Losing weight is never easy, and one challenge that most people face is staying motivated.
People lose motivation because the results may not be coming as quickly as they’d like, or they just get tired of the process. The loss of motivation is why you see individuals starting the weight loss process over and over.
Here, we will give you nine tips that will help you stay focused while losing weight.
Set your goals
Before you even begin your weight loss journey, decide what you want from it. Set both short-term and long-term goals that you can look forward to achieving.
Setting short-term goals will help you feel accomplished. The little victories are encouraging. Remember, tiny drops of water make an ocean. That is, your short-term weight loss achievements will pave the way to bigger ones.
Reward yourself
Choose things you really want and use these to reward yourself when you reach a goal. The rewards you gift yourself with should increase in value as you reach bigger milestones.
By rewarding yourself, you will remain motivated because of the prize you will receive at the finish line.
Stay accountable
Losing weight in secret does not work for everyone.
I know, you probably want a big reveal that will shock everyone when you make an appearance post-weight loss. However, if you cannot motivate yourself or remain accountable to yourself, get a weight loss buddy or join a support group.
When you have a buddy or group of people checking your progress, you will be less likely to give up. Even when you feel like giving up, these people will help stay focused.
If you are an introvert and have no friend to make up your support group, no worries. Open an online weight loss diary. In your diary, log your progress and your food choices. Make sure this diary is open for other people to read. This will help you stay on track.
Lastly, if you live with a family constantly trying to get you to eat more, inform them of your goals. By doing this, they will understand that tempting you with food or pressuring you to eat does not help you get closer to your goals.
Respect the process
Many people quit their weight loss journey because they expect the pounds to fall off immediately. They do not. The truth is that you did not gain all your excess weight in one day, and you will not lose them in a day.
On some days, you will experience slow progress and may even plateau. That is fine. Change things up a bit and continue with your journey. If you are feeling depressed, take a 1-week break from losing weight and resume afterward. Just don’t quit.
Expect ‘down days’
Even before you begin losing weight, accept that on some days, you will mess up and it will show on the scale. You may eat the wrong things and you may binge eat. In some cases, through no fault of yours, the figure on the scale will fluctuate. You may be unable to exercise sometimes because you feel unmotivated, and that is fine.
The key to getting past a ‘down day’ is to ‘move past the day.’ Do not turn a ‘down day’ into a down month or year.
Do what works for you
One reason why people get unmotivated and lose focus is that they hate the methods they are using to lose weight. Even though the diet or fitness regime may be working, it feels like a chore they would rather avoid. Avoiding it for one day then turns into avoiding it for one month, and consequently, they fall off their weight loss journey. Do not adopt a diet or exercise routine just because someone else is doing it.
Do not hold onto your ‘fat’ clothes
Holding on to clothes you wore when you were a larger size is like having a safety net. Loose fitting clothes can be deceptive as well. Loose clothing may not allow you to see that you are slowly regaining the weight you lost.
I recommend that where possible, you have your ’fat’ clothes taken in by a tailor. Also, have the tailor snip off the extra bit of fabric on the inside that will allow the cloth to be loosened for a larger size.
Have a rest day
While trying to lose weight, allow yourself a cheat day or meal. This will prevent a situation where you feel deprived and resort to binge eating. Also, take a break between your workout days to rest your muscles and heal.
Before you quit, ask yourself ‘do I want to start all over again?
Once, a friend told me she wondered how much weight she would have lost if she did not quit her weight loss journey multiple times.
So, before you lose focus again, ask yourself this question.
Losing weight and keeping it is not easy. But, you should follow these tips to stay motivated during your weight loss journey.
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