Losing weight by not working at it ;-)

[Ante]

Dear forum visitors,

now that my decembertummy is really visible ánd in the way, I'll try to erg (some of) it away.
But working out just to get slim is not very interesting, it's really boring, isn't it? Dieting and losing weight is already difficult enough as it is, so I don't want to view my sport in that light as well. I love rowing - on and off the water - and don't want to spoil the fun by making it a slimming tool.
That's is why I only concentrate on getting better and fitter, instead of slimmer and I try to improve my technique, while rowing long steady pieces. This way I can enjoy my many rows (and hopefully lose some of the weight in the process).
But even if my weight should stay the same, it means some of the fat will have turned to muscle ánd my scores will have improved. And I can still be happy about myself!

So that's my 'trick' to stay in a good mood when 'working on the bulge'.
Does it appeal to any of you? Has anybody got better ideas?

[Realistic]

I think it depends on the person, and what motivates them to work out. I used to enjoy working out and watching the scale go down, because at that time I really needed to lose weight. At this point in my life i'm not nearly as heavy, so working to get slim isn't as important, and I don't find it as motivating.

My new motivation is competition. I primarily compete against my previous time since a majority of the rowing community is faster then I am, and if I only competed against others then I would just be frustrated. Several times I was really happy improving my time by several seconds only to move up the ranking by 1-3 spots, so I try not to focus on the rankings too much.

With that said I need all the motivation I can get, so for me the "everything above" approach works best. Use the scale, rankings, setting new personal best, etc. etc. is the most affective.