“This will be the year!” you tell yourself. The year that you finally start eating right, exercising, and losing those unwanted pounds for good. January 1 arrives and you are off to a strong start. However, by February 15, you feel defeated, frustrated, and entirely unmotivated to continue.
Sound familiar? You are not alone. Motivation for weight loss naturally waxes and wanes over time. You must identify the factors that negatively affect your motivation so you can take steps to guard against that “Oh, why bother…I give up!” sentiment. Consider the following common pitfalls and associated remedies.
Setting Unrealistic Goals
You vow to take cycling classes every morning at 6AM, even though you never get out of bed before 8AM. Further, you decide to prepare home-cooked, low-calorie meals every night, even though the only appliance you now use in your kitchen is a microwave.
Setting unrealistic goals that require drastic change almost immediately guarantees failure. Instead, make small tweaks to your existing behavior. If you are not currently exercising, start by deciding to walk around your office hallway three times each day. If you are eating fast food three times a week, reduce to once weekly. Setting reasonable goals that you truly feel you can achieve will provide confidence to set more ambitious goals in the future.
Expecting Perfection
You develop a plan to bring your lunch to work and cook dinner at home everyday. You follow your plan Monday through Wednesday. On Thursday, you forget your lunch and end up going out with a co-worker. You feel discouraged that you deviated from your plan and decide to abandon your efforts for the rest of the week.
You can expect that your plan will change or a slip will occur at some point in the process. These missteps – taken in isolation – will likely not sabotage your progress. However, thinking “I already messed up, so what’s the use continuing?” will keep you from reaching your goals. When you slip, use the opportunity as a learning experience, forgive yourself, and get back to your healthy behaviors at the next possible juncture. No one is perfect, and perfection is not necessary to lose weight.
Waiting For Motivation
You know that keeping a food journal is important. However, you find that you are never in the mood to measure your food, look up calorie counts, and put pen to paper. You tell yourself, “I’m not in the mood to do this today. I’ll get started when I feel more motivated.”
Many people postpone starting health behaviors because they are waiting to feel motivated. You don’t use this line of reasoning in other areas of your life. You probably don’t feel incredibly excited to brush your teeth each morning, but you do it anyway. Some parts of this process might never be “fun” or engaging. Therefore, they must become “non-negotiable” tasks you complete whether you feel like it or not. Further, the regular practice of these behaviors can actually increase your motivation as you see the fruits of your labor. Motivation is not a requirement for behavior, but it can be a consequence of behavior.
TakeAways
Make sure your resolutions are attainable. Perfection in your Structure is neither realistic nor necessary to meet your weight loss goals; however, when you do slip, just resolve to get back on track as soon as possible. Instead of waiting to feel motivated, just get started. Before you know it, your new healthy habits will become the “new normal.” Consistency is key!
