I talked about apathy the other day and I got a great response from Fit4Life on the subject of why it’s hard to write about weight loss motivators. Hats off to you for providing such great insight to the topic.
A lot of us don’t necessarily know what is motivating our weight loss. It may be that we’ve experienced a health issue or bad diagnosis. Maybe we tried on those jeans we used to be able to wear and we can’t snap the button anymore. It could be we just don’t like what we see in the mirror or we’re tired of feeling the fat that folds when we sit down.
Our motivations are intensely personal. But they are our motivation. We are bombarded daily with the success stories of individuals who used this diet program or that and what success they experienced. We may have wondered if the only way to lose weight is to throw money at it. It costs money to join a gym. It costs money to join Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem and Jenny Craig. Most online programs cost money.
So does spending money equal losing weight?
Tightening the Purse and Waist Strings
No, when it comes to weight loss — spending money does not automatically guarantee you would lose weight. If that were the case – even the fad diet pills, minimizing powders and weight reduction creams would all work. Instead, when we spend money and time on anything, we are committing ourselves to a program. A lot of us don’t like spending money for nothing and investing cash into fees, membership dues and more is sometimes enough to get us motivated. After all, if you are spending money on it – you should expend some effort.
Unfortunately, just because we spend money on something does not automatically mean we are going to start exercising regularly, eating a healthy diet and watching pounds and inches trim off. Instead, it’s a first step, not a last.
For example, how many of us have paid for a gym membership where we stopped going after the first week? But we still paid for it for a year or more? Go ahead, raise your hands – you already know the answer and you are not telling me something new. In fact, most gyms see an attrition rate of 50% or more by the middle of March for all the new fitness enthusiasts signing up in January. By June that number may rise to 75%. Of those 75%, more than 50% of them will sign up or recommit to a fitness and weight loss program the next time January rolls around.
For every person who has had success with Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers or Atkins – I’ll bet you know two who didn’t. I can name three. But you know what else, I know one woman who lost over a 100 pounds just going to Weight Watchers. It worked for her – it made her feel good about herself and it was the way she found to manage a healthy lifestyle of good choices. It didn’t happen all at once and in fact, it took her more than two years to achieve her weight loss goals – but she did it.
The instant gratification factor is what gets all of us. We start a fitness program and we want the pounds to just fall off – we start a diet and we expect to look better and to be buying smaller clothes the next month. There is no magic wand that will undo what took you years to put on. In fact, you shouldn’t expect miraculous results. If it were that easy, the fitness and weight loss industries wouldn’t be making billions of dollars.
Find Out What Motivates You & What You Enjoy
Discover what works for you – when you enjoy yourself – you’ll keep doing it. Measure your progress in months, not minutes. Starting a program in Summer? Measure its success by how you are doing come the start of Fall? If you stick to it, enjoy yourself and don’t cheat overmuch – you’ll discover that you too can be that success story on television – but the only person who can provide you with a barometer for how fast you will lose weight, tone your body and feel better about yourself is you.
Whatever program you start or whatever diet plan you choose to follow will not make you feel better about you. Because in order to start, maintain and stick to a balanced eating plan of healthy choices requires that you love and respect yourself enough to hang in there. So not to put the cart before the horse – but find out what makes you happy about you – and that is the best key to getting you where you are going.