22 Oct How To Stay Motivated To Lose Weight
If you’ve been wondering how to stay motivated to lose weight when the journey feels tough you’re not alone.
You may feel frustrated that it’s taking so long, tired of doing all the work, and over trusting the process.
This is normal!!
The people who succeed with weight loss are the ones who stay the course.
The short term sacrifices will be worth it but only if you don’t give up.
How do you stay motivated to lose weight when you’re over it?
This article will help you.
How To Stay Motivated To Lose Weight
I know you probably want the fun workout or meal plan to try.
But if you struggle to stay motivated to lose weight, you need to focus on your mindset.
Achieving your goals doesn’t come down to motivation. It comes down to having the will to keep going no matter what.
Mindset mastery is the key to not giving up on your weight loss journey.
This starts with becoming more aware of your thoughts and separating them from your emotions.
You need to stop judging yourself and instead start challenging your thoughts.
It sounds simple but the simple things have the greatest impact.
Every client who I’ve helped lose weight has been too hard on themselves.
I’m guessing you are too.
That’s why you feel guilty after eating cake and frustrated when you can’t seem to stick to anything for long enough.
You feel disappointed in yourself more than proud.
Stop judging your behaviour. It doesn’t help you.
Instead start judging your thoughts. They’re directing the actions you choose to take.
Motivation For Your Weight Loss Journey
You have two types of thoughts: those that serve your goals, and those that don’t.
How do you challenge the thoughts that don’t support you when they’re so loud?
It takes consistent daily reinforcement.
You have to feed yourself new thoughts and over time you’ll be able to turn the volume up on these so they drown out the unhelpful thoughts.
It might sound silly but it works. Try it for yourself, you have nothing to lose.
In fact I’ll even give you some thoughts, I use these myself when I want to give up on my goals.
Here are 9 thoughts you can start feeding your brain daily:
There is progress happening in the unseen
There are lessons you need to go through that prep you to keep your results.
You need time to experience and integrate these.
They’re unique to your journey and come up as you go along.
They’ll seem so subtle or insignificant, it seems like nothing is happening. It is.
The invisible lessons are the most powerful and they’ll only make sense in retrospect.
It’s small bits of progress that add up to lasting results
It’s the progress you don’t want or care for that adds up to the best change.
Progress like improving your consistency, talking to yourself more kindly, choosing to do something you don’t feel like doing, having one less drink when you go out over the weekend, etc.
The small things are what will help you change for good.
If you don’t get to keep your result, you’ll have to go through the difficulties of achieving it all over again.
It can be hard now, or it can be hard later.
Be patient. It will be worth it.
The outcome is the vision but the goal is today
See the vision of where you’re going but don’t start comparing it to where you are now.
You’ll put yourself in lack mentality and when you’re there, you’ll end up getting more of that.
When you’re focused on the progress you haven’t made, you’ll continue to think you haven’t made enough.
That’s how you stay stuck.
You need to stay in the present. This is what you can control and will create the vision you want.
Every time your mind wonders, go into robot mode and laser focus on the actions you’ll take today.
It won’t be easy at first but it will help you keep going so you don’t give up too soon.
Better than expected results come without timelines
You only need to lose a couple of pounds so it should take a couple of weeks right?
What you really want is a body that looks tight and toned, and also makes you feel your best. You want results that last forever.
This involves fat loss and muscle gain, not just weight loss.
You can lose weight overnight and still have a soft body that feels weak.
For better than expected results you’re truly happy with, the process will take longer.
Realistically it will take as long as it takes. You shouldn’t even worry about this.
Timelines limit your results and only lead to disappointment.
Do you really want to feel disappointed again?
Let go of timing and accept it will take a long time.
When you do, you’ll get a better outcome than expected in a shorter time too.
What are you celebrating today?
It’s very easy to blow up the negatives.
Focusing on those will make you feel defeated which makes it harder to keep going.
When you catch yourself focusing on the negatives, turn them into something neutral, then find the positives to blow up instead.
It won’t always make you feel better in the moment, you might even have to force yourself to find some wins for the day.
No matter how small they are, there’s ALWAYS a win to find.
Celebrate something daily. It keeps you present and makes you feel more successful over time.
You’ll start to see more of the progress you are making and that’s how you get more of it.
This takes daily practice. You can’t just do it once and think it doesn’t work.
Challenge yourself to try it for a month and you’ll start to see for yourself.
Uncertainty and surrender allows for the best surprises
Trying to control the outcome causes unnecessary struggle.
If you’re trying to control the when and the how you’re chasing certainty and limiting yourself.
What if the universe has a better idea which you can’t plan for with your limited mind?
Surrender to the process. Let it happen how it’s meant to for you.
When you do, the process will unfold even better than you could’ve planned for.
Let yourself be surprised. It’s more fun.
Releasing makes space for peace
Get your thoughts and feelings out.
Vent to someone or vent to yourself. I like to do this when Im alone in the car, I’ll complain to the universe and get the frustration out of me. I also have an empty doc on my computer to release my thoughts.
Moving your body, letting yourself cry, pillow hitting- these are all ways to release emotions.
The faster you process your emotions rather than trying to dismiss or subdue them, the faster the next high will come.
When you’re in the depths of despair, remind yourself everything is temporary. It’s normal to go through waves of highs and lows.
It doesn’t mean anything is wrong with you or you’re not doing enough.
Progress is not linear and growth doesn’t happen without some growing pains.
Your deeper purpose is the light
Why did you start?
Sometimes this can be hard to pinpoint. Let it be superficial at first if that’s all that comes up.
What you’ll find, is there’s a deeper layer to explore.
For example, you might want to lose weight to look better but really you want to get healthy to be a good example for your kids, or to be around longer to watch them grow up.
When I don’t feel like showing up in my business I remember my purpose. I’m here to save the world from chronic disease and the universe supports me when I act in alignment with this purpose.
Zooming out to see the bigger picture gives me the boost I need to keep going even when it seems pointless. I’m not doing it for short term dopamine, Im doing it for a long term mission.
What are you really doing it for?
You’re your own biggest cheerleader
Instead of waiting for someone else to validate you, become your own cheerleader.
Yes it can be helpful to have someone supporting you when things get hard. But if you don’t, you’ve got this.
What version of yourself is cheering you on right now. Picture them in your head.
Think of future you who is happy with everything you’ve achieved.
You have to keep going and make that version of you proud.
Not Giving Up On Weight Loss
Come back and read these over and over again.
Stick them on your walls or fridge. The more you read them the more they’ll stick in your mind.
One last thing that might help you…
Remember the universe is listening
When I’m really down in the dumps and ready to give up I talk to the universe.
I ask for a sign that I’m meant to keep going. That things will get better if I do.
The universe is always listening and will answer.
Ask for a clear sign, then go about your day.
The sign won’t come immediately, although it can.
It will come when you’re not looking for it. Then you’ll suddenly remember you asked for it. You’ll know it’s for you.
That’s when you know you’re on the right path and you have to keep going.
Ps. When asking for signs the first thing that pops into your head is the sign. It doesn’t matter how random it is. In fact, the more random the better because it will be super clear when you do see it.. If you ask to see a tree then it won’t seem like it’s for you when you drive along and see so many trees along the street.
She Lose Weight Because She Kept Going
My client Rachel was losing motivation with her weight loss journey.
Even though she was doing everything right, the scale was fluctuating wildly!
She would get excited when it would go down, then feel defeated when it would bounce up again.
She wanted to quit multiple times. This was an endless cycle.
Overall she was looking leaner, but the scale wasn’t reflecting this.
I told her it was due to water retention, it didn’t make sense the scale was up.
She believed me and kept going.
One day she tried on a top and it felt tighter than usual.
This is when she really wanted to quit.
But she didn’t. She trusted me, she knew my support was helpful, so she kept going.
It wasn’t until we got to the bottom of her water retention, the scale weight dropped dramatically.
And it stayed down.
If she had of quit she would have stayed in the cycle of trying to lose weight, then giving up too soon and getting nowhere.
Also, the scale bouncing around wildly helped her learn how to detach from the number altogether.
Even though the process was frustrating, it ended up helping her. And it will for you too.
Finally…
It will feel like you’re forcing yourself at times. And that’s ok.
Mastering your mind is not easy.
Let yourself feel the emotions as they come up. Put that frustration into a strong workout. Release the tears of exhaustion.
Let yourself sit in a heap on your bed and give up for a minute.
Then come back.
Bring your mind back to what you have done well.
There is always something. You haven’t been putting in the work for no result at all.
The progress you are making is building to the outcome you want. Celebrate it all. There is no rush.
Remember, you wont get there by quitting. Giving up is never the answer unless you’re fully happy with where you’re at now.
If you need more support and accountability to stay on track with your weight loss journey, you can reach out for coaching here.