Stay motivated to achieve weight loss
B.S. /Hons
Struggling to keep your weight loss motivation and need some inspiration to continue with your diet? I will give you more fabulous motivational tips to keep you on track.
So you are back to where you need to be, but now, out of the blue, the pounds are no longer falling off and you are starting to get niggling doubts about whether you can really reach your goal. Worse still, you are craving all your favourite comfort foods and the idea of exercising has suddenly lost its appeal. Most of the time, this is right?
Look forwards rather than backwards
Do not dwell on your experiences with diets in the past. The chances are if you need to lose weight now, they were not right for you. Whilst it's probably easy to find examples of times when you've felt demotivated with your diet in the past, given up and quickly regained those lost pounds, this does not mean it is guaranteed to happen this time. Thinking negatively will almost certainly result in you giving up. So instead, put past dieting failures behind you and instead focus on the success that lies ahead.
Reflect on your successes
Start by reminding yourself how much better and healthier you already feel. Then look at some old pictures of yourself when you were bigger and reflect on the differences in your appearance now. Doesn't it feel great to have more prominent cheekbones, slimmer arms or a trimmer waist? Put on an old item of clothing that used to be tight - there's no better feeling than trying on a pair of trousers that you couldn't get past your hips and can now do up at the waist! Checking out your overall weight and inch loss to date can also really help to give you a boost. Hopefully, you will have been monitoring your progress on with our IN BODY MACHINE, so you can quickly check out just how far you've already come and boost your motivation to continue your diet.
Do some math's
If your motivation to lose weight is sliding, dig out a pen and paper and attempt to add up all the hours you've spent in the last month worrying about things like:
•your weight
•your shape
•what you eat
•what you don't eat
•feeling guilty about not exercising
•how you look in your clothes
•whether people are looking at you
•If your health is suffering
•anything else that's linked to your size
Now add up the number of hours in that month where you've felt great about your size, shape and diet. Chances are you'll find a massive difference in the two numbers, with negative thoughts seriously outnumbering positive ones which effects your results overall!! Ask yourself whether you really want to go another month wasting so many precious hours thinking negatively about your weight, health, eating and exercising habits. When you think positively, you'll generally feel happier with the result that you'll regain your motivation to diet and achieve your weight loss goals.
Pay attention to your food diary
People who regularly write down everything they eat and drink are generally more successful at losing weight - and keeping it off. The reason: it helps to keep them focused on every single morsel that passes their lips. After several weeks or months of dieting many of us get complacent about keeping our food diary because we think we know what we are doing. As a result, it's all too easy for portion sizes to gradually increase, more treats to creep back in and old bad habits such as skipping breakfast to return. Unsurprisingly, the scales stop moving in the right direction and we end up feeling miserable and lose our motivation to lose weight. If you're not already keeping a diary, get back into the habit of writing down everything you eat and drink - and watch those pounds start dropping while your diet motivation soars.
Cut calories a little
It might not sound like a great way to get you motivated, but if the scales have been static for several weeks then cutting your calorie intake slightly may be all it takes to get them moving again. There's a good reason why you should reduce the number of calories you have as the pounds fall off. Quite simply when you lose weight, you need less energy to move around, and so need fewer calories to continue losing weight at the same rate.
Get support
Surrounding yourself with a good support network really can help to spur you on so enlist the help and support of friends and family.
•is there a friend you could exercise with?
•could your partner also do with eating a more healthy diet?
•could you encourage your work colleagues to do a fruit run rather than a chocolate run every afternoon?
Make the most of life and stay motivated. Stay motivated for your health long life!!
Make it happen!!