by Michelle Wilkinson

Created on: August 09, 2010

It really helps to have motivation if you’re trying to lose weight, as it isn’t easy making changes to your eating and exercise habits. When you find yourself in the position of being overweight it’s generally because you have fallen into the trap of eating too much and doing too little and eventually this catches up with you so that you can no longer avoid it. Once you have acknowledged that you could do with losing a few pounds you then need to start making some alterations to your lifestyle and stick to them, which is where motivation can come in handy.

Without motivation you begin to question why you’re even bothering to lose weight. You look around you and everyone you know is a little bit chunky; in fact, chunkiness probably runs in the family. This is what you tell yourself, anyway, as you can then avoid dealing with your weight, even though it is obviously something that is bothering you for it to become an issue in the first place. It takes time to embrace a new diet and exercise regime and if you don’t have the motivation to continue following this way of living you may lose a bit of weight in the beginning, but give up before reaching your goal.

If your goal is a long way away you definitely need to have motivation to follow through with your plans, since if you’re only losing a pound or two a week, as is recommended, it could take you months or even years to get down to the size you want to be. You therefore have to be motivated to count calories and make an effort to go for a walk or go to the gym every day or every other day; otherwise, you will give up before long.

Indeed, the reality is that losing weight is only half the battle, anyway, since once you’ve reached your weight-loss goal you then have to work on keeping those extra pounds off. If your natural inclination is to eat until you’re stuffed and to avoid exercise like the plague you’re only going to regain the weight you managed to shift. Thus, this motivation has to carry you forward to your weight-loss goal and beyond so that the habits you had to adopt whilst losing weight are not suddenly abandoned as soon as you have reached your ideal weight. You actually have to work at staying slim, as if you don’t you could find yourself as heavy as you were to begin with.

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