You’re losing interest in eating healthy and exercising? You may have been gung-ho for a couple of weeks, but then your resolve to get in shape quickly faded and you returned to your bad habits.
Instead of making massive changes with an all-or nothing approach to weight loss or good health, what if you resolved to make a few small changes at a given time? Studies have shown that habits that promote weight loss and good health are those that require minor changes.
It is important to make small, positive changes and progress consistently.
Ten motivational tips will help you take small positive steps every day.
1. Feel Good About You Today
No matter your weight or health, you should surround yourself with people who make you feel great about yourself. If your friends are encouraging you to overeat, smoke or drink, you should find new friends with healthy habits who also care about you.
Do not focus on your weight or the size of your dress. Focus on your health from the inside. Exercise regularly and eat well. Remember that you don’t have to be thin in order to be sexy, look great and feel good.
2. Rethink your role model
Barbie is still the role model that many young girls look up to. Let’s not be naive. To look like Barbie we would have to be 6′ tall, our waists 8″ smaller, and the extra inches moved up to our chests. Come on! Come on!
Select positive role models. Select role models who will make you feel good. Avoid those who will make you feel bad. Find a strong, healthy and realistic female role model!
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3. Find out what makes you overeat
To stay motivated, you need to identify your problems and develop a plan to deal with them. Do you use food to cope when you are disappointed, rejected, bored?
Think of healthier ways to deal with mood swings without relying on food. Control your environment so that you don’t eat high-calorie food when you feel bored, disappointed or rejected. Stock your kitchen with healthy alternatives such as low-fat yogurts and flavored waters.
4. Simple Daily Change
Who said that lifestyle changes for health were all or nothing? Start small by making a few changes to your daily routine. Over time, these small changes will add up to a major health boost. Here are some ideas:
Increase your fiber intake by 5 grams per day.
Avoid refined carbohydrates such as white rice, white bread and sweets
Avoid trans-fats in foods
Two more vegetables at dinner and lunch
Three more glasses of water per day
Walking 10 minutes a day is a great way to get in your daily exercise.
Every hour, take a walk of 500 steps. (2,000 steps will burn 100 calories).
Walk 15 minutes before starting work and get up 15 minutes earlier.
5. Find a cheering section
All of us need someone to cheer us on. Having to answer to another person gives you the motivation to keep going when you lack determination. No matter who provides the support, whether it’s a spouse or friend, a co-worker or an online “buddy”, or anyone else.
Talk to these people about how they can support you and hold you accountable as you work towards your weight loss or health goals. Ask them to support you and hold you accountable in your efforts to achieve weight loss or fitness goals. When you have trouble maintaining good health habits, call on your cheering squad. Invite your support group to join you in celebrating when you reach small goals such as weight loss or exercising.
6. You Can Forgive Yourself
Forgive yourself if you overeat, drink excessively, or don’t exercise on vacation. Do not beat yourself! Say, “I enjoyed my vacation,” then let it be.
It’s OK to indulge yourself occasionally. You can forgive yourself if you feel guilty about eating dessert after a special evening out. The next day, get back to your disciplined routine.
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7. Never Go Hungry
Undereating is the biggest contributor to overeating. Many people go for too long without food, then binge when they become ravenously hungry.
No one can stick to a rigid diet. Planned snacks can help you avoid binges. Allow yourself a treat once a week, without guilt. Enjoy every last bite of your brownies every Friday.
8. Change takes time
It’s easy for us to look at thin people and think that they are lucky. Here’s the truth. If you see a thin person over 30, or even older, chances are that they work hard to stay thin every day. You can learn from their example. Learn how they keep slim. Does it involve more exercise? Eating fewer snacks?
We would all have very different shapes even if we ate the exact same healthy diet and exercised at the same level of fitness. Some are quite thin, some are quite large but the majority is in between.”
Commit to changing some of your lifestyle habits, and give yourself enough time to achieve your goal. Accept that your body has a natural size, even if it is not skinny. Feel good about that.
9. Get up and move more today; sit less
Exercise more to make healthier choices. When you go grocery shopping, park at the back of the lot. Manually change the TV channel. Take the stairs when you are at work. Take a walk with your children or grandchildren. Raining outside? While watching TV, you can walk or run while it rains. No excuses.
You will burn more calories the longer and more intensely you exercise.
The elevation of resting metabolism rate increases with increasing exercise time.
To improve your health and increase physical activity, make a conscious effort to move around more.
10. Celebrate Every Day’s Journey
Don’t forget to take time out each day to enjoy your journey. Women tend to be so focused on achieving a goal or destination, that they ignore any pleasure that may come from it. The problem arises when “goal” is the only purpose of life and takes over our everyday lives.
It is important to set healthy goals for weight loss and exercise, but also to enjoy the journey each day. Every day, live in the moment and enjoy some of life’s simple joys.
