Activate Your Weight Loss Motivation, Part Two

Activate Your Weight Loss Motivation, Part Two

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Motivation is possibly the biggest determining factor when it comes to creating your ideal body and life of ease. Your level of motivation can make or break your plans. That is why it is so important to be clear on the underlying values and feelings that your goals will give you before you embark on achieving them. If they are very clear and you feel 100% committed to their achievement then nothing will get in the way of your success. But there may be times when you feel a little flat and it is at these times that you will need the support of both internal and external motivation to keep going.

Motivation can be:

External: Rewards, prizes and recognition.
Internal: Challenge and accomplishment.

Motivation is very important, especially when you maybe about to embark on something that has the potential to change your life, such as a training program at the gym, a new career, or having a family etc. When learning any new skill, or adopting any new behaviour, there are four stages that you will need motivation for, they are:

1)The Discomfort Stage
2)The Results Stage
3)The Pleasure Stage
4)The Maintenance Stage

I will use exercise as an example to demonstrate each of these stages of motivation.

The Discomfort Stage
When you first start doing exercise, it seems like hard work. Your body tires quickly, you feel short of breath easily, your muscles are often sore the next day and of course it will be difficult to find the time to workout.

The good news is that this stage doesnt last forever. In most cases, between four and six weeks are required before the next stage is reached. The length of time depends on your initial fitness level, your program and your ability to train regularly.

During this stage, motivation often needs to come from outside; a personal trainer, a life coach or a structured program can be particularly helpful.

The Results Stage
During this stage, the time and effort that you have put into your exercise program begins to pay off; much of the discomfort of doing exercise is over and you even find yourself feeling good after each session. More importantly, you will feel the rewards of your effort, you will feel fitter, begin to see changes in your body shape and you may discover that you have more energy.

Motivation becomes much easier, as there are now positive benefits to balance the short term pain or inconvenience of exercise. Some external motivation is still helpful though as it is easy at this stage to skip a session and lose momentum.

The Pleasure Stage
As the name suggests, during this stage your exercise program becomes a pleasurable experience. The physical rewards are still realised, but the main motivators are now psychological, a person in this stage wants to exercise.

When you reach the pleasure stage, you dont like to miss a session, in fact studies have shown that regular, long-term exercisers show withdrawal symptoms if they miss a session.

Needless to say, when you have reached this stage, motivation is not a problem. Reward yourself for your efforts.

The Maintenance Stage
Although you are well into your training routine and things are going great, it is important at this stage to maintain long term motivation. If you continue to perform the same program for too long you may become bored or your physical results may plateau. It is important to add variety to your workouts and mix up your training sessions, try a group class one day, a boxing session the next to provide you with added stimulus and to spark further results and motivation.

About the Author:
The author Andrew McCombe (BPhEd) is a Personal Trainer, Life Coach and Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) Practitioner, Author and Speaker. For more information download the Free 10 EASY Steps to Your Perfect Body E-Book at http://www.activateyourweightloss.com.au



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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