Our first comes from Jill, whom I quote (and sometimes accidentally steal post topics straight from her brain from 700 miles away) quite often. She and I were involved in the publications department while at Winthrop University, which might explain why we enjoy our blogging so much. I recently stumbled upon her blog (probably a Facebook link?) and was immediately inspired with all she was accomplishing and writing about. Able-Bodied Girl would not exist without Jill, and I asked her to be the first in this series...
When you need to lose weight, motivation is usually not hard to find. It lurks everywhere. Unfortunately, it’s a slippery little sucker that is hard to hold on to day in and day out.
Everyone has felt that spark of motivation before. Maybe it’s when you realize your favorite pants are a little tighter than usual. Maybe it’s when it clicks that you’re going to be in a friend’s wedding in six months and weddings mean lots of pictures. Maybe you’ve had a doctor tell you that you need to make a lifestyle change if you want to avoid diabetes or heart disease or some other horrible condition.
The spark of motivation that set me on my journey was when I realized I was just 10 months from turning 30, and I didn’t want to be 100+ pounds overweight when that big day rolled around.
No matter what your motivation is, there are two parts to motivation. Both are essential to your success.
1) The moment when you realize that you need to change and set a goal.
2) The movement you make towards that goal.
A lot of times we have the moment of inspiration, but not the energy to make it more than just a moment. That’s where the goal comes in. Set an achievable, measurable goal with a time frame and then believe that you can accomplish it and take steps towards accomplishing it.
The crazy thing I’ve found is that you just don’t find motivation once, latch onto it and it keeps you going for months. For weight loss, especially, I have to find motivation daily, hourly to keep myself on track. I have to have lots of different ideas motivating me at the same time, and I try to continuously keep my motivation in front of me, mentally and sometimes physically, so that I don’t lose sight of my goals.
If you love quotes, write some of your favorites on notecards and post them around your house or in your car or cubical. If you’d like to be back at the weight you were when you graduated college, then tape pictures from college to your bathroom mirror. If you love clothes, find an outfit you’d like to be able to wear and put a picture of it in your pantry. These visual cues help reinforce your mental motivation and keep the slippery son-of-a-gun from getting away.
What motivates you and how do you keep ahold of it?
Jill is trying to lose 100+ pounds and never find them again, by eating healthy and working out like she gets paid to do it. Follow her journey at Lost and Not Found.
Much Love,
Able-Bodied Girl
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