Let me ask you guys a very simple question: How many of you have ever had a situation whereby you didn’t feel like working out, you didn’t feel like eating the right things?
That is a feeling a lot of people, including myself have had over the years in my fitness journey. In my over 15 years of being a personal trainer, I don’t think I’ve ever, ever come across anybody that have said, I am always, always motivated to work out. I’m always, always motivated to eat the right things.
So, in this video, I’m going to share with you guys four exclusive tips on how to stay motivated to lose weight. Now, these are tips that I’ve used myself personally, and that I’ve shared with my personal one on one training clients. So, I know for a fact they absolutely work if you implement them the correct way.
So, tip number one is this: You have to come up with an “emotionally charged why.”
See, the challenge most people have when it comes to losing weight is, they set what I call superficial whys. What does that mean? They say something like, I want to fit into my jeans, or I want to get ready for the beach.
Those are good whys however, you got to understand when it comes to losing weight, getting in shape, achieving that dream body, and keeping it, you have to have a long-term perspective. You also have to understand that your weight loss journey, your fitness journey is going to be like the stock market, it’s going to go up and down, up and down, up and down.
You’re not always going to be excited to do the things you’re supposed to do in order to achieve your fitness goal, and in this case, your weight loss goal. All right. Do you understand me? You have to have a long-term perspective. So, to help you circumvent that problem, what you’ve got to do is come up with an emotionally charged up why, like something that would make you get up to do what you’re supposed to do, regardless of how you feel, that way you can achieve your weight loss goal.
What’s an example of an emotionally charged weight loss goal? I’ll give you my personal example. What motivates me every day to wake up, to be excited to do the things that I need to do to stay in shape and the best health that I can be is my kids, first and foremost. I want to be around to guide them, to see them grow, to see them mature into excellent human beings for as long as possible, to see them one day get married.
Now, back in the day when I was 18 years old, my why was totally different. It was much more superficial. I wanted to get a six pack. I still want a six pack. There’s nothing wrong with that. However, that does not motivate me, inspire me as much as me knowing that I want to be around for my kids in the future. I want to be a present dad.
So you have to ask yourself, what is that thing that in your heart of hearts you’re like, man, I cannot live without that thing. See, the idea of me not being around for my kids, like I just, I don’t even want to conceive or even think about it. So that’s what motivates me, drives me every single day. So, there are days that I don’t feel like working out, but then I try to remember that reason why, that emotionally charged why.
Now, here’s something you can do to keep that reason why present constantly in your mind. What I do personally is in the morning I read my why: I want to be around for my kids when they grow up. So, they say out of sight, out of mind. So you constantly want to remind yourself, and when you embed that in your mind, guess what’s going to happen? You’re more likely to stay motivated to do the things you need to do to achieve your weight loss goal.
The second tip I have for you guys to help you stay motivated to lose weight is, you have to come up with what’s called “prioritized goals.”
Most people that set goals, however, they have too many competing goals. And guess what happens? You get emotionally, psychologically overwhelmed when you have too many goals. Let me give you an example.
I’ll have a prospect come to me and say, hey, I want to improve my flexibility. I want to get stronger. I want to reduce inches. I want to reduce body fat. I want to lose weight. I want to become a power lifter. All those are great goals, however, you got to understand there are too many goals at once. What you’ve got to do is prioritize.
The attitude you’ve got to have, which one of these goals do I have to achieve, does my life depend on it? And that’s the one you have to focus all your energy on. So part of the reason why people struggle with trying to stay motivated is because they have too many competing goals. And the reason why you’re getting overwhelmed is because, guess what, those different goals require different amount of energy. That is why it’s very hard to focus on multiple things at once.
Choose one prioritized goal, is it to lose weight? Is it to lose fat? Is it to reduce inches? Is it to increase flexibility? Is it to become a power lifter? Is it to become a marathon runner, choose one and focus all your energy on that one.
Now, tip number three that I have for you is this: You have to get an accountability partner. A partner could be a coach, could be a personal trainer like myself, could be a friend, could be a spouse.
Where people go wrong with accountability partner is that they choose people who are at the same level as they are. Generally, in my 15 years of experience as a personal trainer, that doesn’t work because, guess what, you guys are at the same level. You both are trying to figure out how to get it done.
I’m not saying it never works. I’m just saying more than likely it’s not going to work because you’re still trying to figure it out. You’re more likely to want to give yourself excuses and justify why both of you, for example, are not hitting your goals because you’re at the same level.
What you want to do instead is partner up with somebody at a much higher level than you are somebody that has been where you are, have accomplished it, and understand, truly understand what it takes to hit that goal.
My fourth and final tip for you guys: You want to create a habit using automation to achieve your fitness goal without relying on your feelings. The problem with feelings is that they’re like the stock market they go up and down, up and down, up and down.
Automation is a systematic way for you to create a habit whereby accomplishing your goal is not dependent on how you feel.
It’s like when you wake up in the morning, what do you do? You brush your teeth, right? Like, you don’t say to yourself, I don’t feel like brushing my teeth today. You just do it automatically. That is what you can achieve if you are able to develop a system based on automation, whereby you can accomplish your fitness goal without depending on how you feel.
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