For those at or near goal

What motivational goals do you personally use to stay on plan for life?

I enjoy wearing nice clothes that look good on me, feeling no aches or pains and being able to move effortlessly. That does it for me.

For me just seeing my comparison pictures and seeing how I am now in the "normal" category. Being able to know that I can shop just about anywhere. The much lower cost of clothes. The way I feel when I am able to keep up with my teenage children and be able to enjoy doing things with them as opposed to watching life from the sidelines...... the list goes on and on.

There are few: some to lose - some to maintain the loss

• Reduced back and joint pain.
• Be able to choose as many cute outfits as I want to, in places like in a second hand stores, discount stores, etc. I find some items in a thrift stores often with tags still on. Because people bought them thinking they would lose weight, and they did not. It is easier to find nice smaller size items in thrift stores, than nice larger items. (At least it was for me in my area)
• Even buying a few outfits every year means that now I have to start donating things that fit me, just because I have too many, not because I outgrew them.
• My closet if full of cloths that fit me. Every one of them fit me. No more- trying things on and realizing that my rolls are showing. Or that the pants are too tight.
• I buy things because I like it, not because I need new clothes that fit me.
• Traveling is somewhat easier. I can pack more clothes in my suitcase, and I can buy things almost anywhere: When I was MO and went on vacation to Dominican republic - my luggage was missing for 3 days... I was not even at my highest weight, but big enough that i could not find a large enough shirt or swimming suit. No more.
• And... To those *****es who told me that I took the easy way out, but that I will gain my weight back... Yeah, not happening.. (some people would love for us to fail, I am not going to give them the satisfaction)

That's my #1 motivation right there, prove all those suckers wrong. Especially since where I work there are many folks who had VSG and haven't been successful long term. I love it when someone tries to tell me I can't do something.

Well I had to purchase new smaller underpants when I got to goal. Now years later they are wearing out and I have had to purchase new ones - same small size. Diane S

Cycling is a good motivator for me. Before surgery, I could barely ride one mile without passing out from exhaustion. Now I consider 20mi an easy ride, and I did my first "metric century" (100km) this summer. It's a kind of exercise I actually like, and I don't ever want to go back to my non-riding ways.

My son is also really good motivation. He's almost 2, and I'm incredibly grateful that I have the energy to chase him around. (Love that toddler energy!) He deserves a healthy mom, and I want to be around for him as long as possible.

Health/Weight wise?
Signing up for races
Paying tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket for reconstructive surgeries and not wanting to screw that up

I also use SMART goal planning to set goals for myself each year. Here is my list for this year. I thought about the realms of my life that I wanted to focus on in 2017 and made goals for each.

Plastics
1. Reach plastics goal (150 lbs) by March
2. Call plastic surgeon in January to schedule first consult for March and then surgery, hopefully, in early June
3. Figure out finances for plastics

Fitness
1. Log at least 15 minutes of exercise EVERY SINGLE DAY (when possible)
2. Achieve crow pose in yoga practice

Running
1. Survive half marathon in March

College
1. Pass all classes with minimum grade of B
2. Finish AA degree
3. Begin BS degree

Self Care
1. Continue monthly massages
2. Do one fun thing at least half the days of the month just for me
3. Participate in bereavement class at local hospice

Cooking/Food
1. Pick one physical cookbook when meal planning each week and choose at least one recipe from that book for the week's plan
2. Blog all recipes from cookbooks
3. Blog all weekly meal plans

Relationships
1. See my mom once a month
2. One fun thing a week with Art aside from watching TV
3. One fun thing a week with Lance aside from watching TV

Make a Change
1. Complete training for Local Literacy Council and actively tutor
2. Establish college club and have, at minimum, monthly meetings
3. Continue attending meetings in local area, at least one a month

I use SMART goal setting with all my employees on a quarterly basis. Funny, I have never applied it to my personal life but I should!

I learned about it during my personal trainer certification class and it was a HUGE revelation to me. I'd never been a goal/resolution setter before, and always rolled my eyes at the ridiculous vague and useless goals people would set. Learning about SMART goal setting was quite the eye opener!