How to Stay Motivated While Losing Weight

It can be easy to stick to your guns when you first get started on your routine, but after a while all of that motivation can start to dwindle along with your progress. Following are some tips to help you stay motivated as you’re losing weight.

Keep Track of Your Progress

One of the absolute best things you can do while you’re losing weight is to keep track of your progress. Rather than only paying attention to the scale and the mirror, keep track of how many pounds and inches you lose a week, the number of reps you’re able to do from week-to-week, and how different your eating habits have changed from when you first started your weight-loss routine. Whenever you find yourself feeling discouraged, taking a look at how far you’ve come can give you the boost you need to keep going and work harder.

Look at Yourself

Rather than doing everything you can to avoid looking in the mirror whenever you aren’t feeling svelte, do the exact opposite. Instead of criticizing yourself for every roll and bulge, compliment yourself on the smaller and less noticeable gains you’ve made. While your stomach may not have changed much, you might have more muscle definition on your arms or legs. Recognize that fat on certain areas of the body is harder to get rid than other areas and is often dependant on your gender. Take pride on your progress, no matter how small and gradual it might be.

Lose Weight With Friends and Family

Exercising and losing weight is not only easier when you’re doing it with someone else, it can also be more enjoyable. See if any of your friends and family are interested in joining an exercise class with you. Having other people join you makes you more accountable for your actions and can help you stay motivated. While pushing yourself is all well and good, having someone else encourage and being able to do the same for them makes everyone feel good and stay the course.

Think Long Term   

Rather than pay for exercise classes one at a time, you’ll be better off paying for an entire package. Instead of buying a few healthy meals, stock up and head for the wholesale stores if you have a membership and the money. While an entire exercise package and a large box or bag of healthy meals will cost you more, you’ll get more from them. You’ll be less tempted to skip out on exercising if you’ve already paid for a month’s worth of sessions, and you’ll be less tempted to cheat on your meals when you’ve got a half pound of veggies and fruits that are about to go bad in a week.

Talk Your Way to a Smaller Waist

If you like receiving your motivation face-to-face and you’re not able to make your session for some reason, you can always get your motivation fix over the phone. Studies have shown that people who receive assistance over the phone are able to lose just as much weight as those who get help face-to-face. Some weight-loss websites offer 15-minutes weekly phone sessions. You may have to pay as much as a dollar a minute, but you’ll still be getting the help and seeing the results you desire.

Start Lifting the Amount of Weight You’ve Lost

As you start losing weight, you should also start lifting the number of pounds you lost. Not only is this a good way to improve and tone your muscles, it gives you a solid idea of how much weight you’ve lost and how far you’ve truly come. Once you start lifting 50 pounds, you may start to wonder how you ever managed to live and move with that much weight on you. If you’re going to keep dragging around images and memories of who you used to be, you might as well put all of that baggage to good use. 

Evaluate Your Goals and Keep Them as Realistic as Possible

Having goals is great, but making sure those goals are realistic is even better. As you’re deciding on your goals, keep your schedule, finances and reasons in mind. You may not be able to lose five pounds in a week if there’s a big project at work that will keep you at the office longer. Consider aiming for losing three pounds. Remember that it’s okay for you to change up your goals if you find you can’t reach them when you’d like. Do everything you can to keep from setting yourself up for failure and disappointment. The human body can only do so much.

Expect Delays

When you first get started with your weight-loss routine, bear in mind that you’ll more than likely slip up every now and then. There could be days where you simply aren’t motivated to finish your exercise routine, but take solace in the fact that you at least started your routine. You may give in to your craving to have something sweet, but don’t allow yourself to eat an entire bag of cookies. Plan for setbacks, but don’t let them spiral out of control and completely destroy all of the time, energy and effort you’ve put in.

Reward Yourself

When you do overcome those setbacks, reward yourself. This doesn’t mean having a cheat day or a day where you sleep in instead of heading to the gym. Reward yourself by going to see that movie you haven’t been able to check out because you’ve been so focused on improving your health. Reward yourself by buying that pair of jeans you said you’d be able to fit into two months ago. Reward yourself, but don’t jeopardize your efforts in the process.

Learning how to motivate yourself the right way is just as important as learning how to eat or exercise the right way. While you’re improving your physical self, make sure you don’t neglect to improve your mental self as well. Proper balance is essential in everything you do.

With Weightloss+ you will have the accountability of our staff to support you through your weight loss. You will stay motivated beacuse you have our weight loss doctor guiding you through the pitfalls of healthy weight loss in the real world through weekly follow-up visits.

GIVE US A CALL TODAY AT 502-244-8746 !