motivation?
karentalty
Posts: 52 Member
Hi,
I am looking for tips as to what others do to motivate themselves. General weight loss goals don't motivate me and so I am looking to set myself small targets e.g. do five hours of exercise over a week or beat personal bests in something and give myself a treat if I achieve e.g. get my hair done. Has anyone else tried this before?
I am looking for tips as to what others do to motivate themselves. General weight loss goals don't motivate me and so I am looking to set myself small targets e.g. do five hours of exercise over a week or beat personal bests in something and give myself a treat if I achieve e.g. get my hair done. Has anyone else tried this before?
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Replies
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Hi Karen. I notice that the rewards you mention are extrinsic. What, if anything, is motivating you intrinsically? For me it's feeling better about myself and not having that awful dread of going clothes shopping.0
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I am looking for tips as to what others do to motivate themselves.
Depends what's important to you and why you do what you do. You mention doing some training, for me it's my training that's more important than my weight. Haven't actually weighed myself in about six weeks or so, but my 5K run time was down by another 10 seconds last Friday night, and my 10K time is now down below 60 minutes.General weight loss goals don't motivate me and so I am looking to set myself small targets e.g. do five hours of exercise over a week or beat personal bests in something and give myself a treat if I achieve e.g. get my hair done. Has anyone else tried this before?
There are three approaches that I've used in the past, that seem complementary, and they revolve around my training.
When I've got a scheduled session I get changed into my kit, running or cycling, rather than anything else. So on a Saturday or Sunday I get up, eat breakfast and put on my kit. I'm then most of the way towards heading out the door. Similarly for an evening session, when I get in from work I'm out of my suit and straight into training kit before anything else.
Penalise myself for not training, a fine of £5 when I miss a session, that then goes somewhere else. For me that's a charity donation, although clearly there is a risk there as giving to charity can itself be rewarding.
An as you mention, some form of reward when I achieve a particular goal. That needs to be something that I don't need, like running shoes, but something that I would have to go out of my way to buy. When I can hit a 2:15 half marathon pace then I've got my eye on a Garmin running system. Nearer term it might be a book, or something like that.
The latter two approaches are captured in the Pact application, that you can connect here or to something like Runkeeper.0 -
I agree with Meanderingmam, but find something you enjoy doing and it makes it all so much easier
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Thank you for replying everyone!
I am struggling internally as I need to lose weight on doctors orders and so I would rather sit and eat but I need to move and diet! I'm sure when I begin to see results I will then be intrinsically motivated to lose more weight.
I am thinking of putting money in a jar every time I work out-£2 or so. Then when I do 50 different work out sessions I will have a nice lump sum to do something nice with!
Time will tell x0 -
..... I need to lose weight on doctors orders...
I'd make the observation that language is quite powerful in situations like these. When you say that you need to lose weight on doctors orders, that makes it someone elses decision. clearly you've taken on board the doctors advice, but I'd suggest that you think about turning that into some form of framing about why you want to lose weight for your reasons. Accoring to your profile you've got 30lbs to rid yourself of, that's not an insignificant amount, so it's going to make a big difference to your lifestyle when you've got there. Equally it's a big enough target that you need to stick in some interim milestones as well.
I've lost not far short of that myself, and I'm now not breathless when I get to the top of three flights of stairs in the office, my clothes fit me, although I'm reaching the stage that my suits are too big for me.... I need to move and diet!
And this is framing again, I saw something recently that highlighted that fit people don't diet and exercise, they eat and train.
Diet always strikes me as quite a negative wording, it implies something that'll be over at some point, rather than just having a healthy relationship with food, that's sustainable in the long term.
Can I ask what type of workouts you're doing and how often. Something that can work for some people is actually formally scheduling their training, sticking it in the diary. Might be worth looking at for you?0 -
Whilst I'm trying to get my mojo going, for me it's the non food rewards that are helping, I've set a list of what I'll do at each half stone loss like get a massage, treat myself to a new outfit etc. Whilst I know what 'reward's I hopefully will get going forward, at the moment I am focussed on staying on the path and getting my first treat!0
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Hi,
I am looking for tips as to what others do to motivate themselves. General weight loss goals don't motivate me and so I am looking to set myself small targets e.g. do five hours of exercise over a week or beat personal bests in something and give myself a treat if I achieve e.g. get my hair done. Has anyone else tried this before?
This is what I'm doing at the moment. I've set myself a weekly target to burn x amount of kcal, doing various forms, of activities, and I'm having so much fun!0
