Every woman who wants to lose weight has to overcome a lot of barriers that get in the way and sometimes seems to be impossible to overcome. Lack of motivation is the most difficult to overcome and accounts for most of the people who fail at their weight loss attempts. So the question is; How do I stay motivated to lose the weight I want?
There are some fairly easy ways to motivate yourself to start and continue a program.
1. Most important is to know the reason you want to lose weight in the first place. A lifestyle change is a requirement of permanent weight loss and if you do not have a compelling reason, you might just as well not start. Make the reason personal. Write it down and post it where you can see it every day. Put a copy on the bathroom mirror, on the refrigerator door and in your office. Make reading it a habit until you believe it.
2. Find someone you trust to share your compelling reason with and give you some inspiration. Set some realistic goals for yourself. Losing seven or eight pounds a week is not reasonable and may even be unhealthy. Instead, set a goal of one to two pounds a week and state how you want to do it. An example could be; I will lose one pound of fat each week by making healthier food choices and removing sugary snacks from my diet. Not an unrealistic goal and certainly attainable without much effort.
3. Find a diet plan that you understand and can live with. There are thousands of programs, both online and off line that promise all the things needed to be successful. Recent studies have indicated that the rate of success for online and offline programs are about the same. Most will work, but there is still the personal problem of staying motivated to be successful. Find a weight loss program that offers diet assistance, support and encouragement. Support from your buddies is very important because it is a lot easier to stay motivated if you have a group of people pulling for you.
4. Keep track of what you eat, and how much. Diet is very important to weight loss. But your diet has to satisfy your hunger, provide you with the nutrients your body needs and be easy to make a part of your new lifestyle. Most of us have gotten into the habit of eating packaged meals or processed foods because it is easier. While buying prepackaged meals can be convenient, it also makes it difficult to learn how to shop and prepare the nutritious meals that we need to maintain our weight after we lose all those pounds.
5. Include exercise in your weight loss program. Exercise is essential because it helps keep the metabolism high and burns more fat, gives you more energy and helps you feel better about yourself. Feeling better about yourself is a great motivator. Plan your workouts. Make exercise a part of your weekly schedule and take every opportunity to be more active every day. This could be as simple as taking the stairs, parking further away from the doors or walking the dog in the evening.
Make a list of things (think excuses) that might keep you from exercising or sticking to your diet. Then find some way to overcome those excuses. Your mind might be telling you that one day off your diet or skipping one day of exercise will not hurt, but we all know that these lead to failure. Think about your compelling reason and be prepared for excuses to stop working your plan.
6. Set some benchmarks and reward yourself for your successes. This could be as simple as lose ten pounds, buy some new clothes or some new music or just take a weekend off. Make it something tangible so that you can see and feel the reward. Avoid the temptation to include anything that conflicts with your weight loss plan.
Permanent weight loss comes from having a compelling reason to make a change, inspiration and motivation, something that all of us need to be successful. Go to weight loss diet tips 101 for up to date information on diet plans that provide help in the most popular self improvement effort in the world today.
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