One of the questions I’m asked most often in emails is how to stay motivated when trying to lose weight.
This is an excellent question, but sometimes difficult to answer because everyone is so different. What motivates me may not motivate you and vice versa.
Ultimately, your biggest motivation should be reaching for the end result - a healthier you. Without motivation, your weight loss efforts will most likely go down the drain.
Motivation is what keeps us from pigging out on a whole bag of chips when we’re sad or frustrated. It’s what picks us up off the couch to go for a run. It’s what helps us make healthy choices when we’re grocery shopping.
It’s important to come up with some kind of ‘motivation plan’. Throughout your weight loss journey, you may need to add or change some things on your list of motivations to ensure that you don’t ever lose your drive to lose weight.
Here are just some motivational ideas for you to think about.
- Keep your goals realistic so you won’t lose interest if you feel like you can’t reach them.
- As you lose weight, use that success as motivation to keep going.
- Have a little healthy competition with a friend or family member.
- Read or listen to other people about their success with weight loss.
- Ask family and friends to keep supporting and encouraging you to stick with your goals.
- Add variety to your physical activity to keep it interesting.
- Join a community or online support group to stay accountable for yourself and others.
- Remind yourself of the unhealthy consequences of being overweight such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
- And don’t forget to have some fun. Losing weight doesn’t have to be so serious. If you have fun along the way, it won’t feel so much like work but more like a happy and fun lifestyle.
Quote:
“You have to stay in shape. My grandmother, she started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She’s 97 today and we don’t know where the hell she is.”- Ellen Degeneres
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