by Jess Shanahan

Created on: September 03, 2009

Motivation is one of the things that make people fail at their diets. If you have a bad few days and put on a pound or two then you feel like all is lost. Similarly if you don't lose anything and stay the same you feel like all your hard work was for nothing.

Short term goals

These are goals that you plan to achieve within the next week or so. Maybe you want to lose five pounds before your friends wedding in two weeks. This is a goal, as you lose, track it tell your friends about it. When you get to that two week mark see if you've reached your goal if you see you are 1lb shy don't despair, go over why you might not have lost that last pound. Then rejoice in the fact that you've lost four lbs! These are important to keep you motivated as they keep your mind on the job at hand as your goal date is always quite close.

Medium term goals

These are ones that run over a couple of months. For example, you might want to lose two stone before your birthday which is three months away. Easily achievable, track when you are losing, your start weight, goal weight and what you are doing. If you are nearing your goal try and think about what you've been doing right and make sure you continue to do it for your other goals. Doing these medium term goals is important as it shows you that you can lose substantial amounts of weight. If you have six stone to lose overall then you may find that is seems like such a struggle to get through. With your medium term goal you will see that you've lost those two stone that's only four more to go.

Long term goals

These are the goals that will get you to your ideal weight they could be a year in the future and could be to lose over 100 pounds. Pick something achievable and try and find out what your ideal, healthy weight is. (Just search for "ideal weight calculator" and you'll find loads of resources to calculate a healthy weight for your height and age.)

Other indicators

You shouldn't just look at your weight to see how you are getting on, also have goals that pertain to other things. Having short, medium and long term goals in other areas will help you to keep focused, you might find that you've lost inches but no weight. It's the funny way in which our bodies work because when you exercise you turn some fat into lean muscle and it weighs more.

Measurements

Make sure you get some good starting measurements, if you want to be thorough then measure your: neck, chest, waist, hips, thigh, calf, forearm and bicep. Look online for tips on how

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