What motivates you?

intensitylisa

intensitylisa

Cathlete
:D What motivates me to keep fit are:
1. Cathe's motivational, caring personality and teaching method.
2. being able to fit into junior clothes and wear all the latest styles.
3. Cathe.com members.
4. Fitness magazines such as: Oxygen, Muscle & Fitness Hers.
5. Compliments.
6. To be able to wear the same size clothes (maybe even a size or two smaller depending on the brand of clothes) that I wore in high school.
 
It used to be looks. When I was young, that was all I cared about. I didn't care what shape my body was in "inside," as long as it looked good. Then, after more than doubling my body weight within just a few years around age 30, it became simly being "normal." It's no longer being the fat lady grazing the salad bar, buying the biggest tent I can find, having to plan ahead so I'll have the energy to do simple things like shopping or going on vacation. It's not having to put up with the rudeness, both overt and covert, that the really obese have to deal with, which really zaps your faith in and love for your fellow men. It's not being an object of scorn and disgust. It's not taking 12 pills a day. It's the relief from at least some of the guilt of being such a horrible example for my son, who grew up in my out-of-control phase and is struggling with his weight and health already, at age 13. AND it's dressing up and actually looking nice instead of simply looking dressed up. But most of all, it's all about feeling alive again instead of just biding my time, waiting to die.

Shari
 
:) Well said Wutherhi! I wanted to congratulate you on your tremendous weight loss sucess! Your before and after pictures are amazing. :D
 
For me it is a look but not just being skinny. When I look at the pictures of myself over the years, I see the gammot of entirely too skinny to a little heavier than I care to be. The pictures I have recently posted on Cathe Addicts are keeping me motivated to continue on my goal to fitness. While I will probably never have the figure Cathe does, I will have a better looking physique. Not too skinny but when people look at me they will see a physically fit woman that has learned to take care of herself.

What aggrevates the sh*t out of me about that, is that people assume I am "naturally" in good shape. People are so clueless when it comes to physical fitness & shape. They think if you look good, you don't work at it. I would love to smack people like that in the back of their head & say "Get with it dimwit! It takes a lot of work to look this good!" LOL
 
Yeah, I know what you mean, Goddess. Sometimes, I feel the need to wear a sign that says, "I used to be fat."

Shari
 
My friends that are continually working out, help keep me going. The people on this forum that understand what fun it can be to do a cathe workout and give you a pat on the back when you need one!!:) Most of all the ability to keep up with me three year old son, work a full time job and work a second part time job. Of course the way I look to my husband helps a lot too!
You are all a great asset to my workout regime, I usually go here before my workouts and read a bit of what someone else did and it gets me motivated to go and have Cathe kick my butt!
 
>What aggrevates the sh*t out of me about that, is that people
>assume I am "naturally" in good shape. People are so clueless
>when it comes to physical fitness & shape. They think if you
>look good, you don't work at it. I would love to smack people
>like that in the back of their head & say "Get with it dimwit!
>It takes a lot of work to look this good!" LOL

Yeah! Like people who say "you don't have to work out so much...you're in great shape". Duh, how do you THINK I got in that shape and maintain it?(well, no one says that to me, but a colleague of mine always used to make comments about my not eating certain foods--high fat high sugar--saying that I didn't have to worry about eating them because I was so slim...as if I would miraculously remain that way after chowing down on mass quantities of cake, cookies and chips!).
 
To put it simply, I look and feel like s**t if I don't!!!!!!!!!!!

Exercise provides:

1. desperately needed 'me' time
2. relief from depression
3. bone building/osteoporosis prevention
4. energy
5. my mind turning over the same anxieties all the time because I cannot switch it off
6. a sense of accomplishment and achievment when embarked upon the never-ending process of doing a PhD
7. I now have muscles and can wear tank tops for the first time in my life, thank you PUB and Slow and Heavy :)

Not necessarily in that order....

Clare
 
Health. I want to make the muscles in my back strong enough to do the job my ligaments are no longer able to do properly. I also want to lose the weight I gained through injury and feel confident in my own skin. I'm saving up to buy a house with my SO and it would be really nice to be able to manage the move without having to pay a fortune for a removal company to do everything for us.
ATB,
- Lisa :)
 
>(well, no one says that to me, but
>a colleague of mine always used to make comments about my not
>eating certain foods--high fat high sugar--saying that I
>didn't have to worry about eating them because I was so
>slim...as if I would miraculously remain that way after
>chowing down on mass quantities of cake, cookies and chips!).

YES EXACTLY! Amazing how clueless people are. I don't eat that way because I can't in order to maintain the level of fitness I have achieved!
 
My motivation is kind of weird but I imagine that I run into a long, lost love at the airport and he recognizes me and I look even better than I did 20 plus years ago. I know it is delusional thinking but for some reason it works. I want to be the best I can be for my age. I also get alot of support from my forum pals!
 
Most people automatically assume that I, too, am just "naturally slim." Because I have worked out since my early teens, nobody has ever seen a dramatic change in me. They have NOOOO IDEA that I work out more in one day than they do in one month. It's aggrevated by the fact that I don't know more than 2 or 3 people who realize that "working out" is more than a stroll around the block.

Anyway :), to the topic at hand. I am motivated *mostly* by how I feel. I am always uncomfortable, because I have a job where I sit all day, I go to school and sit, I go home and sit so I can study. Working out is my main comfort. I, just like most people, care about how I look, too, so I'm not safe from vanity and superficiality. But I wouldn't work out as hard as I do if it weren't for the fact that it makes me feel so d*mn good!!

Sara
 
What motivates me?

Results.
Sweat.
Hard work and statisfaction afterwards.
Challenge.
Strength.
Fitting into my high school size.
Muscles.
A smaller bustline!
Keeping up with my sons.
Being sexier at 42!

Cee


Reach for your dream. Live it. Thank God for it. Then start again ..;-)
 
Superfit people that don't look it. Right now Judy Molinar is very inspiring to me. You can't judge a book by it's cover. This lady has completed an Ironman! My very fit looking friend who never works out probably couldn't make it through a Cathe warmup.

Andrea
 
Honestly? Just between you and me? The illusion of feeling like I have a tiny bit of control in this whole aging process thing. That I don't have to just sit back and watch my body become less capable as the years go by. Working out and eating well make me feel like I'm in the driver's seat. Whether or not I really am, I buy into it and it makes me feel better. I just have to be proactive. Aging will ultimately do what it will with me, but at least I don't have to take it lying down. I'll be standing tall, with a barbell on my back, doing low end lunges when it comes to get me! }(

-Nancy
 
YEAH, I have to say all but #5 motivates me, I don't read those magazines, but I do read the posts here and that motivates me so that would fall under #3 :7 ... me and hubby just got back from vacation last night, I did get to exercise 3 good days out of the 7 we were gone and took protein bars and drinks with me, but I did have other goodies to, but with the exercise I was doing I only gained 3 or 4 lbs back, so I don't have much to get rid of :7 .... I feel great and I am close to being the size I was 22 yrs ago when hubby and I got married :7 :7 :7 ...... So many things motivate me. Ya'll are great..... Rhonda :7 :7 :7 :7
 
First and foremost, I have to work out because otherwise I hurt. After two or three days of not working out, my back gets tight and my whole body starts to complain.

I love working out, though, because I'm just starting to feel really strong and healthy again after about four years of feeling awful no matter what I did.

I look terrible, though. To look at me, you wouldn't know that I can do MIC or Body Max all the way through. You wouldn't know that I use Cathe's weights in PS and exceed her weights in CTX. (But I know it!!)

I hope to get back into my high school jeans eventually. That's one of my motivations for getting strict with my diet. It's eye-opening that the fittest people here don't eat sweets and high-fat food! I'm still learning all this stuff. It's not because I'm hopelessly stupid. It's because I was raised by a parent who lived on potato chips and Diet Coke and I never learned proper eating habits. It's a constant struggle between the nutrition facts I "know" and the bad habits I go back to when I'm feeling lazy. A lot of people have overcome poor eating habits from childhood and I hope to be one of them. (I also hope to be a better example for my own kids.)
 
1. Enjoyment of the workouts I do, Cathe DVD's and my own kick-butt aqua workouts;

2. Having the vital signs and bone density of a woman half my age;

3. Seeing musculature that was non-existent 10 years ago;

4. The Cathe Forums, and a little cabal of local Cathe-ites I belong to called "The Killer Bees" (Four Blondes and a Baldie);

5. Feeling absolutely unbeatable when I complete a workout, and feeling like absolute physical, mental and emotional dreck when I blow it off;

6. My aqua participants - they rely on me, and they work hard in my classes;

7. Reading police reports of elder abuse crimes inside and outside of nursing homes, knowing I do not want to be dependent on ANYONE in my old age for physical mobility and knowing exercise is the key to physical and mental vitality in old age;

8. Reading about an 85-year-old woman local triathlete, reading about a 62-year-old power lifter who began lifting when she was 48, reading about an 81-year-old marathoner who ran thru chemotherapy in her mid '70's, and having met an 80-year-old woman distance runner in Phoenix, AZ

9. Knowing in my bones the truth of what I say to my aqua participants: When you feel strong physically, you feel strong emotionally;

10. That next heavier barbell / dumbbell.

A-jock
 
Jenne-
Just to let you know that I wish you all the best and appreciate what you must be going through. Growing up with bad eating habits is difficult to overcome. I was very lucky to have a mom who was into health and nutrition from the day I was born, and who was (and is) a fabulous cook to boot. For many years as an adolescent I rebelled by eating oreos and all the "forbidden" foods. But now as an adult I realize how lucky I am to have such a broad and health-oriented palate. And even I struggle. For those who grew up with parents who were bad cooks like my DH, or who had bad eating habits, the road to health is formidable. I've seen it in so many people!! As you overcome your bad eating habits, please give yourself lots of credit!! You deserve it.

Lots of luck!!:)
 
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