Whenever you start a new diet, you are usually very upbeat, focused, positive and eager to get on track, lose weight, and get fit. But as the months go by and weight loss week after week becomes more challenging, it can be very difficult to stay motivated, continue exercising and make healthy eating choices. Here are some tried and true ways that you can use to stay on track with your weight loss.
Sort through old photos of yourself. Tape the one on the refrigerator that you absolutely hate; a picture taken when you were at your heaviest weight. Tape it on the refrigerator or the cupboard where you will see it every time you go looking for a snack. Every time you see the picture tell yourself that you will never look like that again and this will help motivate you to not have that extra snack.
Build in incentives for your weight loss progress and record the achievements you strive for as well as the dates on which you reach them. Make your objectives and rewards specific like ‘As soon as I lose 10 pounds I will buy the slinky black dress that’s on sale at the store’ or ‘When I drop a size in jeans I will splurge on the matching jacket on display with them’ or even ‘When I lose 20 pounds I am going to Hawaii for a week’.
Begin your weight loss and enjoy the outcome of this across shorter timeframes as well as across the longer haul. Keep records of your diet progress and refer to these to enjoy the benefits of all your efforts and notice your increasing weight loss and your changing body shape week by week and over the longer time frame.
Start a blog, name it My Weight Loss Week, and get a little digital support. Starting a blog will help you stay motivated to keep going because now you are accountable to your readers to stay on your diet and keep losing weight. Having a blog will also get you a lot of support from your readers in the form of helpful comments and emails to keep you motivated to stay on track.
A picture is worth 1000 words so flip through some of your favorite clothing catalogs and cut out photos of the clothes that you want to be able to wear when you are at your ideal weight. Pin them up on your closet doors, on your mirror, anywhere where you will see them. Stay focused on how you want to look when you are at your ideal weight, the time when your weight loss week in week out won’t be needed, then visualize this and it will help you make it happen.
Research all you can about successful weight loss by others either on line or in books or magazines. The efforts and achievements of people just like you can be inspirational and good to fall back on when your progress slows. Your goal will be to have just as successful a story to tell and inspire others with soon.
Take steps to embrace life and all its opportunities while you are following your healthy eating and exercise plan. This is should see you doing different things especially in the outdoors like hiking on the weekend or biking after work. Join groups where physical activity is a feature and enroll in a Salsa class or even learn Hip Hop so that your weight loss week by week if the result of having plenty of fun!
Surround yourself with friends and family who are genuinely committed to your weight loss and are prepared to do all they can to assist you with this. This does not include those whose subversive ways will encourage you to give up exercise or stop a healthy diet, for any reason and who prevent the progress which is possible for you. There is no place for in your life for these people because you are in control of your weight loss week by week and you will have no one stop you from reaching your goal.
