How to Get and Stay Motivated for Weight Loss!

Motivation is a skill that you can learn. Most people do not realise this. They think you are either born with motivation or not. However motivated people, either by luck or design, actually use key skills that help them get and stay motivated.

Motivation is the starting point of all weight loss or health goals. It does not matter how good the plan is, unless you have the motivation to follow it through you will not succeed. I am going to outline the key skills to motivation. These will be simple tasks easily done. A little bit of practice and you will develop very powerful tools for success. But before all this you need to know what stage of motivation you are currently at:

Dreamer – lowest level – you want to lose weight but you want someone else to do it for you! You really have no interest even in making small changes.

Contemplator – you are always going to lose weight next Monday! Sound familiar? You have the interest in making change but have no preparation made and the interest isn’t strong enough yet.

Planner – you will recognise these people because they may be wearing the leisure gear and the trainers or may even have joined the gym but they haven’t actually started anything yet! They are getting close to make positive change.

Doer – second highest level – for example, if you are walking a little and maybe have started to take breakfast because you have heard this is important – then you are a doer – actively doing something about your weight. Be careful – a lot of doers slip back to planning, contemplating or even dreaming!

Convert – you have lost weight or are losing weight and are determined never to go back to the old you. New lifestyle changes have now become habits. This is the ideal level we want everyone to be at!

These stages of motivation not only apply to weight loss but to other dimensions of your life too, for example maybe you are a ‘dreamer’ about your career – you want to do something about it, but want someone else to do it for you!! Whatever stage of motivation you are at, you can move to a higher level with the right skills. It is possible even to leap a few stages, for example ‘dreamers’ have become ‘doers’ overnight!! Even if you are at the top levels you will want to make sure you keep the motivation you have.