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Motivation
In terms of exercise, I’ve been working out a lot and playing sports. I’ve kept up my motivation. The clinicians at the clinic tell me good things, and say that I’m making a difference for myself.
Sometimes I know that I have an appointment at the clinic coming up and I know that I’ve been on vacation and have gained a lot. But I don’t want to disappoint anyone there— I don’t want to disappoint my family, and I don’t want to disappoint myself. So especially during the weeks before I come in to the program I try to exercise a lot and really watch what I eat so that I don’t overeat. I just don’t want to disappoint anyone, and that is a motivator for me.
I think anyone struggling with weight knows that they need to lose weight, but it’s finding the motivation to do it that’s the problem. Everyone knows that people eat because of emotion and not always just because they’re hungry. When you’re overweight, you get depressed when people make fun of you, and that’s one of the hardest things. When people are telling you that you need to lose weight, it just makes you want to eat more. So the hardest thing is coming to the realization that you can’t fix everything with food, and that you really need to stop eating. Not completely, obviously, but regulate meal times, and even allow yourself a snack or two a day— just don’t overdo it. For me that was the hardest thing.
I always pick certain goals to help motivate myself. At the moment, I’m going into my sophomore year of high school, and at the end of the year we have a semi-formal, which is sort of the equivalent of a sophomore prom. I really want to go, I really want to have a date, and I really want to be able to wear a dress. But I know that I won’t go if I look the way that I do now. So that’s what I keep telling myself, when I decide that I’m going to change the way I eat and exercise more. I tell myself, “You have to lose this weight so that you can go to this dance. You really want to. If you want to wear the dress that you want, you have to lose weight.” I just keep telling myself that, and it helps me move along. It’s really important to me.
Sometimes I get rewards from my nutritionist to help me eat well and exercise. There’s a goody-bag and I get to pick something out. Today I got nail polish.
When I’m older I want to join the military, so that motivates me to be healthier.
My biggest motivator is seeing that I lost weight. The hardest thing for me was when a couple of years after my brain tumor I felt like I was putting in so much effort and yet I would gain weight. And to have people tell me they weren’t sure it [weight loss] was possible was very discouraging. You get the feeling of, “Why bother trying?” But I have gotten to the point now where I have seen results and seen that it is actually possible. So any time I get tempted to eat more or to stop exercising, I just think about that and it’s all the motivation I need.
I think the most difficult thing about losing weight is motivation. Sometimes you just don’t want to do it and you want to say, “Forget it.” But you can’t do that; you have to keep working at it.
If you have an occasion coming up and you really want to fit into a certain dress or skirt, that could be a motivation to lose weight. Or if you’re going to a new school and you want to look good, that could work too.
What helped to keep me motivated was realizing that I lost the weight, so I could do things that other children who don’t weigh as much do. And there are other motivators too, like you’ll be able to play more sports, and you won’t be embarrassed about yourself. You just have to keep up with the meal plan. Cooking is not hard; it’s easy and fun to cook meals for yourself, and the recipes taste good.
Sometimes my grandmother will bribe me with certain things to motivate me. She’ll say, “If you do the treadmill for half hour today, I’ll take you out and we’ll go do something.” But all in all, I did this for myself. I really want to be healthy, and it’s the best thing for me. I think the biggest motivation I have is just myself.
It feels good to change the way you eat, because there is a reward. When you work hard at it and then you hear that you lost 5 pounds, it’s really rewarding. But it’s hard to do.
When I see other people who look the way I want to look, I tell myself that it’s not going to happen unless I work at it. I have to stay on track, otherwise nothing will happen and I’ll never look the way I want to look.
One of my motivators is my football coach. I want to lose weight so that I can play football better.
It’s just so good to come in to the program, because I can finally wear what I want and do the things I want, like going to the beach every day of the summer.
The hardest thing about being on my diet is when I see my brother eating stuff that I can’t have. Then I just feel depressed and sad. But I know he’s not going to be healthy when he grows up, and I am. That’s all I have to remember to make me feel better.
I only have one thing that motivates me, and that’s that I’ll be healthy in the future. And it’s a good thing I started now when I was a kid rather than when I was older, like thirty or thirty-one or something.
When I get weighed and I hear, “Gee, you gained weight,” I just feel sad; I feel depressed. But I have been doing well recently and I have never ever heard anything bad. When I hear something good, I just feel good, good, good.
Try your hardest, and try not to feel bad, because it’s not like you can’t have any rice, pie, or any of that anymore. It’s okay to “cheat” once in a while, but it’s not okay to cheat all the time. I just think that you should look into the future, and if you stick with the diet, you’ll know how healthy you’re going to be in the future. Then you’re going to be really proud. But the thing is, if someone says, “Good job,” you shouldn’t go home and eat junk, because then it won’t be a good job anymore. And if you don’t eat healthy, you could have heart problems and other problems, like not being able to breathe.
I make exercise fun by thinking that I can do anything. Exercise is just moving around doing different kinds of stuff. So I make it fun and do different things like dancing and exercise videos and the cha-cha— anything! I do basketball and swimming, and I’m also going to play soccer in the fall. That’s why exercise is so much fun- because it can be anything you want.
Do it for yourself and not for anyone else, because I’ve been trying to do it for other people for years and it just ends up backfiring. Just do it for yourself.
I find certain types of exercise rewarding. If you try to make me run a lap, it’s frustrating. But if you just let me walk and have a great conversation, it’s very rewarding.
My mom helps me a lot; she’s my biggest motivator. If I am going to eat something that I am not supposed to eat, she gives me “that look.” She’s always on my back, and I think that motivates me a lot. She always does what’s good for me.
When I get weighed, it’s sort of a rush to see if I have lost any weight and to see how I am doing. It’s like a checkpoint. You go to the doctors, they tell you specific things that you have to do, and now you’re at this checkpoint where they see how you’re doing. And it’s just this rush: “Did I do well? Did I do badly? How did I do?”
I didn’t have a motivation to lose weight until a college soccer coach opened up a window for me. The school is my number one choice, and he found out that I played soccer and called me. Also, I am a senior, and I’m going to Cancun with my friends to celebrate our last year, and I don’t want to look like the slob when I’m there. So those things are motivating me to lose weight.
How important is my weight to me? It’s important to me that I don’t develop diabetes at a young age.
It’s embarrassing being weighed, because the doctor is so much skinner then I am and is also older than I am. I am twice her size and half her age. |
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Hospital Boston Department of Psychiatry. All Rights Reserved. The information on this website should not be taken as medical advice, which can only be given to you by your personal health care professional. July 10, 2005 |
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