What motivates you? Looking for inspiration.
 

I’ve been struggling with my weight for well over two decades now. Every time I have a stressful life event I’ll put on a huge amount of weight. In the last decade, I’ve stopped smoking, been made redundant, lost my business with all my money, lost my Mum and nearly lost my son during heart surgery. All this equated to 10 stone in weight to an already 10 stone overweight man!

I’ve managed to lose a few stone over the last few months using a variety of diets but I always seem to fall back into old habits. I’m fully educated about food - you don’t diet for 20 years and not understand what’s healthy and what’s not! I find it hard to get motivated to exercise because when you’re this big you’re exhausted all the time so you need an almost super strength just to crack on with a normal day never mind extra effort to exercise.

The one thing that I keep coming back to, the thing that I’ve just not managed to crack, is my head!

So my question is this, what is YOUR primary motivation to want to lose weight AND keep it off? I want to know the thing that burns into your brain and keeps you on track. Something that you picture in your mind to remind you of what you're trying to achieve when you might be at your weakest. Maybe you have a few different things that you try to keep focused on and maybe they change given different circumstances in your life.

For me, I’m getting to an age where I know that some serious health issues are right around the corner unless I do something about it now. Back in my 20’s I wanted to look good to others (never managed it though!). Clothes don’t bother me much anymore, although I’d like to buy jeans and suits instead of black jogging pants and black shirts! I feel like I’m capable of so much more but my weight is holding me back - it’s zapping my confidence and I know I’m better than what I’m allowing myself to be.

What keeps you motivated?

What keeps me motivated is the fear of developing diabetes. It runs in my family and both of my maternal grandparents died from the disease. At my last doctor's visit, my A1C was 5.9. Since then, I've made some healthy changes. I want to be around for a long time for my children.

I am a bit like you angelboy in that I allow stress, life events and how I feel to step in the way of having a healthy relationship with food. Like you I KNOW what ideally should be done, what is healthy food and the weight loss equation etc.

I have lost a bit over the last 2 years and what motivates me is trying to lower the stress on my "dodgy" knee and back. I am also motivated to keep well because my H is not and he needs me to care for him. I don't want one or both of us to end up in a home.

Angelboy it isn't really the weight holding you back but your mental attitude, as you say "your head". If we can tackle that space the rest will follow.

I lost alot of weight last year. This year, I've been largely stagnant. (185 in January. Still 185. Hit the 170s a few times but always bounce back to this.).

In July, I had (yet another) health scare, and after waiting in the ER for over 8 hours, I was admitted and hospitalized... a few surgeries later, and I'm living in my wake up call. I'm in my early 30s, and I have no excuse.

My motivation: I want to live a long and healthy life.

I owe it to my child, but more importantly, I owe it to myself. We all owe it to ourselves to be and do better.