We usually feel motivated when we start something, but when the changes we are trying to make are new to us it can sometimes be a bit harder to get going.
You may not have had to make changes to achieve a healthy weight before and may find thinking about the benefits and why you are making changes may be a good starting point.
We can find it easier to make the changes and or activities we had planned whether it’s going for a walk or cooking more meals at home when we can see and feel the benefits! But motivation can be hard to maintain and after a few weeks, it’s easy to fall off track and come up with reasons that stop us from reaching our goals.
What motivates you?
Let’s spend five minutes noting down what motivates you to want to make healthy changes, what has changed to bring you to this point? Why do you want to regain the balance of a healthy weight? Your initial thoughts might be ‘I want to be healthier, fitter or to be back to where I was before'. Then delve a bit deeper and keep asking yourself why?
It may help to think about positive outcomes e.g., thinking about how you will feel when you have made healthy changes, how much more energy you may have to do the things that you want to or how you may feel much more like yourself when you reach your goal. Visually you might wish to look and feel better in your clothes and start to feel much more like you again.
Your values
Take a look at what you’ve written down; these are things that are important to you – they are your values. You may want to set reminders on your phone or put them in a place where you will see them each day. Keeping your values in mind throughout your journey can help you stay focused and maintain motivation. Seeing your values daily can help to keep you going on your journey, keep up motivation and prevent your journey from becoming boring when you see your progress.
When new behaviours become habits
To make healthy changes and to eat a healthy diet and be more physically active, means making a change from an old behaviour to new behaviour. When we practice a new behaviour over and over again, it becomes a habit. The more we do it, the easier it becomes. To do this we need to make these new behaviours part of our daily routine. This might include scheduling specific days and times in your diary to be physically active or for creating a meal plan for the week ahead.
Creating new habits around food or activity can be exciting and fun. It may be making healthier choices, doing activities that you enjoy and eating a variety of healthier foods each day. By making small changes daily, we can split goals into bite-sized chunks making them much more achievable and realistic! Focus on the next week, what might you notice if these changes are made? And how might these benefits make us feel?
Continue your journey
Click on the next page Goal setting to continue your journey.
