Losing weight and KEEPING it off has been a lifelong struggle for me. I’ve been motivated for periods of time only to find myself right back at square one, because I didn’t take serious that the changes that had to be made needed to last longer than just for the moment. It’s one thing to lose it, but keeping it off requires the same mindset and effort. Unfortunately I was not born with the gene that would allow me to eat whatever I want and remain a healthy weight. Oh well, at least I did get the beautiful, talented, brilliant, funny gene. I guess I can’t have it all
Here’s What I Know For Sure
Whatever you do to lose the weight is the same thing you’ll have to do to keep it off.
Diets, quick fixes, extreme weight loss tactics don’t work for the long haul. These gimmicks are not sustainable for long periods of time. Sure they may work long enough to fit into that dress for your cousins wedding, or to win $250,000 (that’s definitely a motivator), however these things are temporary fixes, especially if you go in with the mindset of losing it for a “certain thing”.
Here’s Something Else I Know For Sure
Losing weight requires focus, commitment and discipline and making lasting lifestyle changes.
That’s right, it requires a complete overhaul of your lifestyle. The way I see it is it requires finding balance and consciously managing the following areas:
- Adopting healthy eating habits
- Adding more physical activity to your daily schedule
- Eliminating stress from your life
- Hydrating your body with WATER!
- Maintaining a positive mental attitude
- Getting a sufficient amount of sleep/rest each and every night
As I thought about the question:
Are you motivated to make long-term lifestyle changes?
My quest for the answer that would help both me and you led to the following four ways to stay motivated for not temporary change, but for LONG LASTING LIFESTYLE CHANGES!
List all of your reasons (your whys) for wanting to lose weight
My list looks like this:
- I want to have a better quality of life
- I want to be able to keep up with my very active sweetie.
- I want to be able to teach Zumba and not feel like I’m gonna die at the end of the class
- I want to get a great report on my next physical
- I want relief from my back pain
- I don’t want to be a burden in my old age
- I want to be able to move around and get around freely without huffing and puffing
List the consequences of staying overweight. What will staying overweight cost you?
My list looks like this
- I won’t be able to enjoy hunting and hiking trips with my sweetie; I’ll feel like I’m holding him back from forging ahead like he’s used to doing.
- I won’t be able to continue teaching Zumba and I’ll let down all the beautiful ladies who faithfully attend my class.
- I could end up with high blood pressure or diabetes
- I could live with back pain for the rest of my days because of the excess weight (and that is something I’m not willing to “live with”, especially if I can do something about it!
- I could die a premature death due to weight related complications
- I might not live to see my children get married (oh wait I don’t have any children…but you get the idea:-)
Challenge yourself by plowing through your obstacles and excuses
Let’s face it, from the moment you plan to over haul your lifestyle until the Lord calls you home, you are gonna come up with a trillion excuses as to why you can’t do or commit to doing what you said you want to do. Waiting for you at some point tomorrow is an obstacle to getting to the gym or eating a healthy breakfast. Decide NOW to make it a game that when the excuses and obstacles threaten to derail you that you will do whatever needs to be done to jump right over those sucka’s and keep that thing movin. I’m an advocate for always having a plan B. In my opinion plan B is the best plan to have…ALWAYS!
Keep it simple and consistent
The formula for losing weight is simple: eat less…move more. If you want something more scientific then remember this…one pound equals 3500 calories. If you divide that by 7 days a week, that’s 500 calories a day. Each day make a plan to eat 250 calories less and burn off 250 calories and at the end of a week you will have lost one pound. That’s doable right? That’s very doable…now the trick is to be consistent with it and at the end of one year you’ll be down 52lbs!!
This is AWESOME!! You wrote everything and shared it all. That takes so much courage to write your goals like that! You should be so proud of yourself! I love that you want to teach Zumba one day! I’ll take a class taught by you!!![My Profile](https://comealivein365.com/wp-content/plugins/commentluv/images/littleheart.gif)
Keep up that positive attitude girl!!
xo
Dawn
Dawn recently posted…How to Make a Pallet Garden
Hi Dawn!! This whole journey has been about courage and stepping out of my comfort zone. Teaching Zumba is one of the things I found myself getting up the courage to do. I have been teaching it now for two years and I would love to have you in my class
Thank you so much for your kind words of encouragement.