Weight Loss

The Motivation To Lose Weight – Get It, Keep It, Use It!

A majority of people who are trying to lose weight fail to meet their weight loss goals. Why? They are unable to stay excited about the weight loss process and lose their motivation to lose weight.

Losing weight the right way takes time. Maintaining weight once it is lost takes a lifetime. The sad fact is, many people are unable to stay focused on the task at hand for the amount of time it takes to lose weight and keep it off.

In the beginning, the motivation to lose weight is strong. People start to see results. They feel better. Heck, they start to look better! Unfortunately, as the days and weeks and months go by, that motivation begins to waiver.

Weight loss begins to slow and even plateau. People begin to feel sorry for themselves. They begin to question why they are trying to lose weight. They begin to look for ways to sabotage their diet. By the time they take the first bite of the chocolate sundae as a reward for “being good”, the game is already over. So, what went wrong?

When you have the motivation to lose weight, you have to begin planning on how to keep it. A smart dieter knows that there’s going to be a dry spell, motivation-wise, a few months down the road. They begin planning now on how to get through that dry spell, stay motivated and reach their weight loss goals.

One good way to maintain motivation to lose weight over the long run is to keep a weight loss journa or blogl. Every day or so, you make an entry, recording the excitement and pride you feel as the pounds start to come off.

When you do eventually hit that motivation dry patch, you can go back and read all your journal entries and remind yourself how far you’ve come. When you know how much work you put in to get this far, it’s a lot harder to throw it all away on a double cheeseburger.

Another good way to maintain the motivation to lose weight is to take before and after pictures. This is basically the same idea behind the journal, except it’s more visual and visceral.

Before you start your diet, take a set of pictures of yourself from the front, to the side and from behind. Do it while wearing a bathing suit so that as much of your body as possible is exposed. Then, as you begin to lose weight, start to take some “after” shots in the same positions wearing the same clothing.

When you run out of motivational steam, take a look at how much weight you’ve lost, how you’re body has changed and how good you now look! As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Why Losing Weight Quickly May Not Be The Best Idea

We live in a fast paced society where losing weight quickly has become overly important. Everything moves quickly and everyone is on a deadline. News, entertainment and information travel around the globe at the speed of light. Everything is at our fingertips any time we choose.

We have become used to getting what we want, whenever we want it. Standards of personal satisfaction have risen, while levels of patience and tolerance for delay have fallen like a stone. Is it any wonder that in this world of near instantaneous gratification, that losing weight quickly is every dieter’s goal?

The problem is that losing weight quickly is not the best way to lose weight. In fact, a dieter who takes weight off too quickly runs the risk of many serious side effects. When you decide to lose weight, you want to make sure that you’re doing it the right way. You want to make sure you’re doing it in the most effective way. More importantly, you want to make sure you’re doing it in the safest way.

What’s the main problem with losing weight quickly? As soon as you stop dieting, or even while you are still dieting, you put the weight you’ve lost right back on. This happens because the body interprets the rapid weight loss and reduced caloric intake as a crisis. It goes into survival mode and begins hoarding body fat at the expense of water weight and muscle tissue.

In addition, as soon as caloric intake rises, the body starts turning the majority of those calories into fat as well. The result for the dieter is a weight loss/weight gain yo-yo. Initially, pounds come off quickly. Then, as the body goes into survival mode, daily and weekly weight loss becomes less and less. Finally, when the dieter get frustrated with this slow weight loss and starts to eat more normally, all the weight lost is regained and more.

Additionally, losing weight quickly can injure or even kill you. Most crash and fad diets are deficient in the minerals and vitamins that the body needs to properly function. In particular, a quick weight loss can cause you to lose significant amounts of potassium.

Potassium is the mineral that regulates electrical conductivity in the muscles, including the heart muscle. If enough potassium is lost, the heart can experience irregular rhythms and this arrhythmia can and does kill unwary dieters.

The safest and most effective way to lose weight is to combine smart food choices – think fruits, vegetable and smaller portions – with regular, sustained exercise.

So, forget about losing weight quickly. Real weight loss comes from serious and permanent lifestyle changes, not the latest celebrity diet.