So....how do YOU stay motivated?

Personally, there are a couple things that motivate me to stay on track...

1.) My 4 year old son.
2.) The fact that I nearly died from my surgery.

But, I'm curious what everyone "does" to stay motivated.
For example, I keep a pre-op picture on the fridge, the pantry and in my car.
I never want to forget and get content!

Anyone else do that? Any other tips for staying motivated when you're feeling lazy?

And tonight  I just found my new motivational pic.

I don't know if my mom was trying to be nice by not letting me know that this photo existed or what...but I just came across it while looking for something at her house tonight.

This has to be the absolute worst picture of me ever taken pre-op....and at my highest weight.

Probably the only photo of me shirtless in the past 10 years. This was late 2007, during our family vacation in St. Johns, just a few weeks before my surgery.

I honestly don't remember being THAT big....   I guess 450 lbs is 450 lbs...even if you're 6'6"!

My dad must've taken it w/o me knowing....thanks Dad!

Adam,

Your photos in your profile bring back memories. Three years ago at 278 pounds I had a heart attack. I underwent open heart surgery and had a triple bypass. I had complications and would not stablize. I was in a drug induced coma for 7 days. Waking up a week later was so strange. I NEVER want to repeat that experience again. I lost some weight but was back up to 268 a year ago. I knew I had to take action for my own good or I would be back in the cardiac care center, if I was lucky. Otherwise, I might have a heart attack and die.

My #1 motivation is my health. I want to eliminate meds. I already am off my diabetic RX.

What are the things that motivate me daily?

1. The scale. I know you should no****ch it daily, but I do. I know it forces me to be good. I don't want to lose the battle with it again.

2. Weigh****chers - So many people do not like WW. I do. I find the program beneficial to me. My WW consultant know I had lap band surgery. She also knows I am there to reinforce and follow healthy eating and lifestyle techniques.

3. My self image - It may seem vain, but I am liking the new look that I have. I am motivated to improve by body image.

Take care!
Tom

congrats on taking back control!

yep, i weigh daily too, do not want to be one of the many people I hear about gaining 10, 20 pounds "out of nowhere".  if i ever notice the scale creeping up, time to say bye bye to carbs for a while!

I'm really becoming narcissistic.  Before WLS, I almost never had my picture taken, and the few times I did, I was always surprised by how fat I actually was.  And it took a LONG time (say, 9 months post-op) before I was satisfied enough with my progress that I wasn't just as likely to nit-pick to death any photo I had taken along the way.

I know that a lot of WLSers talk about body image dysmorphia, and that they still see themselves as fat despite all this evidence to the contrary.  Well, OK, I'm sure I might still think "fat" in certain ways, reflexively shying away from narrow chairs, restaurant booths, and airline seats.  I still have to lose an additional 25-30 pounds to get to a normal BMI, but I'm already thrilled with what I see in the mirror and what I see in my more recent progress photos.  I'm still in the "Is that really me?" phase (as well as the "Hey, good-lookin' !!" phase!  )

I'd love to find more truly heinous photos (like the photo my NUT took of me at my initial WLS consult!), but until then, these more recent pix are keeping my motivation up and my eyes on the prize!!

/Steve

I have a pic of my wife and I that was our wedding announcement pic.  In it I weighed about 215 and looked good.  I have this pic as my cell phone background.  Also I weigh about every other day.  My 7 children and my wife are also good motivations.  I feel like the last 7 years of my life have been a blur and so much time wasted where I wasn't actively involved in LIVING and I don't want to lose anymore time with my family.

I still feel like I look the same - so my wife showed me a pic of my at my heaviest yesterday and omg I was friggin huge - so now i am just huge and not friggin huge anymore :)

 I've got no one but my wife depending on my looks/ health and she seems totally indifferent about my looks (will take me fat, thin, ugly or whatever), so the only substantial motivator is extreme mobility. Being able to do sprints, Karate advanced level Yoga, heavy deadlifts at 47. I want to keep those abililities and that keeps me motivated.

But it's hard still, knowing I can lay on the sofa snacking on nuts, nachos or whatever and the next day not weigh an ounce more. The question is how to stay motivated if the consequences have virtually disappeared? I'm not sure I know.

My health, especially control of my diabetes is my main motivation.  Of course I want to look better and fit in clothes "off the rack" but every time I have to test my sugar and adjust my medications, that really does it for me.  I started out on 30 mg. Actos and it controlled my sugar so well that I ate anything I wanted and of course picked up a significant amount of weight.  Then I had to add Glyburide to supplement the Actos.  Then I upped my Actos to 45 mg. and felt like crap all the time.  Switched to Januvia because it wasn't supposed to make you gain weight but that step was met with limited success.  Finally went to Byetta (injectable) and got a taste of what it would be like to be on insulin. 

That was it, I made my decision after that to get the verticle sleeve gastrectomy (VSG).  Unfortunately, insurance says it's still experimental so I opted for the Realize Band.  My surgeon and I are going to give this the old college try for 3 years hoping that I do well and this is the end of it.  If not, the VSG should be accepted as "main stream" by that point.  The band is not a bridge burner, so revision to the VSG shouldn't be too difficult.  Currently, I'm doing very well and expect to be successful with this procedure.