Would you like more motivation to lose weight? With our perseverance tips you are guaranteed to stay on the ball and get closer to your desired figure!
I want to lose weight! What’s the best way to start?
If you’ve decided to lose a few pounds, First of all, you should think of a goal that you want to achieve. This can be a clearly formulated sentence like “I want to lose 20 kilos to be in the healthy BMI range”, but also a phrase like: “I want my body to feel good again.” Of course, your goal can just as easily be a healthier diet or more frequent exercise.
Diets, calories and Co.
Once you have realized what your motivation for losing weight is, the next question is how you can approach your project. Diets or strict calorie counting often promise quick success – but only in very few cases do people actually manage to change their habits and eat healthily afterwards. The result: the lost pounds are back faster than you lost them. It is therefore better to gradually change bad eating habits and to avoid radical diets.
Motivation to lose weight: The 11 best tips
The best way to achieve your goal is to take one step at a time. Here are some tips to help you stay motivated:
1. Think positive
Do you often catch yourself thinking that you have to do without too much, which reduces your motivation? Turn these thoughts into positive ones. For example, instead of mourning the chocolate you love to eat, say to yourself: I can test and experiment with delicious alternatives. And keep your goal in mind – there is hardly a better motivation.
2. Set small goals
For example, if you want to lose 20 kilos, this challenge often lies in front of you like an insurmountable mountain. But even mountaineers have to set themselves small stages in order to get far. So set yourself small goals and be happy about every stage that you have completed. A realistic and healthy weight loss is about 0.5 to 1 kg per week – that works out to about 2 kg per month. Doesn’t sound like much at first, but it ensures that the lost kilos really stay away in the long term.
By the way: Initially, you will probably lose a little more weight. This is perfectly normal and is usually just water that the body loses before it gets to the literal fat. Just be happy about it and take the higher decrease as a positive push to get you started, but don’t be disappointed if after two or three weeks a little less is happening on the scale.
3. Reward builds
Speaking of small goals: Treat yourself to something small when you reach small goals that you have set yourself. For example flowers after the first five kilos, cinema after 10 or a visit to the beautician after 15.
4. Wearing old clothes
Even if the temptation is great to throw the old and oversized clothes straight into the old clothes bin as soon as you lose some weight: keep them! For example, step into one of your old pants now and then. So you can see at a glance how much you have already achieved.
5. Use photos
Stick photos of times you didn’t like yourself on the fridge and/or put them in the candy drawer. This will probably cause some frustration at first, but will motivate you to reach for the apple rather than the chocolate.
6. Bet on curves
Enter your weight in a fever chart after being weighed – there are now many apps with this function. Then you can see at a glance how it goes downhill and what you have already achieved since the start, especially if things don’t go well for a week.
7. Distract relaxed
Do you tend to eat out of boredom? Then try to distract yourself – Most cravings subside after a short time. For example, take a bath with a nice book.
8. Find allies
Share your experiences with others who are also losing weight. You can not only motivate each other, but also comfort each other when the scales don’t play along. There are countless weight loss communities online that you can join for free. Or you can find a local group with people you can meet in real life.
9. Prevent traps
Tell your family and friends that you want to lose weight so that they can support you and not invite you to the movie night with popcorn and chocolate, for example.
10. Full is full
After eating, put the leftovers out of sight immediately. If you eat with half-full pots in front of you, the risk of having a second helping increases – even if you are already full. Extra tip: studies show that a smaller plate automatically reduces the size of meals. You can save up to 30 percent of calories per meal.
11. Dessert allowed
Do not forbid yourself any sweets – that only fuels cravings and makes you dissatisfied. So treat yourself to a little something every day and enjoy it. Incidentally, the snack is best suited as a dessert after lunch. Because then your body has enough time during the day to break down the extra calories.
How does the diet change work?
The motivation to lose weight is there now – but you don’t know how to start? For a balanced diet, the following foods should be a regular part of your diet:
- fruit and vegetables
- lean meats, such as chicken and turkey
- fish
- Whole grain products, such as oatmeal
- legumes
Good to know: You don’t have to change your entire diet overnight if you want to lose weight. It is easier and, above all, more successful in the long term if you replace a “bad” habit with a “good” one every week. For example, from the first week you can drink a lighter juice spritzer at lunch instead of a sugary lemonade, and from week two you can replace the popcorn while watching TV with vegetable sticks.
More tips for a successful diet change you get here.
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