Losing Weight - How To Succeed

Are you unable to stay motivated enough to reach your weight loss goal? You're not alone. It's easy to stray from your initial decision and enthusiasm when constantly faced with temptation. Then you can have a bad day and decide the only way you're going to feel better is to have a large bag of chips. Then you feel guilty and you can go off the rails completely. What's the key to staying on track?

Having a clear goal for why you want to lose weight is a key factor in achieving that goal. If you just have a general vague idea that you want to lose weight it's easy to lose motivation.

Some people have a very clear goal such as preparing for a wedding or they may have a specific health issue that requires them to lose weight. The main reason people want to lose weight is to be more attractive. It could also be that you want to be able to play with your kids. You may have more than one reason for losing weight. Whatever your reason, you need to have it clear in your mind and you need to write it down. Write down a clear statement of your reason(s) for wanting to lose weight as well as a realistic goal weight and size. Then record your progress under that statement, so you remind yourself regularly of your goal.

Take into account that a size goal may actually be more important to define than a weight goal. If you diet in a healthy fashion, and possibly exercise as well, you may well tone up your muscles (not necessarily bulk up) at the same time as losing fat. As muscle weighs more than fat you may see slower than expected progress on the scales but you will feel your clothes getting looser. So it's important to measure as well as weigh, otherwise you could get disheartened.

It's also important to keep reminding yourself of that goal. Visualise the outcome and how valuable that result will be. This can help keep your resolve strong when temptation comes along.

There are other ways to give yourself an even stronger incentive. One of our clients bought herself a very nice "goal dress" that she would need to lose weight and achieve her ideal size, in order to wear that dress. That made it very real for her and gave her a very clear and exact goal to strive for.

Whatever you goal, having a clear statement of it written down and regularly refreshed in your mind will improve your chance of success.