Improving Your Weight Loss Motivation: 4 Tips

by: KurtSchmitt
Total views: 20 | Word Count: 420

Even if you're ready for a dramatic life change, maintaining your weight loss motivation can be a challenge. If you follow a number of rules, however, you'll find renewed motivation as you move toward your goals. We'll discuss four of them below.

Measure progress -- Do you know your personal numbers? Do you know your weight, your measurements, your cholesterol levels and blood pressure? If not, let's start here. Know your weight, but never weigh more than once a week. Ask your doctor to perform lab work and record your information for comparison purposes.

It is also important that you know your measurements. Be as precise as possible and record the measurements for your upper arms, hips, chest, waist, and thighs. Repeat this process every 2-4 weeks and compare your results. A loss of even a fraction of an inch is something to celebrate!

Keeping a log -- The next rule we're going to discuss may be the most important one of all. Keep a journal! Recording your personal numbers as well as the food you eat and the activity your perform will have a huge payoff.

This journal is essential to your lifestyle change in many ways. It is the perfect spot for you to keep track of the emotional aspect of weight loss. What are you feeling when you have the urge to overeat? Is there a behavior you could substitute for eating that would satisfy that need?

Research it -- One of the most helpful rules for weight loss motivation is to do your research! Read books about dieting and browse the Internet for appropriate websites. Learn the food pyramid guidelines and be able to recognize proper portion sizes.

Start recording interesting weight loss, exercise, and dieting facts in your journal to keep them accessible. Reading a new twist on something you already know can be very motivating.

Know your outcome -- Finally, weight loss motivation requires you to have a vision. You must be able to "see" yourself the way you'd like to be. Spend a little time each day meditating or reflecting on how you would like to reinvent yourself.

Visualize the smallest details. This is not about saying, "I want to lose 20 pounds." This is about visualizing the journey to that goal. What will it take to get there?

Following these four simple rules that we've discussed will help your motivation remain at its peak. The dramatic lifestyle change that you covet will become possible and you'll find that the journey becomes pleasurable as your confidence grows.