With the dark nights upon us, and the end of 2020 in sight, it can be easy to lose your weight loss motivation and give in to those nagging voices in your head telling you to skip a workout and have a takeaway. But now is not the time to give up and start again after Christmas! There are still 7 weeks left of 2020, if you continue being strict and consistent, dropping an extra stone is definitely possible before 2021.
Our personal trainers have come up with 10 tips to ensure you stay motivated to reach your weight loss goal!
Set a Long-term Goal
It’s important to have a long term goal to work towards. Think about how fast this year has gone - ask yourself where you want to be this time next year. Make sure your goal is realistic and achievable for that timescale. How much weight do you actually want to lose? What dress size do you want to get down to? How much stronger would you like to get?
Set a Short-term Goal
Now you have your long term goal thought out, it's now time to set some short term goals for those little wins. This could be anything from tracking food for 7 days, doing 3 exercise sessions after work, or reaching 10k steps. Just make sure your short term goals are realistic and something you are able to achieve within a few days.
Write Your Goals Down and Look at Them Daily
Studies show we are more likely to accomplish a goal if we write it down, as opposed to only having a goal in your mind. The process of penning down your goal mentally engraves it to our mind which makes us less likely to slip back into bad habits. As well as writing down your goal, also write down the actionable steps you need to take in order to achieve them.
Once you have your goal written down, stick it to your door, or somewhere you will see it every day before you leave the house. That way your goal will never be off your mind.
Plan Cheat Meals to Prevent Cravings
Don’t be afraid to treat yourself once in a while, there is no reason why you shouldn't! Having a planned cheat meal keeps the cravings a bay which can prevent a binge later down the line and allows your weight loss journey to be more sustainable. Just try not to over eat your maintenance calories by too much!
Take a Few Days off When You Feel Fatigued
Listen to your body! If you're feeling fatigued, struggling to sleep, have stopped progressing then you need a day or two off from exercising! You don’t need to be putting the hours in on the treadmill, or lifting weights every single day to achieve your goals. Listen to your body, you need to rest to allow it to recover.
Train With a Friend
Get yourself a training partner! Try and find someone who is a fitter than you, it may be daunting to train with someone who out performs you at first, but use their knowledge to help you with your goals. Having somebody to hold you accountable will make it much easier to stay on track.
Get a Personal Trainer to Ensure You Are Doing Everything Correctly
If your motivation is lagging because you are not seeing results, then get yourself a professional to help. Personal trainers are there to offer you their wealth of knowledge to get the results you want in the fastest and safest way possible.
Find an Exercise You Enjoy
If you don’t like doing certain exercises, don’t do them. There are plenty of ways to stay active that don't involve mindlessly running on a treadmill. Try something a little different like fencing, rock climbing, or trampolining. It doesn't matter what it is as long as it is something that you enjoy doing and keeps you active!
Take Progress Pictures so You Can See How Far You Have Come
One of the main reasons people lose motivation despite seeing the scale weight go down, is because they don't see the physical change of their body. Think about it, you see yourself in the mirror every single day, so the small changes that happen from day to day we don’t notice. By taking a progress picture once a month, you can really see just how far you have come.
Weigh Yourself Every Day
I know this goes against what a lot of you are told, but hear me out! Your weight changes every day, it will go up, and it will go down - you need to accept that. Just because the scale weight goes up, it does not mean you have put on fat. There are a number of reasons for scale fluctuations, from the food you ate the night before, your hormones, how much you've drank, if you've gone to the toilet or not, the list goes on... By weighing yourself every day as opposed to once a week (which could be a heavy day!), you can get a realistic idea of how much your true weight is. The best way to monitor your weight loss progress is by adding up your weight for the week, each week, and dividing that number by 7 to find out what your average weight was for that week compared to the previous weeks.
