Do You Have What It Takes To Lose Weight?

Well do you?  Can you set your mind to losing weight and stick to it?  Are you ready to make the sacrifices necessary to achieve the body of your dreams?

Your biggest barrier to losing weight is quite simply your own self-discipline. Somewhere along life’s journey you have succumbed to a cycle of eating a poor diet full of carbs, fats and undoubtedly processed foods.  These foods actually make you feel tired and sleepy all the time, resulting in lethargy which results in you feeling not at all inclined to exercise!  So you end up with no willpower and you feel hopeless with your inability to change and be motivated.

You can lose the weight if you truly want to!  It comes down firstly to a simple decision. From there once you have decided you will then need to address your willpower. Don’t let life happen to you in the form of a heart attack or trauma, find the strength to make the change now!

Lets start at Step 1 – Watch your portion size! (start by giving yourself a smaller portion size) Use smaller plates if you have to trick your mind into believing its the same size!

Step 2 – allow yourself ONE cheat day per week.  As you transition to healty eating habits allowing yourself one day off will actually help you and motivate you to stick to your changes.  So go ahead and enjoy that piece of chocolate cake, really savor the flavor knowing tomorrow it is back to healty eating habits! I am sure after you have eaten the cake your willpower will begin to kick in and say no more!

Remember to take photographs of yourself.  You would be amazed how motivating this really is.  We generally dont really realize how we truly look until we see ourselves in a photo, so keep a picture of yourself always and when you feel like giving up, bring it out and remind yourself of how far you have come.  Take new photos to compare to your original so you can see your progress!

Make a food list, and write down the healthy foods you actually enjoy eating. Ensure you buy these foods to eat throughout the day. If you need help there is a great ebook/receipt book titled “EASY Veggie Meal Plans” which you can download here.  I dont know about you, but often I dont eat certain vegetables as I simply dont know how to prepare them.  So this recipe book may help.

Approach exercise initially in moderation.  Adding exercise to your routine can very often be offputting so start slow. If you attempt too much in day one, you will have a difficult time finding the motivation to return!  Start with a short walk, and increase the distance daily. Or if you cannot even manage a walk to begin with there are some great exercises to be found here – do them while you sit!

Every week set yourself a goal. Decide what you would like to achieve, and take small steps to get there. Small manageable goals such as one pound per week which is attainable.  Setting the bar too high will result in failure and a complete lack of motivation.

Always reward yourself on your achievements, and no NOT with a piece of pie! You have worked hard at losing weight and are continuing to do so, so tell yourself to be proud of your achievements and that you have mustered the willpower to succeed at weightloss so undoubtedly anything else in your life you choose to put your mind to can also be achieved.

By MaryAnn Roche.

Tags: How to Stay Focused on Losing Weight, Lose Weight and Keep it Off, Losing weight, reduce weight, Weight Loss, Weight Loss Strategies

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 at 1:47 am and is filed under Healthy Eating/Weight Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.