Everyone has different reasons why they want to lose weight. Some people want to look better, others want to defeat a health problem. Yet others lose weight because they simply want to be healthier in general and weight loss is a side effect of eating right. There are really no right or wrong answers to why you may want to lose weight, unless the reason is to please someone else. You have to choose to do it for yourself in order to be successful losing weight.
It’s important to understand what your real motivation for losing weight is, because if you’re doing it for any other reason than for yourself, you can set up roadblocks in your way. If you’re doing it for your husband or boyfriend it might shock you when they suddenly bring home a double chocolate fudge brownie shake as a surprise. If you’re doing it for your mother, don’t be shocked if one day you go visit her and she tries to feed you more food.
I know it’s hard to understand, but it’s human nature. I don’t think your husband or mom is doing it on purpose because they never consider the fact that you’re trying to lose weight to please them. They automatically think you’re just doing it for yourself, or that you won’t be successful, or some other ridiculous idea. They aren’t consciously trying to sabotage you because you haven’t fully explained your journey to them. And to be totally truthful, even if your boyfriend brings you a shake, or your mom tries to feed you fattening foods, you do not have to eat it.
Anytime you find yourself losing your motivation for losing weight, ask yourself the following questions:
“Why did I want to lose weight in the first place?”“Have my reasons changed?”
“If so, why?”
“How can I get motivated again?”
If you can figure out a way to motivate yourself — for yourself — instead of others, you’ll find that it’s easier to stick to your long term plans of weight loss. In addition, if you know your ‘why’ you can also anticipate your triggers that might cause you to fall off the wagon. Knowing your triggers can be a great way to implement coping tools to help you get back on the right path. If you have no idea why you want to lose weight it’s a lot harder to figure out the right path toward successful weight loss.
