Why do you want to lose weight?

January 26, 2010

This is an interesting question: Why do you want to lose weight?

The standard fatty answer we’ve been told to say all our lives is that “I want to be more healthy.”

by Arnold Chao of arnisto.com via flickr.com

Ok, that’s fine, if that’s really true. But is that your true motivator? Are you sure? Of course we all want to be healthy, but there is something beyond that, I assure you.

Seeing as I’ve gained and lost (and gained and lost, and gained…) so much weight over a brief 28 year life, I realized a few years ago that unless you can really identify these motivation factors as far as why you want to lose it, that you’ll never be successful.  I truly believe this. If you’re like me, you start off super motivated and you can see the picture of motivators SO CLEARLY that nothing can deter you. But then a roadblock. Something that makes you lose sight of those things.

First it gets fuzzy and you think you can make it through the rough spot.

Then the darkness starts to come.

And finally the static. The black and white snow and white noise that erases the picture in your mind.

Can anyone else relate to this, or am I just a freak?

When you try and fail anything, why is it? Lack of effort?

I’m very focused and determined and head-strong (typical type A personality). I am usually pretty disciplined and I usually figure out a way to get what I want. But conquering the weight loss has been my life challenge. Like climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro or crossing the Sahara. If you lose focus of what is waiting for you at the end, then what keeps you moving forward?

I’m just rambling really, but it’s an interesting question, and I just wanted to throw it out there. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Tagged as: why be skinny

  • Sarah7500

    That's a great question.
    Right now, I want to lose weight because I'm sick of people asking me when I'm due. I carry most of my weight in my stomach, lucky me.
    There's other vain answers too. I'd like to buy boots without having them specially made. I'd like for my bra to not resemble an air sock. I would really, really like for people to stop telling me “You have such a pretty face” which is slang for “the rest of you is a wreck.”

  • http://www.tudor-rosy.blogspot.com/ Tudor Rose

    To prove something to myself.

    All the other times that I've tried losing weight it's always been for someone else. For a friend's wedding, to show up a boy who was a jerk to me. In the past I was always motivated by other people. But this time it's for me. To prove to myself that I can do it.

  • http://diaryofcurvyjones.com/ Curvy Jones

    I want to be pretty. I want to be found attatractive by both men and women. No one looks at a person and says 'wow look how smart that person is'. They comment on their outside appearance. I'm tired of being ashamed of mine.

    The PC answer to this is that I want to be healthy. I AM healthy. I am overweight, but I have no illnesses. No life threatening conditions, really unless you count my predisposition to diabetes. If I wanted to be healthy, I would work out more.

    I guess I am unPC because I don't work out more. I hate exercise. I dont want to be healthy. I want to be pretty. Sexy. Fun. Confident. Flirty. Without being self conscious. Will losing weight bring me all of that? Not right away… but once I am at a point where I can stop obsessing about the number and being my real self, and not the shell of me that I show people, the one that points out how fat I am before anyone ELSE can, I believe those things will come.

  • http://www.thejagepage.blogspot.com/ janis

    Honestly? I want to look good in yoga pants. I want my ass to be slammin'…. so high and bouncy it almost hits me in the back of the head when I do jumping jacks. I want my muscles back, really. I was all muscle in my younger days. The health aspect is there, but it's secondary. How could it not be there? I see people every day who live with the consequences of their lifestyle choices, whether it's obesity, or smoking, or drug use, or not wearing their seatbelt…. It really should have more of an impact on me than it really does.

  • Rebecca

    I don't want to be the fattest person–in my family, in the room, whatever–anymore.
    PC, no. True, yes.

  • Pingback: I just want to FIT — Skinny Emmie

  • http://www.myvividgreeneyes.blogspot.com/ GreenEyes

    Plain and simple, I wanna be hot. I wanna be so damn smokin hot that I turn heads. I'm already attractive, but I get the 'oh, you have such a pretty face' line and it pisses me off.
    No, the 'hot' answer is not PC, but its my truth.

  • http://www.skinnyemmie.com skinnyemmie

    I did laundry this weekend and when I was hanging my bras to dry, I completely snorted with laughter because I never realized how much they resemble air socks!
    While I can understand where “You have such a pretty face” might seem like “the rest of you is a wreck” I think many people who say that aren't being disingenuine and actually aren't focusing on “the rest of you.” I completely get what you're saying though.

  • http://www.skinnyemmie.com skinnyemmie

    I think this is the ultimate. Doing it for yourself. It's something I think everyone can relate with.

  • http://www.skinnyemmie.com skinnyemmie

    I feel ya girl. But (and as much as you hate to hear this) you ARE pretty. Just as you are now.
    And I get it with the health thing too. It's the easy, default, PC answer. But I don't have illnesses or conditions either, even at my weight (much higher than yours). That's why it feels fake to say that sometime- we're totally on the same wavelength there.

  • http://www.skinnyemmie.com skinnyemmie

    I just had a really funny image in my head of an ass so high and bouncy it almost hits me in the back of the head. Probably not the way you intended, but I appreciate the chuckle!

  • http://www.skinnyemmie.com skinnyemmie

    Oh Rebecca, I am SO with you on this. It's been a very, very long time since I haven't been the fattest person- anywhere. So frustrating.

  • http://www.skinnyemmie.com skinnyemmie

    Yes, you ARE attractive. And honestly, who care is “being hot” is PC or not. I think it's the motivator for most of us in any kind of weight struggle.

  • http://www.thejagepage.blogspot.com/ janis

    No, that's pretty much exactly what I meant!

  • Evelyn

    I want to fit in some decent jeans and be able to zip up a pair of knee-high boots so my legs aren't cold, and wear a pretty fabulous dress with my lovely heels without wobbling around. Don't get me wrong, health is important, but after so many years of being big, I want to be the pretty girl that's buried under the blubber for once. lol Plus I'm tired of having to work twice as hard as normal weight/skinny people to get past the impression some people have that fat people are dumb.

  • http://mariadkins.com Mari Adkins

    I want to lose weight so I can shop for clothes again without crying my eyes out. Clothes shopping is an emotional nightmare.

  • Suzy

    I'm just tired…..
    Tired of being tired, of my knees hurting, tired of worrying about going places because I may not fit wherever we (friends) decide to eat, of being achy, of feeling that I'm the roundest person in this country, of worrying if my mere existence is *bothering* someone, of locating my airplane seat and seeing the horrified look on the passenger unlucky enough to be seated beside me, of feeling guilty for always feeling that I'm in the way.
    Healthy–yay!!….to be treated like a normal person–that would be beyond incredible.
    I'll never be thin, I'm just not made that way, and I'm quite terrified that I've distorted so much, that even if I somehow lose weight, will I ever look normal?

  • Denise

    You know how sometimes you look at someone and think “She has a nice ass” or “I’d love legs like that!”? I want to be that person. I want to be the one with the sculpted arms and self-control. I want to be healthy, yes, and conquer my emotional overeating, but I also want to be hotter. I want to be more flexible so I can have sex in different positions. I want to be able to buy clothes off the rack.

    I spent my whole life wondering what it was like to be the pretty one instead of the fat, funny sidekick to the pretty one. I’m losing weight to be the confident one, the one with a personality and a fine ass to boot.

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