Improving Your Weight Loss Motivation: 4 Tips
Even if you’re ready for a dramatic life change, maintaining your weight loss motivation can be a challenge. If you follow a number of rules, however, you’ll find renewed motivation as you move toward your goals. We’ll discuss four of them below.
Keeping track — You must be aware of your personal numbers if you intend to be successful in your weight loss efforts. Knowing your weight is essential but don’t be obsessive over this. Jumping on the scale once is week is more than enough.
Take your measurements. Measure your chest, waist, hips, thighs, and upper arms and be precise when reading the tape measure. Do this every two weeks and compare your results. A decrease of even a quarter of an inch can make a huge difference in your ability to gauge your success.
Log it — Keeping a journal is the second rule for weight loss motivation. This is the place where you will keep an accurate record of the numbers we mentioned above. In addition, you will record your daily food intake along with your daily exercise.
Your journal serves another very important purpose. It is the perfect spot for you to record your thoughts and feelings throughout your weight loss journey. It will also help keep you on track by helping you see patterns in your behavior and in your choices.
Research it — One of the most helpful rules for weight loss motivation is to do your research! Read books about dieting and browse the Internet for appropriate websites. Learn the food pyramid guidelines and be able to recognize proper portion sizes.
Your journal is an excellent spot for you to record the information that you learn. To experience continued motivation, you’ll want to review this data often, until it becomes second nature.
Know your outcome — Finally, weight loss motivation requires you to have a vision. You must be able to “see” yourself the way you’d like to be. Spend a little time each day meditating or reflecting on how you would like to reinvent yourself.
Visualize the smallest details. This is not about saying, “I want to lose 20 pounds.” This is about visualizing the journey to that goal. What will it take to get there?
If you follow these four simple rules your motivation will remain high throughout your journey. You will have a system in place to fall back on when you feel weak. You will notice and celebrate your small successes and understand that they accumulate into a huge payoff!
