Guidance

5 Ways to Stay Motivated on a Weight Loss Plan

happy woman looking at her phone

Embarking on a weight loss plan is a really positive step, but if you’re planning on making healthy lifestyle changes for the long term, you also need to make sure you have ways to stay motivated throughout.

With this in mind, we’ve put together five key tips to help you to stay motivated on your weight loss journey:

1. Remember Why You Started

Try to always keep top of mind the reason why you started your weight loss journey in the first place. Remember and focus on the ‘why’, whether it was to lose weight, be fitter or have more energy.

Some people find it helpful to take a photo of themselves at the start of their journey, and use it to compare and monitor their progress as they go. Using a visual aid like this and putting it in a prominent place where you’ll be able to see it often can really help to motivate you and keep you on track with your weight loss plan.

Whenever you feel yourself tempted to stray, use the photo to remember the ‘why’ and look back at how far you’ve come.

2. Break Your Goals Down

Most people’s main reason for starting a weight loss plan is to lose weight and lead a healthier lifestyle. But when you’re first starting out, it’s not uncommon to get discouraged and feel that reaching your goal weight is a long way off.

One way to remain positive is to break down your end goal into several smaller, more attainable goals. By doing this, you’ll have more ‘wins’, which will help to keep you motivated, especially if you’re a visual person who likes to tick things off a list.

Some ideas for mini goals to help you stay motivated include:

  • Break down your overall weight loss goal into milestones of half a stone
  • Each week, try adding one new low-calorie recipe to your repertoire of meals
  • Try one or two new types of exercise each month

woman exercising with a skipping rope

Working towards and reaching any of these goals can help to keep you motivated and one step closer to leading a healthier lifestyle.

3. Embrace Variety

Keeping your weight loss journey fresh and exciting can become challenging if you’re following a long-term weight plan.

To avoid getting into a rut and eating the same meals day after day, try buying at least one different fruit or vegetable each time you go shopping, as this will encourage you to make different dishes. Even just using a different combination of salad ingredients or putting different veg in your stir fry can bring variety to your diet and keep you feeling motivated.

selection of colourful vegetables

Another option when you’re using OPTIFAST meal replacement products on your weight loss journey is take advantage of all the different products and the variety flavours that are available – there are Bars, Shakes, Soups and even Desserts.

For example, our OPTIFAST Shakes come in six delicious flavours, Vanilla, Strawberry, Coffee, Banana, Caramel and Chocolate, while our OPTIFAST meal replacement bars come in Berry, Cereal, Chocolate and Cappuccino flavours.

If you want something more savoury, use one of our soups, which include Tomato, Vegetable and Potato & Leek, and you can even treat yourself with our Vanilla or Chocolate Desserts. In other words, there’s plenty of variety to keep things interesting on your weight loss journey.

4. Celebrate Small Milestones

While it’s important to stay focused on reaching your overall goal, that doesn’t mean it’s the only time you can celebrate and feel good about your weight loss achievements. With each milestone you reach, acknowledge and feel proud of what you’ve achieved. Celebrate the hard work you’ve put in to get where you are and it won’t be too long before there’s something else to celebrate.

Changing your lifestyle to a healthier, happier, more confident one is no small task, so it’s absolutely something you should feel proud of and celebrate! Treat yourself to a new piece of clothing or make-up that makes you feel great or cook your favourite on-plan recipe for dinner – you deserve it.

chicken caesar salad on a black plate

Here are some ideas of small milestones you could include:

  • Losing another 5lbs
  • Being able to walk or jog for ten more minutes or half a mile further
  • Adding in one more day of exercise to your weekly routine

5. Surround Yourself with Support

It’s important to be your own cheerleader, but it’s equally important to surround yourself with a strong support system – your own personal cheerleaders who can help support and encourage you every step of the way.

This could be a close friend who you trust and can message whenever you’re tempted to stray, a partner who’s embarking on their own weight loss journey alongside you or a friend you’ve made on the OPTIFAST closed Facebook group, which is full of people on their own OPTIFAST journey sharing tips, motivation and support every day.

10 Tips for Maintaining Weight Loss Long Term

Guidance

10 Tips for Maintaining Weight Loss Long Term

Explore how to maintain weight loss over the long term with these top tips.

2021-09-06 14:21:35By Health & Nutrition Expert



Health & Nutrition Expert

Health & Nutrition Expert

Writer and expert