Motivation...and a lack thereof

Mar 29, 2009

A new friend of mine asked the other day "How do you stay motivated to keep doing what you're doing?" because she wanted some inspiration.

Simply put - I'm not.

Motivation to me suggest that you have to have this internal energy driving you to get somewhere that never falters, gives up, or breaks down for a period. Heck - looking back now I don't think I've ever been motivated post-op. Because motivation isn't necessary when it's one sided.

See - my pre-op life and living will never be acceptable ever again. Motivation has been replaced with a sense of absolute - an absolute desire to do what I need to do to get the results I want.  I wouldn't call that motivation because the opposite isn't even an option anymore. I follow the simple set of cardinal rules laid forth and I live day to day peacefully knowing I did everything in my power to maintain or lose. There's no drive to question myself if I needed to work harder. There's no need to put myself down for being human. There's no internal struggle wondering if I chewed enough, counted enough, exercised enough, posted to OH enough, or prayed enough. And with that lack of motivation I've stopped kicking myself in the teeth for thinking I should always be doing more - causing chaos in my brain - which is eerily reminiscent of every pre-op diet I have ever been on before. Sound familiar to you? It sure rings true for me.

That's when I realized - diet mentality requires motivation. Lifestyle changes do not. I'm sure every person reading this has heard "lifestyle change" hundreds of times in their lives. Well long term post-op life is where the rubber meets the road my friends. You have the option to struggle post-op with motivation - getting pumped up to only start exercising when the weather is warm or eating protein forward meals twice a day, not always - but my hope for you long term is that you change the "I'll do that when" to "now's as good a time as any because the opposite isn't even an option anymore".

I guess I'm not motivated to do squat because I'm already doing it. And I got this way just by doing it. No motivation required.

Thanks for reading.

Jen

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