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Showing posts with label keep motivated to exercise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label keep motivated to exercise. 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!









Wednesday, 7 January 2015

Beat The Pain - Train Your Mind!





We have seen this video before, but it's the start of a New Year and this short video really sums up the attitude you need if you want to be successful on your weight loss journey.

Managing and excepting pain in any form is the key. At some stage, at what ever level you are training at you will experience pain. It's how you handle this pain, which will inevitably determine whether you succeed or fail.  

Your body can and will adapt to most things, the key is if your mind wins the battle and forces you to give up, sit down, take a break or stop exercising altogether! You must train your mind as well as your body, when it hurts keep going, when really hurts keep going!

You only stop when physically you have nothing left, you then rest, regroup and go again. It will get easier, you will get fitter and stronger. The more you train the better you become, the more your mind will be able to accept, until one day you smash the barrier, and exercising is fun!! 






Monday, 8 December 2014

Getting Started & Keeping Going


You know that you want to look and feel fitter and healthier! 


You know that you will feel better after a workout, yet you just can't bridge the gap between lying on the sofa, thinking about exercise and actually doing it. "Knowing what is good for you and wanting to do it is, alone, not sufficient to make sustainable behaviour changes," says Dr Falko Sniehotta, a psychologist at the University of Aberdeen. "The proverb, 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions', is backed up by science. There is often a substantial gap between our intentions and our behaviour."

Ten top tips to boost your motivation

Take 10 Make a deal with yourself to do 10 minutes and you will probably end up completing a full workout.

Get your kit on Get up or go home and put on your workout clothes. Once they are on, you'll feel you may as well make use of them.

Distract yourself Research at San Diego State University suggests that most novice exercisers do better when chatting to a friend, listening to music or watching television.

Psych yourself up Listening to uplifting music before and during exercise can be beneficial.

Phone a friend "A workout buddy gives you a moral obligation to turn up, introduces an element of rivalry to push you harder and offers feedback, support and fun," says sports psychologist Costas Karageorghis.

Get a gadget Equipment that allows you to monitor your progress - such as heart rate monitors, pedometers and the Nike + Sports Kit (which monitors pace and distance) can help. Research by the Walking the Way to Health Initiative found that people who wore pedometers over a 12-week period ended up walking an extra 1,000 steps daily.

Make it bite-size Focus only on the moment and before you know it, you'll be cooling down.

Imagine it Visualisation is a very powerful mental strategy, but be careful. "If you see yourself sprawled on the sofa, feeling guilty about not being at the gym, your mind will take on board those negative feelings," says exercise coach Amelia Watts. "Better to visualise yourself exercising and feeling good. See yourself on the home stretch of a run - imagine how good you feel, what you might hear, smell and see when you put your key in the door."

Get minted As far-fetched as it might seem, research in the Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology found that sniffing peppermint resulted in increased running speed, hand grip strength and number of push-ups performed in a test.

Bribe yourself "Token reward systems work well," says Karageorghis. "Set yourself rewards for achieving stages along the way."