Weight Loss- Motivators and Demotivators

After the general success of my weight loss over the last two years, I’ve kind of slacked off so far this year, and I’ve seen the effects of it. Of course, I can chuck up a number of excuses, all of which are at least fairly valid – we’ve been busy with the entire moving (twice), total relocation from Berkshire to Norwich, buying the house, working on the house and garden, blah blah blah. All true, all valid.

But at the same time, well, I just couldn’t be chuffed with going to a gym, or whatever. We’ve still been eating sensibly in general, and all the usual dog-walking stuff and the like, but I still just can’t be chuffed with exercising. The other part was that I was leery of joining another gym after the Holmes Place farago at the end of last year. (And even though they’re now owned by Virgin Active, they’re still a bunch of useless shitbags who keep on calling me to go in and try out the place again now it’s been taken over)

I’m working on it again now, mind you – we’ve just joined up with a new local(ish) leisure centre that’s got the gym, the pool, so on and so forth. As yet we’re just trying it out, and bought what they call a “Leisure Card” which’ll give us about a 20-25% discount each time we go, rather than signing up for a year’s contract again. We’ll see how it goes.

I’m also getting the bike repaired and serviced – as I posted over the weekend, I finally got it in to the local cycle shop, so we’ll see how that does while it’s there.

Working on my motivation is something else entirely. I know I need to lose some weight again, but I can’t deny, I find it far too easy to lose motivation on that score – and the main reason for it is something to do with vanity.

You see, in my head, weight loss should equate with changing the size of one’s clothes. I should be able to go from (for example) a 50″ chest to a 40″ – over time, of course, we’re not talking ‘in four weeks’, or from an XL shirt to an L . That’s what weight loss should do – according to my brain, anyway.

But with me, regardless of whether I lose weight or not, I’ll be in the same size clothes. My build is large anyway – my shoulders can’t change or lose weight, neither can my basic chest-size. The majority of my fat is on my stomach, so even trouser sizes won’t drop – the lower half of my body is actually pretty fit, due to lots of walking, so there’s not a lot to lose there either. Yes, I know I’m shallow and all that, but that simple fact of not changing clothing sizes is enough to demotivate me on the entire thing. Pathetic, isn’t it?

Intellectually, I know I need to lose weight again – my stomach region has grown, and I do want to lose that or at least reduce it significantly again. I know I need to do it, and to increase my fitness at the same time. But I also need to change my perceptions or motivators – I need to find something that makes me want to lose weight, because when all’s said and done, my clothing size isn’t going to change for the better, regardless of how much work I do.