One of the toughest things about losing weight is staying motivated when the weight isn’t coming off as quickly as you’d like. Most of us know exactly how to lose weight, but it’s the mental game that trips us up. With that in mind, here are ten top tips to help you keep losing pounds and inches.
Get Some Support
One of the best ways to stay motivated is find a friend or a group of people to use as a support system. This effectively allows you to borrow their motivation when your own is running low, and vice versa.
Ignore the Scales
On one hand, you do need to weigh yourself occasionally to make sure you’re progressing. On the other hand, the normal daily fluctuations in weight can make you crazy and destroy your motivation.
Make a Bet
If you make a wager to do something you really don’t want to do, like eat a can of dog food or shave your head, you’re going to have plenty of motivation to eat the right foods or get out and exercise.
Eat Things You Enjoy
There’s no reason you should exclude everything you enjoy from your diet. This will only lead to cravings that will make it hard to stay motivated, so have foods you like as much as possible within the confines of your diet.
Do Exercise You Enjoy
There are an infinite number of ways to exercise, so if you dread getting up in the morning because you have to go run, don’t run. Find something you like to do and you won’t have to worry about drumming up the motivation to do it.
Practice Visualisation
Take some time each day and imagine yourself as you want to be, fixing the image in your mind for those times that you find yourself feeling less than enthused about diet and exercise.
Set Small Goals with Concrete Dates
One thing that saps motivation is having a goal that seems far away. Instead of focusing on the thirty pounds you need to lose, focus on losing five by a specific date.
Reward Yourself
Set up a system of rewards so that every time you hit one of your weight loss goals, you reward yourself in some way. Buy that pair of jeans you’ve wanted, or have some food that you’ve been holding off of eating.
Don’t Buy Food You Shouldn’t Eat
It’s a lot easier to eat right when temptation isn’t constantly looking you right in the face. One of the best ways to keep your motivation high is by making it easy to eat right, and this means not having the wrong foods around. This isn’t to say you can’t have certain foods, but don’t have them constantly around.
Find a Sport
You’re going to be a lot more motivated to eat right and exercise the way you know you should when you have a game or competition coming up. Be it tennis or a road race, having a sport can keep you working towards your goal even when you don’t really feel like it, which is what motivation is all about.
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