Im Tim. 28 years old and long time dieter. I have always had the issue of staying motivated. I want to know how do you guys stay motivated on a diet for prolonged periods of time. Is it a person you do the diet with that encourages you or is it seeing your results through a progress tracker? Let me know!
Hey Tim Motivation is a very personal thing I guess, but some of the things that help me are:
- Writing down the benefits of being slimmer and reading them regularly (not the disadvantages of being heavier, I need something to work toward).
- Visualizing how I will look and feel when I reach my goal.
- Considering what I would do if I were slimmer already - and starting those things anyway. No use waiting for life to start, tried that long enough and all it did was frustrate me (causing mooore food intake).
- Putting up "happy pictures" that show me the way I used to be and want to be again.
- Reading and working with "The Beck diet solution" by Dr. Beck. One exercise a day for six weeks, really helped me stay on track and feel confident about being able to do this.
I stayed motivated by first getting into the mindset that I will have setbacks and I just need to dust myself off the next day and get back on track. My motivation was seeing small results and wanting more! Look at an outfit you dream of wearing one day. Think of the benefits you will get from losing weight!
Hi Tim, I struggle to stay motivated too, at least for long periods of time.
On a successful stint, the best motivation was regular weighing (don't know if you already do that?). Once I week I would tentatively take my place on the scales. Any loss was immediately motivating for me to continue eating healthy and exercising, of course gains could be very disappointing (there have been tears!).
Either way, a weekly weigh in gave me a short term target which I've found to be more motivating than a long term target, though I imagine that's a personal preference.
I've also seen on the internet somewhere (probably Pinterest) a great motivation idea which I intend to try. The idea is you have a list, for every 5lbs you lose you buy yourself/do something on that list. Put it in order of achievement too, i.e the first 5lbs is a book or something...after 30lbs its a new outfit or trip to a theme park and so on and so forth. I guess it can be adapted for maintaining weight too after the goal is reached - for every fortnight/month you remain at your target weight you treat yourself to something. Finances are probably a factor here but it's an idea
Motivation is a very personal thing I guess, but some of the things that help me are: