Everyone wants to lose weight and keep it off, but the reality is that it’s harder than you would think. When you first decide that you want to lose some pounds, your motivation is at an all-time high.
You are excited about starting your new journey and looking forward to the progress. If you are like most people, however, your motivation will wane over time.
The fight with kilograms does not end when you reach the desired weight, but when you manage to maintain your weight after losing it. Statistics show that only 20% of those who lose weight following a diet manage to maintain their weight in the long term.
The other 80% gain weight on the spot, sometimes accumulating even more kilos than they manage to eliminate during the weight loss program.
Motivation is a very hard part of the weight loss process and is probably one of the things that keep you from being able to achieve lasting results.
The good news is, it’s something that you can learn how to regain control over, and this article will give you some solid advice on how to do so.
But what happens when you reach your goal?
If you’ve spent the last few months trying to radically change your lifestyle, lose a certain number of kilograms, or just feel better in your own body, you’re probably done now, and you don’t know what to do next.
Nothing compares to that feeling of crossing the finish line in your transformation or being able to do certain things that your body didn’t allow you before, for example, lifting many kilograms by yourself.
You feel that you are invincible and that you can do whatever you want!
However, once you achieve your goals, you enter a post-transformation period full of confusion and lack of motivation.
Here are 7 tips that can be useful to you to keep your motivation after losing weight:
1. Take pictures to see your progress
One of the first things you should do when you start a fitness challenge, or a body transformation, is to take some pictures to see where you are starting from. Take your favorite workout clothes, or whatever makes you feel good in your skin and smile!
In any body transformation, it is important to consider your progress. Monitoring your progress is a great motivating factor because it shows you concretely that the things you do, healthy eating, regular training, and sleep quality, really work and bring you results.
Most of the time, people lose their motivation already during the transformation because they don’t see the results instantly.
The truth is that lasting transformation takes time. So don’t expect overnight results. You must arm yourself with a lot of patience and be willing to push yourself. There are no good results without a little effort.
Imagine that you have fulfilled your goals, a few weeks have already passed since you stopped paying so much attention to nutrition and sports and you are afraid that you will gain weight again.
The body transformation process must become a healthy lifestyle to work. It helps a lot if you find motivating factors around you.
Before & after pictures will be your allies in this post-transformation period. Not only does it show you how hard you worked for the results, but it also tells you that you can do more!
2. Use support groups on social networks
There are popular online communities on popular media platforms that bring together people who want to lose weight.
These communities can help you stay motivated to lose weight or maintain it after the transformation has happened. Reach out to other people online to learn more about their experiences with weight loss, and more importantly, keeping it off.
Personal note: However, related to these communities, and I am now specifically referring to the health, weight loss, and fitness groups on Facebook, I suggest you be careful, because unfortunately there are hundreds and thousands of misleading ads in these groups, from people who have no idea what the process of losing weight entails, who post false ads (and vile from my point of view) who try to sell all kinds of “miracle” products that make you lose fat overnight.
They sound like this: “You want to lose 10.15, 20 kg in 3 weeks, no diets, no workout, write me and I’ll send you a course”, and unfortunately, hundreds, thousands of desperate or naive people, with overweight and obesity problems, fall prey to these liars and answer them in the comments without thinking about the possible serious health problems that could arise, so, be aware to these lying and dangerous posts!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m telling you from my own experience as a blogger because I’ve left dozens of such health and fitness groups that have maybe tens, even hundreds of thousands of users, but whose Admin doesn’t care about the group members, they forgot the purpose of these support groups.
This doesn’t mean that there are only spammers of this kind, no, there are also a lot of people who know what these problems entail and try to help members with advice, so, in essence, they can be of great help to you!
3. Don’t go back to unhealthy habits
Have you worked so hard throughout your body transformation to get rid of negative habits, whether dietary or behavioral, only to return to them in the end? Not!
Once you combat an unhealthy habit, such as eating too much before going to sleep, you must do everything possible not to start it again. Unhealthy habits brought you to the point where you wanted to change your lifestyle.
Unhealthy eating habits are the most common traps you can fall into post-transformation. The idea that “I lost x kilos, so now I can eat anything” is more than wrong!
If you start your transformation thinking that you’ll be able to eat anything after you lose pounds, all the progress you’ve made up to that point will disappear. In a short time, you will be tempted to return to irregular meals, fast food, or pastries.
Try to continue the food plan you followed during your transformation. Now it is no longer about losing pounds, but about maintaining it, so you can slightly expand the limits of the food plan.
Make small changes if you feel the need, but do not alter it considerably to keep, however, a familiar structure. And when you need a little motivation to keep going, take a look at the food diary you kept during your transformation.
4. Keep stress under control
When you eat to satisfy your emotions and not your hunger, you can gain kilograms very easily. Pay attention to your body’s signals and learn to differentiate between real hunger and emotional eating caused by stress or boredom.
Find a way to feed that emotion with something other than food. A therapist can help you improve your relationship with food.
5. Keep training
A big problem you may encounter when trying to find motivation after a fitness challenge is having fun during training. When you were in the middle of your body transformation, whether you wanted to or not, you had to train.
It didn’t matter if you had a better day or a worse one – the training had to be done, either at home or at the gym. Now that the goals have been met, how do you train if you don’t find it fun?
Well, variety is the key! Leave the training you are already used to and try new things! If you haven’t trained in a group until now, now is the time to do it. Group training is a good source of motivation and fun. In addition, you meet people who have the same goals as you.
I recommend the following types of home exercise programs (no equipment needed), created by me, which I have selected for you by category, and are designed to help you lose pounds and fat, and shape a harmonious and toned body:
- Full Body Workouts: HERE, HERE, and HERE
- Cardio Workouts: HERE, and HERE
- Circuits Workouts: HERE, HERE, and HERE
- H.I.I.T Workout: HERE
- 10 Tabata Workouts: HERE
- Abs Workouts: HERE, HERE.
6. Rest
Getting at least 7 or 8 hours of sleep is essential to stay motivated to lose extra pounds. Most people need at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep before the body can do what it needs to do.
During the first half of sleep, your immune system begins to attack any pests that may be floating around your body. During the second half of sleep, your mind is carried away and enters a kind of psychic regeneration.
This is when the brain chooses to release all kinds of healing chemicals that help boost the immune system.
Throughout your sleep, you go from light sleep to deep sleep, where your mind is dealing with all the things that happened in the very recent past.
7. Set new goals to keep your motivation going
Another thing you can do to stay motivated is, well, like what you did during your transformation – set other goals. Think about the sources of your stimulus during the transformation and modify them a little, according to your new needs and desires.
If at the beginning of the transformation you wanted to increase muscle mass, now maybe your goal is to maintain it. This applies to any goal you’ve already completed.
Think of this stage as a maintenance stage, but keep in mind what you are starting this stage with to stay motivated.
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Last Thoughts:
I know how confusing the post-transformation period can be. That’s exactly why you should try to turn it into a lifestyle. In time, all the things you do now will start to become automatic. Thus, you will maintain the results obtained after your body transformation or even improve them!
Yes, it can be demoralizing to find out that what you thought was the destination, is only halfway, but there is no need to be sad. The first half was the difficult part, a kind of making paths, with a machete, through the jungle.
What follows now is, by comparison, an evening walk in the park. And I just installed a new navigation software in your brain. So, relax and enjoy the ride.
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