8 ways to stay true to your weight loss plan even when it gets tough. Using even a few of these tips will help you stay motivated with slow weight loss progress.
Here’s the truth: whether you want to lose 10 pounds or 40 pounds, weight loss never happens overnight.
And it’s frustrating. So frustrating you kinda just want to throw the scale out the window most days.
When your progress doesn’t happen as fast as you hoped, you’re more likely to lose motivation to keep going. Because sometimes it truly feels like nothing you do works.
But we’re here to encourage you not to lose hope. And to tell you that while it’s totally normal to feel changes in your level of motivation to stick to a weight loss plan—there are strategies that make it easier to stay motivated.
So the good news is that a lot of the frustration you feel about your slow weight loss progress can be overcome with some tricks and new mindsets.
Here are the top tips to stay motivated with slow weight loss. If you can make a few of these tips work, you will reach your goal weight!
1. Don’t compare your progress with anyone else’s
Remember every weight loss journey is unique.
It’s easy to feel like you aren’t making progress fast enough. And to believe that other people have an easier time losing weight than you do.
But you don’t know anyone else’s journey through weight loss—just like no one else knows yours either.
If you find yourself constantly comparing yourself with other weight loss journeys here are a couple ideas to try that’ll snap you out of the negative comparisons:
- When you catch yourself feeling jealousy over someone else’s weight loss achievements, remind yourself that you’re happy for that person and you’re on the way to finding your own success too
- If your newsfeed anywhere on social media makes you feel more pressure to be a certain way, hide them for a while. Keep anything that’s not helpful to you hidden until you’re more confident about what you’ve achieved so far.
- Remind yourself of three things every day that you’re grateful that your body does for you. Or point out three things you like about your body.
So just remember, perfection is never the goal. Your goal is to create your version of a healthier lifestyle.
2. Create small goals
Big goals take a long time to achieve. They take so long that they start to feel impossible if that’s the only goal post you have in mind to define your success.
To make weight loss easier and feel more attainable throughout your weight loss process, you need to have smaller goals.
A smaller goal takes less time to achieve. It allows for more celebration of wins and progress. And they help you reach important milestones that are essential to hit the big goal.
Create goals that aren’t related to the number on the scale.
Make goals to exercise a certain amount of time each week. Or goals to stick to certain portion sizes in your meals.
You want your short term goals to be easily measurable and attainable, but still impactful for your long term weight loss goals.
3. Celebrate every win (even for the small goals)
When you hit a milestone don’t just say, “Okay that’s done, now onto the next thing.”
Take a moment to feel proud of your accomplishment (no matter how small).
Your first week sticking to your workout plan is a big deal! So is getting through a full week sticking to your meal plan. These successes give you the confidence to keep going. So don’t just brush them off.
You deserve to feel proud of yourself for these accomplishments. They’re hard work!
So here are some ideas to celebrate your small and big goals when you hit them:
- Buy yourself something special
- Go get a mani/pedi
- Plan a great afternoon outing for yourself
- Share your success with friends and family. When others cheer you on, the success feels even more special!
4. Keep a weight loss journal
Weight loss requires personal accountability.
You have to show up for yourself and your best interests every day. And there are a lot of actions and choices that go creating a day where you can say you successfully showed up and stuck to your plan.
A weight loss journal helps you keep track of and reflect on all those moving pieces.
In your journal, you can use the space to do a range of things. All of which help you create better plans and enjoy your weight loss journey as much as possible:
- Track your meals
- Track your calories
- Reflect on how certain foods make you feel
- Track your time spend exercising
- Track which exercises you did
- Reflect on which exercise you enjoy most and how it makes you feel
- Reflect on what went well at the end of each week and how you’ll make next week ever better
5. Find an exercise you enjoy
It’s so much easier to stick to an exercise plan when you enjoy what you do.
That’s why your first step to introduce fitness shouldn’t be to do whatever any fitness guru says is the one-and-only way to lose weight.
You want to first find ways to increase your movement every day that you actually look forward to. Because when you look forward to exercising, you’re more likely to do it.
It’s also important to ease into exercise. Especially if you’re new to it or haven’t done any exercise in a long time.
And then, if you want to start something more intensive or targeted down the line, great!
Here are some of the types of activities you can ease into and that many people enjoy:
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Biking
- Jogging
- Walking
- Weight Lifting
- Yoga
And if you’re looking for ways to get high-quality exercise at home, you can check out our previous article about workouts at home for ideas.
6. Remind yourself daily of all the positive life changes that’ll come from losing weight
Remember those reasons that prompted you to start your weight loss journey to begin with. All those ideas you had about how different (and better) your life will be after you lose the weight.
Whether you have these listed in your weight loss journal, posted on sticky-notes around the house, or you go all out to make a vision board—you need some way to keep your reasons for losing weight at top of mind.
7. On the flip side, remind yourself what’s at stake
Sometimes it helps to remember what’s at stake if you give up on your plan.
Will your long term health suffer? How will you feel six months from now if you stop? And then what do you imagine things will be like in another year?
There are consequences to every action. So on those days you struggle to stay motivated with slow weight loss, remember what you’re giving up in your future if you don’t follow through with your plan.
8. Find social support
Weight loss is so much easier when you have support.
The first is to get friends and family on board to support you. When they are aware of your weight loss goals, they can be there to talk to you through the hardest times. And they can support you by celebrating your progress and wins.
But sometimes it’s hard to get the people closest to you to see why you’re doing what you’re doing. It’s easy to feel misunderstood and even judged.
That’s where health coaches and weight loss specialists come in. Studies show that individuals who work with health coaches and other specialists lose more weight than if they do it alone or with only the support of peers.
People who work with weight loss specialists are also more likely to stay motivated with slow weight loss and get through the toughest times of the journey.
These are professionals who are always there to support you. Plus, they get to know your health and fitness levels to create a plan that’s just right for you.
Want to lose weight and hit your goals faster?
While no one can give you overnight weight loss, we can help you lose weight faster than doing it alone.
At Valley Medical Weight Loss our doctors are specialized in helping people with a range of challenges. We help our patients overcome their biggest weight-loss barriers and finally lose the weight they want.
We learn about you, your health history, and your weight loss goals to help you achieve them faster.
If you want to finally make your weight loss goals a reality, contact us at the location nearest you.
