Top 5 Reasons I Won't Stop until I'm Done

A little more than two years ago, I started on a weight-loss journey, promising myself that I would never again be as heavy as I was that day. 

Unfortunately, it didn't last. I was eating the same foods day after day, getting bored with exercise and I wasn't feeling any progress. A major life event caused my motivation to crash and burn and I stopped working at it.

Two years later, I'm working on it again, pushing myself forward because I have to do this for myself and for my family. By focusing on the reasons why I want to lose the weight and concentrating on individual reasons every single day, I'm keeping myself pushing forward so that I don't lose the motivation the way that I did the last time around.

I like lists. Lists make me feel like I'm organized and doing something. They also make a very good reference, for me and for anyone who reads my blog. So I'm going to make a quick list of the top five reasons I'm not going to stop until I'm done.

1. Pain means I'm getting stronger. The pain and the soreness in my muscles means that it's working. If it's working, that means that I'm getting stronger. Getting stronger means being able to do some of the things I've been dying to do for quite a while now. Being sore is worth it in the long run if it means that I can do things I've been unable to do for years.
2. The pain I feel today I won't feel next month. I realize that I'll still have pain next month, but it will be a totally different kind of pain than what it is this month. The pain I experience next month will be progress toward the pain I'll feel the month after that, with each month building on the one previous until I've reached a state of fitness that I can maintain for the rest of my life.
3. Pain reminds me I'm focusing on building muscle and not on losing weight. There's no denying that there's weight to lose, but I don't care about getting skinny or what I'm "losing." My focus is on what I have to gain and not on what I have to lose. Pain means that I'm looking forward and not backward, and every ache that I feel day by day is something to focus on with forward motion.
4. Pain means I'm doing it right. If it doesn't hurt, I haven't pushed hard enough. Pain means that I'm doing it right. If I stop when it starts to hurt, the absence of pain means I'm doing it wrong. So I'll keep doing the full set of reps until I'm finished instead of stopping as soon as it hurts. This is a hard lesson to learn.
5. A year from now I'll be able to go on hikes. But only if I don't stop now. I miss hiking so much that it hurts. I want to get out there with nature and take a break from the city sometimes. I can't do that if I don't gain the strength necessary to make hiking a plausible possibility. In order to be able to do this a year from now, I have to start now, and keep pushing through the pain.

These are my reasons to keep on going even when it hurts. I'm going to learn to embrace my soreness. What are your top reasons to keep pushing through the pain even when it hurts? What is your motivation to gain strength?