If you talk to anyone that has lost a significant amount of weight, they will most likely point to very specific events in their life that motivated them to make the life change.  Find someone that has lost the weight AND kept it off, and they will most likely point to A specific event.  This isn’t scientific research but this has been my experience in speaking with many, many people that have shed significant poundage.

Looking back on my trek, it took a cosmic 2 x 4 to get my attention.

Don’t get me wrong, I thought I wanted to lose weight and get in shape.  I tried many diets and they all failed miserably.  I tried exercising but it never ’stuck’.  I always had good intentions but never that one thing that kept me going day after day.  Here are some of the motivations I experienced.  Maybe you can associate with one of them.

Motivation #1: Lookin’ Good Nekkid!!

Who doesn’t want to look good naked?  I hit the middle school years and gained weight like many tweenagers.  I leaned out a bit during my last two years in high school but quickly gained it back after I graduated.  I hit college and the ‘freshman 15″ turned into the ‘freshman 30′.  I cannot tell you how many times I wanted to look good nekkid.  Oh, and yes, there is a difference between ‘nekkid’ and ‘naked’.  I was teased all my life about my weight and no matter how much teasing, there wasn’t enough motivation to drop the twinkies and hit the gym.  This leads to the next motivation.

Motivation #2: “You will always be fat”

I had someone actually tell me that once.  I endured the fat jokes.  I remember having a Mazda 323 hatchback that I was able to tilt to one side when I drove it.  I’m not talking the ability to take on two wheels Dukes of Hazzard style but there was a definite list.  I know my father meant well when he told me that I would “never have a decent career” if I was obese but I still took it as an insult.  I could go on about the insults but I think you get the picture.  Everything everyone said made me mad and temporarily motivated.  None of it stuck.

Motivation #3: Embarassment

Hmmmm, where do I begin?  Should I start at the point where the ‘fat boy’ got a hit and immediately tripped on home plate on the way to first?  Or should I start where I’m holding my son (2 years-old at the time) in the solid wood kitchen chair and it broke into splinters?  No, I’m not making it up.  It all happened.  Wait, maybe I should start where I went to Six Flags Over Georgia and rode the Georgia Cyclone.  This is a wooden, old-style roller coaster that is extremely fast and extremely rough.  My butt wouldn’t fit in the seat so I had one butt cheek hanging over and wasn’t able to really sit down.  The people behind me laughed because I was barely able to stay in the car.  Not to mention how bruised I was the next day.  I have had my share of embarassment but guess what?  It still didn’t motivate me to the point of really doing something about it.

Motivation #4: Always feeling like hammered dog crap

I used to suffer from chronic migraines.  I also suffered from severe lethargy, depression, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, low *cough*sex drive*cough*, and a cornucopia of other feeling-like-crap-isms.  When the weekend rolled around, I didn’t feel like rolling out of bed.  Everyone I know told me, ad nauseum, that if I’d just lose some weight, I’d feel better.  With all of those symptoms, the only part that would motivate me was to lose weight just so they would SHUT UP!  Even more so than the fat jokes!  It did motivate me…for a while.

Motivation #5: Give Me Weight Loss or Give Me Death!

What finally did it for me?  Well, it wasn’t the fat jokes, the migraines, the insults, or the embarassment.  It was getting THE call from my doctor after a check-up about my blood work.  I knew I had high blood pressure and high cholesterol.  What they told me, however, scared the pounds off of me.  They told me my blood sugar was so high that they needed me to come in immediately for a full blood glucose tolerance test to see if I had diabetes.  The result was a resounding YES!  I did have type 2 diabetes…and it scared me.  I have a wife and two kids (one that is 15 and one that is 5).  I knew that if I didn’t get it under control then it could kill me.  This is what finally did for me.

Motivations are different for everyone.  What works for one most likely won’t work for another.  In retrospect, I would have to be honest and say that it was really a culmination of all of the above that motivated me to lose 100 pounds but it took that final ‘kicker’.   Do you have a motivation I didn’t list?  I’d love to hear it!  Please email me at dave@davespress.net.