If you’ve tried for many years and not yet reached your weight loss goal, motivation can be hard to come by.
You might feel like you’ve tried everything.
Maybe you’re just destined to be overweight for the rest of your life.
If you make one more attempt, give it your all, and still fail… that’s pretty tough to contemplate.
If you’re nodding your head to this already, this post is for you.
My key message for anyone who reads my content – you are already enough. But if losing weight makes you happier, healthier, more confident, more able to be the best version of you and live a life you love…
You deserve that, and you can achieve it.
How to reach your weight loss goal
Before we start, a quick bit of motivation from a few of my online clients.
Gill, Katie, and Stella all had similar struggles with trying various weight loss approaches that didn’t work.
There is so much information and so many diet plans you could choose, it’s overwhelming. Most diets are unsustainable, and it’s no wonder the vast majority of people don’t achieve their goal.
With the correct guidance and support, this is what they achieved:
Gill has continued her journey since these photos were taken, and has now lost 100lbs…
Katie lost 50lbs while still drinking wine and eating foods she loves…
Stella lost 3 stone while still enjoying chocolate and her favourite cream cakes…
If they can do it, you can too.
To reach your goal, you have to believe 3 things:
- This MUST change – I’ve had enough, things need to be different
- I must change it – it’s down to me, I take full responsibility to make it happen
- I CAN change it – I am capable of making this change
Many people stop going all in on their goal because they’re scared they won’t succeed.
They already feel like they’re not enough. And they see one more ‘failure’ as proof that they never will be.
Of course that’s not true, but it’s a belief our brain can easily create.
What’s crucial to remember is this:
Your past does not equal your future.
Just because you haven’t got there yet, says nothing about who you are now, or who you can become.
Your body right now is a reflection of past decisions, made by the previous version of you.
Who you are now, and who you’ll be in the future… that’s down to the actions you take from here on in.
How to create motivation to take action
As humans, we have two key motivations that drive us:
- avoiding pain
- seeking pleasure
We can harness this to help with weight loss.
You can be motivated to move away from the pain you’re currently in – feeling unfit and unhealthy, lacking energy and confidence, unhappy with your body, at risk of future disease – whatever that discomfort is for you.
You can also create a vision of what will happen if you don’t make changes – how much pain you’re likely to experience then. Of course this isn’t nice, but that’s the point. It drives you get moving in the opposite direction. Towards what you want.
Then we have the fun part – getting crystal clear on the pleasure and life you want to create.
We tend to get stuck at the superficial level of what we want. ‘My goal is to get to X weight and Y dress size’.
That’s a starting point, but there’s a deeper level we need to go.
What does that mean to you?
What will be different for you when you reach your goal?
How will you feel? What will you be able to do that you can’t do now?
How will it change your life?
We want as much clarity and excitement as possible. A vision of your future that’s so god damn flipping AWESOME that you cannot wait to achieve it.
How to keep working towards your weight loss goal
What stops so many people from reaching their goals is failing to take consistent action.
One of the reasons why we stop (or never start) taking action is that we lack a compelling vision of what we truly want. Or we have one, but don’t allow ourselves to ever believe it could happen.
Another reason is this:
We associate more pain to the process of change (taking action towards our goals) than we do with staying as we are.
We choose the temporary pleasure of doing what is easy and comfortable in the moment.
This is normal. Change is hard, uncertain, uncomfortable.
Our brains don’t like that, so they try to convince us to remain as we are. But that doesn’t need to stop you.
When you realise that’s what your brain is automatically doing, because it’s trying to protect you and doesn’t know any better…
You can choose to think differently.
What are your current decisions taking away from you?
Something that can dramatically boost your motivation is to realise just how much your current choices are costing you.
Although it hurts, it can be the prolonged kick up the backside that you need to commit to the process of change.
Take a look to realise how much pain you are suffering now.
How much is your current situation costing you in different areas of life? How is it affecting your relationships, work, confidence, ability to be your best self and live your best life?
You may think that your indulgent food choices are giving you joy and pleasure. And they may well be, temporarily in the moment.
In reality though, how much are they taking away from you?
Saying yes to the unplanned takeaway, dessert or wine means saying saying no to everything you truly want – long term happiness, health, pride, self esteem, fitness, confidence, being the best you that you can be.
Seeing it this way has been the catalyst for many of my clients to turn their goal into a must.
I’d like to lose weight becomes
I wont tolerate this anymore. It’s taking too much from my life.
I’ll try becomes
I will do whatever it takes and just keep going.
What do you GAIN from workout towards your weight loss goal?
So lets flip this around.
What are all the benefits of taking consistent action and reaching your weight loss goal?
For my clients, some of the benefits include:
Certainty, freedom, not worrying and overanalysing, feeling confident, relaxed and in control around food, running around with kids, feeling fit and strong, food fading into the background of their thoughts because they’re free, happy, healthy and living a life they love.
This brings a new perspective to those individual moments that make the difference.
When you say no to the cookie that you don’t need but really want…
You say YES to the happy confident you.
When you say no to a takeaway…
You say YES to feeling proud of yourself and wearing clothes you love.
When you say no sitting on the sofa, and drag yourself out for a walk instead…
You say YES to living a longer healthier life with the people you love.
When you say no to the very tempting idea of skipping that walk you’d planned…
You say YES to being fit, strong, and the best version of you.
Keep taking action for you
We think we need motivation to come first, but we don’t.
Sometimes you have to just take action. Regardless of how you feel.
Do what you know you need to do, and the motivation will follow.
Be proud for every little step you take.
Each one moves you forward.
They all add up.
If slip up and fall back, that’s ok. It’s part of the process.
Make your next decision a great one and keep going.
Soon you’ll create progress and momentum.
Then you’ll be motivated by the results you see.
For a brilliant motivating book that will help shift your perspective, I highly recommend checking out Chasing Cupcakes by Elizabeth Benton.
My clients are getting a lot of value from reading that and discussing it in our group.
And if you need any help, guidance and support to reach your goal, that’s what I do.
Find out more about online weight loss coaching here:
Benefits of having an online weight loss coach