Definitely one of the hardest things when starting any new diet is to stay motivated. We all have such high expectations in the beginning but maintaining that motivation to do the work needed to have success with a weight loss plan is not easy. The problem with motivation is it is all up to you, only you have the power to keep doing what you want to do. It is ever so easy to say, I’ll do double tomorrow and skip today. But it rarely happens and every time you cheat yourself out of that extra exercise or eat something you really shouldn’t it harms you.

Little decisions like that will eat away at your motivation and add up to giving up. We all love to procrastinate when it comes to diet and exercise. We are a world of procrastinators. Your own lack of motivation is almost always the reason you don’t actually reach a goal. You have to make the choice and the correct choice is never the easy one. You know it takes healthy eating and 3 or 4 days of great exercise to achieve your fat loss success.

Here are two big excuses dieters use all the time when it comes to why they didn’t exercise today. They say they don’t have time or they think exercise is too hard. We all have a busy life and have to choose what we are going to do. Exercise needs to be as important as anything else to you. Exercise has to be a priority in order to succeed. Schedule that time just like a doctors appointment or your job. Decide how important losing that extra weight is to you and assign it a priority level. Do your exercise first. You need to write down your weight loss goals and write down when and how much exercise you are going to do. Adjust something else so you have your exercise time.

If you think exercise is too hard, you need to start slow and just start doing something easy like a fast walk for 20 minutes. No need to go to a gym or swimming pool. A daily walk is perfect to get your exercise routine going. As you advance, simply add stairs or jumping rope.

Lift light weights until you are ready to progress. Anything that you add to your daily life and get extra exercise is a plus.

And your exercise doesn’t have to be anything in particular find physical activities you enjoy. Play tennis, swim, shoot basketballs, run, bicycle, hit the treadmill, or maybe get social and join the gym or hiking club.

The key is to do something and keep doing physical activities that build up a sweat for 20 minutes or more. You don’t have to keep doing the same thing. For motivation, keep finding new exercises and activities to vary what you do and keep things fun. There are all kinds of exercises you can do around the house with no equipment. I bet as you get in better shape, you will start to really push yourself to do more and more. Just keep your schedule, it really doesn’t matter what you do as long as you are being active and continue to build up your exercise time and the effort it takes.

Your body will get used to new routines so keep adding more to it if you want to see great gains in your well being.

Find what you like doing and follow your schedule. Quickly you will get used to an exercise routine and it becomes part of your life. Your new healthy life.

Another part of any weight loss plan is what you eat. You need to avoid eating the same healthy foods over and over. There are plenty of healthy foods so keep your diet varied and try new things. Mix up your meals with new ingredients and flavors. Varying what you eat will keep you looking forward to the next meal and you wont get tired of eating the same thing week after week.

Dieting and exercise is not a punishment. You are just improving your health and life through better eating habits and adding more physical activity. The key to staying motivated is watching yourself reaching new goals and having a fun and enjoyable life. Reaching goals and checking them off will really make you feel great and feeling great about what you are doing is the reason you will stay motivated.

We all have choices every day in life and it is you who makes every choice. Being motivated is simply one of those choices that is always available.