What keeps you motivated?

[FitbitCommunity]

No matter our goal, we're all here to get healthier. Whether you're trying to lose weight, lower your heart rate, sleep or eat better - or any other health goal - the odds are that you'll have days where motivation is a challenge.

What's your health goal and how do you stay motivated? Share your top tips or hacks with other community members here.

[JungleGymJam]

I'm motivated by the notion of remaining healthy and able-bodied as deep into my life as I can be. I began life as a father a bit later than most and owe my daughter my best energy through her whole childhood and young adulthood. Also, my wife has reached a milestone in her health when she was cured of type 1 diabetes after 46 years of ravages from the disease. In some ways she's healthier now than she's been since childhood, and I"m highly motivated to lead our family of 3 further in that direction. 

On a more individual level, I'm motivated by the prospect of trying new challenges as I become fitter, like having just run my first 5K in a decade or attending a taekwon-do course after a 20-year hiatus. I'm on the lookout for new "firsts" and increasing my fitness is fueling this desire. 

- Jason

  Montclair, NJ USA

[YojanaFitbit]

Thanks for sharing @JungleGymJam, I'm glad to see that your wife is better now. This are great news, I think that we can lead our family to avoid having certain deseases by improving our daily routines and taking better decisions about having a more active lifestyle. Good for you and your family! 😀

[modelmalina]

Staying healthy and active is what motivates me.

I enjoy taking long hikes in all seasons. Along the lakefront or in the woods.

Fall and early Spring are the best times for it. I workout at a club also.

Staying healthy and active for as long as I can is my main motivation.

[YojanaFitbit]

I really enjoy watching long-distance road running competitions, I'm preparing myself to my first 5K. 😎 

[Ovation_Girl]

Hi @Ronlaub I think that is fantastic and very inspiring! Especially how you are thriving with walking.

My name is Sara and I am new to the challenges here. I was a former semi-elite racewalker and a national junior team coach and loved racing!  I had a back injury and surgery in 2015 and was told I would need to use my cane for life. I also put on weight being sedentary. At first, I spent most of my time in bed and even rigged up my computer so I could work from home in bed. So this year I said NO to that!! Over the past months, what I was told was permanent nerve damage in my right leg started to heal after I started a nutritional cleansing program to lose weight.  I started water aerobics in May and then started to attempt cane-free walking as the healing began and have worked up to a little over a mile. I am slow, but hope to get faster and want to be able to race again.

What keeps me motivated is striving to be a little bit better each day. This was the same thing that motivated me as a racewalker. It made me push harder. I also set personal goals and once I hit them, set new ones. 

[Ronlaub]

Thanks for sharing your inspirational story @Ovation_Girl. I have seen people in the ultrarunning world that have overcome incredible obstacles to return to racing. Sounds like you have turned your life around, too. Good luck Sara and keep up the good work.

[free_piano]

i'll try to keep my story short

got the fitbit from my brother. thought it would be interesting to see my sleep.

found out my resting heart rate is pretty good for 50yo at around 59avg

the best part, is i found out that playing my drum kit is a really good cardio workout. avg heart rate is about 120+ bpm. so now i'm taking omega3 and drumming almost everyday for about an hour and trying to lower that resting heart rate... and log days with exercise. i've also started doing a short weight circuit about 3 days/week.

i never considered drumming as a workout. when you're playing and in the zone you don't even realize it is exercise. so, not only am i getting healthier, but i am becoming a better drummer and loving playing again. so much so, that i joined a second band. i play in an originals 70's-style punk band and now a 90s grunge cover band.... so much fun.

i'd recommend drumming to anyone looking for low impact, fun cardio.

stats i monitor are

exercise frequency and heart rates

resting heart rate

weight log

sleep

haven't used much of the other features yet.

[Odyssey13]

Hello @free_piano  that is awesome! Your brother a drummer, too? I can't say that beating on drums was an exercise workout, but you sure made it sound like one. Hope your neighbors understand you're just trying to get healthy. Sounds like you're going to make drumming a larger part of your life. Wonderful story!

[bethanyella]

What keeps me motivated?  First I had to define why I wanted to change my lifestyle and become healthy.   Once I had a reason that was strong enough to fight 40 years of self deprecating thoughts of myself and food, once I had a reason that was tangible and strong enough to carry me through plateaus and over that "wall" we all hit in our fitness journey, once I had my why then I came up with a plan to keep me motivated.

I have three aspects of my life that I focus on to keep me motivated fitness, food, and mental health.  All of them I receive help from a community of friends and family that have always been there, I just didn't know it.  I have new friends, old friends and virtual friends....all that help me to stay motivated on staying healthy and moving forward.   To date I've lost 128 pounds and for three years I've been at or below my target weight!

For fitness it's my Fitbit friends and family.  I have tried everything from the 80's to now and what works for me is having a group of friends both virtual and real life that see me trying everyday to reach my step goal and we laugh together, they call me when I disappear for a week, we sometimes cry together and piss and moan about the struggles of being over 40 and trying to lose weight or maintain it.  I also use coaches to give me 15-30 minute walking or running routines that get my heart pumping and my step count a little higher.  It also gives me a sense of accomplishment.  Now, I love classes and I miss that but for my life now the best I can do is workouts with a coach in my ear that tells me I'm wonderful and a group of friends who see my step count and worry when I reside to long on the couch.

I face food everyday what keeps me motivated?  I weigh myself weekly.  I belong to a food support group.  Every 3-6 months I meet with a nutritionist.  I journal daily (even when I eat 6,000 calories) and I own the results I feel in my clothes or see on a scale.  That way if I go up I don't berate myself, but rather own that I made a choice, I enjoyed a moment and now it's time to work towards my "WHY" and enjoy the moments that come together to help me be healthy.

Mental Health.  First I had to learn to be as nice to myself as I am to everyone else in the world.  When I make a mistake, when I fall flat on my face, when I don't "win" at the scale I don't berate myself.  I'm gentle I look at what happened that I didn't like and make a plan to fix it and I have grace for myself.  When I "win". I rejoice.  I'm proud.  It's ok that I like myself even though I'm not perfect.  Where I am today is a great place and I need to work hard to stay here.  I know that with the help of others if I combine food and exercise in the right formula for me my broken body will fix itself and the weight will come off, it may take me longer, it may take me more steps (many many MANY more steps then my healthy and younger friends)  but that's ok it will happen. 

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @bethanyella, thanks for sharing. It has been a journey! Good thing is that you are now focus on these 3 important aspects of y our life. I found your comment quite inspirational. I think that we all are here to learn, it's important to remember that we only have one life and we decide how we want to live it. 🤗 Thanks and congratulations for being that strong woman that is not afraid to share her wins and falls. Cheers. 💃

[RodrigoMFitbit]

Hello @bethanyella, thanks for sharing. This will help others see that it is a process that takes time and effort, but it is all worth it. Keep it up!

Greetings

[Cluell]

My goal is to lose weight. I motivate myself by thinking about how healthier I will be.

And that could be sound strange but another motivation was Pokemon GO addiction😅 

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @Cluell this is not strange at all! I really enjoyed using my sport console to play sports games online and get a little bit more active during the afternoons. 🥊😄🥊

[RodrigoMFitbit]

Hey @Cluell! That is great. I have the same addiction 😛  (lvl 40 here) I love to see those eggs hatch and possibly get a baby shiny. I am still missing Riolu. I gotta keep walking and walking until I get it. At this point I am considering a trade. Have you already got Riolu?

Keep walking and stay motivated. Thanks for sharing!

[nottelling]

Not sad at all, you're aiming to do more than a lot of people in the modern world already. I can relate to your health episode - I had open heart surgery at 21yrs old and was crushed at being unable to keep up with the 80-something year olds in physio. But I knew loss of fitness was temporary and my health would improve again.

I use Fitbit to guide my daily health, to remind me to just keep at it even when I'm feeling tired, sad, etc. I've always been at least semi-active and now I'm older I don't want to slack off from arguably the most important thing I have - my health.

Wishing you strength and happiness, Woobies.

[ItsMeKathleen]

First: Happy New Year....

I read other people's inspirational posts here or online....It gave me a kick in the pants a bit.  

On my 6th day of having the Fitbit on, I reached my goal of 10k steps.   Now, on my 7th day, I reached that by 2pm by pushing myself to outdo myself every day.  The first day, I only did about 1k steps.  I built on that each day and try to motivate myself so that I don't let myself down.  LOL - I did learn not to look at posts from people that are 'in the big leagues', because that just makes me feel like I didn't accomplish much. 😉  

But, I'm proud of myself so far.  I gave up meat three months ago due to high cholesterol.  (Really high...meat/cheese, etc from keto made my skyrocket more than usual...)  

Wishing everyone luck in the new year.