Motivational Keys That Keep Your Weight Loss On Track

Losing weight is just as much a mental undertaking as a physical one.  A strong mental focus on the end goal is just as important as the right diet. Even if you've struggled to lose weight in the past, you will find it much easier to succeed if you incorporate these tips to stay focused and motivated for weight loss success.

Reasons Why

The easiest way to stay motivated is to clearly identify your reasons for wanting to lose weight. Before you start a diet or exercise regimen, grab a piece of paper and spend some time thinking of the real reasons you want to shed pounds. While part of you may just want to be healthier and have more energy, you may have other reasons for losing weight as well. For example, maybe you want to appear more attractive to the opposite sex.

By uncovering these underlying reasons, you will find it much easier to stay motivated. Keep your list of reasons handy, and refer back to them often. Being clear about why you really want to lose weight will actually make your desire stronger, and make it easier to complete your goal.

Taking Photos

Another great solution for staying motivated is taking photos. Commit to taking a photo of yourself every week or so. This will give you enough time to make noticeable progress.

For these photos to be effective, you should make sure you take the photo in underwear, a bathing suit, or even naked, if that is something you are comfortable with. You should also take the photo in the same type of clothing for each session.

To make this technique really powerful, incorporate visualizations. Have your journal ready, and jot down how you feel when you take your picture. Each time you take a photo, identify and write down what's changed. At the end of each session, visualize yourself being even slimmer for the next photo. This technique is an extremely powerful tool that will help you lose weight.

Losing weight does not have to be as difficult if as you think. Even if you've struggled to lose weight in the past, by staying motivated, you can stay focused and will start to see results. Once you start to lose weight, the physical evidence of the photos will motivate you even further. Before you start your weight loss program, make sure you incorporate tools that will help you succeed.

 

Weight Loss Mental Mistakes to Avoid

Mindset is a major factor for successful weight loss. By reprogramming your mental thinking, you can stay motivated and focused on your weight loss goals.  Here are some mental pitfalls that should be addressed when you start your weight loss journey.

Self-Talk

Being overweight can often trigger thoughts of self-loathing. However, disparaging yourself does not help you lose weight. On the contrary, it is actually easier to stay focused and motivated on your weight loss goals when you appreciate yourself. It may seem like a paradox, but when you appreciate your body, healthy eating and exercise habits become easier.

You can help create a new positive mindset by monitoring your self-talk. One way to do this is with a journal and focus on your feelings about your body. By being vigilant about what you're saying to yourself, you can start seeing how negative thoughts are untrue and unhelpful, and start substituting them with beliefs that support your goals. By believing you are capable and worthy of a healthy body, losing weight will be that much easier.

Neglecting Rewards

In addition to negative self-talk, one of the other things that many people do to sabotage their weight loss efforts is neglect to reward themselves regularly. By receiving feedback and positive reinforcement, you help yourself stay excited and involved in meeting your weight loss goals.

Start by breaking larger goals into smaller chunks, and reward yourself every time you meet a milestone. Rewards do not need to be expensive, and can include things like time with friends, reading a good book, or spending time on a hobby that you enjoy.

Emotional Eating

One of the major stumbling blocks for losing weight is the problem of emotional eating. Many people use food as medication. By eating, they relieve or soothe their negative thoughts and unpleasant emotions. When you uncover your emotional eating triggers, you can recognize when you grab food in times of emotional upset. By being more aware of when and why you eat, you can stop yourself from emotional eating more often.

A great way to do this is to have some substitute activities lined up whenever you feel tempted to reach for food. Exercise, for example, is a great way to shift your mood. If you can distract yourself with exercise, you will feel better and remove much of the need for emotional eating. If exercise isn't an option, another effective technique is to distract yourself for 5 minutes, and check your mood again. Set a timer if you need to. In many cases, you will have distracted yourself enough to release the immediate need to eat.

 

You can increase your chances for weight loss success by realizing that your weight loss journey is a mental and emotional one as much as a physical one. Losing weight requires harmony with the mental, emotional, and physical aspects of you. When you remove some of the common stumbling blocks, and focus on creating a positive mindset, your weight loss success will increase dramatically.

 

 

 

A Few Easy Ways to Lower Your Calories for Losing Weight

If you are having a hard time slimming down, you need to take a look at your calorie consumption because; more than likely, you will need to cut them down. All diet plans work since there is a major reduction in the amount you eat. Obesity is caused whenever your calorie intake is much more than what your body needs to maintain your ideal body weight.

One of the most effective ways to reduce calories is stop drinking sodas, & cocktails.  Basically all high calorie drinks. A few of the new flavored coffee drinks have as much as 1200 calories in a single drink! Obviously, this is more than half the 2000 calories per day recommended calorie intake.

Your average soda has over 300 calories in a portion, and a lot of the bottles are packaged to contain 2 serving sizes. Instinct tells you that a bottle is one serving size, but that is not always the case.  Just read the can of ... your average energy drink, for instance.  You’ll see what I’m talking about. 

Another easy way to cut calories is always to add veggies in your recipes. And ... eat them FIRST!  Vegetables are usually low in calories.  Yes, adding more veggies to your recipes adds more nutrition to your meal; but more specifically, it adds more fiber to your meal.  This extra fiber will cause you to feel full sooner which will lower the amount of food that you eat.Another easy way to cut calories is to serve a slice of pineapple or mango for dessert rather than pie or cake.  I know.  But it is all about making healthy choices.  I’m not saying ‘turn your world upside down’ and revamp your whole fridge.  I’m saying while you know you have to change, change slowly, change methodically, and change progressively.  Always do what comes next!

Also, alcohol is normally full of calories and it has no nutritive value. So you should know the calorie count of your favorite ‘moon-shine’.

For snacks; everyone knows about small cut, raw vegetables for any low-calorie alternative.  If you get tired of them, try to find other foods, like unsalted nuts or a ‘new’ fruit to snack on.

Write everything down inside a food journal to help you keep up with what you eat and the respective calorie count.Find simple actions to minimize calories from your food. When you are ready to lose weight, pick two or three of those steps to begin. Once you have mastered those, commence to practice another step; then another, then another.

Before you know it, you’re drinking healthier drinks, eating healthier foods and consuming a smaller amount of calories.  Shortly thereafter, you’ll notice that you’re not only smaller, but also lighter and feeling better.  Trust the math, if you create a caloric deficit - you will lose weight.  You just have to do it!



Is your “Why?” Big Enough?

Losing weight isn't as easy as some people would like you to believe. The truth is that it can take hard work and commitment. However, it will be a lot easier if you can find some good weight loss inspiration as you take off the pounds.

More than anything else, you need to have a big enough reason for why you want to lose weight.

Are you doing it to look better?

Because your spouse or kids want you to? 

Because it could save your life?

Because you want to stop feeling embarrassed on the beach?

Whatever your reason (or reasons), it needs to be BIG ENOUGH to keep you inspired.

Self-inspiration is perhaps the best kind of inspiration because it doesn't rely on any external forces.  This is why I remind you; You are writing your own story.  What will it be … in June?

You control your own destiny and you control how much weight you're going to lose. In fact, it's safe to say that you must have at least a small amount of self-inspiration if you're going to lose weight and keep it off.

Weight loss inspiration can also come from family and friends. After all, you care about your loved ones, and being at a healthy weight increases your chances of living longer. If you have children, then you should also know that your being overweight is a risk factor for them to be overweight as well. By slimming down, you can have healthier kids, too...talk about inspiration! 

Look at this way.  If you are buying the groceries, and if you’re buying bad foods, what do you expect your children to eat … if that’s all that in the house? 

Fast forward to when they move out for college:

What life skill will you have taught them?  What do you think they will buy when they are one their own?

Other people's weight loss victories can also serve as inspiration to help you lose extra pounds. You can get those stories from TV, magazines, or of course, Black Phoenix Bootcamp testimonial videos.

Whatever it takes to help you stay motivated is a good thing, so go ahead and start looking for your own sources of weight loss inspiration.