Finding motivation to stick with a weight loss plan can be incredibly hard, but it’s also essential to long term success. Are you still looking for or struggling to hold on to motivation for weight loss that works? That’s what I’ll help you try to find in this article.
How to Find Motivation for Weight Loss That Works
Are you motivated to lose weight? If so, by what? Is it enough to get you to your goal?
These are crucial questions to think through, have answers to, and even write down to look back at regularly because your source of motivation – or lack thereof – is the difference between success and failure over the long term.
Most people can find some motivation to get in shape or lose weight for the short term. Whether it’s sick and tired of feeling the way you do, or a fitness challenge is happening at your gym, or it’s a new year, you can find some motivation for a few weeks or months.
However, achieving long-term weight loss success, or any type of success (which we all want), requires a vision, goal and purpose. Without that motivation, you won’t go far. “Where there is no vision, the people perish” – Proverbs 29:18. If you know you want to lose weight, but aren’t sure why or what that will look like when you achieve it, you’ll lose steam quickly. Because let’s be real, trying to lose weight is no one’s idea of fun.
Even if your goal is “fit into my size 4 pants”, that’s not enough. WHY do you need to fit into them? Why does it matter to you?
Let’s pull back a minute and talk big picture – let’s even get spiritual, because our physical, spiritual, mental, emotional health is all tied together.
Put your Priorities in Place
In the book of Matthew in the Bible, it says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Meaning, if we put the most important things first, the rest will fall into place. We don’t have to give up one dream or priority for the other, but in the pursuit of the main goal, all of the other little goals will be achieved as well. The same can be said of our fitness goals. Just hang with me for a minute, I’ll tie it all together….
Determine & Focus on Your MAIN Goal
If you’re a Christian, like me, or just want to be a good person, it’s easy to get sidetracked in the pursuit of “righteousness” by trying to be a nice person, doing good works, performing well at work, serving in various capacities, being involved at church, etc. These very good things can distract us from seeking first the Kingdom – and make us exhausted from trying to hard. Yet if we seek God alone, the rest of these concerns will take care of themselves as we live from a place of trust and peace, rather than worry. In other words, if you let your heart and mind be transformed, the natural outflow will look like righteousness or “being a good person”. Instead of trying to become more like God, as we spend more time focusing on Him and being in His presence, we naturally start to be more like him without trying. He makes us righteous…almost like osmosis.
We can look at our health, fitness, and body image the same way. Most of us (at least women) are fairly consumed with the way we look. It distracts us and often brings frustration and distress. The more we focus on getting skinny, losing fat, and avoiding certain foods, the more discouraging it can feel. Most of my life, my workouts and eating habits have been motivated by being thin and looking good. Which is fine, it’s not bad to want that. But it shouldn’t always be the main thing, and it’s exhausting to always be fighting to achieve outward perfection. And let me tell you, that motivation can die real quick and be extremely discouraging. Like the one week your weight goes up on the scale for whatever reason, and you assume none of it is working, so you might as well give up and go eat ice cream to feel better.
The Best Motivation for Weight Loss that Works
You know what has created the biggest, most lasting change for me – not only physically, but mentally?
Pursuing strength and improving my overall health and fitness. That’s the MAIN goal.
Several years ago I started watching Dana Linn Bailey videos on YouTube. Her ability to lift crazy amounts of weight, her physique, and her fun attitude with the sport helped to reignite a passion. The combination of her appearance and motivation to work hard and accomplish amazing things inspired me. It showed me how little I was really doing at the gym at that point in my life, and I began approaching my workouts with a “DLB mindset.”
When I went into the gym, I started to focus on new machines, how much I could lift, how I could push my body to new levels. That became my focus – gaining strength, improving my form, reducing pain, and overall improvement – and the rest started to fall into place. Muscles and veins started to appear where I’d never had them before!
Instead of obsessing about food I could or couldn’t have, I desired more healthy foods and the unhealthy ones lost appeal because I was focused on improving energy for workouts, what foods would build muscle, help me recover and make me strong. Sugar, packaged foods, alcohol, and processed junk were not the way to do that, so they got pushed out by more protein shakes, veggies, quality carbs and supplements like branched chain amino acids.
The better I ate, the better I felt. So much so that feeling great became almost more of an “addiction” than yummy food. It stopped feeling like a battle to overcome the temptations of food – a freedom I never thought I’d experience! My body changed so much in this season that I began getting compliments and questions on a regular basis. Yet my primary focus was, for once, not on how skinny I could get. As I pursued the “first things” – strength, athleticism, and accomplishment – the rest fell into place.
How to Get Motivated & Achieve Lasting Change
So what is your real goal? You have to start with the end in mind, or the big picture goal, in order to hang onto motivation which will get you all of the other things you desire. Focus on this, and the smaller jeans, more toned shoulders, ability to overcome food temptations, and flatter stomach will come along the way. Here are some motivation ideas to get you started:
- I want more energy to keep up with my kids
- I want to live a long, healthy life
- I want to compete in triathlons (my personal new current fitness goal that’s keeping me super motivated!)
- I want to feel confident when I walk into a room and meet new people (especially of the opposite sex)
- I want to beat diabetes/heart disease/other family health issue
- I want to run a marathon
- I want to get rid of my back pain
- I want to be attractive to my spouse
- I want to be able to lift heavy boxes and climb stairs at work without getting tired
- I want to prove to myself that you are capable of more than you think.These are the main goals that put us on a road to lasting change.
I encourage you to take some time now to think about what your REAL goal is – what’s your why? Once you have that, keep your focus there and do what you can to achieve that big goal. Post it on a fridge or mirror. Come back to it each time your motivation wanes.
Remember: Whether it’s physical or spiritual growth or you’re pursuing, remember to seek first what is MOST important – your primary motivation – and all of the other accomplishments will be added as a result.
So, what’s your goal? Leave a comment with what you’re going to start focusing on starting today!
