One of the most common reasons people struggle to lose weight on their own is motivation. In reality, no one is motivated all year round. In fact, very few things in life we are motivated to do but we do many things even if we don’t feel like doing them.
So how can we overcome a lack of motivation?
- Goal setting, set more specific goals, rather than “I want to lose weight”. How much do you want to lose? Do you have a timeline for when you want to lose x amount of stone or kilogram? Is your goal realistic? Meaning have you given yourself enough time to achieve your goals? When you set clear goals, it gives you a reason to exercise and improve your diet.
- Have you found your why? So this means, have you asked yourself why you want to lose weight. How it will make you feel when you get there. Why don’t just stay as you are? The more you drill down why it is you have these goals in mind, it will give you more motivation to go after them.
- Workout with a friend, if you have a gym membership. Perhaps you could go with a friend, family member or partner. If you exercise at home, you could go on a video call while doing your exercise. You are effectively committing to a day and time when you agree to exercise with a friend or family member.
- Process goals, set these kind of goals. These can be goals you set daily or weekly. I would recommend setting things to improve or add. For example setting a step target, x amount of protein. Eating x amount of fruit and or vegetables per day. Workout x amount of times per week. Look at your current baseline for your process goals, so you can set small goals rather than big ones that may be too big of a jump from where you currently are.
- Ask a personal trainer to help you. They can help to keep you accountable and give you support when you find you don’t have the motivation. When you have to report to an expert who wants to see you succeed, in how you have been doing.
A lot of people find it difficult to stay motivated. There are many strategies to use when you don’t feel motivated to exercise or to eat well, you might find it helpful to use 1 or 2 of these.
