Ways To Stay Motivated When Losing Weight

It is inspiring to hear the stories of how weight loss has changed the lives of our patients. Witnessing someone go from being wheelchair bound to walking into the clinic is amazing.  Seeing cholesterol, blood sugars and blood pressures normalize while decreasing or even stopping medications is so exciting.  Having people come in to lose weight to qualify for a knee or hip replacement, and then not having the surgery because their pain is gone is incredible.  Watching someone cry happy tears as they tell you about being able to fit into their clothes they thought they would never wear again is joyful.

When Times Get Tough

There are so many wonderful examples of weight loss transforming lives and I often get goosebumps witnessing them!  While weight loss may drastically improve quality of life, the actual process of losing weight and then maintaining that weight loss will not always be easy.  When times get tough, revisiting how weight loss has positively impacted you can be helpful motivation.  As time goes by, it can be easy to forget how poorly you may have felt, how many medications you were on, or how difficult exercise or even day-to-day activities may have been prior to weight loss.

Ways To Stay Motivated For Weight Loss

As improvements occur, I encourage you to write down the positive changes you notice.  Then when times get tough, go back and revisit what you have written and think about what led you to start this journey in the first place.  For some, visual aids may be helpful and looking at before and after photos or putting on a piece of clothing from before losing weight may be motivating.  

The following is from someone who lost a significant amount of weight and has been successful at maintaining.  I hope that you find her message as inspirational as I do!  It really sums up focusing on the positive, especially during challenging times!

“Today, I celebrated 2 years of maintaining!!!  I am 66 and lost 190 pounds!  I learned once you hit your goal you aren’t over the battle, it’s a lifetime commitment.  It’s the mindset that we really have to work on,  and asking ourselves,  ‘how badly do we want to lose the weight?’  I still have hard days, but at least now I can tie my own shoes and no longer need a cane to get around.  I am off of all of my antidepressants, arthritis and blood pressure medications.  I have so much more energy and I sleep so much better.  I feel better mentally and physically than I have in twenty years.  Last week I was in the Smoky Mountains and I did a 5.5 mile hike to Abrams Falls in 3.5 hours and went to Mingo Falls, with 160 steps up.  I would have never been able to do that before!  It isn’t easy, but when I remember how I felt before, I know I want to stay on this course.”