Losing weight is a challenging process, and it takes months or years of hard work for some people to reach their fitness goals. Those who have been skipping the exercise routines and not watching what they eat for a long time may find that the process is extremely arduous and lengthy, but there are some ways that you can remain motivated on your journey to lose weight. Not all of these may work for you, because everyone is different, but you should be able to find at least one or two of the following tips that will help you stay motivated and continue down to the road to reach your fitness goals.
1. First, figure out how long the journey could take, and then add some time to it. For instance, if you have fifty pounds to lose, a great fitness goal to set is to lose one pound a week. That means that you will lose fifty pounds in about 50 weeks, or a year. However, you could also set the goal to be eighteen months if you like, to allow for setbacks. The point is to give yourself enough time to be able to compete your goal. While severely overweight people may be able to lose fifty pounds in two or three weeks on television shows like The Biggest Loser, for most of us that is not a realistic goal, and attempting to achieve it will only set us up for disappointment. The first rule of staying motivated is giving yourself enough time to reach your goals.
2. Next, create a list of reasons why you want to lose weight. Everyone will have different reasons. For some people, it is all about their health and feeling better about their body. For others, it will be to become more attractive to the opposite sex. No matter what your reasons are, you need to write them down somewhere and look at them often so that you are reminded why you are doing all of this hard work. Some people choose to put their reasons on the refrigerator, or make a large poster and hang them on the wall. Others use their reasons for losing weight as their computer’s desktop background. These are all great ways to keep your reasons in the forefront of your mind.
3. You will need support along the way. Talk to some of your friends that you know will help you on your journey to lose weight, or better yet, partner up with a motivated friend that also has some weight to lose. The journey to shedding pounds is a long one, and doing it by yourself can be extremely fatiguing mentally. Having one or more friends along with you on the journey will go a long way towards keeping you motivated and on track.
4. Next, you should make sure that you track your progress. It can be difficult to remember what you looked like, or how you felt several months ago when you were heavier. Take plenty of pictures along the way as you lose weight and keep a journal of how you felt when you were that heavy, including what sort of things that you couldn’t do back then, so that you can compare them to what you can do now. This will help you not only to stay motivated for future weight loss, but it will help you put a stop to backsliding and falling back into the same habits.
5. You should also try to avoid temptation as much as you can. For many people, overeating can be an addiction as dangerous and difficult to give up as alcoholism or drug use. However, overeating can be even more difficult to give up because you can’t simply avoid food. Your body needs nourishment to live. While an alcoholic may be able to avoid ever going into a bar again, you will likely not be able to avoid eating at a restaurant. Make sure that you avoid temptation when you can, and when you can’t have a game plan mapped out for when you are faced with a tempting food choice.
6. Finally, don’t forget to reward yourself for your efforts. While it is a very bad idea to reward yourself for losing ten pounds by eating an entire pizza, it is perfectly acceptable to give yourself a piece of cake, or a serving of ice cream as a reward for your hard work. Some people prefer not to reward themselves with food at all, but instead make a list of some items that they have been wanting to buy for themselves, and then setting each item as a reward for reaching a certain weight. However you decide to reward yourself, it is important that you do so, and recognize your hard work for what it is.