Sometimes we need the “why” to motivate us to do the hard work. Adults and children do well with incentives and rewards, and few of us do the hard work of life without some kind of payoff.

When it comes to weight loss, it’s important to discover and then articulate in our minds what exactly are the reasons we want to lose weight. I’ve realized recently that for a long time, I did not know why I wanted to lose weight. Was it to look pretty? Maybe. Was it to be healthy? Sure. Was it to feel good? Probably. Was it to please my mother? My mother-in-law? Could be. Or was it to make my husband happy? Nope. He never bugged me about my weight.

But all these things were just general stuff that sounded good. Truth is I’m not too vain, never was too into health, and kind of felt good in my own skin. In short, I liked my food more than I liked the above motivators.

About a year ago, I wrote a blog post about my decision to go without bread or carbs for the purposes of getting my weight and health under control. At the time, I had my rationale for that as I felt that carbs were an addiction and once I started I couldn’t stop. Meaning, “one piece was too much and a  thousand pieces were never enough,” as the saying in 12th steps lingo goes.

Subsequently, I’ve been conscious of my eating, and have shed some serious weight, only to gain some of the weight back. This is unfortunately a pattern in my life, as I have a hard time saying no to foods or quantities of foods that I like.

Recently, something happened to me which was revelatory. As many of my readers know, I broke my ankle in 2014 and had several surgeries, with the ultimate operation restoring the use of my ankle. I’m walking fine and am extremely grateful, but, the arthritis that I’ve developed over the past year or so, has caused me much pain and discomfort.

I’ve been to my surgeon and he recommended my having what’s called a fusion surgery, where the painful joints are cut and the bones are fused together. With this operation, the movement of the ankle that causes the pain is restricted, and the pain is gone. Another surgery I can have is a total ankle replacement.

Both of these options are kind of scary to me, especially since the doctor did mention that since the ankle is affected by weight, if I lose weight, I can possibly have less symptoms.

Ding, ding, ding! Maybe that’s an idea.

So, that’s where I stand today (pun intended). I’m trying to lose weight. And I’m trying seriously with the “WHY” in the forefront of my mind.

No crash diets. No elimination of challah or sugar or anything extreme. Just being conscious of what I eat and WHY I am doing this.

Eating well helps me feel better, and helps me have less pain or almost no pain. When it comes down to it, the whole weight thing for me has become a no-brainer.

Do I want to suffer with arthritis? No. Do I want to be able to walk without pain? Yes. Why?

Because I dislike pain more than I like my food.

Why? Because pain is yucky.

What do you want and why do you want it really badly? Please share in the comments.