How To Find The Motivation To Lose Weight

Opportunity may knock only once, but temptation leans on the doorbell. ~ Unknown (Tweet this)

Need motivation to lose weight? Think posting pictures of your ideal body up on your fridge will stop you from eating all the cake? Think again.

Trying to motivate yourself this way may actually be setting yourself back a few paces. There are better and more-effective ways to help you find that motivation to lose weight, such as:

• Changing your self-talk and being your own best friend
• Setting realistic goals for your personal situation
• Being held accountable to somebody else
• Using a real-life role-model and success stories to spur you on

1. Change the way you talk

Do you catch your self-talk being really negative? Yeah, me too. Would you ever say these things to your partner, best friend, or children? No, I didn’t think so. For success in losing weight your self-talk needs to be brought in check. Negative self-talk promotes negative thinking, reducing your self-confidence.

You deserve to feel and look the way you’re working so hard to achieve, but eating as much salad as you can won’t make up for negative self-talk.

Luckily, there are simple ways to improve your self-talk to help you to lose weight:

• As soon as you find yourself focusing on a negative part of your body/personality/lifestyle bring it into check
• Take a second to think about what you were just about to say, and change it
• Flip it on its head and turn it into something positive.

It’s a small step, but will help in countless ways, not just in your weight loss journey. Try creating a mantra to say every time you notice negative self-talk creeping in.

“I am worth it. I do deserve it. I am trying to be better.”

Repeat this every time you hear negative self-talk, when brushing your teeth, or as you get dressed in the morning. Say it to yourself enough times and you’ll eventually believe it.

2. Be realistic

Visualizing yourself with the perfect body is all well and good, although new research suggests this is where most people trip up. Setting yourself unrealistic goals, not allowing for freedom, or flexibility could be doing more harm than good.

You need to think about what is realistic for you. If you don’t physically have the bone structure of Heidi Klum, or Tom Hardy then you won’t get their body. Think about:

• What are your priorities: do you want to be muscly, toned, lose a little fat (or a lot)?
• How much time do you have to dedicate: can you afford to work out 5 days a week, or will 2 to 3 days be enough?
• What changes to your diet will work best: will drastically reducing your carb intake be detrimental to your weight loss?

For me, it’s taken trial and error to find a good balance of carbs, protein and fat in my diet. Reducing my carb intake too much turns me into the Hulk (minus all the muscles) and makes my life hell, whereas you might need to do the opposite.

Be realistic about what you can do, what is enough for your situation, and how you can give yourself the best chance of healthy weight loss.

The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places. ~ Unknown  (Tweet this)

3. Be held accountable

There is increasing evidence to suggest that being held accountable, in one way or another, is a great way to stay motivated when losing weight.

The premise is, when you are private in your goal setting, self-reinforcement procedures do not work as well as being accountable to other people. Whether that is through:

• Joining a community on Facebook, or another social media platform,
• Having a competition at work, or with friends,
• Creating higher stakes through a website such at StickK (as getting your wallet involved always creates extra motivation).

Being held accountable means failure comes a higher price, sometimes literally, and you are more likely to stick to your weight loss regime.

4. Use role models

Think about the role models you choose to look up to. A picture of the current hottest model on your fridge won’t cut it. You need something you can relate to, someone real and attainable.  This is why so many people find success, and followers, on social media platforms. They are letting others into their personal struggle, allowing them to join their journey.

It gives motivation and helps you believe that ‘if they can do it, so can you.’

It also depends on your weight-loss stage, and how you react to motivational stimulus. According to a study on motivation by positive or negative role models, prevention-focused people did not benefit from trying to find motivation from what they could look like. In fact, it was the opposite. Seeing what would happen if they didn’t get healthy was more effective.

It’s all about being able to identify with your role model, and finding someone you can empathize with. Give yourself a realistic goal of where you could end up if you stick to your diet, and if you don’t.

Motivation to lose weight: A recap

Conquering the “off” days and finding the motivation to lose weight is hard. Whether you need to lose a little, or a lot of weight, you need to be your own best friend. Set yourself realistic goals; speak to yourself positively and have a great mantra; hold yourself accountable; and find a role model to follow and emulate.