Setting your health and fitness goals is one thing, ensuring your stay according to the plan is another. Often, the problem isn’t about which health resources you lack or whether you’re getting some routines wrong. But the motivation to keep you for the long haul is what causes many people to lose interest in actualizing their desired health choices.
It takes a lot of discipline and consistency to keep yourself motivated throughout your health and fitness plans. If you need assistance, here are five tips to stay motivated when making health changes.
1. Feel Good About Yourself And What You’re Doing
It’s tempting to fixate on your health issues so much that chasing the changes you want to see after a period of time becomes draining. It doesn’t take much from you if you own your current situation. Make the best of your situation rather than sticking to people’s perceptions of what you should. For instance, you shouldn’t have to slim down before being fashionable as a plus-sized person.
You can look and feel fabulous and not be thin. There are various plus-size dressing options to checkout, like these plus size jackets for women. Feeling good from the inside out gives you the headspace to follow your goals without losing interest.
2. Start Your Health Planning With ‘Why?’
The reason we want to change our health situation for the better is a better motivator than all the blogs and videos we watch to keep us going. But the problem is how to leverage this reason when the health journey has our crossroads. As the author, Simon Sinek, reveals in his book “Start With Why.” Before you set your goals, clarify your need for embarking on this health journey and let it repetitively run in your mind. That need can be a phrase or mantra you circle back to when you’re distracted from your plans.
3. Set Attainable Goals
Many therapists recommend starting your health change journey with a clear vision of what you achieve after a specific period. Often, the changes we want to see are huge, making it hard to see the daily incremental changes. The longer it takes to see results, the harder it can become to commit to your health plan. It’s important to have byte-sized goals that can be measured easily. You can break annual targets into monthly or daily indicators for easy monitoring. In addition to making your goals attainable, try and set your goal based on your need to improve. Let your mantra lead you to your goals.
4. Forgive Yourself
It’s tempting to think an air-tight goal and a juicy mantra will be enough to see you through your planned health changes. But note that you can slip up. And if you do, moving on is a better approach than feeling guilty and punishing yourself for it. A few indulgences occasionally while you work your way up is understandable. And you don’t need to start from scratch.
Just keep moving from where you left off so you don’t lose interest. Remember that this journey is a never-ending one. So, you need to not where you slip up and develop measures to rise above your mistakes in the future.
5. Celebrate Your Victories
No win is too small to be celebrated. Consider giving yourself rewards when you achieve a specific milestone. It doesn’t have to be your overall goal. Your action steps also matter.
All in all, health changes take time. You’ll need to repeat your action steps until they become a habit. Always remember to measure your efforts, forgive your mistakes and keep your eyes on the why.
