What is your motivation?

What is motivating you to want to lose more or maintain your current weight? Health of course is a big one. What flips your switch? For me I am currently fixated on % body fat. I'm sitting around 30% and would like to get below 20% to maybe 15%. This would establish me firmly as normal range instead of as obese. Yes just a label but I never want to go to see e DR again and be labeled as obese?

How about you?

Great question. My motivation has always been and continues to be my overall health.

When I first started looking into WLS it was because I was at the point that my diabetes was going to have to be "controlled" by medication and insulin was being discussed. I HATE NEEDLES. I'll forever be in awe of leaving the hospital 2 days after surgery with normal blood sugar levels. Still normal. Occassionally low.

2 years after surgery, I knew I wasn't feeling my "new" normal 10000%. Turned out I needed emergency surgery to implant a pacemaker. I honestly believe had I not had the gastric bypass in 2008 that I wouldn't have lived through this particular ordeal. Being tired and lethargic had become a way of life. I really didn't know what it was like to feel anything ----let alone feel good. Because I knew something was wrong. My doc listened to me and took the necessary steps to get me the help I needed.

Here we are 5 years out and again I knew I wasn't feeling top notch. I could blame it on regain and the underlying depression that accompanies a feeling of failure but I knew something wasn't physically right. Turns out I had all kinds of screwed up lab work. Got those straightened out with the help of some iron infusions. Starting to feel like myself again.

I'd love for the scale to mirror my overall health. They don't line up. But then again the scales aren't my main motivation.

- Iris

Iris

Great response. Would you agree that having a list if reasons we want to be on track can help us stay on track? Sort of a form of goal setting?

Chrispy

Certainly. It's not enough to be in the race or even in sight of the finish line. There is a certain sense of accomplishment with seeing things through to the very finish....that might be a number on the scale, a certain size of clothing, a dream vacation that involves a ton of physical activity or simply playing with the grandchildren. We all need goals.

The old adage "If we fail to plan, we plan to fail" suits my goal setting situation. David & I have begun to plan an Alaskan vacation. If I don't set goals now (at this early stage) then I'll be perfectly content to lounge aboard a cruise ship all day. But part of that dream is to kayak near the whales, pan for gold and take as many photos as humanly possible. So I stage some visual reminders for myself----David's picture now on my phone is a whale tail. My screen savers revolve around Alaskan wildlife. All simple ways to remind me of what I want. Yes the most obvious part of this is a trip.....but the reminder is there that we'll be flying (small seats, seat belt extenders of my past....) that kayaking is physical so I should probably not skip a trip to the gym when I have chance. There's also that great Northface rain jacket that I have hanging in my closet....it's too snug when I zip it up. So my motivator is to hang it where I can see it everyday. A subtle reminder that next summer it's going to Alaska and I'm going to be wearing it in a ton of pictures...It will be fitting right.

I know I sounded like I was rambling there for a while but I think you see my point now.

- Iris

Exactly what I meant by my post, Iris.  Good point!  Happy for you and David, and glad that you aren't putting your plans off "for later".  You have a plan, and you're on a mission to see it through while making improvements to your health along the way....not waiting until your scales show a certain weight, or your body shrinks to a certain size.

Hi Chrispy!  I agree that this is a great question, and I was hoping to see more responses and points of view.  Maybe once the weekend is over.  My motivation is completing what I started 13 years ago because life is too short.  Even though I lost 177 lbs following my WLS, and even with re-gain and maintaining greater than 100+ lbs, I still had not reached my original goal of 150 lbs (now 160).  Add to that the problem of very problematic osteoporosis (mostly from being non-compliant with my supplements) and then breaking my back almost a year ago.

I sat around after the back fracture, in a back brace and unable to do much, and feeling sorry for myself.  Finally, in February of this year, I got fed up and decided it was time to do something about it.  Life is too damned short, and even though people say that all the time, I don't think we really "think" about what it means until something happens to scare the living daylights out of us, forcing us to straighten up and fly right.

I put off a lot of things in my life because of my weight, thinking I would have "plenty of time" to enjoy life with my husband "later on, after I'm smaller".  So, I had my surgery in 2000, lost the majority of my excess weight and was MUCH smaller by 2001, and then my husband was diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer in 2002, succumbing to that horrific disease in 2004.  You'd think that would be enough to make anyone stop, look, and listen, but I just kept on putting off things for "later on".

Since February, I have stopped "waiting until Monday" to start eating right and working out.  I am feeling much better (back is very unstable), but I feel that losing over 60 lbs of my 71 lb re-gain has lessened the chances of my condition worsening.  And now that my thyroid cancer from 1986 has recurred, I am so thankful to God that I finally stopped putting things off, and I am in better condition for my upcoming thyroid surgery.  It shouldn't have to take a tragedy to happen to stir us into taking better care of ourselves, but such is the way with mankind.  I found out the hard way, and I'm not fooling around anymore because "life is too short". 

Life is short my friend. We have to participate in every moment of the ride that we possibly can.

(((hugs)))

 

- Iris

I’ve been working up to getting my head out of my a$$ and paying attention to my physical and mental health, and weight situation.    I have an almost constant self-conversation going that has resulted in nothing productive.  It’s disappointing and extremely depressing!  So I’ve started reading.  I’m reading other people’s posts, blogs, books, etc.  Looking for what will push me over the edge to a successful beginning.  I believe it all helps a little. 

I’ve read the Adkins diet info again.  High protein, low carb is what I need.  I also read the 5-day Pouch Test book and cookbook again.  I’ve re-learned a couple of informational nuggets that I haven’t keep foremost in my mind. 

1. I need a plan.  It doesn’t have to be elaborate; it just needs to be defined.  This plan needs to include at least 3 advanced days worth of meal plans so I can make sure I have the ingredients and don’t have to make changes on the fly. 
2. This meal plan needs to include at least one on the fly meal because life isn’t predictable.   Having a plan takes the pressure off when I need/want to eat.  I don’t have to stand in front of the fridge/cupboard trying to decide what is the best choice and ultimately taking the first best looking thing because I want to eat now. 90% of the time that choice isn’t going to be protein!

I read a comment in Kaye Bailey’s book.  “maybe we don’t remember what being obese really felt like.”   I thought a lot about that and I agree.

 I agree that after time I have forgotten how crappy I felt, how sick I was and how depressed I really was about my weight and how totally defeated I felt.

 I forgot the fear of flying.  Would I fit in the seat?  Would I need a dreaded seatbelt extension, which would notify the entire plane how fat I really was?  And OMG would I hang over the seat so the person next to me would be disgusted and comment while trying to sit as far away as possible?

Or the looks from people while out shopping.  At the grocery store people take inventory of my shopping cart to judge what I was eating.  You know they are thinking ‘no wonder she is so fat’!  Of course I tried to cover the ‘good’ stuff with a head of lettuce or a loaf of wheat bread!

Or at a sporting goods store, how many x’s is that life jacket that fat broad just picked out?  People are thinking they are glad they aren’t going to be in my boat!

Being morbidly obese was  ….. I can’t even come up with a word to describe it.

Thinking about and having written all of this it will be my motivation to make my plan. 

Step 1. Write down a plan of action.

Step 2. Set a starting date to activate plan and make the plan preparations.

Step 3.  Step forward!

My motivation?  Remember what it felt like to be morbidly obese.

Thank you for sharing. I remember those "looks". How often did we let THE look from strangers define us? My self-worth, self-esteem, entire being for that matter could be uplifted or crushed by some random stranger.

- Iris

Beside being able to move and walk better, my back and the ability to twist and turn, I go for vanity - the clothes, the boots , high heels.. Let's face it - I like to look good and I like that I can shop almost anywhere.. and no longer I buy things that just fit me - now - I can wear what really looks good on me. 

 

The other thing is that people don't judge me when I eat... I can order a bacon cheeseburger (hold the bun) .. and don't get the stares