I can't pretend that I'm a weightloss/fitness professional because I'm clearly not. But over the years, being a woman, and obseving other women, I wanted to write this post to discuss my observations, as well as what we can use and pull out of ourselves to help motivate us to keep going.
I've observed many women who are super competitive about everything, including weightloss. They have to keep wearing a certain size clothing, they have to be the "skinny" friend, if one woman loses weight in the group, this particular woman will stop at nothing to lose more (even secretly going to weight-loss clinics, joining nutrisystem, etc.) If she knows that you workout, she has to top you, there...too. She is also the friend who sabotages the other friends by pushing food on them. She uses competition (in a not healthy way) to motivate herself to keep slim. I feel there is a healthy way to use competition to motivate ourselves, and that's to compete with ourselves by say building our time walking by 5 more minutes, or using more healthy substitutes, etc. Challege ourselves to do a little more, improving our fitness level.
I've seen alot of women who lose weight for an event or they want to lose weight for a particular outfit. They use this type of motivation. This is what I'm trying to do right now. There is a photo on my ticker progress tape of a woman in a bathing suit on a vacation, somewhere. I really want to go on a vacation somewhere with my husband, a sunny, beach destination, where I can feel comfortable in a swimsuit. Our whole married life, we hardly went on any vacations, whenever we had the financial means to go, I held us back because I was too ashamed of myself...to appear in public in a swimsuit. Life's too short, and if I have a dream, I have to make it happen!
The super best reason to lose weight, gain fitness is for better health. That is the absolute best motivation. Time and time again I've seen on these T.V. shows (Dr. OZ, Biggest Loser, etc.) people who have normalized their high blood pressure, minimize the chance for heart disease, normalize high blood sugar/diabetes, improve their physical endurance, improve their moods and general outlook on life. It's not easy, it takes a lot of effort, and it is not a temporary thing, but it's really a lifestyle change....and a real gift...the gift of good health!!
I've seen a lot of women use products like Herbal life, Ideal Protein, Isogenix, Body by Vi to lose weight/get in shape. Some use it temporarily to jump-start their weightloss, some stay on it to reach their goal weight. They use these products to help motivate themselves. And it sure works while they are on them. Some use them for maintenance when they start regaining their weight, they go back on. The plus side is that they do work for alot of people while you're on it, the down side is they are expensive and realistically it's better to use natural food and learn to eat healthy for your body then live off of shakes and premade/premixed food.