There have been periods in my life when I’ve suddenly put on weight. As a formerly skinny kid, this ballooning is quite terrifying, and extremely difficult to reduce!
After my last weight gain, I asked myself, why bother? And I didn’t. For a while. Until I realized, well, here’s why:
1. Fat people wear their heart on their sleeves. We all have a secret weakness. For fat people, everyone knows what it is. Fat people have a tougher time at work, and in public situations. I will admit that I dread having to be squished beside an obese person on rush-hour public transport. However, I’m sure the obese person feels worse about it. Have you ever been the one person who couldn’t get on an elevator? Don’t make your physical weight a mental weight as well.
2. Lose weight, gain health. Okay, that was a corny way of saying it, but fat people are more unhealthy. Their weight makes them more prone to heart disease and other diseases, and usually there are some contributing lifestyle factors as well – they eat unhealthy food and barely exercise. Whenever you try to lose weight, you ideally put yourself on a health bandwagon. Weight loss means being less disease-prone. It usually also means being more active and eating better, all of which contribute in the health sphere.
3. Lose weight, gain energy. Anyone who’s lost a lot of weight will tell you how much more energetic they feel. There’s a physical as well as mental reason for this – if you lose weight, you literally carry less load. Which means you have more energy for the rest of your life. Eating healthy and exercising also give you an immense amount of energy during the day. These days my major motivator for exercising is the energy boost I get after completing my routine.
4. Look hot. Yes, there are some quite overweight people who look very attractive. For most of us mere mortals, however, weight loss = hotness. I will admit that this previously used to be my primary motivator. And with summer coming up here in Australia, the need to be able to wear summery clothes again is indeed a pressing one!
There was a time when I felt that the effort required to get rid of those pounds of fat wasn’t worth it. I’ll admit that shamefully, I didn’t have a very good reason for feeling that way – other than not being motivated enough to spend all that effort. And it is a lot of effort! There’s a reason the formula of “lose weight = eat right + exercise” doesn’t work. I mean, it does, but most people can’t make it work for them. The first step is really committing to the challenge. The next steps are to do with facing that challenge – relevant posts coming soon! In the meantime, I’d love to hear what motivates you to lose weight.
