Time to Make Peace with Yourself and Define your Motives BEFORE Trying to Lose Weight

Have you ever found yourself standing in front of the mirror, pinching fat off your stomach, arms or thighs? Do you understand what it feels like to be completely disgusted with your body and longing for a change? A lot of people find themselves in this position and resolve to, “doing something about it.” Before you step out into any plan of action, you may want to take a closer look at the reasons why weight loss is so important to you.

If your reasons are unclear, superficial or undefined – your efforts could be doomed before you begin. Your weight loss journey can be a miserable trip, if you hate your body in the process. Hating your body will only make you gain weight. If you continuously criticize yourself, you will eventually sabotage your weight loss.

Before you begin any weight loss plan, it’s imperative to make peace with yourself and forgive yourself for gaining weight in the first place. Don’t say to yourself, “I can’t believe I let myself get this fat.” This kind of thinking puts your focus on the problem and not the solution. It’s better to say to yourself, “This is the way I am now, but I’m going to eat healthy and exercise to get better.”

Define the reason why you’re going to lose the weight. This is important because if you lose weight for the wrong reason you’ll gain it all back, plus more. If you lose weight for the sole purpose of gaining acceptance from others, this reason is not strong enough to keep you strong when diet and exercise becomes difficult.

At some point you’re going to have to push yourself to eat healthfully and diligent exercise when your really don’t feel like it. If you’re working hard to lose weight only to make others happy, it’s easy to give up and feel like it’s not worth the trouble. Research shows that people who lose weight to get healthier are more successful at keeping the weight off.

So let the health benefits of losing weight motivate you. Lose weight for a longer life span, increased energy levels and increased self-esteem. These are far better motives than impressing other people. Make peace with yourself and define your personal motives before you try to lose weight, that way you will not be in such a rush and you’ll transform into a slimmer person gracefully.