A while back I mentioned to my brothers wife that I was trying to lose weight and get in shape. Jokingly, I said "At this rate, I should be bikini-ready by Christmas." She replied "Why don't you think about wearing something sexy on New Years Eve, and let that be your thinsperation?"
The fact that she used that cheezy fitness/beauty magazine writers term made me laugh. She's a funny girl. But it reminded me about setting attainable goals. It's not all about numbers. It's about how you feel. It's about how good it feels to accomplish goalsset out before you.
So, my traineo community, I ask you all: What is your Thinspiration?

I got on the scale today and realized yikes, I am still not losing. I am noticing a change in my figure. When i work out and pump up the cardio my body tends to feel more solid and fit and tone. My clothes instantly fit better and i am more comfortable in my own skin.

I am glad I came across your message! With setting goals related to lbs it may be hard to meet those but feeling good is what it is all about. It could take me 3-6 months longer to meet my weightloss goals but if i am feeling good then I am well on my way. I would have to say that my Thinspiration is also related to New Years. To be able to purchase an outfit that I feel confident in. So not only do I look good I feel excellent too! Thanks for the tip!

I have one major thinspiration: That I will one day be slender enough so that people I know in the Real World won't all notice when I lose a few pounds. My weight then won't be the subject of casual office chit chat or atta-boys. In other words, it won't define me; it will be just one more attribute of total Ron-ness.

To remind me of this goal, I keep three photos handy on my desktop: a photo of myself in college, at around the proper body fat ratio for my height and build (how I'd like to see myself), and two more recent photos: a face-on portrait and a gut shot--both of them some 48 pounds heavier than the college shot (how I actually look). For me, that visual reminder is all I need to remind me why I'm doing this. I deserve to have an outer me that matches the inner me.

Don't we all?

My thinspiration actually has to do with safety. I ride motorcycle in the summer and I ride hard. At my current weight I am very limited in terms of leathers and safety gear (which despite what Harley Davidson would have you think leathers are for safety, not fashion). My goal is to be able to get a 2pc race suit so I can spend some time on the regions race track honing my skills under professional supervision.

My THINSPIRATION.


Well... I have many. THe main one is my desire to be fit, and inshape for my wedding next summer. I want to prove to myself, and to show everyone else I can do it. I want to be the "200lbGrooom"

Mine is to be able to run in and complete a 5K in late October.

With heart disease in my family, and having lost my father to a heart attack at an early age, my motivation is to live a long happy life with my wife and be able to play with my grandchildren.

All other things are secondary to that. Though, I have to admit, having some pretty busted out pythons by next year would be cool.

My long-term thinspiration is to avoid the diabetes that my mother developed in her late 50s. But that's tough to keep focused on since it's so far away, so my short-term thinspiration is to be able to ride a century (100 miles) on my bike again by next spring.

I believe in Total Immersion Thinsperation. I find it in all sorts of places.

I visualize myself at a point in the future having met my goal. I think of the things I will be able to do that I can't today or couldn't last year and I let myself believe I am already capable. I sometimes get all the inspiration I need from looking at cookbooks and trying healthy meals. Learning to cook healthy is great inspiration when you are changing lifetime eating habits. I get some from places like Traineo. I like knowing others have gone thru and are going thru what I am. The other day I put on a shirt that in April I couldn't button. It was loose. I had to buy new jeans this week because all my old ones don't fit. Those clothing epihpanies kept me inspired. I could barely walk when I began, and now I can run for 15 minutes and my starting heart beat is 20 beats lower. That is inspiring, knowing in another couple of months I will be running twice as far, faster and with even more strength.

I like to keep these numbers, weight and physical performance, so I can look back and see how far I've come. I keep a spreadsheet, so I can see my progress in the recent months, and I can see where I will be in a few more. That is the biggest of all, seeing that number on paper and knowing, mathematically, it is true and will be realized.

And a thousand other things.

I don't eat at Buffet places any more, but when it comes to "Thinspiration" I believe in all you can eat. A little of this, a dash of that.

And, I do set material goals. I have already taken a leap and bought a very nice shirt several sizes too small for me. I will be wearing it by the X-mas season. And I have already paid my entry fee and ordered a t-shirt for a 5K run that would kill me today but I will be there for in February.

Take your inspiration from every place you can get it, and best of all commit yourself to clothes, events or other tangible things. Hang that shirt on the wall in your closet so you can see it every day. Put that race poster up in the kitchen so you don't forget you are signed up.

And have fun setting up pins and knocking them down. There is nothing more inpirational that success, so construct your plan so you have lots of them, all different kinds, on a regular basis.

I really like a lot of these ideas, and especially JS's "200lb Groom".

Because it's like an advertising tag line.... "Coke Adds Life" or "Think Different" or "Built Ford Tough".

There's a reason corporations attach these short labels to their products, because the human mind easily understands and internalizes them. It this context, it's like a mission statement. Think "War On Terror" or any of the various names they give military operations. These labels galvanize and focus people, and they allow you to present a reality that is wished for but then becomes real.

I have a personal tagline style mission statement in my life, but not one specifically pertaining to this fitness quest, and I thank you JS for putting the idea in my head. I know there is another person here at Traineo who calls his journey "The Lightening". I love the idea of naming this.

I feel the main reason people fail, and I failed in the past, was lack of mindfulness. You have to be aware every day. I think affixing these sort of marketing labels to this makes it easy to feel connected to it. I doubt JS ever forgets his goal because it's all there in a succinct little phrase with complete clarity and accesibility.

We should all come up with our tagline, some simple label that describes the man or woman we will be. I think this might be very powerful for most people.

I have two, actually three thinsperations

The first one, is that I would like to lose weight before next summer, as I will have my own market garden. I will be gardening to sell produce, and I know that it will be labour intensive. I also know that the lighter I am, the easier it will be for me to maintain motivation through the hot summers days, and keep up with the intense manual labour involved. I also want to lose weight by this christmas and next summer, as my boyfriend's parents have never seen me at a healthy weight. I don't know why this is important to me, as they have never said or indicated in any way this is a problem. I guess it's just that I feel that they haven't really seen *me*.

The second thinsperation I have is more to maintain a healthy weight after keeping it off. In the next few years, I would like to have children. I want to be a healthy weight when I have them, and I want to know how to eat and live healthfully during pregnancy, and while raising children so that I can teach them habits that are good for their bodies.

My biggest thinsperation is my family. My wife and I are getting ready to start having children, and I want to be in good health so that I can be active with them. I want to be sure that I'll be around to take care of them. I want them to be able to grow up with healthy role models, so that hopefully they will grow up happy and healthy, and not have the same weight problems that I have had.

Wanna go travelling with my buddy next year and he's desperate to teach me to surf. My thinspiration is not being embarassed to wear a wetsuit by then

Mike

My thinspiration: the "after" shot being taken in a bikini... Still out of my comfort zone, but I'll get there!

My thinspiration... is the addiction of running hard and lifting hard. I recently broke up with my girlfriend of 2 years and have found myself depressed and lonley. Working out and running is my "break" during the day. It's the time when I can just focus on myself and not worry about her or anything else in my life. In a way, it has become a drug for me. I love it and I know that it's good for me. That's what keeps me going and excited for tomorrows workout.

My thinspiration: The idea of taking a long walk through the city with my husband and feeling confident beside him... and not out of breath. I'll be wearing those sexy jeans by my birthdate - Feb 5th!

I remember after my big weight lost how everyone noticed and told me how great I looked. I never realized what I looked like before. What I did notice what that I was tiny, I'm a little woman under it all. I want to feel little again.
I bought this little dress with cherry's on it 4 years ago. I was almost ready to fit it to it when I went the other way. My goal is to wear the dress and look great in it.

My thinspiration: To fit perfectly and look awesome in my dream wedding dress on 7/07!!!

I love the word 'THINSPIRATION' and I am going to steal it shamelessly.

I want to lose 85 pounds and so far I am doing pretty good.

In 5 weeks... I am almost half way to my goal.

I have a few thinspirational thoughts:
- reduce the amount of fat that is surrounding my heart as it struggles to sustain my life.
- no longer have calorie overload "hangovers" in the morning and instead have lots of energy to 'take on the day'
- not having to buy XXL clothes and wearing clothes that actually fit and feel comfortable.
- stand in a family picture with no one in front of me and not use my children as shields to 'hide' my obesity
- make healthy food choices. lose my obsession with food and stop binge eating
- although I play a lot of sports today, I would like to be able to have a lot more intensity and play at the level that I onced played in college.
- refer to these current years as the 'old days when I was out of shape'
- have fun with my family doing a lot of outdoor activities
- live a life that creates healthy habits for my children.

My thinspiration -- what a great term -- is to feel cute again, to fit into the sexy jeans I was wearing when I got married (just over a year ago), to be able to shop for clothes easily in the small community where I live (and where there is precious little variety available for plus sizes), and to be in better health when we decide to add a third person to our family.

Also? I can't wait for when I can look at pictures of myself and actually like them!

My thinspiration is for people to say "Hello, you're looking great" rather than "Hello, you've put on weight" ( i've had too many haven't seen you in a while occasions where a friend or realtive will say the later rather than the former ).

--
Graeme

Wow- great thinspirations!

Like many of you, I have several, but one that comes to mind immediately is that I would like to be a role model for others with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. I'd like to be able to inspire people with chronic illnesses to fight back and reclaim thier inner athletes and have enough energy to thrive and grow and be happy and healthy! And I'd like that to start with me!

I'm almost embarassed to admit my thinsperations because they sound so horribly shallow, but they're true so I might as well own it.

First, I've always been very small up top and very self-conscious and now that I've put on weight, the disparity is even worse. My DH has agreed to augmentation and my thinsperation is wanting to be down to my goal weight before I do so I can pick the perfect proportions.

First part two, I really want to rock a tube top.

Second, I haven't willingly let anyone take a picture of me in years and I'd like to not have any more entire years of my life be as if they never occured when we look at family albums, video, etc. There are new babies and holidays and vacations and you'd never know I was at any of them.

What's wrong with wanting to rock in a tube top?? Sounds great to me!!

And it's a very good idea to get to a stable and healthy weight before any kind of elective surgery and especially one that will be figure-augmenting, as your surgeon will want to give you the most aesthetically balanced proportions possible. Trust me, I'm a nurse.

And rock on, girl! It does't matter what your thinspirations are, as long as they thin-spire you!

My thinspiration is to be able to once again perform yoga asanas without feeling as though my flesh is preventing me from being able to free my mind. Yoga does take some mindfulness, but spending the whole time being conscious of how constricting your yoga pants (that once fit) feel, or realizing how uncomfortable certain poses are with extra flesh, really does distract you from the task at hand.

I've set a goal for this New Year's Eve, but it's not because I have a party or a sexy dress in mind. I'd just like to be able to be in the moment and not distracted by how fat I feel.

My thinspiration is that I am getting married in late March, 2007. I desire to be at the weight I was when my fiance and I met. This is part surprise for her and part for me. I haven't really cared what I have been eating in the past three years or so.

I was around 178 when we met and I am now around 222 pounds. I have 151 days to lose 47 pounds.

My thinspiration is my family's trip to Puerto Vallarta in December. Although, I'll never lose the total amount I'd like to I still hope to lose enough to lay on the beach without fear. They are my family and I know they love me no matter what size I am... but it would still be nice to be thinner.

Linda Hamilton arms.

Oooh, good one, Nat!

{Eyeing the floor and wondering if I could do one solitary push-up without collapsing on my face...)

I have a lot of weight to lose...so I have a lot of thinsirations...but for now my major one is getting below 300 lbs...(I'm only 5 lbs away) for the first time in years....

and then celebrating by buying lots of clothes at Lane Bryant...which I couldn't shop in for the last five years.