How to stay motivated...

When it comes to weight loss, it can sometimes be very tricky to keep yourself motivated. This is especially true when temptations are around you or you have come to a standstill. This past week, my husband and I both hit a plateau at the same time. It was tough, and at moments I didn't really care anymore about the long term gain, but I still stayed the course. Here's a few things that helped me...

1. Have a visual reminder of your accomplishments. One of my goals back in August was to exercise every day. It didn't matter what I did, as long as I did something every day, be it running, hiking, swimming, biking, weights or whatever. I've been keeping track on a calendar and highlight in green, every time I exercise. Looking at the poster is pretty motivating since it has green highlights on every day of the month so far. I don't want to break this streak so that has been helping a lot!!

2. Talk to someone who understands what you are going through. In this case, Jeremy was awesome, since he's basically going through the same thing. We chatted about all the ways we wanted to cheat or give up, but then encouraged each other to stay on track, since there's been accomplishments already and there is sure to be more.

3. Read an inspiring book or blog. Find someone else out there who has succeeded in their goals and has words of inspiration to share. This has been instrumental to my success. By reading about others who have reached their goals, I am inspired to reach mine!!

4. Celebrate how far you've come. In my case, I've lost 20 pounds so far. That's pretty significant. No wonder my body slowed down for a bit. It's adjusting to a lot less of me!! And any moment you want to pack it in and give up, remember how far you've already come. Nobody said it would be easy, but true change requires a commitment and it's important to honour what you have set out to do.

5. Sign up for a race. When all else fails, sign up to run a race. The atmosphere at races is truly inspiring. And it's fun to get excited about a goal down the road, so pick something that's only a couple months away so you have time to prepare but it's still close enough that you have to start working towards it. Sometimes all the exercise can feel pointless without something to work towards. By having an event in your future, you put all those hours at the gym, on the treadmill, etc to good use and will feel the results of that effort on race day. And really, nothing is more motivating than the energy at a race. If you could bottle that energy, people could be motivated forever!!

So, when you are feeling lost and need some motivation, look around, there's things you can do to help you stay the course...