It seems these days, that there is always an ad on TV talking about these diets or exercise routines that are as easy as falling out of bed. Then, when we try them, it turns out they aren’t as easy as they imply we then lose interest and quit them altogether. After all that we wait around for the next string of promises.

Lets start with the basics we all know, food is the fuel for our bodies and fat is the stored energy reserves. With that out of the way, the solution is to just burn up the reserves, right? So then why is so hard to get any of these programs to work? The answer is staying motivated.

1. Diet, Exercise, and the real reason we struggle

While exercise and diet are the workhorses of the trio motivation is the driver of the group without it exercise stops and diets derail. The trick to staying motivated is to make sure that we don’t make the cure seem worse than the original problem.

2. “Variety is the spice of life”… and Weight loss foods

By this point, we should know the junk foods to avoid(chips, soda, fast food, artificial sugars), and that fruit and vegetables are good for us(simple sugars and nutrients that the body can easily process). While it is important to follow the guidelines of healthier eating, it is equally important to diversify what you eat as well. People will get tired of eating the same thing over and over, and will often break their diets going back to their old familiar ruts. To prevent this try various simple recipes that you find even if you wouldn’t consider them normally I found a spaghetti squash recipe that replaces a standard pasta recipe that turned out to be delicious and it is now a regular in my repertoire of quick easy meals. This is one area where the internet is our friend.

3. Baby steps are better than no steps at all

When making changes to your diet, try improving the quality of the meals or portion control one meal at a time. Honestly Rome was not built in a day. As an alternative try shrinking the portions of one of your meals, or better yet, split it into two meals. For example, eat half your lunch when you usually do and have a healthy snack a couple of hours later, this will also help to reduce your appetite when dinner time comes round and it also trains your body to burn food at a more consistent rate versus trying to handle bulk piles of food and storing the rest.

4. More baby steps

Exercise should also be handled in a similar way, even if it is only being a little bit more active, you are consuming more energy than you were before, and it is easier to do several seemingly inconsequential changes than adding one large task into the middle of your day. Some examples include parking a block further from work or taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or if you are already a walker jogger or are actively doing some other form of exercise to up the difficulty or increase the exertion in small amounts

5. Always more fun with friends

Friends are a great source of motivation. Try not to do exercise, or workout activities alone. Yes, there will be walks or other activities that your friend can’t make, and you should still workout that day but everything is more fun when you have someone to take your mind off the task at hand. It makes it more interesting and if you end up falling into a healthy routine you will tend to stick with it because subconsciously you don’t want to let your friend down (or you don’t want them to show you up, whatever your drive may be).

Conclusion

There are many workout programs that exist out there that try to draw people in with the “results not typical” before and after photos, and it is at these times we need to be our strongest, and look at these programs at face value. There are programs out there that work and I could even recommend a few, but it is important to do your best to keep these programs going, keep your motivation up and tackle these step by step