Keeping Motivated
When you start a new weight loss plan, you feel full
of enthusiasm and motivation, determined to succeed!
However, after a short time it can be easy for old habits
to start creeping back in and excuses to stop you from
exercising conveniently turn up. So what can you do to
help your motivation see you through your weight loss
journey?
Getting motivated
The first step in starting on your new healthy lifestyle
is identifying your motivation.
Are you losing weight to prevent a serious health problem,
such as diabetes or heart disease? Are you determined
to look and feel great by next summer?
Whatever your reason, you need to believe strongly in
this and use it to keep your motivation firing. Remember
that you need to do this for yourself - if you're losing
weight to make someone else happy, it's going to be a
very difficult journey.
Tips for keeping motivated
- Ask for your family's support in reaching your goalsSet
realistic and achievable long term and short term goals.
Compare
these goals: "I want to lose 30 kg." and "I
want to lose 5 kg in 6 weeks." Although your long
term goal might be to lose 30 kg, the second goal sounds
much more achievable, right? The first goal could make
you feel deflated before you even begin! Yet, it will
only take six times of setting mini "5 kg goals" to
reach your final goal of losing 30 kg. Focus on each
step of the way; set mini goals and reward yourself
along the way.
- Identify your triggers - once you work out what they
are, develop ways to deal with those situations.
- Get support
and use it! The CalorieKing.com.au online community
is a caring, helpful place full of people going through the same experiences as you - share your
feelings and questions, you'll find the support invaluable.
Include your family in your new lifestyle and ask them
to help you reach your goals.
- Plan non-food rewards for reaching goals along the
way - it can certainly inspire your motivation to know
that when you lose that next kilogram or complete your
planned exercise program you can treat yourself to
a relaxing facial, a new hair cut, a magazine, or a
new item of clothing.
- Don't let self-sabotage set you back. When things
are going well, do you for no apparent reason start
buying junk food and finding excuses not to exercise?
Recognise these sabotage traits and get support to
help you overcome them. Remember that you are in control
of your life, you have choices and you can make the
right ones.
- Keep a 'before' photo to look at - this can be handy
at times when you feel like giving up. Remember your
motivation and visualise yourself as the 'new you'
- healthy, slim and fit. Think about how good you will
feel, and use this feeling to make better choices.
- Read the articles in the CalorieKing.com.au University
and Library to gain information and to help you understand
feelings that you have.
- Learn how to cope in social situations - just because
you're losing weight, doesn't mean you have to become
a hermit! Find out how restaurant and takeaways meals
are prepared and learn to make better choices.
- Prepare a plan of attack - in advance - to remind
you of alternative activities that you can enjoy when
you feel like raiding the fridge. Write your plan out
and keep it within easy access. This will give you
something concrete to turn to if your motivation is
waning.
'Diet' or lifestyle?
Throw away the 'I'm on a diet' mindset. You are embarking
on a healthy lifestyle that you can maintain for life,
not a temporary deprivation diet. If you eat a whole
packet of chocolate biscuits one day or skip a few exercise
workouts, it doesn't signal the end of your new lifestyle.
Just pick yourself up and start right back where you
left off! Don't let a slip up become an excuse to quit.
And as one clever CalorieKing.com.au
member said, "Start
thinking like a 'slim person'. Even they eat and drink
too much sometimes, the difference is that they eat well
for the majority of the time."
Live your new lifestyle and enjoy it!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reproduced with permission from CalorieKing.com.au. All material copyright CalorieKing.com.au |
