What Motivates YOU?

Since it's now a New Year & people all over Facebook are talking about their New Year's Resolutions. That along with my own personal things going on here got me to thinking.

The majority of people tend to make Resolutions every year though at least half expect to break them. Even those that resolve to lose weight & get healthy & start out determined tend to fail. Why do people break or fail their resolutions? I think it's a lack of motivation. Sure they may start out motivated & determined but then things happen & slowly the motivation fades.

I never made a New Year's Resolution to lose weight but there were times in the past when I told myself I was going to lose weight. I'd start trying to watch what I ate & go out of my way to start exercising hoping for some change. I fully admit that I lost my motivation after a week or two. The reason being is that the scale never went down. I never started feeling better.

The funny thing is that every time that I have actually tried to lose weight I never have. I have lost weight several times when I haven't really been trying. I've had weight issues (or at least thought I did because of things other people have said to me) since I was in junior high.

The 1st time I indirectly lost weight was when I spent a week on Catalina island when I was 14. I spent most of that week eating nothing but peanut butter toast, Taco Bell & ice cream BUT since I had to walk to get anywhere I got more exercise than I had before. I started every morning with a walk a few blocks down to the water to go snorkeling & then back up to the house. The rest of the day varied but I usually went to & from the house another 3 or 4 times. Needless to say my Mom was shocked when I came home at the end of the week with a TAN & weighing 15lbs less.

About a year before I got pregnant with my 1st son I started going through a lot of stuff. I was dealing with anxiety, depression, stress & just a lot of crap. My therapist got me to start taking walks when I was just feeling overwhelmed. I'd plug in my headphones & just go walk, listen to the music & it helped amazingly well. I'm not sure when I actually started losing weight but after a while I realized that I'd lost 20lbs & then after 3yrs of trying I suddenly got pregnant.

I lost weight after he was born as well, though the biggest portion of it was the weight that I had gained during the pregnancy. I had gained 30lbs with him which put me at the highest I'd ever been. I was so scared that I wouldn't lose it, but amazingly within the 1st month of him being born I lost the 30lbs without doing anything. I lost another 15lbs before I broke my foot off & ended up in a wheelchair for 6 months & gained most of that back.

Then came the Gluten Free discovery & I lost 20lbs, got pregnant again & lost 15 more pounds before I finally started gaining. I started both pregnancies at 220lbs and ended the 1st at 250 & the 2nd at 225. Once again I amazingly lost 30lbs within the 1st month of him being born & then an additional 15lbs.

As I started losing the 2nd time & got closer & closer to 200 I got so excited! I'm not exactly sure how much I weighed in 2005 when Jon & I got married but it was somewhere from 190-200lbs. I hadn't weighed less than 200lbs in years & I got all the way down to 180lbs without really trying. I was loving it. Since I wasn't actively dieting or exercising I wasn't sure if it would just keep going down but I figured it'd at least maintain.

Turns out the main contributing factor to my weight loss after the kids were born has been because I pumped/nursed for 6 months at least. I think when I stopped nursing is when the loss stopped. Then over time gradually it started coming back. I kept creeping closer & closer to 200lbs again. The fact that I did NOT want to hit 200 again & seeing how much weight a friend of mine had been losing since January taking ACE made me finally decide to take a chance.

I started taking ACE in April 2013 at 195lbs. At first I thought it would just help me lose weight by not needing to eat much & not changing anything else. Once I realized that I actually HAD to eat & more frequently & drink a TON of water I did my best working on getting it done. I had a countless amount of energy & I started feeling better & better. I was very happy that I stopped gaining weight but I was kind of disappointed that I wasn't actually losing any weight.

That was the 1st time in my life that I didn't actually lose my motivation. In fact it only made me more determined & motivated. I kept seeing pictures & other people posting about how much they had lost & I wasn't actually doing much more than just trying to eat a bit healthier, up my snacks, protein & water intake. I started with dancing while I cleaned the house & did various chores. I was cleaning all the floors in the house every week, sometimes twice a week if something severely messy happened. Next I added an additional 30min or more of dancing almost every day thanks to my Just Dance for Wii.

The scale still wasn't budging but I was feeling AMAZING! I was still a little frustrated but I was really loving being so active. After so many years of being 25-30lbs heavier & one medical issue after another I was thinner & actually FEELING healthy.

Then the most unexpected & surprising thing happened....I got pregnant AGAIN! No active trying, no fertility drugs, just ACE lol. Turns out ACE babies are fairly common. As you start to lose weight you feel sexier, more attractive, you feel better & are more active & well....things happen....A LOT! LOL

Here comes my current motivation. Since I could no longer take ACE I got to thinking about it & remembered that Jon gains weight every time that I'm pregnant. I convinced him to start taking ACE. I am determined to keep him from gaining weight this pregnancy. So far it's actually been going pretty well too even with all the bad food I've been craving for the past 10 wks.

I spent the first 16wks of this pregnancy hating the thought of most food & feeling sick most of the time so I lost weight again but only 5lbs this time. I finally started gaining weight about a month or two ago. I got mad Christmas Eve morning because the scale said I weighed 200lbs exactly. The next day & since then it's been back to 198, it just had a lying day apparently :p

I am still very upset & not wanting to see 200 on the scale but I have a goal for myself of not going past 210 before she's born. My hope is that things will go the same after she's born as it has with both of the boys & I'll lose my 30lbs within about a month & another 15lbs over the next several months as I'm nursing. That will put me down to 165lbs!! Then whenever she & I decide to stop nursing I'll start up on the New ACE. Since it's a different formula from what I was taking before I got pregnant I'm hoping that I might actually lose on this one & not just maintain but even if I don't lose any weight even if I just maintain I'll be happy with that.

Honestly I don't see myself maintaining though because I can't wait until after she's born & I'm recovered & able to be on my feet & more mobile again. I am wishing right now that I could go on walks with Jon but my heart & the rest of my body is keeping that from happening. I am excited to get him losing even more weight & inches than he has already! It's actually funny but right now it seems I am more motivated to see & help HIM lose weight than I am myself but then again it's not like there's much I can do about my own weight while I'm pregnant and there's just no fighting the cravings lol.

It seems for everyone you just have to find that thing that keeps you motivated & keeps you going. Don't give up because you can change things. It may be VERY slow going, like my 20lbs from walking for almost a year but it did happen. I may not have seen any weight loss during my 4 months on ACE but so many other aspects in my life definitely improved, I think my health improved, I felt like I was finally becoming the mother & wife that I always wanted to be AND Jon actually lost 10lbs because not only was I finally cooking more but I was cooking more healthy meals.