That one moment.  The moment when everything clicks into place and you finally find the motivation to begin working on yourself.  Suddenly your desire to change what you see in the mirror means more than the 1am craving you tried (and failed) to fight.  Your need to climb a set of stairs without becoming short of breath is more important than watching “just one more” episode of that binge-worthy Netflix show.  Your fear of failure morphs into a fear of spending the rest of your life “reflection checking.”  You finally realized…it’s time to make a change for the bitter (oops…I mean better).

If you’re anything like me, this “one moment” will hit you like a tractor trailer not once, not twice, but about a million times throughout the course of your life.  At this very second I can think back to at least two instances within the last year that I said, and truly believed, that it was the last time I’d be binge eating on my favorite foods.  I told myself to enjoy it, because it would only happen in moderation in the future, and only once in a while.  And each time I actually did keep up the “clean eating” lifestyle for a little while.  Once was for a few weeks, another was for a number of months.  But the motivation fizzled out like a flat can of diet soda, as it always does, and I found myself indulging more and more.  I continued to tell myself that it was okay to “reward” my efforts, until the days of rewarding myself started to outnumber the days I would eat clean.  And thus continued the cycle. Sigh.

It is this cycle that leaves us craving something to push us again.  During both of my most recent bouts of “clean eating” I lost weight.  I heard the compliments.  I reveled in the attention from finally reaching some visible progress.  But still, for some reason it wasn’t enough to keep me going.  Achieving results still could not compete with my addiction to food.  And when I fell of the wagon…again…I once again went searching for motivation to get me back on.  And what did I find?  Self-help materials.  Sigh again, and add an eye-roll.

You’ve undoubtedly heard it before.  The motivational cries of self-help books and television commercials and Pinterest quotes all around us preaching that you only get one body, it starts with a step, this is the only life you have, change starts today!  But reading and hearing these proclamations from a fitness guru in her mid-twenties with six-pack abs and a lucrative contract with BeachBody isn’t exactly the compelling push you need, is it?  So here’s my advice:

Find your “WHY”

Everyone has a reason to become healthier, and they are most certainly varied from person to person.  Think about it.  Each one of us has a collection of life experiences that have shaped us.  The way we view the world and the way we react to pressure of all kinds has been colored by the people we know, the values we were raised with, and the criticisms we’ve faced.  Someone who had a militant upbringing and faced strict rules around food and exercise will be motivated by something entirely different than someone who was brought with more leniencies.  A teenager who was persistently bullied on the schoolyard for his weight will be motivated by something entirely different than a teenager who was generally popular, but heard some snide comments about her weight from her father over the years (**raises hand**).  Everyone’s approach to diet and fitness is influenced by millions of factors, just like their goals are.  So what’s your WHY?  Do you want to consume less sugar so you can avoid the diabetes diagnosis that is so common in your family?  Do you want to streamline your body and become more athletic to perform well in a sport?  Do you want to lose weight so you can appreciate what you see in the mirror more?  Do you want to become fit so you can live longer and see your children or grandchildren grow up?  Whatever it is, find it and hold onto it.  I’ve found that throughout my weight loss journey regardless of what my results were, my “why” never changed.  It’s the one thing that did stay constant all of these years.  Whether I failed or succeeded, my motivation remained the same.

Your “why” is a tool, so use it.