Everyone has different motivations when it comes to their weight.
The majority of us are hoping to drop a pound or two to reach the ideal weight for our frames, some others are looking to drop more significant weight — and then there are the athletes who must keep focused on stabalising their weight ahead of competition.
Of course, there are some simple guidelines. If you consume less calories than you expend you will drop weight but achieving your ideal weight isn’t simply an exercise in food moderation, there are other routes which can help you in your pursuit of an overall healthier lifestyle.
Why do you want to lose weight?
Motivation is key. If you have identified exactly why it is that you would like to drop some weight the entire process become easier and it will be somewhat easier to stomach (no pun intended) the necessary adjustments that you might have to make.
Have realistic expectations
Anything worth doing doesn’t come easy and this is no different. Weighing yourself can be nerve-wracking, especially when you don’t immediately see the improvements that you feel your actions merit. For regular people (not soon to be undergoing a weight cut), losing 1 to 2 pounds per week is a healthy pace. Setting goals above that can lead to you becoming disheartened and abandoning the entire process.
Pick a plan which suits you
Everyone’s schedules are different so you need to settle on a system that you can incorporate into your lifestyle. Yo-yo dieting (the process of going on and off diets) can actually lead to increases in your weight as your metabolism struggles with the different amounts of fuel you are allowing it, so concentrate on lowering caloric intake and moderating portion sizes rather than taking drastic steps of eliminating some foods entirely.
Keep a journal
Most of us can be tremendously motivated by results. If your weight loss plan is working it can be a huge boost to motivation, so it is a good idea to start keeping a journal to track your progress. Seeing the hard, cold data of your improvements can spur you on to keep going when times get tough.
Make a commitment
Find something that you want to do which you think would have proved difficult before you adopted changes to your diet. An official 5k run, which shouldn’t be too hard to find in your city, is a good date to keep affixed to your calendar as a future goal and test of your improvements. The best part of this particular activity is that the training to actually do it will help with your weight loss and incur an overall feeling of well-being, personal satisfaction and growth which may have been absent otherwise.
