If weight loss is your goal, do you know why you want it?
If you can’t immediately answer that question right here, right now (and honestly!) you are unplugged from your most natural and powerful motivation source—YOU.
What is Your “BIG WHY”?
Your WHY, or reason for wanting to achieve a goal, is your core motivation because it connects you to what fires you up most. This WHY isn’t a one size fits all thing. What motivates someone else may not get you off the couch.
The key to determining your why is to just ask yourself: Why do I really want to lose weight? Why is it important to me? If your WHY motivates you toward long term weight loss, go with it.
Examples of “BIG WHY”
- You want to stay healthy for your children,
- Be around for grandchildren,
- Just being able to shop in your own closet and fit clothes you have not worn in years
- Perhaps you want to get down to a certain size or you are simply tired of carrying the extra weight.
- You want to tie your shoes without it being a major event
Point being: If it motivates you, it’s a good thing!
Tips to Keep Going (Motivated) When LIFE Comes at you!
#1 Journaling Your Why
Write down your WHY and keep it somewhere you can see it daily. Maybe your WHY is “Look good in photos!” If you look at that simple sentence daily, it will reconnect you to your WHY.
You may also want to jot down why it’s important to you for added motivation. It may look like: “I want to feel better, so I travel and enjoy life more.”
“I want to enjoy looking at the photos for years to come.” Or, “I want to buy an outfit and celebrate my progress.”
Writing connects you
#2 Visualizing Your Why
Now that you know your WHY, picture it. Maybe you have an image of you that you love and you want to look like that picture again. Pull out that picture and put it in a place where you can see it every day. Maybe you want to complete a 5K or lose the belly fat, find an image that inspires you and post it up as motivation.
Surround yourself with images that connect you emotionally to your WHY, reminding you of who you want to be and what you are working toward.
Literally create a ‘
Visualizing Your Why
Now that you know your WHY, picture it.
Maybe you have an image of you that you love and you want to look like that picture again.
Pull out that picture and put it in a place where you can see it every day.
Maybe you want to complete a 5K or lose the belly fat, find an image that inspires you and post it up as motivation.
Surround yourself with images that connect you emotionally to your WHY, reminding you of who you want to be and what you are working toward.
Literally create a ‘Vision Board’!
#3 Renewing Your Why…Often!
This is BIG.
I don’t expect you to wake up every day with the motivation to run/walk your first 5K (even if that’s your WHY!).
It’s just not realistic to expect you will leap out of bed daily—eager to eat mindfully, sleep well, exercise and totally synched up with your WHY. Life sometimes interferes with the best of intentions.
On those days when you’d love to skip exercise or stress eat your way to bedtime, you will need to reflect and renew your WHY (your core motivation) mentally—to get back on track.
Capture what motivates you most so you can remind yourself of it regularly—especially on those days when you really need it.
Never lose sight of your your BIG WHY?
Summary
If this topic resonates with you and you would like to dig deeper to identify your “BIG WHY”, I invite you to have a conversation with me. Simply click HERE to have direct access to my calendar.