Motivation and Weight Loss
How do you motivate yourself to lose weight? This is one of those difficult questions. I could give you any number of external motivations, from social pressure to having a better physical fit with the world at large. External motivators, in the long run, just don't work as well as an intrinsic motivation!So we come to the question, just what is intrinsic motivation? It's that motivation that comes from inside yourself. This is the same motivator that drove DaVinci to paint the Mona Lisa. It's the same motivation that drives someone to master a difficult subject of study. It's doing something not for a specific reward, but instead, just because you can!
This is the same motivation that drives the riders like the guys that ride Race Across America (RAAM). It's not the financial reward, believe me! It's not the fame either. It's that sense of accomplishment of completing a difficult or virtually impossible task (Referring to RAAM here). Weight loss, on the surface, can appear to be the same kind of thing.
Losing the weight is a long and slow process with, under normal circumstance, little immediate tangible reward. Sure, you live longer after dumping some of that excess weight, but you start to wonder to yourself if it's worth it? Is it worth not having that second helping of those oh so good beef and noodles? Is it worth depriving yourself to match society's view of what is normal or not?
What has to occur is a paradigm shift in how you think, and how you view yourself. first off, you aren't "depriving" yourself in reducing your food intake. Take the word "diet" out of your vocabulary. You aren't dieting, you are making saner nutritional choices. This shift in how you view yourself becomes a catalyst that acts as an agent of change in your life.
Exercise is a component of weight loss. What's funny is that going to the gym, for me, isn't fun! Choose an activity that you love to do. In my case, that's riding a bike. Do this exercise at every opportunity! We only have one go 'round and I choose to make mine last as long as I can!
There's the key concept of intrinsic motivation, though, right there! Those simple words, "I choose" can change your life far more than any other external motivator. Matter of fact, those people who, meaning well, ask you those questions like "Don't you think you'd feel better if you lost some weight?" used to just cheese me off to no end! Choose to do this, for your own reasons. You aren't losing the weight for anybody but yourself. It's your control of the world and how it affects YOU. You aren't helpless in the face of it, even though you may feel that way. I know I did. I had dieted and dieted and dieted and I continued to gain. This turned out to be because of a metabolic disease associated with the pituitary. Once I address that issue though, I still had, if you'll pardon the pun, an enormous task.
Since I was so physically debilitated from the weight gain, my metabolism was flat......I couldn't exercise, and I was stuck in this body that was more or less dying.
As you can see, things were getting pretty tough! I had come to a crossroads where I couldn't deny anymore I had a serious health problem, and it was my weight. I had developed diabetes, and was on oxygen because I had too much body mass to be supported by my lungs. I was experiencing crushing chest pain if I walked more than 50 feet, hence the wheelchair. At this point, I chose to live instead of exist. I chose to exert my control over MY world instead of letting my world control me. I'm not going to blow smoke here and say it's easy, it isn't! Nothing worthwhile ever is. Make your choice and follow through.
I started at 581 pounds, and have worked my way down to 229. I used every tool in the inventory, starting with bariatric surgery and finishing with exercise. Use the tools you need to, and get your life back. It's fun! You can get out with your kids, or wife and ride, for example. It's emminently more satisfying than sitting in front of the TV and vegetating. Engage in life!
It's worth the effort. If I had continued the path, I would never have met my niece, Mallie for example. There are all kinds of reasons to lose the weight, but the motivation has to come from inside yourself. You get to choose.
Now, as a reminder, in July, on the 14th, I am riding in the Tour de Cure. This is a fundraising ride sponsored by the American Diabetes Association.
