Weight loss motivation is the foundation of all weight loss success stories for women. Losing weight, and keeping it off, entails more than just following a diet. Making significant changes in your eating habits means giving up a lot of foods that may taste great, but have no nutritional value. Steeling yourself to the task of making healthy food selections to lose belly fat and thigh fat can only carry you so far. Weight loss motivation takes on different forms as you move to create a more positive lifestyle. I'll cover the stages that help you make sensible choices to stimulate healthy weight loss.
Weight Loss Motivation - In the beginning...
Weight loss motivation seems effortless when you first start a program to get rid of belly fat. You have vivid visuals of how you want to look, you like to discuss your goals and receive supportive feedback, and you feel energized as the first several pounds come off easily.
This is a wave you want to ride to the formation of new eating habits... not crash and burn when you bump into a stubborn plateau. Weight loss success stories for women are filled with caution during these first 5-6 days. It is too easy to burnout after you come off this high. The main points of focus are:
- Pick only one or two specific goals to work on. (Getting sugar foods out of your diet... start a moderate strength training program, etc.)
- Do NOT jump into slashing calories by fifty percent, or going bananas with cardio.
- Focus on gradual weight loss. 1-2 lbs. per week is fine...and it really adds up.
- Understand that it took time to put on a few extra pounds, and it will take time to get them off.
- Dieting is short-term and controlling. You are seeking to change your eating habits.
Weight Loss Motivation - When the going gets tough...
Appropriate motivation is critical when the newness of your new lifestyle starts to wear off and you can feel yourself being pulled back into your old destructive habits. Yes, will power will be a needed element in some cases, but you will be better off if you reframe situations and surround yourself with people who share your goals, or have reached the spot where you want to be.
First, start thinking like a slim person. Many overweight women daydream about how delicious and satisfying a rich, high-fat, high-carb snack will taste when they bite into it. A slim person, however, often has flashes of how bloated and heavy they will feel with the same snack just sitting in their stomach.
Second, educate yourself to eat consciously. Be keenly aware of what you are putting in your mouth at all times. Know what foods function to provide lasting energy and help increase your metabolism naturally...and what foods just taste delicious, but are easily converted into fat on your waist and hips. Congratulate yourself for not eating carelessly and mindlessly.
Third, making friends with slender, fit people who practice positive lifestyle habits has been demonstrated by research to help women write their own weight loss success story. In 2007, the New England Journal of Medicine published findings that weight gain can be contagious in tight social networks.
By no means does this mean to shun and completely disengage from overweight friends who do not share your fat loss goals, but expanding your support network to include new friends that are following the path you wish to stay on. Weight loss motivation can be extrinsic as well as intrinsic.
Fourth, know that losing weight is not linear...meaning that you may lose three pounds a week for a month when you start a new program of regular moderate exercise...then all of a sudden, only lose one. Instead of panicking, congratulate yourself and understand your body is adapting...new changes must be made. Do it gradually, there is no need for extreme weight loss of any fashion. Restrictive dieting, as opposed to making important and healthy lifestyle changes is a recipe for disaster.
Weight Loss Motivation - Staying on the path...
Please know that weight loss success stories for women did not all run in straight line. There will be false starts and times when you give in to old habits that you sincerely wish to break. Be fair with yourself. Unless you are a machine, you will not eat perfectly all the time.
If you have been faithful in finding new ways to live healthy, seeking progressive weight loss, and adopting a lifelong eating plan...you have gotten to know yourself pretty well. You now have much more food awareness than you did 6-8 weeks ago, you have become much more the expert on YOU.
Be honest with some of the new friends you've made at the gym or in the park where you walk. Ask them how they overcame things.
Start learning all you can about "emotional eating" and how to combat it. Learn to eat when your body signals hunger, not when it signals stress. (Easier said than done, at first, but you can do it!)
Look back on where you started weeks ago and write down all of the positive changes in your lifestyle and eating plan that have now been almost fully integrated. Be sincerely thankful for what you have accomplished and know that you will continue to find even more healthy ways of eating and living.
Weight loss success stories for women are continually being written, and weight loss motivation is continually evolving for those who want to look better, feel better, and make lifelong changes in their eating habits.
Creating a more healthy lifestyle and losing weight can be a challenge, but it is one you can certainly meet. Learn more about weight loss motivation by clicking here. Even more valuable information can be found at http://www.Weight-Loss-Success-Stories-Women.com
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