How Do I Stay Motivated and Focused?
This was a question asked in my free facebook group for women (click on the link below and come and join)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1630985780558152/
We know what we need to do to be slim, healthy and a size we’re happy with – eat well, in the right amounts, and exercise regularly.
But a lot of us REALLY struggle to do this! Here’s some pointers that may help if you struggle with staying motivated and focused.
• Make sure you’re eating foods you enjoy
You really don’t need to eat any foods you don’t like! Understanding portion sizes and calories is most important. Eat for health but also eat foods you actually like. That way you wont feel restricted or deprived. Bonus tip – eat slowly and savour every mouthful so you fully enjoy each meal and snack, and make time for your body to tell you when it’s full.
• Make sure you’re doing exercise you enjoy
Anything that causes you to move will help you burn calories and lose weight. There’s no form of exercise that is ESSENTIAL for weight loss success. The most important thing is doing something consistently, and you’ll only consistently do the things that you enjoy. Walking, dancing, weights training, sports, cycling, Zumba, boxercise, whatever, just do things you like and keep doing them!
• Have a clear goal that INSPIRES and EXCITES you
Why are you doing this? What do you really want to achieve? Knowing your reason why is crucial. There will be a deeper reason that really means something to you, and that’s what you’ll need to connect with. It needs to be more than ‘losing 2 stone’. WHY is that important to you? What difference will that make to your life? Your health? Your confidence? Imagine how it will feel to actually achieve that goal and get EXCITED about. Let it inspire you and then every day do something to move a step closer to achieving it.
• Visualise achieving your goal every day
When you wake up, in the shower, while you’re waiting for the kettle to boil, when you’re standing in a queue or stuck in a traffic jam, when you go to bed…whenever is most convenient, but try to do this often. It should be a fun thing to do. The more you think about your goal and picture what it will be like to achieve it, the more you program your subconscious mind to keep you on track and making consistent progress towards it.
• Get enough sleep
If you’re tired, you will not feel inspired, energised and easily able to stay on track with food and exercise! This is one of the major reasons people fall off plan. Everything is just so much harder when you aren’t getting enough sleep. Of course, if you have kids, there is only so much you can do to get the sleep you need, and there’s a few other things you can do that can be helpful (see next point below). BUT a lot of people could get to bed a bit earlier and watch a bit less TV, or stop scrolling through facebook and Instagram when they could be winding down ready to sleep. Do your best to prioritise sleep as it’s probably more important than you realise.
• Manage stress and allow yourself down time
Stress often causes people to fall off track, causing people to eat too much, to eat on the fly and make poor choices, to emotional eat or binge eat, to be too stressed or busy to exercise, and to struggle to sleep. Minimising stress in any way you can will really help. Step back and imagine you’re looking at you and your life from another person’s perspective. What would YOU suggest that you change to help your situation?
A few things to minimise stress and get some downtime – walk in nature whenever possible, do some deep abdominal breathing, and check in with your body by doing a ‘full body scan’ of all your muscles from head to toe – notice where you are holding tension and then consciously release it. These last two tips can take less than a minute but really help.
• Drink lots of water
Main benefits of drinking more water – you’ll have more energy to move around more, you’ll probably feel less hungry, your body will be able to function at it’s best, and you’ll likely have less headaches and recover quicker from bugs and illnesses. Bonus point – if you end up needing the loo more, at least you’ll be doing more steps smile emoticon
Hope that helps!