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Showing posts with label keep motivated to lose weight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label keep motivated to lose weight. Show all posts

Friday, 9 January 2015

Self Motivation - To Lose Weight & Exercise




Without effective weight loss motivation skills, diets and failure often become synonymous. 

The relationship between weight gain and fad diets creates a vicious cycle that can be incredibly disheartening.
However, with the appropriate weight loss motivation skills, you can turn your weight around - permanently! 


Develop A Realistic Perspective 

A powerful weight loss motivation skill involves developing a realistic perspective about your goals. Even if your high school reunion is around the corner, it is not feasible for you to drop two sizes in only two weeks. Medical experts suggest that a healthy pace of weight loss is two pounds per week. Remember, approximately 3500 calories create one pound of weight, and you either need to burn an extra 3500 calories or refrain from ingesting 3500 calories to lose one pound. Being realistic about your weight loss progress will help keep you on the right track. 


Remember Your Past 


One of the most important weight loss motivation skills is remembering your past, and deciding not to repeat it. Think about your past and your lifestyle habits that led you to this point. Chances are that the life you lived was unhealthy, causing you to gain weight. When you keep the past in perspective, you can avoid making the same mistakes. Instead, you judge your progress by how far you have come from your past lifestyle. 


Reward Your Accomplishments 


Weight loss is a journey, and you must reward yourself along the way. Even if your goal is to lose 50 pounds, you can reward yourself each time you lose five pounds. Your rewards should not be food related, but something else that you hold valuable. You can reward yourself with a massage or perhaps a new candle. Or you can simply enjoy a quiet afternoon gardening. When you reward your accomplishments, you give yourself further weight loss motivation to stay on the right track. 




Overcome Your Demons 

In many instances, there is a direct correlation with weight and emotional demons. Emotional eating is one of the most prevalent causes of weight gain. Overcoming your emotional demons is a critical weight loss motivation skill. Do you eat when you are stressed out from work? Do you reach for a cookie because your significant other hurt your feelings? When you can identify your emotional eating habits, you develop a weight loss motivation skill that will hopefully prompt you to go to the gym, instead of the refrigerator, to take out your frustration. 


 Focus On Yourself 

The most important weight loss motivation skill has to do with yourself! The most powerful way to lose weight is to achieve your goals for yourself, and no one else. Hoping to lose 15 pounds to impress your boyfriend or to reignite the flames with your wife is not sufficient weight loss motivation. Instead, the weight loss motivation should come from within, you should lose weight to live a healthier life and to feel great about yourself. 


Stay Positive 

Even those with adamant self-control veer from the course occasionally. An important weight loss motivation skill is to stay positive, even when you falter. If you are too harsh on yourself for eating an extra brownie, chances are that you will feel guilty, sabotaging your entire effort to live a healthier lifestyle. By forgiving yourself when you make mistakes and staying positive, you create a path to a healthier weight. 

By honing and strengthening your weight loss motivation skills, you can achieve your goals and enjoy a healthier lifestyle!









Saturday, 13 December 2014




If losing pounds is as easy as journalling about what you put in your mouth, can you use the same technique to help you stick to a fitness routine?

Dieters who keep a food diary lose twice as much weight as those who kept no records, according to a recent study by Kaiser Permanente’s Centre for Health Research. But while keeping a journal holds you more accountable for how you treat your body, sticking to a fitness routine is different from sticking to a healthy eating routine. Personal trainers we talked to recommend these tactics to keep you motivated and inspired to work out.

1. Change Your Perspective

Shift your thinking from couch potato mentality to thinking like an athlete. This may sound like a big challenge, but it’s not as big a leap as you think. Essex, Massachusetts mother April Bowling, 33, stopped using her busy life as an excuse not to exercise. After the birth of her children (now ages 5 and 3), Bowling started viewing exercise as a way to set a strong example for her kids.
Bowling started thinking about her workouts at odd hours as a blessing rather than a sacrifice. She also found inspiration in others, looking outward for extra motivation. “Take inspiration from everyone you meet."

2. Set a Goal

There’s nothing more motivating, sometimes even scary, than that first 5K looming in bold letters on the calendar. Register early and commit to an exercise program that will get you in shape by race day.
“Set realistic goals that include clear milestones, and as you progress toward your goal, you’ll find a ripple effect occurs and things fall into place in your work, home life and health,” says Stacy Fowler, a Denver-based personal trainer and life coach.

The goal doesn't even have to be an organized race. Maybe it’s a mission to fit into that bikini by the annual beach vacation or that old pair of jeans buried in your closet. Whatever it is is, define it, write it down and revisit it daily.
Make sure it’s realistic and you can actually adapt your life around meeting the goal, says Philip Haberstro, executive director of the National Association for Health and Fitness in Buffalo, N.Y. 

3. Schedule a Regular Workout Time

Some of the most committed exercisers do it every day before the sun comes up or late at night when the kids are in bed. Sit down with your weekly schedule and try to build in an hour each day to be good to your body.

Tamira Cole, 24, a graduate student in Clarksville,Tenn., was motivated to exercise regularly by the energy boost it brought to her day. “It’s easy to stay in bed. But you have to set an alarm and take the extra initiative,” she says. “Then you’ll find you have more energy and can be more efficient throughout the day.”

If you convince yourself you’ll fit in a workout some time after that last meeting, once the kids go down for a nap or when your spouse arrives home on time, failure is certain. Chances are a last-minute invitation will come along; weather will foil a bike ride; or the kids won’t nap. Write your workout on your calendar, set up daycare, and rearrange things around this one hour as if were any other important appointment you have to keep.

4. Think Fun and Variety

By nature, humans need change and variety to stay motivated. We also need to have fun, even while we’re working hard. 

Whether it’s a toning and sculpting class that changes choreography every week or a trail run that changes scenery every season, design your exercise routine around a variety of exercise methods. Make sure you include activities you truly enjoy and look forward to doing. Think movement that's more like recreation and makes you forget you're working out, like dancing, hula hooping or playing sports with family and friends.

Workout variety also challenges your body in unique ways, which may introduce you to new muscle groups you didn't even know you had!

5. Reach Out to Others for Support

In America, some tend to have trouble asking for help, says Bowling. Yet in order to stick to a fitness program, we need buy-in and encouragement from other people.
“Exercising is built into our family life," Bowling adds. “We view it as a necessity. Sometimes it takes the place of watching TV together.”

For others, it’s finding a friend with a shared zest for running, and planning scheduled workouts together. It’s easy to hit the snooze button when it’s just you, but much harder to leave a friend waiting at the track.

Consider joining a social networking site or on-line community with fitness trainers and nutrition experts, and support from other people trying to lose weight and maintain healthy eating and exercise routines. People who get this kind of on-line support are proven to lose three times more weight than people going it alone.

So start thinking of yourself as an athlete, and not a spectator. Set a goal, enlist a friend, mark it on your calendar and have some fun. You’ll be setting yourself up for a lifetime of better health, more happiness, and more energy for everything else in your life.