How to Stay Motivated to Exercise and Lose Weight

Have you ever had a difficult time sticking with an exercise program and staying motivated to lose weight? Here are some tips to help.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. 
    

   Measure yourself before you start your exercise program. At this point inches lost is more important than weight lost or gained. Write your measurements down in a private notebook. Measure weekly, bi-weekly or monthly - whichever is most comfortable to you and write down the date and measurements in your notebook. Some common places to measure: waist, chest, hips, right thigh and right arm.

2. 
    

   Set a goal. Not a weight loss goal. Set a goal of how many times you are going to exercise this week. Maybe you are just starting out and feel you can only exercise 3 times this week. That is okay! But, meet your goal. Promise yourself that you can quit early if you feel like it. You usually won't quit early, because you will already be exercising and won't want to quit.

3. 
    

   Don't severely limit your food intake. When we deprive ourselves of what we want, we crave it more. Eat what you want. Drink what you want. Try the rule of halves - take your food and divide it in half and eat half of it, then if you are still hungry, you can eat some more. Just divide your remaining half in thirds and eat a little at a time until you are comfortable. If you are really craving something that you know you shouldn't have, promise yourself that you can have it later if you still feel like it.

4. 
    

   Reward yourself to stay motivated! Just don't use food!! Is there a book or video that you want, a movie that you want to see, a cute shirt or pair of shoes? Reward yourself with something small as you start your exercise program when you meet your goal.

5. Talk to yourself! This step sounds a little funny, but makes a big difference in your motivation and sticking with exercise. We talk to ourselves all the time, but we are usually really negative. "You're so fat", "you're so ugly", "you'll never meet your goal". These are some of the negative things we say to ourselves. We would never tell someone else this, but we have no problem saying it in our minds. Look in your mirror every day, maybe when you brush your teeth or after you get out of the shower, and thank your body for taking such good care of you. Say it out loud. You will sound a little silly and probably feel silly, too, but that's okay. Saying it out loud means it really counts.

6. Don't tell yourself that you are going to "lose" weight. This is actually negative and can make losing weight harder. We always feel we need to find whatever it is we have lost, I don't want to find my weight again, ever! Release the weight, have the muscle you are building chew up the fat in your muscles, thank your body for taking such good care of you.

7. Explore an emotional connection to your weight or reluctance to exercise. There is usually a reason that you can't stay motivated. Try EFT or NLP or maybe some hypnotherapy. Sometimes fixing an emotional trigger for keeping weight can help us release the extra weight we are carrying around.

Tips & Warnings

• Drink lots of water when you exercise to keep hydrated.
• If you miss a day or two of exercise, don't beat yourself up about it. Just start again.
• Listen to your body when there are aches and pains. You don't want an injury to slow down your progress.
• Always talk to your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program.

Resources

• Find that motivation

[Hooksey2]

on 10/21/2008 It's so easy to lose focus and give up. Great tips!

[Alisiane]

on 10/17/2008 Good tips....staying motivated really depends on constant, changing, and inventive ways of staying focused without getting bored.