Weight Loss Motivation: How To Hit Your Fitness and Weight Loss Goals With Absolute Certainty, Part I

Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.
- Aristotle

Every person who’s ever been on a fitness or weight loss program has, at some point in time, lost motivation to continue.

Getting back on track and excited about your goals again can prove difficult; which is why many people simply give up completely, returning to their old, familiar ways.

In this series, I’ll share with you some tips and techniques I’ve used with clients – and that I use personally – to refocus and recharge when motivation runs low.

On any journey, the first step is to first know where you want to end up.

Step #1: Clearly Define Your Goal

A big reason why people lack motivation to stay with their fitness and weight loss program stems from their failure to clearly define what they want to achieve.

As a personal trainer, when I would ask my clients for their goals, I would – in most cases – hear one of three things:

1. I want to lose weight.
2. I want to feel better.
3. I want to have more energy.

Yes, they sound good, but they’re far too vague to be effective. Let’s take a look at how you can be more specifi in what you want.

Be Specific About What You Want

First, let’s take the goal of losing weight. If were to tell me your goal is to lose weight, then my first question would be, what kind of weight do you want to lose? It sounds silly, but if all you’re concerned about is losing scale weight, there’s several ways to go about it. You could…

1. Take a pee.
2. Have a bowel movement.
3. Amputate something.
4. Starve yourself so your body eats its own muscle for energy.
5. Spend a couple of hours in a sauna riding a bike while wearing a plastic sweat suit just like fighters do and rid yourself of water weight.

While I don’t recommend any of the above for losing weight, I do recommend you continue to do #1 and #2.

Oh, what’s that? You want to lose fat weight. Great! How much body fat do you want to lose? Ten pounds? Three inches from your waist? Or do you simply want to fit into that “skinny” pair of jeans you haven’t been able to fit into for years? Be specific.

How To Measure The Unmeasurable

What about “feeling better”? How can we take an abstract concept and make it concrete?

All you need to do is answer one question…

What has to happen for you to know you feel better? Maybe you’ll know you feel better when…

• You don’t have to take blood pressure medication any more.
• You can stop relying on anti-depressants to control your moods.
• You can get out of bed in the morning without being crippled by back pain.

Write down all the various ways you could measure “feeling better”, then pick the one that’s most meaningful to you and make it your goal.

What if you want to have more energy? I’ll ask the same question. What has to happen for you to know you have more energy? Will you be able to…

• Climb the stairs without becoming completely winded?
• Get through the day without falling asleep on the couch immediately after dinner?
• Participate in sports?
• Play with your children or grandchildren without needing to rest every five minutes?

Again, write down as many success indicators as you can and then pick the one that is most inspiring.

Why You Need To Be Specific

All of this may seem like a lot of trouble to go through, but let me ask you…

Would you rather take a few mintues to clarify your objective now or would you like to continue being out of shape and overweight – starting one diet and exercise program after another?

By taking the time right now to get clear on what you want, you give your mind a target to focus on. For reasons that will soon be revealed, having a vision of what you want to accomplish is critical to your success. So please take a few moments right now to define what you want.