Why Should You Lose Weight?

Many people come up to me or e-mail and tell me the reasons they want/need to lose weight.  Typical justifications provided:

I look fat
I want to wear smaller clothes
I have a wedding/family reunion to go to
I look terrible in a bathing suit
I want to be more attractive to get better dates

I believe those are all very superficial reasons to lose weight.  The battle is too hard, takes too long and is too important to waste the effort on what other people think about how you look.

Because let's be honest: not caring about your weight and not doing anything about it is a real option.  For the first 37 years of my life, for the most part, I didn't care.  I ate whatever I wanted, ate as much as I wanted and didn't care about the consequences.  I never exercised.  I really prefer it when people are just honest and say they really aren't interested in improving their health and aren't going to change what they eat. Again, at least that's honest.

But back to the real reasons for losing weight.  Here's a better list to help change your thinking, if you're considering a lifestyle change:

I want to live longer and have a better life
I want to increase my mobility
I want to be able to ride roller coasters
I want to be able to sit on a chair without fear of it collapsing
I want to be able to take the stairs without having to call 911 before I get to the top step

And on and on. Which leads me to one of my big reasons for wanting to lose weight:

To get off all of the freaking medication I have had to take over the last 2 years.  If you've been reading this blog recently, you know I recently dropped one big prescription medication.  Check out the following before and after pictures.


My medications, June 2010

My medications today, June 2012

Now THAT is why you lose weight.