The Cycle of Motivation and Demotivation

Its very easy to be sad and very difficult to be happy. Its very easy to think "I am ugly, I am fat, I will never reduce, nothing ever works for me, why is it me who is fat". Its extremely difficult to get up every single day and say to yourself that "I am losing weight" even when the weighing scale shows no downward trend.

One driving force behind weight loss is motivation. If there is lack of motivation no one can make you diet and exercise. Its motivation that keeps us on our toes.

During weight loss there will be days when you will be high, you will feel at the top of this world and could conquer anything AND sadly there will be days when you will be down in dirt, eating like a pig, thinking nothing will ever work for you and you will never reduce.

When I was 78 kgs everything came to a halt. The weight stopped moving and in fact it started showing a slight upward trend, I was devastated. First time in my life I was so serious about weight loss and I was failing miserably at it. I was depressed, my husband at that time told me "Look how much you have lost till now, so its not a complete failure, give it time and you will loose more". This gave me hope and I started again. Then at 74 kgs again everything came to a halt, I was losing hope and motivation to loose weight further, my sister told me "Shiva you are pushing yourself too much, its ok weight will come down, stop pushing yourself", this made me calm a little and again after few days I started back on my journey to weight loss.

The point is that this is going to be a cycle. Few days you will be high and few days you will be low and then you will be back to being high.

The trick is not to give up completely, you will loose the war if you go back to your old eating habits and go back to being where you started. As long as you are starting all over again you are doing just fine.

Now when I am depressed and lose motivation I automatically do few things to get myself back on track. Initially when I was not aware of this cycle I used try out things to get me back on track, these worked all the time.

1. You tube Videos - Yes, sound silly but works. They have some amazing before and after videos where you see people larger than you becoming much thinner than what you are. It inspire me every time. When they can do it so can I.

2. Your before and after pics- If you have lost few kgs then these are real motivation boosters.

3. Reading health articles - I just Google them up and its always nice to read them. They are informative and they bring back the desire to lose weight.

These are few things that get me back on track when I am down, so if you see such a cycle coming up in your life figure out things that will boost your motivation level.

How to keep yourself motivated

1. Realistic upcoming event goals - If you have a function to attend in a month's time don't push yourself to lose 5 kgs, tell yourself I will lose 2 kgs. 2 kgs loss will show on your face for sure and so you will get compliments.

2 kgs loss is very achievable in one month. When you achieve such small targets your confidence level increases and you tend to work more towards your target weight. If targets are unrealistic you are bound to fail and be depressed.

Also always imagine the compliments that you will get when people will see you in your super slim avatar. It won't happen in a day but will surely happen in one year's time so motivate yourself by visualizing that scene.

2. Keep a one size smaller pair of clothes - Just keep a set which is one size smaller and NOT 3 - 4 size smaller. Like I got a pair of jeans which were one size smaller and every month I would try them. Its actually is a great booster when you see yourself fitting into smaller clothes. If you get a really small size it will demotivate you so get just 1 size smaller.

3. Food - If you have a craving for certain high calorie food you can make small targets so that you can enjoy the food guilt free. To say I will lose 5 kgs and will have a piece of cake is deprivation. Best way is to say let me lose 1 kgs and then I will enjoy my cake.

Motivation is the key to weight loss and you will have to figure out a way to motivate yourself because once this is lost everything associated to weight loss is lost.

One thing that I always follow is to get up in morning and say to myself "Wow I am losing weight". I say it even when there is no change on the weighing machine. This is a visualizing technique but actually its just telling your sub conscious mind to work towards the target. Its not going to cost you a penny so trying this will not hurt.

Remember

The optimist fell 12 stories
And at each window bar
He yelled to his frightened friends below
I am alright so far

So be optimistic. You are not dying in a miserable condition or are in prison, you are just working towards weight loss, that is all. Your life is just fine and weight loss will happen. It will happen slowly but surely so stop being demotivated and stop pushing and punishing yourself.

Tell you what its possible all you have to do is believe in it being possible and be patient. The whole point of life is to run after it, chase it, dare it, challenge it, defeat it, conquer it, the moment the chase ends so does life.