External Motivation Leads to Internal Turmoil

In the past, my motivation for exercising and eating healthy was not internally driven. I was primarily driven by the external forces around me.

In high school I wanted to have a nice outfit for homecoming, junior prom, senior prom….boys. It was rarely if ever, about being healthy. More importantly, it was never really about me.

In the long run, I was not consistent. I became disinterested as soon as the big event was over. Or as soon as I found out that the boy of my dreams was interested in someone else.

As an adult, I found myself doing the same thing. I wanted to lose weight for a wedding, a vacation on the beach, a party. Again, I was only concerned with the weight loss. How I got there was often times dangerously, unimportant.

External motivators are not the answer. When you are externally motivated attaining the goal is more important than the essentials that are required to maintain the goal.

External Motivation at Its Best

When I did not reach my 25 pound weight loss in the unrealistic timeframe I gave myself, I just simply gave up. My consistency was based on everything but my own internal yearning. Being externally motivated created a vicious cycle for me.

I felt like a failure, which often times led way to binging on foods that I felt I had deprived myself of for nothing! Not only did I throw in the towel, I gave up with such a vengeance.

After talking to several people that are struggling with weight loss and overeating there was one common theme. Everyone had a significant story to tell.

Everyone knew that there was a lot more to it than weight and eating the wrong foods.

Most admitted that taking diet pills and crash dieting was a short term fix (including myself) but a short term fix was better than no fix at all.

Fact 1 I am overweight.

Fact 2I want the weight off.....NOW!

When you are focused on the weight loss and not the energy behind the weight you are overlookng a critical component.

A critical fact that I failed to consider.

Fact 3 I was only interested solely in weight loss. The emotions behind the extra weight was a non issue.

A New Approach

I had to start asking myself what motivates me to overeat.

What are my emotional triggers?

What did I need to do to stop living a sedentary lifestyle?

My focus shifted from

external motivation to

internal motivation.

Finally, I was figuring out how I was going to conquer my battle with eating emotionally. Instead,offocusing on how was I going to lose five pounds by next week:).

It's About the Battle; Not the War

Conquering emotional eating has to be about you. You have to begin self determination which will lead to internal motivation. It has to be a personal commitment to self. Regardless of setbacks and inhibitions- the

emotional breakthrough begins and ends with you!