Weight Loss Motivation - Tips and Inspirational Stories

We've all been there - stuck in some sort of rut or another. There are several that I've seen associated lack of weight loss motivation. Nobody wants to be stuck, but try as we might, we still sometimes manage to find ourselves just that. Several of my clients have wonderfully volunteered their stories (with the names changed) with the intent of helping others.

As we all know, everyone is different and your weight loss motivation story may be similar and not identical to one I share. You can use these as weight loss motivational tips, hopefully to glean some great ideas if you happen to be stuck and get the clear picture of yourself climbing up and out!

Weight Loss Motivation Story 1: Theresa is a wonderfully nurturing 40 something mom with 2 teens. She has been stuck in the yo-yo rut most of her life. The first gain was in college, the second with 2 children, then 2 more times for good measure. Gain, then lose and gain, lose and gain, lose again, gain again!!! (Seesawing enough to drive anyone crazy.) Theresa wasn't even sure that she had the will to face down another weight-loss challenge.

Weight Loss Motivation Story 2: Sandra is a young professional woman, with a minimal amount of extra time to focus on weight loss activities and with the attitude that it was very difficult and she was depriving herself in order to lose weight. She likes her parties and her wining-dining weekends (her only free time). She was stuck with time commitments and with her thought patterns.

Weight Loss Motivation Story 3: Julie launched into weight loss mode with "both guns blazing" so to speak. She was absolutely ready and committed to the challenge and took it on with gusto. She is in her 60's and knew it was the right thing to do for her health that she'd just neglected for quite a while. It was now the right time to focus on herself. She lost 40 pounds before coming to a standstill that lasted for weeks. She was becoming very disheartened and losing the mental gains she had made.

Even though each of these ladies was in a different situation, the way out was still similar.

For Theresa, her biggest roadblock was also her greatest strength. She was a tremendously nurturing mom, but guess who she forgot to take care of? Yup! Herself! None of us have ever done that though? Obviously her biggest values involved her family. She needed to align her self-care priority with the family value. Once she did, she realized that in order to take care of her family, stay positive and energized, she needed to do some serious self-care. She got very clear about her goals. She set up a support structure with her husband and kids (more chores so they could be part of the team and part of her success, which they wanted to do because they loved her dearly). She was able to carve out more time for herself to exercise and get rid of negative stress. She had more energy AND was more positive. She was resolved to maintain this lifestyle because it truly was a benefit to her whole family. Everyone was healthier (and happier)!

Sandra's single woman lifestyle had her giving to everyone else too - work, friends, parties, social events... She really had to get honest with herself. Was this a priority for her at this time? It DOES require focus and extra effort. She had to come to terms with whether she was ready to make it a priority. That was only the beginning! She'd said that she had been working at losing weight and was upset that it seemed nothing worked and she had to deprive herself of everything she liked! Attitudes and habits are the hardest to tackle and she had to have someone on her side to help her through.

We worked on examining values and perspectives and she decided to turn her attitude around and regard fresh, healthy food (non-processed) as a wonderful thing she could do for herself instead of thinking about all the processed food that she was "giving up". She set small sequential goals so that she could see incremental successes. Success bred success and further empowerment. She made healthier food choices, re-arranged her schedule and still enjoyed her social life. She was amazed at how much better she felt and was excited to begin acquiring new wardrobe pieces in her new smaller size!

Julie had committed 100%!!! She had gotten support from many sides. She had set realistic goals and was reaching some of them. She was enjoying the healthier foods and getting more and more active (walking faster, longer, beginning weight training...) and then it stopped!!!! She was still doing all the right things and she was frustrated with the scale. It didn't move for weeks. We had to really dig in to figure out what was happening here. With further discussion, we found that she had begun to get lax in her thinking and didn't have clear sight of her goals. We re-set some vividly clear goals and it was lots of fun envisioning them, using as many of the senses as possible. She had begun to be a little less positive and had even harbored thoughts of giving up.

We had to re-focus the thinking to keep positive and remember that she may not be losing very quickly if at all, but she wasn't gaining either. We re-set process goals as well and had to get brutally honest and "ANAL" about tracking what she was doing. She re-set process goals as well and made them more aggressive. We also analyzed diet to understand what her body was dealing with and talked about the different balancing acts that the body has to do to keep us healthy, especially as we advance in age. She decided to also pursue checking certain issues with her physician and naturopathic doctor. The very next time she had a weigh-in, she had more movement than she'd had in weeks. Sticking to the plan or making a newer/better plan worked for her AFTER becoming brutally honest with herself. She is still determined and is not giving up.

Here are some weight loss motivational tips when your weight loss motivation gets caught in a rut:

1) Make the commitment and keep it consistent with your values for greatest benefit.
2) Get support.
3) Set realistic goals.
4) Enjoy healthier foods.
5) Get active and more active!
6) Change attitudes.
7) Keep the focus! Keep climbing up and out and going and going (think energizer bunny) and you will get there.

Light-R-U helps men and women with life coaching, a perfect way to lose weight.