This is NOT your typical weight loss motivation article. This post will challenge you to look at your entire weight loss journey in a different way–a more POWERFUL way.

After reading this post, I want you to share your weight loss goal (or any goal you may have) in the in the comments and tell me what you will change about your approach that will ensure that you succeed this time.

Step 1 – Determine the Real Reason for Your Goals

A goal means nothing if you do not know why you want to achieve it. This is especially true when it comes to weight loss. You’ll often hear people say things like “I want to lose 30 pounds” or “I want to get down to my goal weight of 120 pounds”.

But why?

Does seeing a lower number on the scale make your life better in some way? Do you carry that number around with you everywhere you go? Do you wear a shirt that states your current weight on it?

My guess is the number actually means very little to you. Thus, you probably want to lose weight for a different reason.

Maybe you want to look good in a bathing suit so that you are not embarrassed when you go to the beach. Now, you may not even reveal your bathing suit when you go to the beach. Or maybe you don’t even go to the beach because you cannot stand the thought of being seen in a bathing suit!

Or perhaps your reason is that you feel sluggish all the time carrying around the extra weight and want to feel a heightened sense of energy. You want to feel lighter. You want to move more freely. You want to walk around with an upbeat sense of confidence.

Whatever you real reason for losing weight is, you must get to the heart of it if you want to have a real chance to achieve your goals. This real reason–the deepest level of it–could be all the weight loss motivation you need.

The truth is that it’s probably not about weight loss at all. It’s about some level of transformation–some deep-set desire for change–that will give you what you are looking for.

Step 2 – Determine Your Ultimate Weight Loss Motivation Factor

Once you discover your true reason for losing weight, your ultimate weight loss motivation factor should become clear. This is the one thing that will keep you focused on your mission.

To find you ultimate motivation factor, you must be willing to get a little emotional. Humans are driven by emotion. We make decisions based on emotion and rationalize them with reason.

Your motivation factor is your emotional reason for losing weight.

In some cases, a positive emotion will drive you to lose weight. You can imagine the feeling of finally looking the way you want to look. You imagine looking yourself in the mirror and finally seeing the real you. Or maybe you imagine what it will be like to have the energy to play with your kids.

In other cases, the driving emotion will be a pain caused by your current state. If you are currently embarrassed to wear certain things or feel ashamed at your appearance when many eyes are cast upon you, this feeling of embarrassment and shame likely stirs up many emotions.

You are pained by your embarrassment. You think about it a lot. It makes you insecure. It makes you hate your body.

This is the emotion that can become your motivating factor.

BUT…

A Different Perspective

You must also realize that this is all inside your head. If this pain is causing you to be distraught in your current state, you must realize that it is only because that is the way you choose to feel.

You can also choose to believe that you are a beautiful person, which I’m sure you are. You can choose to feel as if anyone who cannot see your real beauty does not know you.

Those people who do not see your beauty are not aware of who your are, or they are ignorant of what an amazing person you are.

This does not matter. It is you who decides what kind of person you see yourself as.

If you are not happy with your appearance, you can certainly work toward making it better, but you should understand that your outward appearance is only “you” to those who don’t know the real you.

It’s the real you that matters. And it’s the real you that is CAPABLE of achieving your greatest goals!

Step 3 – Draw a Clear Picture of Your Goals

Facing the canvas of life, we are all artists. We all are the creators of our own lives. We have our own visions, our own dreams, and our own realities.

The vision of yourself once you have achieved your current “weight loss” goal is an imaginary representation of your future. In order to make that vision more real to you, draw it out and transform the vision into a true work of art.

I’m not saying you should get out a pencil and sketch pad to start drawing your new body (though it might help). Rather, get out a notebook and write about the person you want to become through your weight loss journey. Write about the person you see yourself being as you reach your goals.

Don’t just write about your new body. Write about how you will feel. Write about your health, your energy, your mood, your confidence. Write about how you will be proud of what you achieved. Write about how your relationships with others will improve. Write about how you will become more productive and all the potential for growth that this will provide.

Allow your creativity to flow out of your head. Do not stop writing until you have a clear picture of the person you will be a few months from now, or some point in the future.

Your weight loss journey is not just a weight loss journey. It can be a journey to transform your entire life.

Remember, it’s not about the numbers. It’s about something much deeper–unleashing the person you really want yourself to be.

Step 4 – Set Yourself Up for Success

We all like to feel good about ourselves. We all like to celebrate accomplishments. Celebration can actually be a huge motivating factor in any undertaking.

Of course the true motivating factor in celebration is the feeling of accomplishment.

When you accomplish something of significance, a lot happens. Your mood lifts. Your confidence grows. You look forward to the next step in your journey. You believe that you can achieve even more.

This is why it is crucial that you set yourself up for success. Failures and setbacks are weight loss motivation hacks. They eat away at your spirit and take away your hope.

That’s no fun.

Yet, if you’re like most people, you have probably been setting yourself up for failure by creating ridiculous goals that don’t even make sense!

The crazy thing is that most of these goals are actually subconscious goals that you don’t even realize you are making!

For example, think about how often you check your scale. I know a lot of people that check their scale every single day, sometimes even multiple times a day!

Why?

Do you feel the need to see that the numbers are constantly going down?

Think about it. Is that what’s really important to you–the numbers on your scale?

The numbers on the scale are only important if you do not complete steps one through three above. Sure, numbers are a decent long-term indicator that you are doing something right.

But every single day?

I have news for you. Your bodyweight will fluctuate by several pounds over the course of a day. And it’s really only possible to healthily lose 1-3 pounds of fat over the course of a week.

So checking your scale every day does not make sense!

In fact, I recommend you check your scale no more than once a month. I personally have not checked my weight in over a year.

Instead of worrying about the numbers on your scale, set up some fun goals for yourself. Set a goal for exercising so many hours this week. Set a goal for not eating a certain “guilty pleasure” food for a whole week.

Set a goal for doing “x” amount of pushups by the end of the month. Set a goal for completing a mile in under 12 minutes.

Set daily goals that are challenging but achievable. Set weekly goals. Set monthly goals.

But most importantly, set yourself up for success. Start building some momentum by allowing yourself to feel a sense of accomplishment on a regular basis.

Then roll with that momentum into your next, more challenging, goal.

Step 5 – Eliminate Excuse Traps

One of the biggest killers of any kind of motivation, especially in regards to weight loss, is the belief in your excuses.

The truth is, your excuses are not what they appear to be. Your excuses are actually a cover-up for the real reasons why you would not stick to your weight loss plan. Uncovering the real reasons beforehand, and eliminating the beliefs associated with them, can go a long way toward keeping your weight loss motivation high.

The Excuse Dissection Process

The first step toward uncovering the reasons for your excuses is to think about why you do certain things.

The two main aspects of a weight loss program are diet and exercise. In order to lose weight, you must follow a healthy nutrition plan and increase your activity levels.

So let’s think about some reasons why you might not do this.

Following a healthy diet is not easy if you are used to eating whatever you want. This is because your eating habits lead you to expect certain things from your meals. You crave certain tastes, and some things give you more perceived satisfaction than others.

For example, you may be used to snacking on chocolate chip cookies in the evening. Every night, you crave these cookies and usually give in to your cravings.

But why is it important that you eat those cookies? Why can’t you eat a healthy snack like almonds instead? Almonds will give your body what it needs in terms of energy to live and function. Why do you need the junk?

The reason is because you believe you need the junk. You believe that the junk makes you happy. Moreover, you believe that the healthy stuff will not make you happy. You believe that the taste of the healthy stuff will not be to your satisfaction.

You’ve developed many such beliefs over the years. Then, when the times come to go against your beliefs, you desperately search for a reason to avoid doing so.

That’s where your excuses originate. You believe that you need the chocolate chip cookies to make you happy so you try to think of a rationale (excuse) to make yourself feel better about eating them.

Then what happens?

You make your excuse–you won’t be able to sleep unless you eat your cookies–and you follow your belief. The cookies taste good and you are satisfied.

But then you get angry at yourself. You wonder why you are so weak. You get frustrated with your lack of control.

In reality, you have already set the belief that it’s OK to display a lack of control as long as you get angry at yourself. Moreover, you’ve set a belief that you ARE weak and DO HAVE a lack of control.

You have accepted these things as reality, when in fact they only exist in your own mind. The excuses merely give false rationale to the beliefs that you have already created.

This goes for any excuses that you make for not following your healthy weight loss plan. You believe that you are–for one reason or another–not capable of following this plan, or that following this plan will somehow make some aspect of your life worse.

The Excuse-Busting Exercise

I could write an entire book about this subject, but to save time I will give you a simple exercise to make you stronger in the face of your excuses.

First, write down any excuse you can think of having made in the past for not following a healthy nutrition and exercise plan.

Second, write down the reality of the situation.

Third, for each excuse think about the beliefs they may have been covering up. Think about the actions you took (or avoided). Think about why you did what you did. What were you afraid of? Why did you not want to follow your plan?

I’ll give you a quick example.

Excuse: I don’t have time to go to the gym because I have too much work to do.
Reality: I have some time (maybe 30 minutes) to exercise, but I would rather just relax.
Belief: I need to spend some of my free time relaxing because it is better for me than exercise.

In this example, you may not actually think that sitting on your couch and watching TV is better for you than exercise, but you believe that it is better because it feels better. Actually, the ACT of relaxing feels better than exercising, but the end result is usually that your are more stiff and feel more sluggish due to your inactivity.

Still, you would rather relax because the act of relaxing feels better and you know this. You believe this. But is it the truth?

What if I told you that you were merely feeling comfort while sitting on your couch because you were staying within the boundaries of your comfort zone?

What if I told you that you believe that staying within your comfort zone feels good because you are afraid to step outside it?

What if I told you that the feeling of discomfort by stepping outside your comfort zone only exists in your mind? The discomfort you get from exercise is not bad at all, though subconsciously you believe it is bad because it is not comfortable.

The situation is that you believe exercise is bad because it is uncomfortable. It’s not that you don’t actually like exercise. You subconsciously believe it is BAD because it is uncomfortable.

But what if I told you that exercise is good because it gives you more life an more energy? What if I told you that the discomfort can actually feel good because the “discomfort” you feel is actually your body being primed for transformation.

What if I told you that the pain that you feel from exercise is not actually pain, rather it is merely your body responding to challenge?

Are those not plausible explanations for how you feel about exercise?

A New Outlook

Eliminating the belief that exercise and healthy eating are bad because they are uncomfortable is the first step toward eliminating your excuses. You must work on developing the feeling that you are doing something good for your body and that the associated discomfort is merely your body reacting to a new stimulus.

The same goes for your mind. When you begin to deny yourself your “comfort foods” you will experience some mental discomfort due to a perceived lack of satisfaction. You know you do not really NEED your comfort foods, but you believe that you will be unhappy without them.

But you must make yourself realize that you can be happy with a healthy diet. You are transforming yourself into a healthy person–the person you most want to be. That alone should make you begin to feel that you can be happy while following a healthy weight loss plan.

And while you work on making this more clear for yourself, just follow your plan!

Step 6 – Plan Your Rewards

Back to the good stuff! Since you will be setting yourself up for success, you might as well plan your rewards for when you reach these successes.

Because you have daily, weekly, and monthly goals, you should also have daily, weekly, and monthly rewards.

Your daily rewards should be simple rewards for a solid day’s work. They can be as simple as watching a good movie or giving yourself a gold star in your journal.

Weekly rewards can be a special treatment at the end of the week like a massage or a day of relaxation. You can also have yourself a special meal to reward yourself for following your nutrition plan.

Monthly rewards should be significant. They should be something that will motivate you to be even more focused on your weight loss mission. Perhaps you will plan a weekend getaway or buy yourself a new state-of-the-art blender. Whatever it is, make it cool!

But always keep in mind that your ultimate reward is the change that you will be making to yourself. The person that you become along your journey is the greatest reward you could ever imagine.

That ultimate reward alone will make this journey worth all the effort. The other stuff is just a bonus to keep you focused on your successes.

Step 7 – Share!

Even if you’re already starting to feel more motivated, you should know that you don’t have to do this alone. In fact, you shouldn’t.

Find someone to share your goals with. Find someone to talk to about your struggles. Find someone to tell about your successes.

I truly believe that, no matter what your goals, you should have someone to share your journey with. Be it a spouse, a relative, a friend, or an internet acquaintance, you should have someone that you can tell all about what you are doing.

And it’s not just for accountability like you may be thinking.

Having someone to share your successes and struggles with makes you realize that you are not alone. It makes you feel that you can lean on someone if you slip. It makes you feel good that someone else cares when you succeed.

There is something special about sharing such an important part of your life with someone else. Make sure you do so!

Remember, you are never alone. There is always someone out there looking for a friend just like you.

And always listen when your friends are trying to share something with you. Realize the importance from the outsider’s perspective. Give support to your friends because you know its importance and will want someone to do the same for you.

That being said, feel free to share your story with me and fellow Healthy Body Revolution blog readers by leaving a comment below. We’re all here for each other!