Most of us begin our weight loss journey with an amazing amount of motivation, willpower, and focus.
At first we feel on top of the world, as if nothing could shake the confidence that we have in our future selves… but somewhere along the way we often lose our steam, and that powerful feeling of motivation slips away.
Staying motivated is one of the parts of weight loss that people struggle with more than anything else, even when they are doing all of the right things.
You know what you need to do to succeed… but all of a sudden sticking to your efforts consistently becomes incredibly difficult as your feeling of motivation comes and goes as life happens.
The simplest task such as working out for a few minutes, can seem daunting without that drive to change yourself that comes from deep within.
Feeling unmotivated can cause you to slow down in your journey, or even give up sometimes… as without that powerful feeling of willpower, pushing forward can seem impossible.
A lot of people feel like there is nothing that can be done about lacking motivation, as if it were simply a trait that was determined by personality and life circumstance.
But motivation is something that you can learn to generate for yourself on a more frequent and consistent basis, and is a mindset that you can sharpen like a skill.
I know from personal experience how crippling a lack of motivation can be/feel… and on the other side of the card I also know how great it feels to be driven in times of high motivation. This is why I invest so much time and energy in developing a deep sense of motivation.
When motivation leaves me, instead of waiting for it to come back, I take a step back and figure out how to re-fuel the fire. Even when I am already feeling motivated, I spend time motivating myself with positive thoughts because I want them to last as long as possible.
Once you learn how to stay motivated to eat healthy and lose weight with consistency, then your success will become certain and you will be able to push forward until you have attained the fitness level that you dream of.
That being said, everyone who goes through a significant transformation will at one point lose their momentum and have to rely on discipline for a while.
I have been there many times, and although struggle can’t always be avoided, you can greatly change the way that you think and react during difficult times on your weight loss journey, and ultimately enable yourself to stay on track until you reach your goals and solidify your healthy habits into your lifestyle.
Below are excellent and also important ways to stay motivated when you are trying to lose weight, that helped me succeed with long-term weight loss, and can help you do the same if you take the time to embrace them.
Remember the amazing things to come
One of the best ways to stay motivated to eat healthy and lose weight is to constantly remind yourself of the rewards that lay ahead of you if you stay consistent with your efforts.
When you’re having a hard time making a healthy decision or staying on track in general, tell yourself that pushing forward is not just something that you need to do, but something that will lead you directly to the lifestyle/body that you want.
Believe in yourself and your ability to change, and the fact that achieving your goals will bring the happiness and excitement that you hope for.
Just imagine yourself being thinner, lighter, stronger, and more confident!
Make your journey meaningful
For a deeper, stronger, and longer-lasting sense of motivation, you can connect your mind with a more specific vision of the future you.
Among the many amazing rewards that come with a successful weight loss transformation, most of us have one thing in our heart / mind that we want more than anything else.
It’s incredibly motivating to look forward to all of the different benefits you will experience after losing weight, but focusing on the one thing that drives you forward more than anything else and letting it become your primary source of mental motivation is the absolute best way to stay motivated and focused for long-term weight loss.
In the fitness world, it’s called finding your why, which is to say discovering your deepest source of motivation.
Take some time to think about what it is that stands out in your mind above all the other rewards of getting in shape. What is it that compels you to improve yourself more than any of the other things that you think about?
For some people this source of motivation is already at the forefront of their mind, and all they need to do is simply embrace it on a continual basis.
But for some people, unraveling this motivation is something that takes time and lots of deep thought.
It may take a couple hours of deep thought just to find your “why” the first time… but remember to always keep your vision fresh in your mind and close to your heart, so that it can always be there as a source of strength.
The key is to be honest with yourself, and to embrace whatever honestly excites you the most, and not necessarily the thing that “should” excite you the most.
Perhaps it’s related to health… confidence… love… physical ability… or your children.
Whatever it is that drives you to improve yourself the most, let it be your unstoppable source of energy, willpower, and motivation on your weight loss Journey!
Don’t pressure yourself to be perfect
An important part of retaining the motivation that you already have, is not deflating it with the troublesome feeling of needing to be perfect.
It’s common to feel confident and super motivated when you are doing well.
But if you expect too much out of yourself and giving in to your cravings or missing a workout totally stops your momentum and makes you feel like giving up… then STAYING motivated will be very difficult.
However if you give yourself a little bit of room to breathe and realize that you can still lose lots of weight by being consistently IMPERFECT, then you will find it much easier to remain confident and motivated about reaching your weight loss goals.
So many people including myself, have had the unfortunate experience of starting a healthy diet and exercise routine with such intensity and high expectations… that they cannot sustain their routine for long enough to see the results add up even though their methods were on point.
Where in reality if you strive to eat healthy 80% of the time (or for 80% of your consumption) then you will be able to reach your major weight loss goals. It’s called the 80/20 rule, and is a very effective ratio to focus on when trying to eat healthy most of the time.
More importantly, you don’t even have to start off by eating healthy 80% of the time. When you begin your journey where your normal eating habits are mostly unhealthy all of the time, then you can make a gigantic impact on beginning to reduce your weight with simply one healthy meal per day.
The key is to continually keep improving your diet, so that your body is always receiving less and less calories and more and more nutrients. This will lead you to stress-free, hunger-free weight loss.
Set a series of goals
Your ultimate goal and how you envision yourself at your ideal weight/physique, is no doubt the most important and powerfully motivating “carrot” that is in front of you.
But if this is the only goal that you think about then the thought of how long it might take to reach it can sometimes seem daunting and make it hard to stay motivated and to stay on track when you are trying to lose weight.
It’s also Incredibly motivating to have a series of progressive goals, which will give you the opportunity to always have an attainable goal to look forward to in the near future.
There are so many rewards that you will get to enjoy as you transform yourself… and you get to experience them not just when you reach your end goal, but along the way as well.
The more weight that you currently have to lose, the more your body and life will transform for the better and the more you will appreciate your newfound health.
A motivational quote that I like to say for losing weight, is “The more you have to lose, the more you stand to gain.”
Don’t just think about what life will be like when you are at your ideal weight, think of the many transformations you will go through and how much you will enjoy improving along the way.
If you have 100 pounds to lose, look forward to losing the first 5, and then 10, 20, 50… all of these milestones are incredible accomplishments that each yield truly exciting results.
-Your belly starts to get smaller
-You become more confident
-People give you complements
-You can do things you could not before
-Your health improves
-You feel lighter on your feet
-Every part of you starts getting thinner
-Your face thins out too!
-You start to realize you are going reach your ultimate goal
-You feel more awake and energized throughout the day
-You keep fit into smaller clothes
The list of amazing things that happen when you lose weight goes on and on, so look forward to all of the rewards for your hard work along your path to a slimmer, healthier version of you.
Track and celebrate your progress
Keeping track of your progress is a great way to continually feel motivated and excited about what you have accomplished, what you are currently doing to improve yourself, and the many additional amazing things to come.
Recognize and celebrate the progress that you make in every different way, so that you can always see that the healthy and often difficult decisions that you have been making are making an actual positive difference.
Having this visible connection between what you are putting in and what you are getting out of your efforts, will make staying motivated to eat healthy, workout, and ultimately lose weight, much easier!
Be excited about every little improvement, because the little things are what add up quickly to yield a huge, life-changing result.
There are so many ways that you can see and track yourself improving.
Of course tracking your actual weight is an important one. Remember that when you lose 2 pounds per week, it adds up to 104 pounds in one year. So allow small amounts of weight lost each week to be a very exciting accomplishment for you.
Also, remember that when it comes to weighing yourself you can overdo it if you expect the scale to show a smaller weight every single time.
I suggest tracking your weight on a weekly basis, and limiting how many times you weigh yourself throughout that week so that you are more often happily surprised by the difference when you step on the scale, and less often negatively affected by unexpected fluctuations in the day that could be caused by water weight.
But weighing yourself is just one of the ways that you can see and appreciate your progress.
As you lose weight you will love how your clothing sizes reduce, how much thinner you look in the mirror, how much farther you can walk without burning out, and lots of other ways that your body and life will improve after getting in shape.
The improvement of your eating habits and diet content are great things to track, a to appreciate your progress.
You can also track how your physical ability improves, by tracking how many reps you can do with bodyweight exercises, how much more weight you can lift, or how long you can cycle or jog. Seeing yourself gain strength, stamina, speed, and skill in these areas will bring a great feeling of accomplishment.
As you add more and more healthy foods and meals into your day, and as you remove unhealthy foods from your diet… taking note of how much healthier your current eating habits are today than they were before will give you pride, and willpower to continue your journey until you have reached your ideal weight!
Want to dive deeper into getting motivated for weight loss? Try the weight loss motivation center! It has quotes and articles that are focused specifically on motivation, to help you stay strong while you are losing weight.
If you want to start making healthy changes in your life today and begin your transformation with healthy eating/exercise, then sign up for the 8-Week Weight Loss Challenge. The challenge has a healthy eating plan and an exercise plan that will help you build healthy habits gradually, week by week.
Sign up to my email list below and I’ll send you your free copy right away, or you can read more about the 8-week challenge here.
