring and my biggest current motivation is to fit back into my clothes. It's so frustrating because I have a fabulous closet full of size 4 and 6 clothes that are now 10-15 lbs away from fitting. I want to be excited about getting dressed up again.

I want to feel comfortable in my skin again.

I want the energy that I have when cutting out the tons of crap food that I've been consuming.

I'm trying to do this thing where I don't eat a lot of carbs (if any) after lunch. It's really a lot harder than I thought! However, I put up pictures of myself that I don't like as a motivational helper. Hopefully this helps me. I wonder if my "I'll do it eventually" attitude is stemming from fear of failing again.

My motivation is complete vanity!! I want to be hot and feel confident in my body!!

My motivation is for my little boy, so I can run around after him, and be healthy and to have more energy. Plus I have been asked to be a bridesmaid next may.

xxx

My motivation was losing so that I could stop being self-conscious about my body... and fashion.

Fashion is still a motivator, but now, I keep going because I've come so far, and I'm so close to goal. I love the sense of pride I feel.

My motivation seems to change the older I get! When I was younger it was always about looking good for potential boyfriends!! LOL! But now that I am married I *do* want to look good for my husband, but also Health is a big factor.
At 210 I was having heart palpitations when I laid on the side. I felt unwell, had no energy. So I know all the reasons to not go BACK to where I was!

I have many sources of motivation... some more trivial than others!

1. I sincerely want to feel better about myself and how I look
2. I want to wear clothes that I like, not clothes that I buy because they "hide" my fat.
3. I want to be healthy so I can have a better chance at a safe pregnancy... and to be fit, active mom.
4. I want to surprise my husband with a "new and improved" wife when he gets home from his deployment
5. I want to shop at AE again lol
6. I want to make it through a whole DVD of p90x without stopping!

I totally agree.
clothes shopping is so much more fun!

My motivation is my kids and realizing that if I didn't lose weight now, I might not be around for them as long as I hope to be. Now that I am over 40, the realization has set in that I am not a young person anymore and that people start to develop serious health issues at my age as a result of being obese. Recently one of my co-workers was telling me about actuarial data used by life insurers and the life expectancy of people who are obese. Then he made the comment that if you pay attention to old people... you don't see many obese ones! He is right! Not that what he said was a revelation of something that I didn't know, but the problem is that I wasn't really thinking about it.

To be honest I'm not sure what my main motivation is, but things that are keeping me in check on this diet where others haven't include:

- Wanting to look good. It's vain but there you go. I wanna be skinny, dammit!
- Wanting to be healthy - I'm terrified that if I keep eating like I have in the past that I'll get too far gone to do anything about it.
- Wanting to be comfortable in my own skin - I've spent so long hating myself for the way I look and so long avoiding mirrors and trying to hide myself in public because I think I look horrible. I want to be proud of who I am and how hard I'll have worked when I reach my target weight.

I want to live to see grandchildren.

Mine was finding out a few weeks ago I had elevated blood sugar. That led to a horribly nasty glucose test that thankfully came back in the normal range. But, it was a big wake up call. Over the past few years I've steadily gained and I'm now at my highest weight. Obesity and diabetes runs rampant in my family tree, so I knew where I was headed if I didn't get pro-active NOW.

As for exercise-I'm walking. Simple, easy, and really effective I joined a walking club at my church and we meet once a week, (we walked 3.1 miles this week yay!). I'm also going to work on walking 2-3 times by myself on top of that.

Hmm - I think my motivation is the fact that I sing a lot, and on stage as well (we're talking classical music, operas, recitals, etc.), and I'm not really confident with having that extra weight that I do have, so I want to be able to stand on stage with confidence to act my heart out, while I'm singing. Another thing is, that it is important to be fit when singing, because a lot of the technique is how much your body can work, and how much control and strength you have in your body (especially in the back and abs). So, that's probably my biggest motivation.

Lately, I've been motivated a lot by the whole "healthy living" thing. I want to grow my hair healthy, I'd like glowing skin and enough energy to study as well. I've been thinking a lot about vitamins and minerals lately, instead of focusing on calories. This is actually also a huge motivation for me. ((:

It's really awesome reading about all the factors and stuff that motivate you. It's quite inspiring.

Btw, how do you get those cute 'tickers'? :-)