What Motivated Me to Lose 80 Pounds

Hi Friends!  

Hope you’re enjoying your day so far!  I’ve had a lot of you ask what motivated me to lose weight and how I did it.  My Aunt Barb emailed me this week with this question.  She inspired the post. So here it goes…

The thing is I didn’t wake up one day and say to myself “I need to lose weight & my goal is 80 pounds.”  As a matter of fact, I never started my journey with a diet or thought about losing weight. It was never a planned goal to lose weight. My weight loss journey began as a fitness goal. I was traveling to California weekly as a consultant and began walking on the beach every night.  

Truth is I was bored with life. I wasn’t living or experiencing life. I had low self-confidence for as long as I can remember and that transformed into a fear of failing which I carried around with me from childhood into adulthood. Instead of trying things, I held myself back to be safe.

Walking on the beach every night became a turning point in my life which drastically changed who I was and my confidence. It was my time to reflect. Who am I? What’s important to me? What do I want to experience in life? Why am I scared of living? I realized I wasn’t confident in myself. I had been a size 12 or 14 since high school. I tried to diet and lose weight so many times, but was never successful.  Then I injured my leg in 2000 which became an excuse for me to avoid exercising. It was also a major player in my low self-esteem.

So what was different about my experience 5 years ago? I stopped thinking about dieting and started thinking about living. I was thinking about how I wanted to be healthy, experience life, be confident and most important…STOP allowing my injury to define me. As I walked every night, the weight began to shed from my body as did the fear.

Within a few weeks, I dropped 10 pounds. When that happened I felt empowered. I could take on anything in the world. It was an incredible feeling. From that moment, I was determined to lose more weight. I began changing my eating habits, tracking my calories and watching my portions. Everything fell into place.

A couple before & after pics.

Before Weight-Loss

During Weight-Loss (after 10 pounds lost)

After Weight Loss

Today…Still Getting Stronger

Looking back, I wish I had documented my weight-loss better with pictures. But like I said, it wasn’t planned it just happened. In the end, I lost 80 pounds in 18 months. My relationship with health and fitness blossomed into the love I have for it today. 

What’s my advice to those of you wanting to lose weight?  Stop thinking about diets. Diets are trends, short-term. Look inside yourself and find out what’s motivating you to lose weight. Identify things you can change in your eating and activity to lead a more healthy lifestyle. Small changes add up big over time. If you stick with and are patient, it will happen.

What’s your weight-loss motivation story?  

Lots of Health, Food & Love,

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About Megan

Megan is a certified nutrition practitioner, author, freelance food photographer and fitness instructor living in Phoenix, Arizona. On her blog, Skinny Fitalicious she shares EASY, gluten free recipes for weight loss. Follow Megan on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram for the latest updates.