The Motivation To Lose Weight
We all know diets work. Every book, article, regimen, fitness plan, you name it works as long as you actually do it. Getting the motivation to follow through is arguably the most important part of losing weight. The information will always be there, but the motivation....that's the elusive piece of the puzzle, the thing that everyone wants and few of us have. How do you get the motivation to get started, stay on track, and most importantly, to get where you want to go?
I would suggest that the most powerful motivator is the truth. What is your truth? And why are you hiding from it? This may be hard but spend a minute really thinking about this question....are you truthful with yourself? Do you take an assessment of your life and really know what's going on without sugar coating it or emphasizing the negative? Have you taken a picture of yourself and acknowledged, fully acknowledged that you don't look good - that you don't look healthy? Have you looked down at your midsection, when you're sitting down? How much of that bulge is bulging over? Forget about your looks for a second and spend a minute acknowledging the health consequences to your extra slice of pizza. Are you avoiding old friends or maybe your brother because you don't want to see the looks on their face in reaction to your weight gain? Do your helpful friends even make a comment here and there that would get you on track, but you ignore them? Do you say to yourself, "they're just jealous. They might be thin, but they're hungry and miserable. At least I'm full and happy". Maybe none of these questions resonate with you. But if you focus on the truth, you'll find the right question inside of yourself, the one that reflects the truth and the key to your motivation.
The Real Habits and Choices of Sustainable Motivation
Until you face the truth, until you face the total reality of your weight, your health and your life, you will not get the real, solid, win-the-race motivation you need. Sure, you might get the one or two day spurts of getting to the gym, or eating within your points, but you will not get what lies beneath....the real habits and choices of sustainable motivation.
Examine and Find Your Truth
When you are ready to begin to lose weight in earnest, group and peer support are the most highly proven methods for success. It is one thing to learn how to lose weight and eat more healthy, it is another thing to put this into practice on a consistent basis. Friends and family are of limited use because there is only so much burden they can bear. Getting the support of an anonymous group of people each day can make the critical difference. Self-monitoring is the other method, backed by volumes of research, that is highly correlated with weight loss success. You keep a log of your food, exercise, goals and thoughts. When you do this each day it keeps you accountable to yourself, and brings this aspect of your life to the top of your mental agenda. When you are writing each day, you are thinking about the things you write about. This begins to change how you think and facilitates better decision making. When you make better decisions, and have a broad support network, you are very likely to lose weight for the long term. When you do both these things, the odds of success increase dramatically.
A free, online resource that facilities both social support and self-monitoring in an easy to use (and anonymous format) is PEERtrainer. You sign up, start or join small groups and teams. You log your food each day, and the others in your group see your log and provide support, motivation and accountability each day. It is like a virtual support group available on the internet whenever you need it. It is highly effective and has been featured in The New York Times, Fitness Magazine, Women's World, Business Week, ABC News, CNET, Fast Company...
Diets That Work
You have heard over and over that diets don't work. The traditional American idea of dieting is "portion control" or reducing your caloric intake. These approaches fail because you are only reducing portions of unhealthy and fatty foods. There are new diet approaches out there that seek to fundamentally change what you eat. These diets slash the amounts of saturated fats and sugar that you eat and radically increase the amount of plant-based foods. The Fat Smash Diet (by Dr Ian Smith) is one such popular approach, and Eat to Live by Dr Joel Fuhrman is another. These approaches are not about lowering carbs, or getting more protein or counting Weight Watcher points. They about fundamentally restructuring your eating habits. When you reorder your diet to eliminate processed foods, slash dairy and meat consumption and increase your intake of fruit, vegetables, beans, rice- you will lose weight and reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and a host of other diseases. Improper nutrition is at the root of most diseases. Animal based foods contain cholesterol and boost the levels in your body. Plants do not contain any, and help reduce levels in your body. As blood cholesterol levels decrease, cancers of the liver, rectum, colon, male lung, female lung, breast, childhood leukemia, adult leukemia, childhood brain, stomach and esophagus levels will decrease. The more you reduce meat, dairy and processed foods in your diets, the healthier you will be.
http://www.peertrainer.com/diet/how_to_get_the_motivation_to_lose_weight.htm
We all know diets work. Every book, article, regimen, fitness plan, you name it works as long as you actually do it. Getting the motivation to follow through is arguably the most important part of losing weight. The information will always be there, but the motivation....that's the elusive piece of the puzzle, the thing that everyone wants and few of us have. How do you get the motivation to get started, stay on track, and most importantly, to get where you want to go?
I would suggest that the most powerful motivator is the truth. What is your truth? And why are you hiding from it? This may be hard but spend a minute really thinking about this question....are you truthful with yourself? Do you take an assessment of your life and really know what's going on without sugar coating it or emphasizing the negative? Have you taken a picture of yourself and acknowledged, fully acknowledged that you don't look good - that you don't look healthy? Have you looked down at your midsection, when you're sitting down? How much of that bulge is bulging over? Forget about your looks for a second and spend a minute acknowledging the health consequences to your extra slice of pizza. Are you avoiding old friends or maybe your brother because you don't want to see the looks on their face in reaction to your weight gain? Do your helpful friends even make a comment here and there that would get you on track, but you ignore them? Do you say to yourself, "they're just jealous. They might be thin, but they're hungry and miserable. At least I'm full and happy". Maybe none of these questions resonate with you. But if you focus on the truth, you'll find the right question inside of yourself, the one that reflects the truth and the key to your motivation.
The Real Habits and Choices of Sustainable Motivation
Until you face the truth, until you face the total reality of your weight, your health and your life, you will not get the real, solid, win-the-race motivation you need. Sure, you might get the one or two day spurts of getting to the gym, or eating within your points, but you will not get what lies beneath....the real habits and choices of sustainable motivation.
Examine and Find Your Truth
When you are ready to begin to lose weight in earnest, group and peer support are the most highly proven methods for success. It is one thing to learn how to lose weight and eat more healthy, it is another thing to put this into practice on a consistent basis. Friends and family are of limited use because there is only so much burden they can bear. Getting the support of an anonymous group of people each day can make the critical difference. Self-monitoring is the other method, backed by volumes of research, that is highly correlated with weight loss success. You keep a log of your food, exercise, goals and thoughts. When you do this each day it keeps you accountable to yourself, and brings this aspect of your life to the top of your mental agenda. When you are writing each day, you are thinking about the things you write about. This begins to change how you think and facilitates better decision making. When you make better decisions, and have a broad support network, you are very likely to lose weight for the long term. When you do both these things, the odds of success increase dramatically.
A free, online resource that facilities both social support and self-monitoring in an easy to use (and anonymous format) is PEERtrainer. You sign up, start or join small groups and teams. You log your food each day, and the others in your group see your log and provide support, motivation and accountability each day. It is like a virtual support group available on the internet whenever you need it. It is highly effective and has been featured in The New York Times, Fitness Magazine, Women's World, Business Week, ABC News, CNET, Fast Company...
Diets That Work
You have heard over and over that diets don't work. The traditional American idea of dieting is "portion control" or reducing your caloric intake. These approaches fail because you are only reducing portions of unhealthy and fatty foods. There are new diet approaches out there that seek to fundamentally change what you eat. These diets slash the amounts of saturated fats and sugar that you eat and radically increase the amount of plant-based foods. The Fat Smash Diet (by Dr Ian Smith) is one such popular approach, and Eat to Live by Dr Joel Fuhrman is another. These approaches are not about lowering carbs, or getting more protein or counting Weight Watcher points. They about fundamentally restructuring your eating habits. When you reorder your diet to eliminate processed foods, slash dairy and meat consumption and increase your intake of fruit, vegetables, beans, rice- you will lose weight and reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and a host of other diseases. Improper nutrition is at the root of most diseases. Animal based foods contain cholesterol and boost the levels in your body. Plants do not contain any, and help reduce levels in your body. As blood cholesterol levels decrease, cancers of the liver, rectum, colon, male lung, female lung, breast, childhood leukemia, adult leukemia, childhood brain, stomach and esophagus levels will decrease. The more you reduce meat, dairy and processed foods in your diets, the healthier you will be.
http://www.peertrainer.com/diet/how_to_get_the_motivation_to_lose_weight.htm