Diet

How many times have you made up your mind to start exercising and change your eating habits only to find that after a couple of weeks you’ve lost all of the motivation you thought you had and you end up quitting. I’m sure that most people have had this experience more than once in their life. I know I have.

So, what is the secret to keeping yourself motivated and focused? Following are some tips and strategies that will really work if you apply them.

1. Use negative visioning. What is negative visioning? Typically, when we envision something, we might say something to ourselves like this: “In six months I’m going to have lost 20 pounds of fat. I’ll not only look much better, but I’ll feel great because I’ll have so much more energy.”

Instead of using this positive visioning method, with negative visioning we imagine ourselves 3, 5, or 10 years in the future. And we write down something like this: “I wish I had kept up my exercise program and followed a healthier nutritional program when I was younger. If I had done so I wouldn’t be 40 pounds overweight now, with high blood pressure and heart problems, and I wouldn’t need to be taking all of this medication.”

You may find this to be a strange way to try to motivate yourself, but if you try it you’ll find that it’s very effective. In fact, individuals often say: “I wish I had,” or “I could have, but…,” or “I should have when I had the chance,” etc. So try this method and see if it doesn’t help to keep you motivated to stick to your exercise and nutritional routines.

2. Do the hardest thing first! If you find that you’re really having to push yourself to do your exercise routine, then get it out of the way first thing in the morning. Once you’re done, that’s it. You can then get on with the rest of your day. In fact, you’ll likely find that by doing your exercise first thing in the morning, you’ll have much more energy and be much more mentally alert for the rest of the day.

3. Get a partner to exercise with you. I personally have a training partner. We really push each other in the gym. And when, for some reason, I have to workout on my own, the quality of my workout is just not the same. So find someone who you know may also need the benefits of a partner and get going together. It’s also a great way to strengthen your friendship.

4. Celebrate your successes. Have you lost two more pounds? Have you completed every one of your scheduled workouts for the past week or two? Then do something to celebrate. Perhaps you can buy yourself a new item of clothing. Maybe you could put five or ten bucks in a piggy bank for use later in the year. Whatever you decide to do to celebrate is fine. There is one caution here, though. Don’t make eating something ‘sinful’ your reward. Many people do this, but it can be very counter-productive to helping you achieve your fitness goals.

5. Create a list of all of the reasons that you want to keep up your exercise and Diet programs. Below may be some of the reasons you can write on your own list:
to have more energy, allowing me to have more fun with the family
to look better and therefore feel better about myself
to be able to do yard work without running out of steam
to get into all of those clothes I have in my closet that I haven’t worn for a few years.
to live a long and healthy life

I’m sure that you have other things you’ll want to put on your list, so go ahead and write them down and then review them regularly.

You can see that keeping yourself motivated to continue your exercise and Diet programs required a little thought and perhaps some ingenuity. However, you apply the tips above, you will have success.

Michael Allison is the GM at TW Allison Corporate Consulting in Guangzhou, China. He also has a keen interest in Health and fitness and helping individuals reach their goals in this area.

He can be contacted at:
mallison250688@gmail.com
http://www.squidoo.com/fitfull

Author: Michael D. Allison
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Diet