When you embark on a weight loss regime, you're likely to be determined that this time it's going to work. The trouble is, after a while you're likely to lose the motivation to keep going.
Studies show that only 7% of dieters will stick with it for more than 52 weeks. After only 13 weeks, more than 60% of people will have failed their latest weight loss attempt, and then end up heavier than they were before they started.
Diets are meant to be short-term, making it impossible to stick with long-term. Add that to the huge amount of willpower they expect you to have, and it spells disaster. The trouble isn't you, or even your diet, the problem lies in your ability to stay motivated.
These 7 steps will help you feel motivated and ready to start your weight loss journey. When you're able to motivate yourself, you automatically feel more in charge of your weight, your body, even your whole life again.
Step 1. Get Clear On What You Really Want For YourselfYou must get clear on your weight loss goals before you even start trying to lose weight. Without a clear direction, there's no doubt your motivation will wane pretty quickly.
You are probably very good at focusing on what you don't want when it comes to your weight loss goals, but find it more difficult to focus on what you do want. For example, you may say to yourself "I'm fed up of being this weight", "I hate my fat stomach" or "I wish I didn't feel so bad about myself".
The trouble is, if you focus on what you don't want, you're focusing on something negative. To stay motivated, it's really important that you focus on a positive goal or vision. So instead you could say "I want to feel good in my own skin" or "I want to feel sexy and full of energy". See the difference? You probably feel a bit more positive just by looking at what you do want, not what you don't want!
The other aspect of this first motivation step is that you must want this for yourself - not for your partner, family or friends. Even if they've been encouraging you to lose weight, you must want this for yourself and have your own vision of what that looks like. Otherwise, when an obstacle comes your way and you are only doing this for other people, you'll find it all too easy to lose motivation to keep going.
Take Action! Write down what your goals are in realistic and positive language. Don't just put a weight goal, think of other things like 'I want to feel more confident when I go out with my friends'.
Step 2. Find Your WHYPower!This is THE driver to keep you motivated to lose weight. Why do you want to lose weight? Your WHYPower is the Core Compelling Reason that's going to drive you to keep going until you reach your weight goals. It'll help you through the times when you feel like quitting and the days when you start to question if it's all really worth it.
You may not have ever asked yourself this question at all. Or, you have paid lip service to it but never really contemplated exactly why you want to lose weight. Your 'why' is like the hammer and your motivation is like the nail. You must have a big enough hammer to be able to drive that nail in, no matter what happens.
Jim Rohn, a famous motivation guru, said "The bigger the why, the easier the how". You are probably spending all of your time focusing on how to lose weight, rather than why.
When you're clear on 'why' you want to get in control of your weight, the 'how' appears to you as if by magic. This may sound a bit loopy, but try it and you'll see. Spend more time working out exactly why you want to lose weight and you'll stay motivated to reach your goals. Then, 'how' to do it will become clearer to you.
Take Action! Take some time to think about why you want to get in control of your weight. How will you feel when you reach your goal? What sort of thoughts will you have? What will you look like? What will your friends say to you? What will you be able to do more confidently? Write all of those things down.
Step 3. Stop Negative Thinking In Its TracksNegative thinking and its repercussions - including emotional eating - is often disastrous to your weight loss efforts. To stop negative thinking, you have to be aware of your thoughts in the first place. Getting in control of your negative thinking is a 3-step process:
1. Tune into your thoughts
2. Stop Negative Thoughts
3. Create New Supportive Thoughts
Don't expect to get this one 'sorted' overnight. It takes real practice to change your thinking but, when you do, it's the most powerful and rewarding skill you can learn.
Take Action! Tune in a few times each day to what you say to yourself about your weight. What sort of things do you tell yourself? Tune into your thoughts as if you're trying to tune into a radio station, and then focus on replacing negative thoughts with supportive ones.
Step 4. Stop Comparing Yourself To OthersComparing yourself to others is a sure way to get unmotivated fast. We're all unique; we are all special in one way or another. There will always be someone who is slimmer, fitter, stronger, smarter and better looking than you. And you will always be slimmer, fitter, stronger, smarter and better looking than others.
When you're down on yourself, you tend to see yourself through dark-coloured lenses and everyone else through rose-tinted ones. You can't possibly be objective when you are not feeling good about yourself, and looking at others just adds fuel to the fire.
Take Action! So stop comparing yourself, whether it's with a celebrity, friend or family member. It just makes you feel bad about yourself, and down the slippery path to the refrigerator you'll go.
Step 5. Forgive Yourself For MistakesYou are more than likely going to lapse into old behaviors once in a while. It's what you do as a result of that, though, that keeps you motivated or makes you give up.
One of the oldest tricks in the book, when it comes to our mind and weight loss, is catastrophising. 'Catastrophising' is when you exaggerate the negative consequences of your life situation, or in this instance your lapse into old eating behaviors. You may have lapsed by intending to have just one biscuit, but your mind went something like 'yippee, you've had one biscuit so you may as well have them all'. And so you did, and then felt terrible and catastrophised your weight loss 'hiccup'.
This is where forgiveness of yourself comes in. Because if you don't give yourself a break, this is the end of your weight loss journey. That one packet of biscuits is just the start of a return to your old ways. So don't let it get the best of you, forgive yourself and start anew.
Take Action! The key to staying motivated is to forgive yourself, get back into the swing again as quickly as possible. It's just like when you were learning to ride a bike. Get back on as quickly as possible and start pedaling again!
Step 6. Find Your Role ModelWe tend to think of having a role model of being great for kids, but not really relevant for adults. You may be surprised to hear that the world's most successful people have at least one model that has given them inspiration and motivation on their own journey to success.
Get yourself a positive role model, someone who really inspires you, not only in how they look but how they act and relate to others.
In those moments when you feel that you are losing motivation to reach your weight loss goals, remembering your role model is really helpful.
Take Action! Picture yourself being the weight and the person you know you can be. Bombard yourself with positive images of your role model and imagine yourself living the life you want to live. Remember, you may be a role model for someone else one day.
Step 7. Celebrate Your SuccessesWe are too used to beating ourselves up about failures, but then don't acknowledge our successes. We just let them slip by, ready to pounce on the next thing we do wrong.
The final step to help you get motivated to lose weight is to celebrate your successes, even small successes. This is the ultimate way to increase and maintain your motivation.
You're probably very used to just focusing on your mistakes, but the problem is that you get what you focus on. If you keep noticing all of the things that go wrong, you'll continue to have things go wrong.
If you start focusing on all your successes, especially the little ones, you will start to appreciate your successes and get more successes. If you resisted the cake at work today, write that down and pat yourself on the back. If you got to the gym this morning when you didn't really feel like it, celebrate that too.
Take Action! Write down at least 5 successes you have each day to help you get motivated to lose weight. By taking 5 minutes out of your day to reflect on what you did right in relation to your weight goals, you'll soon notice a different in your mindset and your motivation levels.
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