Want motivation on weight loss? Don’t rely on your willpower!
Controversial advice – I know, but there is psychological proof for it, so please bear with me and I’ll explain.
Most advice you’ll hear about how to get motivated and keep motivated when losing weight (or for any other goal in life actually), will teach you to rely on your will power for the support you need.
You’ve heard it all, right? And did any of the advice work?
You see – the problem with relying just on your will power to get you through the tough times, is that your will power is finite.
Research shows that it’s like a muscle. You over-use it and it fatigues. If you don’t let it rest sufficiently enough to recover, it won’t be much use to you for the rest of the day.
The added problem is that we don’t just use our will power to get us to stick to a weight loss or healthy living plan.
No – we use it all day long. From the moment you stop the alarm in the morning, trying to get out of bed and get ready for the day. Then when we’re getting the kids ready… Then countless times at work… and then back at home in the evenings. Our will power ‘muscle’ is pumped all day long.
No wonder that by the end of the day we collapse on the couch with zero energy. And the next obstacle we face will face zero resistance.
Oreos? Yes please 
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Bottom line is that if you have nothing else to fall on to for motivation, you will not succeed at losing weight and more importantly keeping it off.
So what’s the alternative or the solution?
The way to make sure you have weight loss motivation “on tap”, is to use your will power to get you going, and then to form techniques and habits to reinforce and back you up each time you feel you’re wavering.
The techniques are very logical. But making them into a habit, i.e. an action that requires little to no conscious thought on your behalf is not so simple.
But before you run for the hills at the challenge, hear my 5-step system to forming “on tap” motivation. And know that it takes about 30 days of consistent application to start form a habit. Just 30 days!
This 5-step system can be applied to every side of your life – not just weight loss. Imagine if every time you needed to motivate yourself to get something done, or to resist doing something, you can just turn on your motivation “tap”…
So let’s get on with the practical bits. Pay attention – I will only write this once )
5-Step system to “on tap” motivation
- Become clear about your target.There’s no getting around this – you must first know what you want to achieve. Be specific. Be bold. Be realistic with your goals.The secret to acing this step?The clearer you can see the end result you desire – the more likely you are to succeed at getting that end result.
- Find your deep POWERHOUSE WHY.Your POWERHOUSE WHY is a term I only half came up with. The WHY concept is not new – Tony Robbins talks about it. Eben Pagan does, and many others. I’ve thrown in the POWERHOUSE bit because I wanted to reinforce the fact that his has to be the most powerful reason you can think of to doing what you want to do.So dig deep in your soul and find your POWERHOUSE WHY.
- Create techniques to support your cause.Once you find your POWERHOUSE WHY – create a habit around it. You can do something as simple as reinforcing your connection with it each morning.After finishing brushing your teeth, take a minute or two to remind yourself WHY you want to lose weight. Say your WHY to yourself in the mirror and FEEL IT.The point being, that next time you’re about to decide if you should have that cake – your WHY will automatically come to the rescue.
- Learn to focus on what you enjoy.This is simple to understand – difficult as hell to do! All it means is that next time you decide to focus on what you can’t eat because you’re trying to lose weight. Make a conscious effort to shift your focus to what you CAN eat instead.It makes a huge difference. It opens and refreshes your mind.And after doing it consistently a few times – it becomes a mind game… i.e. it becomes fun.
- Reward yourself!!!I like this one. This one’s easy all-round.Simply decide what rewards to give yourself at which achievement milestones.One tip tho’ – if you’re rewarding your weight loss success – don’t make the reward food )
Shoes – yes. A fun day out – perfect! Food – no…
OK, you should have enough to go off and get permanently motivated now. I’ve kept it short on purpose. I want you to make of my 5-step system what makes best sense to you. If I over-explain stuff there’s no room for your own brain’s input.
And unless YOU OWN this system – you won’t adopt and use it. And what good is that for you?
Did this help? On my site FitHappyHealthy.com I (Anita) aim to put other health and fitness information like this, into the context of real life for you. We are so overwhelmed with information at the moment that most of the time we don’t use it because we don’t know how to, and how it can impact us. Well, on FitHappyHealthy.com – you can finally see the sense
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