What's your Motivation?

For the longest time I would never get anywhere with bettering myself.  Whether it be physically or emotionally, I never seemed to grow!  Correction....my waist line grew, but my mind did not!  I started on this true lifestyle change journey a year and a half ago, and haven't looked back since.  Have I had ups and downs?   YES.  Days when I have had 2 brownies when I needed 0?  YES.  Have I had days where I wanted nothing to do with a workout, but instead thought all day long about putting on my PJ's when I get home?  DUH....have we met??  But all of that is why I have stayed on track!

I used to have unreal expectations of what it meant to "lose weight" or "live a healthy lifestyle".  The day something clicked in my head is the day my motivation changed!  That is a good feeling.

This photo is what I used to think would motivate me to want to change my eating habits and daily routine.  I would get the Victoria Secret magazines in the mail and cut out those pictures and tape them all over either my closet door, or my refrigerator door.  In the long run, this did nothing but hurt what I was trying to do.  That picture....is not me!  Nor, will it ever be me. Every time I would look at the photos, all it would do was mess with my head and make me so mad at myself that I wasn't there and didn't look like her after one month of working out and eating right (well most of the time anyways).

Once the light bulb went off in my head and I learned that my workouts, eating, and motivation could use a face lift, it is amazing the things that can happen.  Pinterest became my best friend.  That may sound a little weird when talking about a healthy lifestyle because isn't that where we all get those decadent recipes that are the most uhealthy things on the menu?  But it helped me find my motivation.  I went from the gal in the skimpy 2 piece that was airbrushed all over, to this; it is amazing the difference in myself!

I love to go on Pinterest and search the Health & Fitness section.  Not because I want to look like some of the fitness models in the work out demonstrations, but for tips on how to stay on track and especially for the sayings like this one.  

So, what motivates me?  Switching my closet door photo gallery from the 5'10 bombshells that my 5'6 self would never be, to what inspires me to be me and keep going!!  I still have pictures up on my closet door, but they are pictures of saying just like this one.  Once you find your positive motivation, look out!  You will be unstoppable!  It is not a perfect journey, so therefor I am not perfect at it.  Once I gave that "perfect" image the boot; I was able to start working on being the best me I can!