More and more often, on the streets of cities, we see women with very sinuous shapes. If before their age was estimated at around 45, now more and more girls under 30 are starting to suffer from the problem of excess weight. Poor nutrition, a sedentary lifestyle leave their mark on our appearance, sometimes stronger than genetics.
Surprisingly, often many of the young women do not even think about taking seriously health and weight loss, they think it is too difficult or, conversely, too easy a process: you just have to want it - and the fat will disappear yes. But that's not the case at all. And the sooner we start controlling our weight, the easier it will be for us to keep it at a normal level.
How to motivate yourself to lose weight, what goals to set, where do you need to start so as not to get discouraged and bring the matter to an end? After all, it is important not only to lose weight, but also to consolidate low weight for a long time, to make it the norm.
How not to start losing weight
Let's say you are serious about losing weight. Sports and diets immediately come to mind. And then comes that dear Monday, when you start a new life, you join the gym, you give up buns, sweets, you only eat unsalted vegetables and cereals, you torture yourself with daily physical exertion.
And then a couple of weeks go by, some holidays happen and you collapse. After all, 1 piece of cake, 1 lost sport day won't affect anything. "I'll think about it later, " you think, and take the second piece of cake.
After such breaks, next time in the gym it is already more difficult to train, I really want to feel sorry for myself, reduce the load. Then you skip a few more workouts, in a few weekends you abandon them entirely in favor of barbecues with friends in nature. Little by little the enthusiasm goes away, sport does not bring joy, it becomes a burdensome occupation, it is increasingly difficult to follow a diet, and the pounds lost in the first weeks return.
This is the most losing weight loss scenario: start playing sports and lose weight intensely with great enthusiasm, then go wild. After that, few can start over from the beginning.
To prevent this from happening, you need to lose weight gradually. It is forbidden to limit yourself to food until you lose consciousness, as well as to practice with the last piece of strength. And the biggest key to success is the right motivation! The stakes should be placed not so much on refusal to eat as on sports and regular training.
Motivation is the most important key to weight loss success
Now let's consider where the proper weight loss process begins, which can easily become your habit, lifestyle, and won't require extreme effort or undue restrictions.
How to motivate yourself to lose weight? There are several simple guidelines for this:
- Remember why you thought you were overweight. For example, an ugly swollen belly in your favorite dress, unsuccessful photos, a feeling of great internal discomfort against the background of thin friends. A major incentive can be the desire to please the opposite sex. Or maybe you are waiting in horror for the start of the summer season and are afraid to undress on the beach?
- After the most important reasons for wanting to lose weight are realized, you will feel a lot of discomfort from those extra pounds. Decide for yourself that you are starting to lose weight right now, forget the mystical "next Monday"!
- Change your diet on this day, sport should become a mandatory daily activity! Interested in the closest fitness centers to your home, purchase a membership to one of them.
- Throw away from the refrigerator without regret all foods that seem useless, harmful, unhealthy. Let yourself be guided only by your logic. In the future, as you expand your knowledge in the field of proper nutrition, the habit of buying only healthy foods will become unconditional. After a few months of living like this, it will be difficult to imagine how it was possible to eat what is now on the shelves of the refrigerator!
- Print your ugliest photo, hang it next to a photo of the person with the figure of your dreams. When there is an irresistible desire to eat something very caloric, to eat at night, look at these photos.
- Repeat to yourself: a delicious cake stays in the mouth for only a few minutes and on the stomach for several weeks. Remember that 100 grams of sweets are a minimum of 30 minutes of intense sporting activity!
- Make sport an integral part of your life. At first, you will force yourself to go to the gym by force. But if you don't give up, you will outdo yourself, in a month or two it will be hard to imagine your life without training!
- Start buying smaller, prettier clothes. Entering it is a great incentive!
- Come to terms with your conscience. Don't test your willpower. If you have an unbearable craving for something sweet or unhealthy, eat it. Only such "weaknesses" should rarely occur, as an exception, for example, as a reward for longer exercise.
- Avoid strict diets. The main rule that must be followed every day: "The number of calories consumed with food should be less than the number spent in the gym".
Sport is the most important factor for successful weight loss
For people with a good metabolism, a moderately active lifestyle, sport is not as important as for those who are prone to overweight.
Normal daily activity for thin people is enough to restore energy balance. But if you are already overweight, then sports should become a regular and mandatory activity, like brushing your teeth.
If you are new to the sports field then it is best to train with a coach for the first few months. He will tell you how to properly organize your day, write down the correct physical activity, diet, teach you how to safely use exercise equipment.
When starting sports on your own, remember that any workout should start with a 10-minute warm-up of all muscles and end with a hitch and stretch.
Strength training is desirable to alternate with aerobic exercise, to give different muscle groups a 1-2 day rest after strength training.
The most effective and energy-intensive exercises are considered interval training, cross-fit, complex sports activities, during which all muscle groups are involved.
Whenever sport starts to bother you, when you get tired of working out, think about your favorite dessert. This is one of the options for good intrinsic motivation. If you actively play sports, it burns 600-900 kcal per workout, so you can afford 50-100 grams of cookies or dark chocolate. After all, the calorie content of such sweets is 2-3 times lower than the energy costs.
The correct diet during weight loss, active sports can look like this:
- In the morning - carbohydrates, high-calorie food. Go for slow carbohydrates.
- Lunch: fruit, sweets, proteins.
- Lunch: protein and some fat.
- Before sports training: fast carbohydrates + quality proteins.
- After sports - protein food. Eliminate fat, fast carbohydrates.
You need to eat 4-5 times a day, give up snacks between meals, be sure to eat before playing sports.
Final recommendations
To improve motivation while losing weight, the most important thing is to see the first results. They usually appear only 1. 5-2 months after the usual rhythm of life changes and sport becomes its integral part.
With some nutritional restrictions, 3-4 weekly workouts at the start, there will be no noticeable improvement. This period will be the most difficult. After all, I had to give up so many things, it's so difficult to do it and the result is zero. But if you resist for the first few weeks, from the second month the kilograms will begin to melt. Believe me, this will be the best motivation to continue leading this lifestyle!
Try to surround yourself with like-minded people, strong people who pursue the same goals. Together, it is much easier to adhere to the correct diet, to observe the training process.
Remember, a positive attitude, a strong desire, sport and maintaining a negative calorie balance are, in fact, all that is needed to successfully tackle the problem of excess weight!