Weight Loss Motivation- 8 Lessons to Put You on Track

Weight Loss Motivation- An Introduction

You have probably already made some attempts to lose weight or leave unwanted behavior behind. Maybe you want to stop smoking, drink less or exercise more. You start and get started enthusiastically with the best intentions. Two or three weeks later, little of this is visible. You curse twice and let it go. You have completely lost your motivation to lose weight or change your lifestyle. You fall back into your old behavior. It is a frequently seen phenomenon. If you want to get started with your lifestyle and lose weight sustainably or live healthier, it is your motivation and mindset that will be decisive. This article is for you if you're wondering why you cannot maintain your motivation while losing weight or changing how to maintain your motivation what the role of behavior is in this how to manage your own behavior Questions you want good answers to when you start a change process. Weight Loss Motivation and Behavior Motivation can be described as the driving force behind your desire to do things differently, to change, to lose weight. Basically to change your behavior. Behavior is the link between wanting and doing. It is the weak link for many. So it's not so much about your capabilities or planning goals, it's about your daily actions whether a change is successful. ATTENTION TO HOW INSTEAD OF WHAT There is a lot of advice about what you should manage or change. You will find advice about relationships, weight loss, healthier living, nutrition, etc. The behavior you must exhibit is clear. You probably really want it. But how exactly should you do that? That's not so clear. You have all the advice on the table in front of you. How do you proceed now? That remains a black box for most. Now just do it for a while. As psychologist Ben Tiggelaar also describes in his booklet Dromen Durven Doen: Many books are full of open-ended advice: ' It's a matter of persevering and persevering'. Or vague talk like: 'Listen to the voice of your soul'. I did a lot of persevering and listening but never had the impression that it helped much. Downright frustrating.[1] NOT MUCH GOOD INFORMATION TO BE FOUND You won't find much good information about behavioral change on the internet. This is partly because it is not a simple matter you need a certain basic level to learn about it and share it, it requires some conceptual thinking. Everyone can think of ten tips about losing weight, but creating a substantial plan for behavioral change that will help you maintain your motivation requires more. mindset is a neglected child when it comes to losing weight and lifestyle. Below are eight lessons that you can start with to maintain your motivation while losing weight. I try to keep it simple. But hey, mindset and everything that comes with it is not simple otherwise you would not have ended up on this page in the first place. I'm getting ahead of myself: just start with the first lesson. We can't make it easier, but we can make it more clear and manageable :). LESSON 1: REMEMBER THESE 4 MYTHS • Change is easy. We all wish it was easy, but unfortunately the reality is different. Most resolutions die quite quickly after ringing in the new year. It's all about what to do when that first burst of ideas, enthusiasm and possibly guidance disappears. Because if a few serious setbacks follow at work (a reorganization) or privately (disagreement with a close relationship), you will soon have a foolproof recipe for relapse behavior. • Nothing works, I've tried everything You may think of certain tools and techniques that you find on this website: yes, but I have already tried all of that. The key question is not whether you have tried anything. The key question is whether you applied the technique at the right time and whether you applied the technique often enough. It's a matter of timing and frequency. • People don't really change.

The studies on which these articles are based demonstrate this. More than thousands of individuals have successfully changed. That's a fact. What you often don't see from the sidelines is that the road has often been bumpy. Relapse is very likely part of the change process and it may take years before you finally leave unwanted behavior behind. • It's all about Willpower You may be surprised to learn that the biggest misjudgment of people who want to change is that they overestimate willpower. Willpower is important, but it is far from sufficient, just take a look at how willpower works as part of the mental aspect of losing weight . With this knowledge you can maintain your motivation much better with your weight-loss goals. LESSON 2: LINK BETWEEN WANTING AND DOING: BEHAVIOR I already mentioned it during the introduction. Our behavior is the weak link between what you want (target weight, different lifestyle, healthier eating, being more assertive, quitting smoking) and what you get or do. Behavior is all our actions that we show. That's what you actually do. Consider how you drive your car (driving behavior), how you interact with other people you encounter (social or perhaps antisocial behavior), or how often and what you put in your mouth (eating behavior). A large part of your behavior is shaped by the immediate stimulus that follows it. If that is positive and gives a nice feeling ('pleasure' or 'comfort'), you are more likely to exhibit that behavior again. If that is a negative stimulus and directly leads to an unpleasant feeling (pain or discomfort), that behavior will probably not occur. Following this pain or pleasure experience, a (pleasure) or no (pain) link is created in our brain. If the stimulus occurs again in the future, the behavior will automatically follow. Example: if you brake quite late at the traffic light, and you experience that as a feeling of nice, active driving, there is a good chance that at some point you will automatically brake late as soon as you encounter a traffic light (stimulus) . For a strong link, the pain or pleasure experience must immediately follow the stimulus (seconds), so a few hours or days later is insufficient. That only creates a very weak bond. If you ate less for two weeks and therefore lost weight, this will not lead to a strong link. You may be very aware of cause and effect, but that is too difficult for your brain. This 'reward' and 'punishment' is actually very subtle. All in all, over the years your behavior has been consciously and unconsciously conditioned by everything you have experienced so far. If you are overweight, this probably has to do with your eating and exercise habits. LESSON 3: THERE IS CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS BEHAVIOR Most psychologists agree that there are two types of behavior: conscious, planned behavior and unconscious , automatic behavior. It is estimated that no less than 90% of our behavior is unconscious. So we exhibit that behavior without realizing it. That's quite a lot. It is not necessarily wrong that we do so much on autopilot. Life becomes quite complex if we had to do everything consciously. Take driving as an example. Maybe you can still remember when you took driving lessons? Do you remember the first time you drove onto the highway? Man, that was exciting, and fast! After the driving lessons you were probably quite exhausted because you had to pay so much attention (awareness!) to drive around safely in the car. If you have been driving around for a while, you probably experience it very differently now. In fact, we drive so much of the time on autopilot that we often pass entire stretches without even realizing it. You daydream a bit and are 30 or 50 kilometers further. To change unconscious behavior you will have to at least raise it above the water level. You will have to consciously pay attention to it. Did you know that one of the primary roles of a coach is to promote your consciousness? Not surprising when you see that most of your behavior is 'under water'. More awareness also helps you live better . Unconscious beliefs: Which glasses do you wear? A large part of your behavior comes from your beliefs and views on the world. The way you view the world has been shaped by years of conditioning. Because of what happened in your youth, through experiences with your parents, at school, during training and/or at work. Experiences you have had in good and bad times. All these experiences lead to you forming an image of the world. You have formed a pair of glasses through which you view the world. Unconscious beliefs underlie these glasses. Unconscious beliefs lead to automatic behavior. Behavior that you may want to prevent. Example Consider, for example, the belief that healthy food is not tasty. If you really think that, you can start all kinds of weight loss plans with great enthusiasm, but your motivation to lose weight will probably drop if things go wrong. Every time you prepare healthy food you see food that you don't like. You can only keep that up for a limited time. The proverbial glasses you are wearing are working against you. Your (unconscious) belief slows you down from achieving your goal and maintaining your motivation when losing weight. LESSON 4: LOSING HURTS, SO DOES CHANGE (A LITTLE) In 1981, the following statement was presented to 152 participants during a survey. “The government is preparing for the outbreak of an unusually serious disease that is expected to kill 600 people. There are two solutions A and B: Solution A will save 200 people With solution B there is a 1/3 chance that 600 people will be saved and a 2/3 chance that no one will be saved. Which solution would you choose? In a second scenario, this question was asked again and you could choose between options C and D: With solution C, 400 people will lose their lives With solution D there is a 1/3 chance that no one will die and a 2/3 chance that 600 people will lose their lives. Which solution would you choose now?” If you answer like approximately 75% of the respondents, you choose solution A for the first question and solution D for the second scenario. The results of solutions A and C or B and D are identical. Yet it appears that the perception of loss carries enormous weight. That's why you probably choose to save people (A) and in the second question to be on the safe side not to lose 400 people (so option D). This special phenomenon is also called loss aversion. We put a lot more effort into not losing something while we don't put nearly as much effort into earning something (even though it's the same thing). You're probably willing to work a lot harder to keep your current house with a mortgage and not have to go back to a small dorm room than you are willing to work hard to own a house three times the size you have now. Loss aversion therefore also applies to behavior. You may have a lot of motivation to lose weight, but you will have to lose old eating habits. Although you may know that you shouldn't eat that bar of chocolate or jar of peanut butter, it still gives you a nice, comfortable and familiar feeling when you do it. You can better maintain your motivation when losing weight if you identify this type of unwanted but pleasant behavior. Loss of the familiar makes you insecure, because the future does not seem as certain as before. It is good to be aware of this feeling of loss, so that you can try to rise above it. If you discover that you are insecure because you are losing old familiar behavior, you can pay more attention to your self-confidence. Self-confidence is always a good basis for success.

Summarizing : People have an aversion to loss Losing weight responsibly means changing and that goes hand in hand with losing unhealthy old behavior You are not your old behavior: accept that you can say goodbye to old behavior. Work on your self-confidence if you notice that you suffer a lot from loss aversion. LESSON 5: HOW TO CHANGE BEHAVIOR (AND MAINTAIN MOTIVATION) In America, researchers have examined thousands of people. These were people with behavioral change goals such as quitting smoking or losing weight. All of these people ultimately achieved their goals successfully. Researchers found that all these people go through phases in their change process. These are also called the Stages Of Change or phases of change of three men who are professors, psychologists and researchers: James O. Prochaska, John C. Norcross and Carlo C. Diclemente. The phases or steps are as follows: step or phase 1 the denial phase (I have no problem at all) step or phase 2: considering the change (maybe it's time for a change) step or phase 3: the preparation phase (how am I going to do it) step or phase 4: the action phase (executing those plans): step or phase 5: maintenance phase (maintain the changes). There is actually a sixth step or phase, the termination phase, but changers rarely reach this. Some form of maintenance remains necessary even years after the change. The researchers also found that anyone can ultimately be a successful self-changer. You can maintain sufficient motivation during the entire process of losing weight or lifestyle change. It's not easy, but with the right tools and techniques you can greatly increase your chances. If you want to change your lifestyle, you also go through those phases. Everyone goes through this at their own pace. That pace likely varies from one week to six months per phase, while the maintenance phase could last years. During each phase there are certain tools that you can pay attention to in order to work towards the next phase in a sensible way. In the land of change there are many techniques. Traditionally, these types of techniques were taught to you in guidance sessions from therapists and psychologists. These techniques are also ideal for 'healthy' people to implement desired changes in your lifestyle and behavior. You also see this in the guidance and development of top managers in the business community. What is useful about the techniques from the Stages of Change is that they separate the wheat from the chaff and support an integrated approach. So not just acupuncture And perhaps acupuncture X or method Y fits very well into your personal plan. LESSON 6: FOR THE LOSER: WHAT KIND OF EATER ARE YOU? Did you know that there are three types of eaters? The Dutch psychologist and professor Tatjana van Strien has recognized, based on various studies, that eaters have certain preferences. As soon as characteristic circumstances arise, these eaters are the quickest to revert to undesirable behavior. Everyone will recognize all three types in certain sizes, but you probably have a clear preference. Miss Tatjana's research [4] enjoys great support. She created the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (NVE) in 1985 and it is not only respected in the Netherlands. It is a questionnaire that is used worldwide under the name of the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ). From the questionnaire you can determine what type of eater you are: Type 1: The emo eater . Fills up on sadness. Stress leads to overeating. Type 2: The external eater : eat when there is food. External stimuli lead to overeating. Type 3: The dieter , also known as the yo-yoer. By knowing what type of eater you are, you can better protect yourself against overeating. With this protection you can better maintain your motivation to lose weight. If you are an emo eater, for example, the condition for success in your weight loss attempt is insight into the psychological background of the eating problems that have led to obesity. The most important thing you can learn by using the NVE to determine what kind of eater you are is whether following a traditional calorie-restricted diet has a chance of success or whether you need to pay more attention to behavior. Lesson 7: Do you want or do you choose? How proactive are you... You may ask yourself: do I want to change? Or Do I choose to change? You choose your change and you choose not to do other things. You choose to say no more often, you choose your goals. Do you see and feel how the demand shifts to another level? When we talk about wanting , it quickly seems like ' I want, I want, I want'. It is almost an expression of passivity. I want …and now it all has to happen naturally. It also activates the abstract part of your brain more. With a magical staff the world is instantly different. Nope. While when you talk about choosing, you are talking about being the initiator yourself. Make your own choices and set your own priorities. Leave one for the other because you choose to do so, because you are proactive. The first characteristic of effective leadership [5]. For example, you choose to apply techniques from the phases of change because you know that this will help you maintain your motivation better during and after losing weight. Extremely powerful. Every now and then ask yourself the question: what am I choosing? Do I really consciously choose that? Another tip if you procrastinate a lot. At Defense there was a typical statement that regularly came up when coaching men and women. Not making a choice or making a decision is also a choice, but often not the right one. And it's true, choosing takes effort. Lesson 8: You have to leave your comfort zone If you avoid new situations, hold on to undesirable behavior and avoid everything new, you stay too much in your comfort zone. If you really want to stay motivated to lose weight or change, you have to get further with your goals. This means that you have to close your eyes every now and then and take the plunge.