While many people want to look better, and feel better too, getting there is quite a battle for the majority of us. We don’t just need to increase muscle mass, but we also need to lose weight in the form of fat. Building muscle is a much easier feat for many. It’s losing weight that is the hard part.
Losing weight is a lot harder because, quite simply, it’s more complicated.
Your level of weight loss motivation has a lot to do with how successful you are at achieving your goals. Keeping your motivation levels high is something that has to be done constantly, in addition to diet and avoidance of high calorie foods, and eating well-balanced meals.
Exercising is also extremely important when dieting. Gaining muscle can easily be done at the gym, at home, with friends at the park or beach, and has many more options, many of which are more ‘entertaining’ than watching what you eat.
Because of this, gaining muscle can keep a person’s interest for a longer period of time than trimming fat and losing weight.
One thing to note, though, is that muscle weighs more than fat does, so if you are weight training and building muscle mass, your weight reduction may seem like it is slower than someone else’s results if they are only dieting. But, chances are good that you will look better faster if you do both.
Here are ten ways to help anyone stay motivated on their journey to reduce their weight by reducing the amount of fat they are carrying on their body:
#1. Looking into the Mirror
It’s easier to keep weight loss going when you know how it is affecting your appearance. Barring an episode of crying-’til-you’re-puffy look, in the morning, you should take a good look at yourself. Weight gain, or loss, shows up in your face, too.
If you have a full-length mirror, taking a critical and honest look at yourself can really get you motivated for the entire day to stick to your diet. As the weeks go by, you’ll see yourself showing progress by a slimmer image reflecting back at you.
This is increasingly motivating, which is a motivating tactic you can use everyday, and an encouraging one, too. Don’t be too hard on yourself at first, though!
#2. Make a Progress Chart
Using a digital scale, you can record your daily weight loss. Be honest, don’t skip when you think you might have gained some weight because of indulging in a special treat with friends.
Make a chart, and record the day, the new weight, and the difference between today and yesterday’s weight. Using a digital scale is important because many times weight loss is less than a pound.
Also, always use the same spot on the floor to weight yourself, and wear the same robe (or weigh yourself nude) to keep things like soft or weak spots in the carpet padding or floorboards from altering your scale’s reading. Bathroom floors are notorious for having such spots, and avoiding them can help you get an accurate reading each time.
#3. Join Up With Friends, a Group, or Start Your Own Group
Joining a group to increase your level of fitness can work miracles for your motivation level. Friends, or classmates, can help encourage you through their words, and their results. Seeing others losing weight is a good way to help you want to keep up with the mini-crowd.
If you don’t show up to a class, you can be sure you’ll be asked why you weren’t there for the last one. Knowing you’ll be missed can help you get out the door and on your way to class, too.
Weight loss motivation is often a goal for many class instructors, too. The better ones will help their students learn healthy eating tips in addition to the fitness tips and skills they are sharing with you.
#4. Make Sure Your Goals are Both Realistic and Reachable
Set goals for yourself that are small markers toward your final goal of what you lose. Don’t set one major goal alone! Make it so that you can achieve a goal of two or three pounds lost in six weeks, or something similar. When you lose more than that, you’ll be super-motivated to continue and lose even more.
If you make the common mistake of only setting your final goal, you’re sure to be disappointed. This is because you’re not going to be rewarding yourself with small achievements along the way, and attaining those smaller goals are often vital to weight loss.
#5. Think of Losing Fatty Tissue like You do About Money
Just like you notice that money spent on small things can quickly add up, losing weight can also slowly (but surely) add up, too.
When you’ve spent a dollar on an extra item when shopping, and then saw a great deal on hand soap priced at $2, and then another item you just have to have that is only going to cost you $3.50, you’ve added more than $6.50 to your total shopping experience (don’t forget taxes!) that you weren’t expecting to have when you first walked into the store.
Weight loss is very similar to that. You don’t think that half a pound is much, but if you lost half a pound through diet changes and exercising every two days, that would be more than a pound and a half a week.
Also, one thing you must know that will help increase your level of weight loss motivation. Muscle burns fat. The more muscle you build, the more quickly you’ll lose weight that is caused by excess fat. So the more fit you become, the higher those returns are going to be for you on the scale.
#6. Losing Weight can Lead to a Fatter Bank Account
A future increase in your bank account can be a huge motivator when you are trying to lose weight. It isn’t just because you’ll find yourself buying fewer snack and treats, but also because you lower your chances of developing many different diseases that can be caused or exacerbated by being overweight.
Many disease are covered by insurance, but that doesn’t mean that all of the supplies you might need will be paid for. Also, many diseases can make you less likely to be hired at a new company, and also make it harder for you to change insurance carriers and keep your illness covered. Losing weight can help keep you healthy, and able to provide for yourself and your family.
#7.Use Visualization to More Easily see a Slimmer Version of Yourself
You can use your imagination, an old photograph from when you were thinner, or that of a relative’s, or even a drawing of yourself thinner. Some people use a magazine with their own face added, replacing that of the model’s face. However you do it, you should imagine what you would look like thinner than what you are.
Many people use this self-therapy on different things, from visualizing having more money, a different house, and a better job. These are aspects of your life that can change over time, but for some reason, many people find it more challenging to change their own bodies.
It should be easier, instead, and with visualizations running through your head every day, you’ll find it’s slowly, but also steadily and surely, becoming your new reality.
#8.Forgive Yourself Now for Future Failures
Any challenge in life is sure to bring both victory and defeat with our attempts to meet, and beat, that challenge. Weight loss is no different. Understand that the goal is still in sight and still attainable, even when you’ve failed. It’s one day.
If you’ve put some weight back on, realize that’s only a temporary set back, unless you give up. Then, you lose. Just like falling off a horse, or a bike, when you’ve fallen off your goals, you need to get back on them. That is the only way to undo a ‘failure’ with weight loss.
One thing, again, remember that muscle weighs more, so if you are exercising more than you are cutting calories, it’s quite possible to actually gain pounds, even though you are losing fat. Muscle does not turn into fat, a and fat cannot turn into muscle.
Muscle can help burn up fat, though, while it’s being used, and then increase in size, leading you to think you aren’t making any progress when you really are. So in reality, a ‘failure’ might actually be a victory.
If your failure was caused by gorging yourself on something fattening, then make sure you note what it was that lead up to you losing your will power to say ‘no’ to more than a couple of bites.
Keeping a journal of your eating habits and the amount of exercise, including which type and how long you maintained the exercise, will help you avid temptation in the future.
#9. Don’t be Overly Critical of Yourself and Your Efforts+
Occasionally going overboard with sweet treats or fattening foods shouldn’t be a reason to upset yourself. Doing so can actually lead to eating disorders. Satisfying your cravings here and there can actually help you lose more weight in the long run. It does this by keeping your from feeling deprived and developing a sense of resentment.
Don’t end up on the other end of the spectrum, though! Some overweight people have developed an attitude that they’re fat and they don’t care. Nobody should have a sour grapes type of attitude about maintaining a healthy weight.
#10.Love Your Body, Love Yourself
You only have one body, and only one life. If you don’t appreciate yourself no matter your weight, shape, age, or anything else, then it’s hard for those around you to appreciate you, too. If you’re young, you have a vitality that can help others, and if you’re older, then you have a wisdom that cannot be bought.
When you reach your smaller goals, you should feel better about your abilities. When you don’t reach them, yo should still appreciate what you did achieve.
Sometimes, you will achieve a weight loss goal by a narrow margin, and other times you will do so by a wide margin. These times make up for those times when you fall short of reaching the goal you had set for yourself.
Remember This
Like any journey in life, you have to be motivated. Maintaining a high level of weight loss motivation can go a long way to helping you achieve your weight loss goals.
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