Weight loss motivation is the foundation of all weight loss
success stories for women. Losing weight, and keeping it off, entails
more than just following a diet. Making significant changes in your
eating habits means giving up a lot of foods that may taste great, but
have no nutritional value. Steeling yourself to the task of making
healthy food selections to lose belly fat and thigh fat can only carry
you so far. Weight loss motivation takes on different forms as you move
to create a more positive lifestyle. I'll cover the stages that help you
make sensible choices to stimulate healthy weight loss.
Weight Loss Motivation - In the beginning...
Weight
loss motivation seems effortless when you first start a program to get
rid of belly fat. You have vivid visuals of how you want to look, you
like to discuss your goals and receive supportive feedback, and you feel
energized as the first several pounds come off easily.
This is a
wave you want to ride to the formation of new eating habits... not crash
and burn when you bump into a stubborn plateau. Weight loss success
stories for women are filled with caution during these first 5-6 days.
It is too easy to burnout after you come off this high. The main points
of focus are:
- Pick only one or two specific goals to
work on. (Getting sugar foods out of your diet... start a moderate
strength training program, etc.)
- Do NOT jump into slashing calories by fifty percent, or going bananas with cardio.
- Focus on gradual weight loss. 1-2 lbs. per week is fine...and it really adds up.
- Understand that it took time to put on a few extra pounds, and it will take time to get them off.
- Dieting is short-term and controlling. You are seeking to change your eating habits.
Weight Loss Motivation - When the going gets tough...
Appropriate
motivation is critical when the newness of your new lifestyle starts to
wear off and you can feel yourself being pulled back into your old
destructive habits. Yes, will power will be a needed element in some
cases, but you will be better off if you reframe situations and surround
yourself with people who share your goals, or have reached the spot
where you want to be.
First, start thinking like a slim person.
Many overweight women daydream about how delicious and satisfying a
rich, high-fat, high-carb snack will taste when they bite into it. A
slim person, however, often has flashes of how bloated and heavy they
will feel with the same snack just sitting in their stomach.
Second,
educate yourself to eat consciously. Be keenly aware of what you are
putting in your mouth at all times. Know what foods function to provide
lasting energy and help increase your metabolism naturally...and what
foods just taste delicious, but are easily converted into fat on your
waist and hips. Congratulate yourself for not eating carelessly and
mindlessly.
Third, making friends with slender, fit people who
practice positive lifestyle habits has been demonstrated by research to
help women write their own weight loss success story. In 2007, the
New England Journal of Medicine published findings that
weight gain can be contagious in tight social networks.
By
no means does this mean to shun and completely disengage from
overweight friends who do not share your fat loss goals, but expanding
your support network to include new friends that are following the path
you wish to stay on.
Weight loss motivation can be extrinsic as well as intrinsic.
Fourth,
know that losing weight is not linear...meaning that you may lose three
pounds a week for a month when you start a new program of regular
moderate exercise...then all of a sudden, only lose one. Instead of
panicking, congratulate yourself and understand your body is
adapting...new changes must be made. Do it gradually, there is no need
for extreme weight loss of any fashion. Restrictive
dieting, as opposed to making important and healthy lifestyle changes is a recipe for disaster.
Weight Loss Motivation - Staying on the path...
Please
know that weight loss success stories for women did not all run in
straight line. There will be false starts and times when you give in to
old habits that you sincerely wish to break. Be fair with yourself.
Unless you are a machine, you will not eat perfectly all the time.
If
you have been faithful in finding new ways to live healthy, seeking
progressive weight loss, and adopting a lifelong eating plan...you have
gotten to know yourself pretty well. You now have much more food
awareness than you did 6-8 weeks ago, you have become much more the
expert on YOU.
Be honest with some of the new friends you've made at the gym or in the park where you walk. Ask them how they overcame things.
Start
learning all you can about "emotional eating" and how to combat it.
Learn to eat when your body signals hunger, not when it signals stress.
(Easier said than done, at first, but you can do it!)
Look back on
where you started weeks ago and write down all of the positive changes
in your lifestyle and eating plan that have now been almost fully
integrated. Be sincerely thankful for what you have accomplished and
know that you will continue to find even more healthy ways of eating and
living.
Weight loss success stories for women are continually being written, and
weight loss motivation is continually evolving for those who want to look better, feel better, and make lifelong changes in their eating habits.