Posts Tagged ‘motivation’

Motivating Yourself To Stick To Your Diet

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Finding your motivation for staying on a diet may seem hard, but in truth it isn’t really very difficult. The key is to remind yourself of the reasons why you want to lose weight – for example, keep in mind how great it will be once you’ve droped the extra pounds you’ve been carrying around, and consider how great you’ll feel about yourself, and how much happier you’ll be overall. Doing simple things like these are the way to achieve lasting motivation.

With that said however, staying on a diet isn’t always an easy thing to do. Often you can find yourself going off course, and in situations where you feel like throwing in the towel. The key is not to allow small setbacks to get in your way.

Given below are some excellent strategies that will help you to keep your motivation to lose weight, despite setbacks or frustrations along the way.

Be Realistic

It’s important to remain realistic with your goals and expectations. A Common Error that most dieters make is attempting to lose large amounts of weight in a short amount of time. Losing large amounts of weight can be dangerous, and is rarely maintained. Aim for about 1.5 pounds per week of weight loss and make sure you maintain a steady pace. Don’t expect to lose anymore than that.

Give Yourself Occasional Treats

Allowing yourself occasional treats is a great way to maintain both balance and motivation, and prevent yourself from feeling too deprived. Be Sure to give yourself occasional treat meals to look forward to while you diet the rest of the time. It’s not going to hurt you and it won’t disrupt your diet as long as you don’t give in too often.

Have Someone Else To Keep You On Track

This one is great. Losing weight with someone else will add to your commitment and keep you motivated and encouraged. What’s more, you’ll feel even better because you’ll be able to help them succeed by encouraging them and preventing them from giving up. Having a buddy provides a lot of positive energy and lets people know they are not alone.

Allow For Mistakes

It’s important not to have expectations so high that you never allow yourself to make mistakes occasionally. IMany people have day days or even weeks where they make mistakes and go off track. That’s probably going to happen to you too. These things happen to us all, and usually very often. Expect setbacks along the way and be gentle on yourself when they do, and just make sure you keep your main goals in sight and keep going when things get difficult.

Stay Focused On What You Want

It’s vital that you stay focused. Visualize how you will look and feel with your ideal body and keep this in your mind as often as you can. Thinking about how much better things are going to be will serve as the ultimate dieting motivation and keep you going in the most difficult of times.

Consider The Consequences of NOT Losing Weight

If you want to lose weight, most liekly you aren’t happy with your current weight – use that to drive you. When you’re looking for motivation to lose weight, just think about how much you don’t want the body that you currently have. Imagine the consequences of not ever changing and always staying how you are now. You’ll end up nothing more than a dreamer who wished they could have lived their life the way they wanted to, but unfortunately, never did.

These are just some of the ways to keep you motivated when dieting. Finding motivation for dieting is really important if you want to keep going. Everyone knows what will happen if they give up on their diet. A true desire to see positive results will keep you from giving up and ensure that your future is bright and full of satisfaction and happiness.

 

6 Top Tips To Maintain Your Motivation To Lose Weight

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Maintaining the motivation to lose weight commonly the most challenging aspect of losing weight. Many people have no difficulties signing up for a new diet or fitness program and getting all fired up at the start. It’s actually sticking with long term goals over a period of months and years that most people find hard. If you’re fed up of losing and gaining the same pounds over and over, it’s time to consider some sure-fire tips to maintain your motivation to lose weight.

Regularly Measure Improvements In Your Health

The motivation to lose weight is not just about looking and feeling better. It’s also about knowing you are healthier inside! One way to stay motivated is to visit your doctor and have blood work drawn just before you begin your new diet. You can return at regular intervals to see changes in your blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, and other important numbers.

If you have been diagnosed with diabetes or another health problem, just going off of your medications and knowing you have eliminated the health risk can be great motivation.

Give Yourself Praise

You can your motivation to lose weight by tracking your compliance with goals on a daily basis. You essentially want to give yourself credit for all of your hard work, whether it be a sticker in a notebook or a checkbook in your day planner. If you are handy on the computer you can even create a chart that you update daily.

Team Up

If you can team up with a friend or family member who will hold you accountable, you could both reach your goals much faster and push through the difficult times. It’s more difficult to miss a workout when you know there’s someone else relying on you to show up.

You may even want to create friendly competition or set a prize that only one of you can win at regular intervals. If you have a competitive spirit this can be a great way to maintain the motivation to lose weight over a longer period of time.

Get Competitive

Alternatively, you can maintain your motivation to lose weight by competing against yourself. Sign up for a 5K run (even if you have to walk it) every month or so and challenge yourself to improve your time.

Rewards

Setting rewards to be enjoyed at regular intervals will help you keep your eyes on the prize. Having only one reward at the end once you’ve achieved your ultimate weight loss goal won’t work since it is so distant, but smaller rewards set every 5 or 10 pounds will deliver that motivation to lose weight.

Have A Deeper Purpose

It’s easy to say you want to shed 40 pounds to look hot in your bikini, but what are your deeper reasons behind wanting to lose weight? Take some time to write down a comprehensive list that includes all of the reasons why you want to lose weight. Post it in your home or keep it in your purse so you can read through it whenever you’re lacking motivation.

Now, take some time look at this from the other perspective. Make a list of all the things that could happen in the future if you don’t take action to lose weight. Which list do you want to be living in the next 5 years?

Reflect on your own personality quirks to come up with more unique ways to establish the motivation to lose weight.