How To Get Motivated To Lose Weight

We all know that losing weight is central to good health and yet many overweight people struggle to get the necessary motivation to take them from knowing they need to lose weight to actually taking action to lose it. They say that you need motivation to get started and habit to keep you going. But unless you actually start anything there is no possibility of ever creating a habit out of it. So motivation is often a critical key to success whether it be weight loss, exercise or learning a new skill.

So how do we get motivation to lose weight.

There are several motivation strategies at our disposal. Of course we have all heard of the carrot and stick approach to getting motivated. Pain and pleasure are great human motivators for any worthwhile endeavor. If you think about it, anything that we are currently doing we are either doing it to avoid pain or perceived pain in our life or we are doing it because it gives us pleasure or pleasure at some future point in time. The concept of the carrot and stick is that it can give you the necessary motivation to get started to either strive for the carrot which is the reward or to avoid the stick which is something we want to avoid.

So when it comes to weight lose you need to give yourself a big enough reward or a big enough pain to get you started which is the most important step. Either visualize the pleasure of having an amazing body, being able to run a short marathon or even being able to spend time with your kids without losing your breath. These are all great motivators to strive for. While you have something to strive for also picture all the things that are currently giving you pain because of your overweight position. Is it not being able to buy any clothes that fit, not being able to fit in chairs at the cinema or the comments people make about your weight.

Next you want to develop a reason to get started today. Write out your goals for one week, one month and 3 months. Keep your goals realistic and give yourself planned rewards for hitting each milestone. It doesn't have to be something a big, just a reward that is inspiring enough for you to keep going.

Weight loss doesn't have to be a painful and arduous battle where you are sacrificing through the whole journey. Make it fun and enjoyable and the chances of you sticking to it is greatly increased. Try and get someone who is going to keep you accountable and who will remind you of why you got started in the first place.