Weight Loss Motivation?
Where is Your Road Map to Weight Loss Success?
It is easy to lose your way on the road to permanent weight loss. Very easy to get lost. When you want to lose more than 25 pounds, it is a journey that takes months, not weeks. As the weeks wear by, as the miles slip past you, it can be dreary, monotonous, annoying. And lonely. A journey not shared with others.
No matter how many pounds you lose there is always the fear that you will slip, and gain most of it back. Then you don’t know where to go from there. Right?
Of course there are those moments of joy when you reach one of your mid-way goals. “Wow, I’m half way there.”
Certainly there are rewards when others tell you that you’re looking slimmer.
But in the alone minutes, in the times when so much is happening in your life, and you have to eat on the run, or gulp lunch down over a pile of housework, or between getting things done for the kids, it’s tough to know how you are really doing – are you doing the right things?
It’s also easy to find a ton of excuses why this meal, this snack, this day, this week, etc., gives you a very good reason not to eat like you know you should, to not exercise like you used to do. You may be lost, but at least you know it.
Permanent weight loss is more about what you feed your brain, than what you feed your body.
Permanent weight loss is more about your belief in your ability to do it, than it is in which program you use to do it.
Permanent weight loss is about learning to connect the dots between what you do or don’t do in each moment, and what happens to your body a year from now…keeping that map in your head.
Permanent weight loss is about commitment to a principle and never backing down. It is about accepting that you don’t do everything to lose weight correctly, and don’t do it every time – but you are doing it.
Permanent weight loss is visualizing your body the way it should be, then letting nothing stand in your way, (including you momentarily getting lost in the hinterlands).
Permanent weight loss is relentlessly staying on the road to your ideal body – emblazoned – seared, into your conscious thought – you will NOT be denied.
PERMANENT WEIGHT LOSS IS – OR IT IS NOT.
There are no half measures on the road to permanence.
So how do you get there? How do you increase your motivation to make all that happen?
How do you achieve the never-fatigued inner resolve to let nothing stand in your way? No matter the uncertainties. No matter the dangers.
How do you get that day-to-day, moment-to-moment motivation drilled into you, pounded into you, convincingly persuaded into you, until you achieve your lifelong goal?
In other words…
…Where is your road map to weight loss motivation?
…What is your GPS telling you about where you are, versus where you intend to be?
The short answer is…
There isn’t any…
…At least none that any other person can tell you, or give to you.
The difficulty with weight loss motivation lies in its inherent contradiction…
a. You can only find the answer to the riddle of your motivational challenge within yourself…
b. But you don’t really trust yourself to stay motivated.
What you don’t realize is that your motivation, your map to weight loss freedom, is something that is buried deep inside of you. It is not something printed on a piece of paper for you, or appearing on a computer screen. It can’t be. Besides, it is already there. Dormant inside you.
You just need to get all your vision-limiting doubts out of the way, to let your inner motivation escape into the open, then guide your daily actions.
Beset with a record of past weight loss failures, you doubt that is going to happen anytime soon. So you reach instinctively for someone else’s opinion. A friend. An expert. A person who has successfully done it. Maybe even Oprah. But all of that leads you to dangerous places. Places that won’t work for you – dangerous places – places that can only lead to failure.
To avoid getting hurt, to prevent any failures, what you desperately want is a checklist. A crutch. A guide. A great video series. An inspirational book. A carefully drawn map showing you the way to “find” your everlasting motivation.
ACCURATE DIRECTIONS written by others to your weight loss motivation don’t exist.
None. Never has. Never will. And those who tell you otherwise, that they know the way to keep you motivated, have something to sell you — perhaps some modern-day snake oil. Or a large swamp outside of Las Vegas that just needs to be drained before you can build a billion dollar hotel on it.
Not that checklists and structured paths (those done with sensitivity and professional skill) can’t take you a way down the road to lifting your motivation. A few can. The trouble is, they just can’t direct you all the way to your success. Because that can only come from deep inside you – no one can tell you how to do that.
So, when the weight loss motivational guru’s get you part way there, and you ultimately fail – crashing on the road to weight loss success – you blame it on yourself. Then you lose even more precious confidence in yourself — and you had none to spare in the first place. Then what do you do?
Reflect – and find your way to weight loss motivation success.
Sustaining your weight loss motivation, especially if you weigh 25 pounds or more than you should, is exceptionally difficult to maintain month after month using someone else’s map – no matter how beautifully drawn. In part, that is because in the really tough moments that always happen, when the pressure can really get to you, you come to realize the “map” you have been relying on is NOT YOU TALKING TO YOU.
And that gives you the perfect excuse to reject it. Once rejected, you can never again rely on it again. It has been discredited. Then you are back to square one – impaired motivation, with nothing to replace it.
That is why you must discover your own map to weight loss motivation – and follow your own GPS. You do that by DRIVING SLOWLY, thinking and feeling it through – not making any sudden turns.
There is no need to be in a hurry. It took you a while to get to your present weight. Take a while to get it back to where it belongs.
The purpose of this book “HEART PLAN – Weight Loss Success Begins in Your Heart” is to give you multiple views of how others have done it successfully. None of them are your path. Nor were they intended to be. Their purpose is for you to seek some alone time to read them. Then reflect. Come back several days later, re-read a chapter, and think about it again.
Personal reflection, repeated often, is a confidence re-building process. No single idea (or chapter) will get you far. No single idea is going to jump out of the page and smack you alongside your head, and have you say, “Eureka, now I’ve got it!
As I look back at the faces and remember the stories of those who have been through the process you are going through now, every one of them will tell you that at some point they wanted to just shake me and say, “Boyd, just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”
But, in the end, each one of them who made it through successfully now tell me…
…“Thank you Boyd for not pretending to ‘give’ me the answers. Thank you for making me reflect more clearly about myself. Thank you for having the patience to allow me to keep experimenting until I found my own unique road to staying motivated every day. Thank you that I now can trust myself, and know that I am the author of my own success.”
Unknowingly, they were not thanking me. They were really just thanking themselves. They did all the interior work and deserve the full credit for their success. They just don’t have the confidence in themselves to see and acknowledge that they did it themselves.
There is NO roadmap to your weight loss motivational success.
YOUR SUCCESS is who you already are. You need no map to direct you somewhere. There is nowhere to go. Everything you need, everything you require, you already have. You just need to accept that. Then live it.
Reflect and learn one piece of your inner truth at a time. Don’t be in a hurry. Each part will build the mosaic of your future, your lifelong – your permanent – weight loss success.
If you want weight loss success, consider what you may not have considered, in this way, before.
Doing that, you are already following your personal road map to weight loss success.
So smile. Your GPS just told you that you are further down the road than you believed just a few minutes ago.
HEART PLAN — WEIGHT LOSS SUCCESS Begins in Your Heart
© 2014 Boyd Jentzsch. All rights reserved.
By special arrangement with the author, CHAPTERS from the book HEART PLAN are published here regularly. HEART PLAN is not about what you eat. It is all about how you FEEL – your sense of SELF – when you are trying to lose weight. Sign up to receive the new Chapters as they are published here.
-by Boyd Jentzsch
Boyd, a recovering Attorney, turned to weight loss research 20 years ago when he lost his mother to the lifelong effects of obesity. He has spent the ensuing years searching the science, and formulating a comprehensive metabolic map of the body — the only complete map of its kind. The map reveals the causes and effects of obesity and related chronic lifestyle diseases. It shows the only proven pathways to preventing and losing excess weight. From that unique foundation, he and his team created a weight loss education program that has helped tens of thousands to lose weight and keep it off. Plus, they created innovative and fun fitness and nutrition education programs for elementary school children, proven to reduce the early bio-markers for childhood obesity. HEART PLAN is a collection of his observations over the years of the emotional impact and motivational challenges nearly everyone faces when trying to keep lost weight off permanently.
See the Chapter Summary to Remember here.
All Published Chapters are available here. Plus FREE PDF’s for each to Download.
ASK Your Weight Loss, and Motivation Questions HERE, for a personal response.
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I love how you outlined the individuality of the struggle of weight loss here.
This is so true. I am on a weight loss journey myself. No fad diets, just eating more veggies and fruits. Exercising at least 30 minutes a day. Lots of support from my family.
I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this message!!! This is the first time I’ve ever seen anyone say this. We all have to find our own path, our own truths, and our own way of doing what works for us. What works for me, doesn’t work for my sisters, or my daughters, and vice versa.
this is a great “weigh” to think about the ups and downs of all the battles we do face when it comes to weight loss and yes there are a lot of ups and downs thanks for thoughts! great stuff
I really need to start my weight loss journey but just haven’t set my mind to it yet.
I liked the signs to but I will have to say it is going good for me loose it slow but it is coming a long for me
Losing weight is harder for me now that I’m almost 40. My metabolism needs a kick start.
You are so right, we need to feed our brains.. but mine says lose the weight and then once its lost you can eat again..
My motivation right now is to not have to go out & buy new summer clothes. I have my plan!
Make one healthy change the first day and two the next. Before you know it your a different person. Good luck to all. You put it on slow and take if off the same. Thanks for all the great info.
I agree that there is no roadmap! There will be setbacks, and it will take time. But the end goal is always a better place!
Think of it as a journey down a slow country road. Not a quick trip via Interstate!
I was overweight in my early teen years, and after being teased mercilessly by almost my entire family, I decided to do something about it. At first I went way too extreme and it wasn’t any healthier than having that extra weight on. But eventually I found my medium, and found that just by having a very active lifestyle (I used to walk to and from work, and just about everywhere else, too), I could still enjoy the things I loved (*ahem* sometimes overindulge, I’ll admit), without gaining an ounce. It’s great!
It takes a while to lose weight and the best way is to def do it slowly! There is def no roadmap!
There are no easy solutions for weight loss. And sadly it isn’t always as easy as just trying hard.
It helps so much to have a plan for weight loss. It is easy to get deterred, though!
I am going to start my weight loss mission tomorrow. I just need to keep the distractions at bay.
Yes weight loss is a different struggle for each individual. I’ve been in this merry go round off and on for many years.
Weight loss is a journey. It has ups and downs and makes you dig down deep and find your resolve
I had a bad weight loss week so reading this is giving me motivation to do better this week.
I love the part when u mention weight loss is more about what you feed your brain with than your body it’s so true as every journey we start in life we need to be mentally prepared or we might not succeed.
The key to effective weight loss is discipline … to commit to your goals, to do what you’re supposed to do to make everything work for you. A regular exercise regimen, eating healthy, and the right mindset will help anyone achieve their weight loss goals.
Slow and steady wins th race. Its about making lifestyle changes.
I think weight loss is a commitment issue. How much you lose and keep off depends entirely on your motivation to do so.
I think permanent weight loss is all about developing the right habits and lifestyle to keep you consistent in maintaining a good weight.
So true. You have to make lifestyle changes and you can’t be in a hurry. I find the weight loss journey to a be a big mental game.
I get my motivation from my kids. I want to stay healthy for them and I need to keep up with them as well.
My motivation right now is to keep diabetes under control. I sure don’t want to slip back to that again!!
Very motivational post! I tend to want to give up before I even starts when it comes to taking my weight loss journey!
You are so so right. I have about 25+ that I want to lose and it seems like a bit of an uphill battle. I am staying positive and focused however and that is helping.
Great post. My wife is planning to weight loss but she haven’t set her mind to it yet. I will going to share this to my wife.
What a great post! Really love how you used road signs to give the message! Great work!
I definitely need some weight loss motivation. Thanks for the article.
Thank you for sharing this! It is way too easy to make a wrong turn when it comes to healthy choices. This was a very informative read.
The street sign w/the alligator made me laugh. That is a good analogy to remember too for permanent weight loss. 🙂
Some where down the road I took a detour, but I do need to get back on the right way 😉
I find it’s the intial starting point that’s the hard bit. Once I’m in the habit, it’s always much more straightforward
Permanent weight loss is about changing or upgrading one’s lifestyle and keeping at it in only one direction. It may be hard to begin with but success will soon be coming.
These are great tips not only for weight loss but for goals in life. Im not trying to lose weight but to get in shape! So hard to be consistent but been healthy is a must.
xo,
Dee T
Great tips. I am trying to loose weight from baby number 2. You know what modivates me to hit the gym? Trying on clothes in the dressing room!
Thanks for the motivation. Temporary weight loss is easy, but permanent weight loss is soo much more challenging
A good inspiration for people who need to lose weight! you’re such an amazing person
The journey isn’t always about the end result, but the beautiful steps in between that build and strengthen us. Accepting where we are, right then, and loving ourselves. We DO have everything we need already, we just need to find it!
Very good way of breaking this down. Permanent weight loss is a Lifestyle change. A permanent one. Fad diets are only going to get you temporary weight loss. Once off your diet if you do not change your habits then you will just find yourself back at where you started.