When you start a diet, it helps to understand what’s driving your decision to lose weight. Sometimes it’s not enough to be motivated to fit into a new dress. Likewise, the general desire to get healthy isn’t always enough to keep you motivated.
You need to spell out exactly what it is you want to accomplish and why.
Free Download: How To Stick To Your Fitness ResolutionsWhat’s Your Motivation To Start A Diet?
Here are a few sample items that may motivate you to start a diet:
- Reduce risk for heart disease
- Get off of medication for diabetes
- Live longer for your children
- Have fun shopping for clothes
- Less pain in your joints
- Be able to move more easily
- Enjoy more activities such as gardening and walking
Once you understand what’s motivating you to diet, you can write it down and place reminders around you. This will help you to focus on what you want to achieve whenever you’re tempted to stray from your plan.
Remembering Your Goals
You can be very simple about your weight loss goals, or you can get very creative. Some people create vision boards to help remember goals and motivation. You can create this by simply putting magazine cutouts, photos, and even just words on a small poster. This poster can be very simple or more elaborate. Then you’ll place the vision board somewhere that you will come across it every day. Take a few moments each day to look at your vision board and reconnect to your purpose.
Other people create self-affirmations to place in prominent areas. For example, you may want to put small notes on your bathroom mirror, inside your car, and even on your desk at work. These notes will serve as regular reminders that you have a greater purpose for sticking to your diet. Whenever you’re feeling a little like you want to stop following the plan or you want to give up, you can go to these messages of motivation for inspiration.
Get Prepared
When it’s time to begin your diet, it helps to make sure you have all the things you need to be successful. For example, you’ll need to make sure you have the correct food items available. Some diet plans have staple items that you’ll need over and over again. You may find that it’s best to buy these items in bulk so that you get a better bargain. When you buy in bulk, you’ll also have more on hand.
You also want to be sure and stock supplies such as storage containers, plastic wrap, and aluminum foil that you’ll need if you’re cooking for yourself a lot. Some diets also require supplements and you’ll need to have a large supply of them.
Make A Checklist
Before you start a diet you need to make a checklist of the things you’ll need. Keep this checklist handy so that you’ll always know what you need to buy – even if you have to make a quick run to the store after work. Once you’ve got all the supplies you need, you’ll be prepared to stay with your diet for the long term. When you’re not prepared, it makes it that much easier to slip up and miss your routine.
If you’re using prepackaged food, it’s important to have a good stock on hand so that you don’t have an emergency. When you run out of your pre-packaged food you’ll have to make something different. It’s a good idea to have at least a week’s worth of extra food so that you won’t run out. There may be times that your regularly scheduled day to pick up your food supply will fall through. Make sure you’re prepared.
There are some diets that require special equipment such as a blender or a microwave. Make sure you have these items before you begin a diet that requires them. Having supplies ahead of time will help you stick to your diet.
If you’re going to make exercise a part of your program, you’ll also want to make sure you’ve got the appropriate clothing and footwear. You don’t want to find that you don’t have comfortable shoes when you’re a few days into the program.
Free Download: How To Stick To Your Weight Loss Goals
Diets are notoriously prone to not being fulfilled. Making a resolution, a promise to ourselves that we’re going to do something different than we’ve done in the past can be a challenge. Statistics show that by the end of the first week, 25% of people have given up and gone back to their pre-resolution ways. But it doesn’t have to be that way. To help you stick to your weight loss goals, download this free Fitness Resolution Report to see how sticking to your promise doesn’t have to be like a prison sentence.
