Maneuvering through Motivations…

Everything in life is made easier with motivations…why else would a pot of gold be at the end of that gosh darn rainbow, right? Everyone knows that weight loss should be its own reward, but wouldn’t it be nicer if there was a pot of gold (and, no, I’m not referring to gold chocolate coins) when you reached and maintained goal weight?

Staying motivated constantly is a very hard thing to do in any aspect of life, especially when it comes to your weight. One can constantly remind themselves that being healthy is a gift that is immeasurable in any other form, however, add years upon years of losing weight or maintaining weight loss to the picture, and those original motivation factors may begin to wane.

What keeps people motivated is different for everyone. For example, I am getting married in September and I want to ensure that I am the skinniest I have ever been on that day (shocker right! Like I’m the only bride-to-be that has salivated over this pipe-dream!  haha). This is a great motivating factor to stay healthy between now and then, but what about after I’m married? I am the type of person that always needs a goal to work towards. Yes, health is the ultimate goal, but fitting into a size 4 wouldn’t hurt either!

There was one key moment I remember during my weight loss. When I was in the 211-217 lb range (a tough range for me to conquer), I remember thinking, ‘if I get to 180 I will look like a bombshell and I’ll start maintaining!’ However, of course, when I finally got to 180 I didn’t look at all like what I thought I was going to. Now I’m around 150 and am just beginning to look the way I thought I was going to at 180 (and no, I am not calling myself a bombshell by any means haha). I still want to lose a couple more L-B’s, but the visual thought of what I wanted to look like motivated me through the difficult times, the hard times, and frankly, the times that were more frustrating than squeezing into a pair of spanx that are two sizes too small!

However, now that I’ve been solidified in the maintaining stage for over two years, I find myself still having to find motivation in the craziest places to keep this voyage trucking along. For example, every time I notice that a part of my body looks ‘skinny’ it is a great motivating factor to, even if for only one day, keep me on track and eating healthy (adversely, noticing this has occasionally dragged me to the dark side where I have Satan saying-see, you’re healthy-have a cupcake…or four…). Either way, noticing these accomplishments have generally been the small daily motivators that keep me driving on the veggie and fruit highway without taking the exit to ‘Sugar Land’ (sometimes the car takes the exit itself, I swear it’s not my fault!).

As stated above, a wedding in September (and oh ya, being in three weddings before that!) is an easy and obvious motivator; but I wonder what motivator will keep me propelling forward 25 years from now…maybe that pot of gold that I’m sure will appear on my doorstep when I turn 50 and am still in a healthy weight range?!?

What motivates you to maintain or lose today, tomorrow, and ten years from now?

Until next time, keeping the bulge at bay…