What is your motivation to be healthy?
By GemmaR
@GemmaR (8517)
October 25, 2012 3:10pm CST
I know that a lot of people know this, but I have lost a lot of weight over the past two years. In fact, I have lost over half of my body weight. It has made me think about the reasons that I chose to do this, and it got me wondering about the reasons that other people might choose to get healthy and change their lives as well. I will tell you about my reasons that I am getting healthy, and then you can tell me yours.
-I want to be able to look in the mirror and not hate myself.
-I wanted to be able to fit in clothes that normal shops stocked.
-I knew that I probably would struggle to have children at the weight that I was at during that time.
-I struggled to walk to the shops without getting out of breath, and I knew that this was something that would have to change.
-If I manage to have children, I want to be able to see them grow up.
What about you? What are your motivations for being healthy?
1 person likes this
7 responses
@carmelanirel (20942)
• United States
26 Oct 12
First of all GemmaR, Congratulations on your weight loss!!!
My motivation is I don't want to die early like my mother did. Next June I will be the same age as she was and I feel I am a lot healthier. It wouldn't hurt for me to loss some pounds, but I find it hard when my husband is the primary shopper because we only have one car and the food he brings home...
But I have gotten into drinking more smoothies made with fresh fruits and veggies, so maybe with a little more exercise I can get to my ideal weight.
My motivation is I don't want to die early like my mother did. Next June I will be the same age as she was and I feel I am a lot healthier. It wouldn't hurt for me to loss some pounds, but I find it hard when my husband is the primary shopper because we only have one car and the food he brings home...
But I have gotten into drinking more smoothies made with fresh fruits and veggies, so maybe with a little more exercise I can get to my ideal weight. @courtknee525 (3742)
• United States
25 Oct 12
Even though I'm happy with the weight I'm at right now, I do choose to make healthier eating choices. I do it because I'd like to always be happy with my body and I don't want to feed it a bunch of junk.
Since I'm still young, eating better foods now will help me in the long run and may even prevent a few diseases along the way. I'm not a health food addict though. I just choose to have fruits and vegetables, not eat so much sugary junk, and I also try to cut back on soda. That one is really hard because I love soda. I try to make sure I have it only a few times a week and eventually I'd like to get to the point where I have it once every few weeks or so.
@GemmaR (8517)
•
25 Oct 12
I think that there are lots of people who would assume that just because they're not always an unhealthy weight that this means that they should be able to eat whatever they like, but the truth is that this just is not the case at all. A lot of the time, the most unhealthy people can be a completely normal size because there are other things that you have to watch out for as well. One of the things that people should be wary of is the fact that salt puts a lot of pressure on your heart for example, and just because you're not getting fat from eating bad foods this doesn't mean that it isn't still building up in your body, and it might cause you problems in the future.
@courtknee525 (3742)
• United States
25 Oct 12
Exactly, people automatically assume that because I'm so skinny I must also be healthy and in shape as well. I mean, it's not that I'm unhealthy or anything, I could eat better but I'm happy with the way I'm eating now. Yes I could get out and exercise a bit more but overall I don't think I'm doing too terribly.
I make sure to fill my diet with plenty of vegetables and fruits. I'm trying to avoid lots of junk food but every so often I will have a few chips or sweets. I like to eat food and I still eat what I normally like to eat but I'm just trying to add healthier things to it. If I completely cut out all the foods I like to eat, that diet would last about a week before I'd go on a binge and eat all my cravings. That's the main reason no diets work. I think it's fine if you add healthy choices and try to watch how much salt and sugars you put into your body.
@GemmaR (8517)
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26 Oct 12
It must be hard that you are in physical pain so much, but if being healthier helps you to get rid of your pain then I would say that it is well worth doing. We have to think about our own quality of life a lot of the time, and there is no point being alive if we are in so much pain that we are not able to enjoy it. This is one of the reasons that I chose to lose weight, because I knew that if I stayed the size that I was, there would be no way that I could have lived life in the way that I know I want to in the future with my friends and family.
@megamatt (14292)
• United States
26 Oct 12
The fact is that I have so much that I still want to accomplish, is that I want to live a few more years and extend my life as much as I can. I do wonder in the end if it will be all for nothing as the entire world falls into health and disrepair. However, that is beside the point. The fact is that I can really push myself towards a healthier life and getting more done, means that I want to accomplish much with my life.
Of course, there is a slightly more selfish reason. There are a few people out there that I would be rather mortified if they managed to outlive me. Therefore, I'm pushing myself to healthier life. And that I want to be as sick as less as possible. It is not fun to be sick, and it really just wrecks a lot of my life. I feel if I live a healthier lifestyle, less illness should follow.
@GemmaR (8517)
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27 Oct 12
I think that having a list of the things that you would like to achieve is a really good amount of motivation to be able to be healthy. It is very easy to forget just how easy it is to be unhealthy, and there are lots of things that we do which aren't healthy which we probably shouldn't do at all. I have eaten a lot of chocolate tonight for example, not thinking about how bad it is for me, because I haven't had a wake up call about my life for a little while so I am doing a few things that I wouldn't have done when I first started trying to be healthy again.
@GemmaR (8517)
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26 Oct 12
Weight loss is something that an awful lot of people want to achieve, but unfortunately it is not something that everybody manages. The majority of people who try to lose weight only put it back on as soon as they stop dieting. You're right when you say that it is a lot about your state of mind with regards to whether you manage to lose weight or not, and I think that one of the reasons that I have been able to lose weight myself is because I am very stubborn. I just got it into my head that I wanted to achieve, and it was something that I was determined to be able to do.
@Raine38 (12257)
• United States
25 Oct 12
Even though I don't have weight problems, I still choose to eat healthy and have a healthy lifestyle, because 1) getting sick is expensive. I would rather save that money for other important stuff. Don't get me wrong, health is important and if I have to spend money I will, but wouldn't it be better to spend the money to "reinforce" our health than use it for treatments? If I can avoid getting sick, I will do it. And 2) I want to live longer and see our dreams come to fruition. We're willing to work hard for our dreams and I want to live long enough to enjoy it and still see my family.
@GemmaR (8517)
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26 Oct 12
It is good that you don't have weight problems, and I think that one of the most important things that people should learn to do is to live a healthy lifestyle before they have these problems. I have lost weight recently, and a lot of my friends have said well done to me because I have made a difference. These days, I always respond by saying well done to them because they've never let themselves get to the size where they had to lose the weight in the first place, so they must have been living relatively healthily in the long term.
@Pose123 (21635)
• Canada
25 Oct 12
My GemmaR, My motivation for being healthy is to live a long and active life. Quality is just as important as quantity and I only want to live a long life if I am healthy. Of course this would also go along with seeing my children grow up and hopefully see grandchildren and greatgrandchildren. Blessings.
@GemmaR (8517)
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26 Oct 12
I completely agree with you about the quality is as important as quantity. While I am doing my best to be healthy, I would never want to do so if it meant that I wasn't able to enjoy the things that I should be able to do in my life. I want my life to be as long as possible, but I don't want to be one of those poor elderly people who spends the last decade of their life being in pain because of the fact that they weren't able to keep themselves healthy early on in their life to ensure that they had a healthy future.
@jaiho2009 (39142)
• Philippines
25 Oct 12
Self confidence, that's the best way to motivate ourselves to keep fit and healthy.
In this society, people often criticize the fat, chubby and obese people and that leads to self destruction- low esteem, self-pity and inferiority complex.
Slim (not the skinny) and well- built body gives more confidence in many ways.
@GemmaR (8517)
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25 Oct 12
I got bullied a lot when I was overweight, and I have to say that I became rather depressed during my teenage years because of the way that people were treating me. When I started losing weight, I would look back over my old diaries that I wrote when I was a teenager, and just take a look at the things that people would say about. It made me think that I just didn't want anybody to be able to say those types of things about me anymore, and I know that they weren't untrue when they were said. So I have made the change and I know that a lot of people have mentioned that I am looking a lot of better than I might have done in the past.
