Posts Tagged ‘Motivation’
Lose Weight – How Can I Get the Motivation to Lose Weight?
The thought of losing weight can be quite daunting. This is especially so for anyone who has a significant amount of weight to lose, for example 50-100+ pounds.
You know deep down that you SHOULD do something about your weight and health but it just seems to be an impossible task. You can’t seem to get motivated and it is easier to reach for another sticky cake and ignore the problem. Depression and despair set in and pounds keep piling on!
Despair no more! This article will give you some tips to help you get motivated and start to lose weight.
Set some goals.
Goals are important to everyone because without them people lack direction and get lost in the shuffle of life. The same is true for those who are trying to lose weight. Without clear goals, little will be accomplished.
The goals you set can be either long term or short term. What is important though is that they are SMART. SMART is an acronym which is often used when setting goals. It stands for:
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Realistic
T – Time-based
An example of a SMART goal is to lose 10 pounds in 5 weeks. This is being specific about how much you are going to lose. It’s measurable because at the end of 4 weeks you can see whether you have lost the pounds. It’s achievable and realistic because many experts recommend a slow weight loss of 2-3 pounds a week. Finally, it is time-based as you
OK, you may have 50 pounds to lose but if you set out to lose 50 pounds by whatever date it’s too much for the brain to cope with and seems too difficult to achieve. By breaking the task into smaller goals it seems more achievable. When you have reached that goal then you set the next one.
You don’t need to follow my example – it can be any number of pounds over a timescale to suit you. It could even be to drop a dress size for an important event. It’s up to you!
Stay focused.
You have set your goals so staying focused is essential to losing weight. it is important to keep them in mind at all times. When one loses focus and loses track of their goals, they begin to fail. Focus can guarantee motivation. Motivation is the engine the runs the weight loss machine. A great way to stay focused is to keep track of weight loss and exercise goals. This can let you continue to measure your progress.
Focus can also be kept by having an accountability partner. This can be someone that you lose weight with or just someone that you share how you are doing. This helps you to stay focused by talking about it and can also provide a great encouragement as well!
Another great way to stay focused is to start a weight loss journal – this ensures that motivation is kept high. If however, you are having a bad day you can write it down in your journal. It is personal to you and doesn’t need to be shown to anyone else. You will look back over it in time and see whether you ate more on ‘bad days’, what triggered overeating at times and how to avoid it in future.
Putting It All Together.
You may be asking yourself, now what? I know all this stuff about motivation, but how can it help me now, today? Well, that is really simple. Motivation helps to defeat and to limit the amount of temptations one will encounter. The temptation to quit when the going gets tough is faced by everyone. A way to ward off that temptation is to keep your goals in front of you. Write them down and put them in a visible spot, a place where they will be seen daily. This can help you get over those tough days when you just want to give up.
The best thing you can do is to sit down and write out some long and short term goals. Outline how you are going to get there and give yourself a time frame. Then, think of some ways you can reward yourself for making changes. Motivation will then start flowing!
The next thing you need to do is to learn about healthy eating, how to speed up your metabolism, how to lose weight without resorting to fad diets, pills or starvation methods.