Knowing how to increase your motivation to lose weight can be the key to start losing weight and achieve the physical state you want. If you are reading this article it is likely that you have been trying to lose weight for a long time but have not obtained results.
When you try hard and don't get results, the most common is to get discouraged. After this demotivation, your performance decreases, which leads to worse results and in the end you end up abandoning, returning to your previous habits and renouncing the effort you did before, whether with diet or exercise. Effort + few results = demotivation.
Normally the constant effort gives its positive results, so don't give up. If you have been seeing a few months and have not seen results, it is advisable that you miss something and have to visit a specialist. However, the two keys to losing weight are eating and exercising constantly.Tips to create motivation to lose weight
See the benefits
It is very important that you are able to see the reason for your effort to lose weight. That is, you have to be aware that losing weight will help you be healthy and look more attractive. In turn, this will allow you to feel better about yourself or even like more people of the opposite sex.
When you wake up in the morning and think that you have to be on a diet and exercise, also think about the consequences of that. Visualize the condition you want to be in. That will make you motivate and find a reason for the effort you will make.
For example: visualize that you are walking and feel good, you look attractive because you are fit.
If you stay in the effort that you have to make and do not visualize the benefits, you will be discouraged because your brain will only experience effort and not the pleasant sensations associated with your visualization; have an attractive physique, feel good, be fit ...
Make a commitment
One of the best ways to increase motivation and persevere to achieve goals is to commit.
You can do it with yourself, writing a letter or a simple phrase like:
«I promise to lose 22 lb in the next 6 months».
You can also do it with your partner, children, parents or any close person. The latter can work very well; If you tell someone what you want to achieve, you may feel "committed" to fulfilling what you have said.
Don't compare yourself
Comparing yourself will only lead to demotivation. You are totally different from other people. Some will be more attractive and thinner, others will not. In any case, all people are valuable.
Focus on yourself and your results and avoid comparing yourself to other people.
Rest well
To lose weight there are two fundamental points: food and physical exercise. In both you can take a break from time to time.
With food, once a week you can treat yourself, like eating pizza or chocolate (in moderation). Regarding physical exercise, it is about an hour 4-5 times a week. It is not advisable that you run out going to the gym daily.
Having rest is essential to continue having motivation to lose weight. In these days of rest, get rewards if you are really trying to lose weight, such as going to the movies, seeing a friend you like, doing a favorite hobby ...
Set goals
If you set goals, you will know what to do and if you know what to do you will not waste time.
Objectives are a way of focusing the brain on the actions that are necessary to achieve something. On the other hand, the objectives that you mark cannot be too complicated (because you will be discouraged if you do not get them), or too simple (because you will not be taking advantage of your full potential).
In addition to knowing what you have to do, I recommend that you make another list of all the things you don't have to do to lose weight. Put it in a visible place and don't forget it.
Reward yourself
Like any other achievement, losing weight may require perseverance and you will have to work hard. However, you can also enjoy the process. Your goal is to lose weight, although on the way to it you can also enjoy.
When you get small achievements; How to lose a lb , give yourself a prize. This will make your behavior, the effort you are making to lose weight, be reinforced and repeated again in the future.
How to reward yourself? Of course, not with something that makes you gain weight. It must be something you like; Watch a movie, go for a walk, buy clothes, go out with your friends ...
Punish yourself (moderately)
If you skip the diet or do not exercise you will also need to put a "little punishment." That will make it less likely for you to do that negative behavior that does not lead you to meet your goals.
If, for example, you have not been in the gym for a week, punish yourself without doing something that you usually do and that is pleasant for you; go to the movies, go out with your friends ...
On the other hand, it is important that you keep in mind that the punishment does not work as well as the reinforcement (give yourself a prize). Therefore, use the prizes more when you do something that leads you to lose weight.
Don't be a perfectionist
Perfectionism will only waste your time and not take action. If you want to make everything perfect, you will have to be all the conditions to do a certain action and in the end you do not proceed to anything. Try to always improve, but don't look to be perfect.
If for example you perceive eating a small candy as a great failure, you are more likely to give up and destroy your self-esteem. If you consider it as a small mistake that you have to learn and not commit again, you will continue to persevere in your goal of losing weight.
Take care of your self-esteem
Above all, take care of the internal critical voice that transmits negative and destructive thoughts about you. Try to be aware of those thoughts, eliminate them and replace them with positive thoughts.
The critical voice is the one that throws you thoughts like: "you will never lose weight", "so much effort is useless".
Those thoughts destroy your self-esteem. Become aware of them and change them for more constructive ones: "I am slowly losing weight and in the end I will see results", "the effort is worth it".
Evaluate your progress without obsessing yourself
It is necessary to evaluate progress, that way you will know what you are doing well, what you are doing wrong and what you need to change.
You can do it simply by weighing yourself in the balance of your gym or your home and pointing out those results that you can see every so often. When you see them, you will be motivated because you will see that your effort is having its rewards and positive results.
But don't get obsessed; If, for example, you look in the mirror continuously to see if you are losing weight, you will not see the changes because these changes occur very little by little and in the short term they are almost imperceptible.
However, if you evaluate the results every week and have worked hard, you will see those changes clearly and therefore your motivation will increase.
Expect some weight gain
If you are losing weight by going to the gym, at first you may experience some weight gain.
This is simply because you will be gaining bodybuilding and the same volume of protein (muscles) weighs more than the same volume of fat. After a few days, the weight will fall again because you will be losing that excess fat you had.
The habituation happens little by little
Habits are simply forms of behavior that we have adopted, but what we call bad habits (smoking, drinking) are as easy to adopt as good habits.
Yes, bad habits are also gradually adopted and at first they are not pleasant: did you like it the first time you smoked? As a child you liked beer or alcohol in general?
Therefore, to adopt the good habit of exercising and taking care of your diet, you will have to go slowly and with effort. After a period of adaptation to your new way of life, your body will have become accustomed and it will be difficult for you to get rid of these new healthy habits.
If for example you want to start eating better, don't try to do it all. Gradually introduce healthy foods into your diet.
If you want to start running to lose weight, start for a short time a day. For example, with 10-15 minutes a day. Then you can go up little by little.
