Motivation 101: Why Do You Want to Lose Weight?

There’s an old saying about when most diets start – tomorrow. It’s easy to understand why diets can be put off, over and over again, until they never happen. Even people who understand that diets shouldn’t be temporary and should be a lifestyle change experience this phenomenon; after all, thinking of all the food you’re not planning to have ever is a daunting task.

But getting started on a healthy lifestyle doesn’t have to be that challenging. It’s all about your attitude and your determination. Most healthy people who used to be a lot heavier or less active, when asked about what finally worked, will tell you that they simply made a decision not to live the way they were anymore. Planning is important of course and keeping your motivation up is necessary, but knowing that it is in your control to make the changes is a powerful tool.

Think realistically about your motivation for getting in shape or losing weight. Is it event-based like a family vacation or class reunion? Maybe it’s because your doctor told you to do so. For many of us, it’s when we look in the mirror and don’t like what we see. Sometimes, we try to lose weight because other people want us to – parents, significant others, etc.

In reality, none of these issues are going to make you successful unless you own them. If your doc said “Lose it!”, you aren’t going to lose weight for your doctor, but you may lose it when you commit to having a healthier body because you want to live longer for your kids and grandkids. Maybe your class reunion sparked a desire to fit into a smaller dress, but it will only really work when you realize that how you look to people you haven’t seen for 20 years is less important than how you see yourself every day.

Many people find that once they start down the road to a healthier lifestyle – if they make it more about the lifestyle and less about the scale or dress size – that they actually start feeling better about themselves almost immediately. You don’t have to reach some imaginary end for it to feel good; you’ll start to feel great simply because you are loving your body and showing it by doing good things to it. That is the key to making a real change.