How to Gain the Willpower to Lose Weight

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You can lose weight if you set your mind to it! Are you ready to take action to achieve the body of your dreams?

The biggest barrier you face isn’t your refrigerator, or an over-active thyroid gland, it’s actually your willpower and your self-discipline.

Like many people you may have fallen into a vicious cycle. The cycle starts with eating a poor diet full of fats, carbs, and processed foods. These are the kinds of foods that taste good but make you feel tired and lethargic all the time. Then, because your body lacks proper energy, you don’t feel much like exercising. Actually, you barely have enough energy to get out of bed in the morning.

What’s the end result of a lifetime of poor nutrition? Aside from being overweight you have no willpower. It’s buried somewhere under a hundred pounds of fat cells. With no energy or desire to do anything you drag yourself through each day feeling miserable and hopeless.

But there’s hope! You can make the change! If you truly want to lose weight you have to do first things first, you first have to build your willpower to make what you want to happen – happen.

Here’s a list of things to consider when boosting your willpower:

1. A Big Mistake Many People Make is to Wait For Something Bad To Happen. Your willpower is already within you and you shouldn’t require a catastrophe to happen in order to find it.

• We’ve all heard the stories about someone suffering a severe trauma, like a heart attack, and how that dramatic event lead to a permanent change in their habits. You don’t need this to happen to you in order to get motivated!

2. Watch Your Portion Size. This is one tip that can allow you to start small. It’s hard to muster up the necessary willpower if you’re trying to jump from one extreme to another. Decide that you’re going to have the same meal tonight that you would normally eat – but give yourself a smaller portion size.

• A simple trick is to use smaller plates so the plate appears full.

3. Give Yourself A Cheat Day. It’ll be an easier transition for you if you allow yourself some fun once in awhile. Tell yourself that once every ten days you can enjoy a pizza for dinner or a piece of chocolate cake for dessert. You’ll be less likely to give up knowing that a tasty pizza will "occasionally" be on menu instead of "never."

• Your "cheat" day doesn’t mean "over-eat" day.
• Slowly savor the flavors of your food. Once you’ve finished your piece, your willpower should kick in and say "no more!"

4. Take Photographs. You can motivate yourself to lose weight by taking some self-portraits. We usually don’t have the best idea about how we truly look until we see ourselves in a photograph. Keep a picture with you and look at it when you feel like giving up.

• Update your photo often and compare them as you start to lose weight.

5. Make A Food List. Write down all the foods you enjoy eating, then evaluate whether or not these items are healthy. Chances are there are at least some healthy foods that you actually enjoy eating – such as fruits and vegetables. Make sure you start buying these foods for your home.

6. Exercise In Moderation. Adding exercise to your routine can also be a daunting task if you try to jump in too fast. Nobody is telling you that you need to join a gym and engage in rigorous workouts if that’s not your style. You’ll actually be surprised at how energized you can feel just by taking a 30 minute walk, three times a week.

Conclusion

No matter how you choose to approach your weight loss, it’s important to take small steps and remain in good spirits. Doing too much, too fast will only set you up for failure. Instead, set small, manageable goals like one pound per week. By focusing on the smaller, more attainable goal, you’ll actually see results far more quickly.

In the end, remember to reward yourself for a job well done. After all, you deserve it! Once you’ve mustered the willpower to succeed at weight loss, you can succeed at anything in your life!

To Your Good Health,

Mark Hanson

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