Want Motivation On Weight Loss? 5 Tips

Written by Anita Chaperon - 18 Comments
Categories: health and fitness, self improvement

motivation-ontap

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 :o )

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 :o )

5-Step system to “on tap” motivation

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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 :o )

    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 :o )

Don’t Forget To Follow PickTheBrain on Twitter!

Related Articles:

4 Musts to Staying Committed To Your Diet

The Massive Benefits of a Healthy Diet and How To Make Yours Stick

Tags: , , , , , ,
  • http://topsy.com/www.pickthebrain.com/blog/want-motivation-on-weight-loss-5-tips/?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L2 Tweets that mention Want Motivation On Weight Loss? 5 Tips – PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement — Topsy.com

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Abu Ali, Motivology Matters, Productivity links, Hauke Borow, Self Improvement and others. Self Improvement said: Want Motivation On Weight Loss? 5 Tips: Want motivation on weight loss? Don’t rely on your will… http://bit.ly/aW5Gt1 # self improvement [...]

  • Dan Jolt

    Totally agree with #4. Find your fun, otherwise it won’t work. Same goes for #2 + #3, it’s way easier to motivate yourself if you understand why you are doing it.

    However, from positive experience I can say that #1 won’t be necessary and #5 is pointless, too.

    When I decided to lose weight three years ago I didn’t know anything about my body and weight loss, so I put up some exercise rules and junk food rules, but no specific loss goal. Instead I just started first by setting a weekly exercise routine and to make a habit of reading the labels of all the food I bought. A few weeks later I also wrote down my weight every morning to monitor it.

    The Nike-just-do-it attitude really helped me to get started and after a few months I knew enough about the topic to set a realistic target.

    I also do not agree with #5.

    Reaching that target or a milestone is an amazing reward.
    No need to attach stuff to it. It will just take away power from the feeling of success you can get from it. And you need that feeling to keep the target for good.

  • http://www.cshughes.com C.S. Hughes

    Great tips! I really like the 5 steps, especially rewarding yourself! Losing weight is such a hard thing for some people, and when they reach a benchmark, even five pounds, they should party like it’s 1999! :) The one thing I would LOVE to add to this discussion, is the necessity to go to work on the self-image, and the subconscious mind. For ease of discussion, I will roll both of the above into one and the same.

    If a person has accepted themselves as a fat person, even if they lost weight, if they don’t keep up the insanity of the fight, the will bounce right back to where they were. In order to lose weight and keep it off, we must work on the INSIDE as much as we are working on the outside. Along with all of the FABULOUS STEPS you have above, a person needs to work on their head, and reprogram their subconsious mind and their self image. The subconscous mind will not allow for us anything that is incongruent with it’s image of who and what we are. If you begin to stray, the subconscious mind will sabatage you, and bring you back to where you are “supposed to be.”

    This is one main reason why so many people who lose weight, even those who lose tons of weight, are not able to keep it off, because they have this pshycological “set point” of where they are supposed to be, so the end up right back where they were, if not a little heavier, as the body is storing up more fat/weight, just in case the conscious mind decides to go on another “diet.”

    I do a free success coaching via my pod cast and daily video blogs. I have done a 4-part video series on this very thing. Come check it out and leave me your feedback.

    http://www.cshughes.com/show-2-the-silent-saboteur-part-1-of-4.htm

    Keep up the great work!

    C.S. Hughes

  • http://fithappyhealthy.com Anita

    Dan – I can totally see how 1 and 5 might seem extraneous to you. And I admire you for being able to Just-do-it. I’m a similar sort of person – I just need a reason to get on with something and have learned that just making an effort in the right direction is more important than a lot of other things.

    Unfortunately most people need that extra push. Having a specific goal helps pull them – gives them a purpose.

    Also having a reward to look forward to helps them keep going when the ‘going’ gets tough.

    Thank you for the insight – yours is the right attitude to have when it comes to a healthy life :)

  • http://fithappyhealthy.com Anita

    I couldn’t agree more with your point, and am so glad you brought it up.

    I’d go one step further – to say that all weight loss efforts should start in the Mind if they are to have any chance at long-term success.

    Anyone can lose weight, the problem is keeping it off. And yes – unless the mind-frame changes weight loss will not last.

    But that is why point 2 on the list is the psychological factor that if reinforced regularly will help with the change of self image.

  • http://www.thicode.com Brian

    Great idea to emphasize how relying on willpower alone can make a weight loss program difficult. The willpower research actually shows that using willpower takes glucose (http://psr.sagepub.com/content/11/4/303.abstract), and if you are dieting and fasting, you probably will have less glucose in your system, and also consequently less willpower. You’ll have less willpower when you most need it!

    But there is a way to use this knowledge to help your weight loss goal. Keep your glucose levels up at a steady state by eating small portions of healthy food throughout the day. This should maximize your willpower for avoiding unhealthy foods and also will have the added benefit of keeping your metabolism up. I do this by eating apples throughout the day which have a low glycemic index.

  • http://www.theicode.com Brian

    Here’s the correct link to my blog.

  • http://1minutewingman.com Pete Fountain

    I wish I had read #4 years ago! I wasted so much time focused on what I couldn’t eat or what I didn’t like in the gym. Once I switched my focus to what I can eat and what I like in the gym, everything changed, especially my motivation.

    Diet and exercise can be highly personal – it takes work to find what you like and to focus on that. People have to open their minds to the possibilities and not fixate on the limitations.

  • http://fithappyhealthy.com Anita

    Pete you are very right about the shift in focus – it is so liberating to do that – it’s like another world becomes available…

    “Diet and exercise can be highly personal – it takes work to find what you like and to focus on that.”

    Definitely – that’s why when I help people who want to start to eat healthier rather than prescribe to them what they should or shouldn’t eat – I help them understand the principles of healthy eating, and then they learn to apply that to what their likes and dislikes are.

    Also – understanding that you’re ‘allowed’ to make your own rules to healthy life is very helpful :)

  • http://fithappyhealthy.com Anita

    Brian – there are definitely physiological steps we can take to optimize our will power – thank you for sharing those with us.

    It’s a pity more people don’t realize that nutrition pretty much can make or break any experience in our lives.

    I believe the best approach is to have both psychological as well as physiological ammunition of tools, to help stay the course.

  • http://selfimprovement.info-just-for-u.com/blogger/ Jan L. Ashby

    I think you came up with a nice idea here. The 5 tips are concise, & I think could work for those who are real serious about losing wt.

    Like the explanation of why “will power” can generally fail by the time people get to the evening.

  • http://thedropoutkid.com/blog/ Thedropoutkid

    I think when the WHY is BIG enough. The HOW doesn’t Matter! But thats just my opinion. Great post tho!

  • http://efttappingtechniques.com/ Natalie (EFT Tapping)

    So disappointing that food can’t be the reward! I was just beginning to dream of German chocolate cake when I read the rest of that advice.

    Bummer!

  • http://fithappyhealthy.com Anita

    @Natalie – Hahaha – I totally get the disappointment Natalie – I love cake myself. The thing is that the way I teach people to be healthy is to be able to have pretty much anything in moderation – so maybe it won’t be that disappointing after all…

    Can I ask why ‘German’ chocolate cake – how is it unique from all the other chocolate cakes :)

    @Thedropoutkid – you’re absolutely right. It is the case with everything in life not just weight loss. If the WHY is big enough – all else is almost irrelevant.

    That’s how some people can stop smoking over night, whilst other struggle and fail for years – for example.

    The problem is sometimes people can’t find the right WHY right away…

    @Jan – thank you Jan :)

  • http://www.promdressesol.com prom dresses

    Keep this up, man! Its just too good.

  • http://www.promdressesol.com prom dresses

    Very awsome post. Hope it will always be alive!

  • http://summerpalace.org Israel Ketner

    Thanks for sharing this pretty post.

  • http://aboutmedical.tk Brittaney Perault

    good site!