Pathetic Motivators...

[RUSTYSMOM]

Okay - I must ask - am I the only one who negotiates with myself to exercise? My latest thing is that I cannot go the the CC boards until I exercize. Suprisingly I have been up and working out at 5:00am each morning. Whoopee - whatever it takes I suppose.

[lindrusso]

Hey it's not pathetic - whatever works!

Sometimes I tell my kids to badger me to go to the Y if I'm feeling lazy. Lately, my motivator has been that the folks at the Y claim that they will personally call you if they see that you haven't been in to workout!!

Once this 12 week program is over, I'll probably be back to figuring out ways to motivate myself again. Maybe I'll try your bulletin board thing Rustysmom!!! I mean, what IS pathetic (and I'm only referring to myself here!) is sitting on your butt reading about fitness and not getting around to actually exercising!!!

[pammy]

Okay, how about this one, I tell myself can't have a certain purchase (new Calphalon grill pan, cookbook, or shoes, etc.) unless I meet certain goals for a certain amount of time. Usually, the larger the goal, the larger the purchase. Kind of a reward system. Works fairly well. Does it make me feel kind of pathetic? Yes.

[SandyM]

Money Money Money!!! I paid myself $5.00 for every pound I lost, and took away $7.00 for every pound I gained. My DH matched it. It was nice to see him fork over $150 for the 30 I eventually did lose!!! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif

[JHolcomb]

I refuse to let myself buy new clothes until I've lost half of the weight that I need to lose. This is for 2 reasons:I love shopping for new clothes and the denial is one heck of a motivator, and it would kinda be a waste of money to buy clothes that I won't be able to wear long. I would say that I can't buy any till I've lost all the weight, but I fear my clothes will be falling off of me at that point, and I can't very well go around naked http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif.

My other big motivator is to envision myself at my goal weight. That helps an awful lot.
Anyway, whatever works, do it!

[This message has been edited by JHolcomb (edited 02-25-2001).]

[makedah]

This is REALLY pathetic, but when I started running, watching Sex & the City would always get me off my butt for my Sunday evening run/walk. The pathetic part is that I KNOW that some of those women are impossibly (and probably unhealthily) thin. But it would get me moving, anyway!

Nowadays, I'm sort of out of the door before I can think about it. But yes, I have held off on buying new clothes (pants, in particular) until I get to a size that I actually want to be in for a while!!! In the meantime, I have several pairs of jeans I can wear on the way down...

[lindrusso]

It's funny that you all mentioned not buying clothes. I have avoided buying clothes (for the most part - obviously I have to buy at least some!) for the past 6 years!!!! I'm on my way down with my weight, but I went ahead and bought pants anyway. I was soooooo tired of feeling dumpy!!! I needed to feel good right now!

My pants were too big and they were also ill-fitting. I had bought regular pants when I really need petites (at 5 foot 1 inch, even petites are too long!). It's so nice to be wearing pants where the crotch isn't 4 inches too long!!! It may be a bit of a waste in the end, but I'm hoping to have at least some of the clothes tailored when I do finally reach my goals.

I'm am saving my big "spree" for this summer - I have very little that is nice for summer. The shirts I've been sticking to the last 6 years are finally getting holes in them - a definite sign that it's time to move on!!!