Ask yourself these two questions to stay motivated to eat healthy and lose weight
When you are trying to eat healthy and exercise on a consistent basis to lose weight, making the right decision isn’t always easy.
Sometimes moving forward can feel like such a struggle that it makes you want to give up altogether.
Losing weight requires so much more than simply knowing what to eat or how to exercise.
Beyond an effective method… a successful journey requires lots of motivation and willpower.
Weight loss consists of tons of situations where you must make a difficult and healthy choice.
In any given scenario you may have to overcome cravings, social pressure, emotional connections to food, the enticement of convenience, or long-ingrained traditions.
What it means to discover your “Why”
To discover your “Why” means to reveal and deeply connect with the thing that motivates you to improve your health more than anything else.
The best way to motivate yourself to eat healthy and lose weight is by unveiling what it is that excites you and drives you forward the most.
Of course there are many different reasons to lose weight, and many rewards to look forward to after reaching our goals… but due to each of our individual personalities and circumstances, there should be one that stands out above the rest as the most moving and powerful image or dream of the future you.
Finding your “Why” is incredibly important for long-term weight loss for several reasons.
-It’s at the core of what causes us to take action and continue doing so until we reach our goal
-When you are ready to find your why, it suggests you are confident in your method for weight loss, and simply need the motivation to follow through.
-It’s fun discovering what’s important to you, and when you do, things get easier
The two most important questions
Asking yourself these 2 questions will keep you focused on what’s important to you when making healthy decisions gets hard, and motivate you to continually work towards your goals.
Answering these questions will put things in perspective again, so that you can call upon the feeling that made you want to start losing weight, and give meaning to making healthy additions and giving up unhealthy things you crave.
The great things that you want for yourself in the future will be kept at the front of your mind, overpowering the smaller more immediate desires you may have that keep you from losing weight.
1) “What is it that I want more than anything else?”
When I talk with people about how to reach their goals, and we dig deeper into what is holding them back, the conversation goes quickly from foods and exercise, to motivation. And when it comes to weight loss motivation, it always comes down to what each of us wants more than anything in the world.
Nobody feels motivated ALL of the time.
But with some deep thinking and periodic consideration, you can identify and connect with the thing that motivates you more than anything, and BE more motivated for the long run.
There are a wide array of things to be excited for after a successful weight loss transformation.
-Having more physical and mental energy
-Being more attractive in the dating world
-Prolonged health and improved quality of life
-Being able to be more active with your children
-Having the physical ability to actually go out and do more
-Being more socially confident
-Simply feeling amazing about the way you look and feel, inside and out.
All of these things are deeply and highly motivating, but you may be surprised to find that whichever one means the most to you has more motivational power all by itself then by adding them all together and constantly thinking of them all.
2) “Do I want my next decision to lead me towards my dream, or away from it?”
The answer is obvious, right? Well, when you ask yourself outright, it is.
When you keep that thing you want the most in mind, and associate making healthy choices with moving towards that thing, what you should do to succeed not only becomes clear… but it is actually easier to do because of what you are looking forward to.
When you are choosing vegetables and chicken over ordering pizza, don’t just tell yourself that it’s because you are trying to lose weight, tell yourself that you are making one more step towards your specific dream.
Be completely honest about what you want the most
When you have chosen and connected with the thing that you truly want above all else, you’ll know that you have picked something completely true to you and the way you feel, by the deep feeling of motivation that you get.
Don’t pick something because logic or society tells you that it “should be” the most important.
Choose the thing that calls out to you most and evokes the most hopeful and exciting emotions.
What feels the most important, and what is the most important are two separate things.
Most people at first, including myself, felt tempted to say that their “why” is driven by internal health, and for many of you that may be true which is an incredible thing to focus on, if it fits how you really feel… but for a lot of people they are simply choosing what they feel they should, and really avoiding the thing they want the most.
Just because internal health is the absolute most important result to arise from losing weight, it doesn’t mean that it’s the thing that motivates you most, and it doesn’t have to be.
Here is why.
One path leads you to all of the destinations
Choosing to focus on one motivational source over the other doesn’t change anything about all of the benefits you get to experience after reaching your goals.
If you’re motivated to lose weight by romance and not so much by internal health, you still get to experience the rewards of both after succeeding.
Whatever your “Why” is, let that one thought of it lead you to all of the amazing rewards waiting for you after becoming thin, healthy, and strong.
Stay connected and confident
Your driving reason needs to be strong, and your mental connection with it needs to be just as strong.
Finding your “Why” isn’t just something that happens with five minutes of thinking, and then stays with you without revisiting the thought…
It may take a whole day to unveil what’s truly important to you, and it takes ongoing thought to stay connected and excited about your dream.
When you find yourself in any situation where you are struggling to make the right and healthy choice, regain your clarity and perspective in what you want and what you should do to get it by vividly remembering your “Why”.
Attaching this reason to your decision will not only lead you to make the right choice, but will make you feel much better and less stressed about doing so.
It’s all about making your journey meaningful, which removes the feeling that weight loss is a burden, and replaces it with genuine excitement for making healthy changes.
Discovering your why 6-part series:
This is such an important topic that I have decided to write a whole series of articles on the different reasons that motivate us to start losing weight, and that are powerful enough to keep us on track for the long run.
Sign up to my email list below and I’ll send you a free 8 week diet and exercise plan that you can follow to start losing weight today!
This is part 1 of the discovering your why series. Here is the entire series:
Part 1- The Strongest Motivation for Weight Loss
Part 4- For attraction and love
Part 5- For improved physical ability
Want to read even more about “finding your why”? Check out this other article that talks about the concept of finding your deepest source of motivation.
