Have you found that as much as you want to lose weight, your weight loss motivation levels are continually drooping, making it difficult to be able to stick to the eating and exercising strategy you know is best for you? If you have, then you’re not alone. Weight loss motivation is one of the leading reasons that diets fail.
The good news is that there are some great tricks to help you to keep up your motivation levels so that you can stay on track – at least most of the time – and watch the pounds start to slide away.
The following are some of the top tricks for keeping up motivation when losing weight:
1. Actively visualize – If you are in need of an instant inspiration boost to help you to overcome the temptation of that éclair in the bakery window or the bowl of chips sitting next to you on the couch on movie night, ask yourself the following question: if I stop my diet, how will I look and feel in a month, six months, or a year from today? What will this do to my health? Suddenly, visualizing the results will make that snack – a momentary indulgence – seem far less important than the long-term goal.
2. Clean your whole life – Make your weight loss a part of an overall self-improvement strategy. Work on gradually de-cluttering your home and throwing away, recycling or donating everything you don’t need. Come up with a plan to pay off your debts. Live up to the promises you’ve made to family, friends and even the people you work with. By clearing out the problems in your life as you work to take on a more healthful lifestyle that will lead to weight loss, you’ll feel much more confident and driven.
3. Ignore pictures of models – If you’re constantly looking at pictures of super thin models and Photoshopped images of celebrities, you’ll actually harm your own progress. Many people pin this type of picture in places where they can see them in order to inspire them but according to a study conducted in the Netherlands, the actual impact is the exact opposite. In fact, it could put you at risk of gaining weight, instead.
4. Pay attention to the way you feel – Acknowledge when you’re feeling strong, driven and confident but don’t give yourself a hard time when you’re feeling frustrated and discouraged. Instead, allow yourself to feel it and understand why it’s happening. You may be able to find a way to overcome the feeling and solve the problem at the same time, without having to give up on your strategy or cheat on your diet. When you are attuned to your thoughts and feelings, you can work on weight loss motivation from within.
