Live In Fitness – Motivating Yourself Weight Loss
As humans, we are naturally inclined to satiate desires that are right in front of us. Sometimes that causes us to give up on longer term goals. If you want to save money for a dream vacation but your friends are going out to an expensive fancy restaurant tonight, your immediate desire to have a good time might win out. It’s the same when it comes to weight loss. It’s difficult to focus on a long-term weight loss goal without the proper motivation. However, there are some strategies you can try to stick to your goals. Here are just a few:
Why Do You Want to Lose Weight?
When you are setting a goal, it is important to realize why you are setting your goal. If you leave it to an abstract desire, your movement toward that goal may take a backseat to more immediate desires. When a pizza is sitting right in front of you at a party, your desire to eat that pizza will probably be more intense than your desire to meet your fitness goals.
Do you want to lose weight to fit into a little black dress? Maybe you are concerned about your health and want to shed weight to feel better. Whatever the reason, make a note of it and focus on it when you feel like you might be tempted.
Make Some Tangible Weight Loss Goals
Once you have acknowledged why you are losing weight, try setting some visual, tangible goals. If you want to lose weight to fit into that aforementioned dress, hang it up in a prominent place in your room. Every day before you leave you can see it and re-affirm your commitment to your goals. If you want to lose weight because you want to go on a hiking trip on the Appalachian Trail, print out a picture of the rolling hills of Appalachia as motivation. This helps bring your goals out of the abstract and into the real world.
Break the Draw of Bad Habits
Everyone has their own unique nutritional bad habits. Some people drink too much beer while others have an insatiable sweet tooth. A good tactic when you begin a weight loss journey is to set a certain amount of time where you will abstain from those bad habits altogether. When setting a difficult goal like breaking habits, it’s better to set shorter term goals. It’s a lot easier to mean it when you say, “I won’t eat rocky road for a week,” than it would be if you say, “I’ll never eat rocky road again.”
That’s where a weight loss camp comes in. During a weight loss retreat, you have a disciplined diet and accountability. That helps you focus on abstaining from bad habits which can break their control over you.
Find Strategies You Enjoy
The best way to lose weight and keep it off is to take the principles you learn in a weight loss camp setting and applying them to a healthy lifestyle. The most effective way to accomplish that is to find healthy foods and exercises that you enjoy. If you can barely stomach the taste of broccoli but you like spinach, you don’t have to force yourself to eat broccoli all the time.
Find alternatives you enjoy. If you like biking but hate running, ride your bike more than you run. At Live in Fitness, we believe in the personalized approach to fitness. While it’s good to be open minded, giving different healthy foods and activities a fair chance, finding the things you respond to the most is the key to living a healthy lifestyle
