So you’ve decided to do something to reach your weight loss goals.
You’ve started to follow a healthy eating diet plan, you’re focused on including more exercise into your schedule and you have goals in mind or written down about what you want to achieve.

YAY! You’ve started something good here but does it sometimes just seem all too hard and that it would be much easier to just go back to your old ways? You think irrational thoughts like “I have too much weight to lose and I’ll never reach my goals” or “It’s too impossible to fit everything into my days”?
This is all completely normal and that’s why the Lose Baby Weight plans are some of the best ways to lose weight. Whether you’re following the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge or another of our plans, we have so many tools to help you to make this change to a healthy lifestyle really easy.
Here are some of our top tips to keep you motivated and feel like you can keep going:

Small Steps

Break things down into smaller goals or tasks. Looking at the bigger picture and where you want to end up is great but you need to plan how you’re going to get there and this is best done with small steps that are easier to achieve.
Don’t just have a goal of wanting to lose X amount of weight, have little, achievable action plans. For example:

• “I will ensure at least one meal I eat everyday this week is healthy or from the 28 Day Challenge/the Lose Baby Weight plans etc”. Then increase this to two the following week, three the next week and so on. Before you know it your whole weekly diet will be filled with healthy options.
• “I will swap soft drink for water 5 times this week” or “I will reduce the sugar I add to my coffee/tea by 1/2 a teaspoon everyday this week” etc and then increase these the following week so that you are slowly making good choices all the time.
• “I will exercise for 20 minutes, 3 times this week”. And like with your eating, increase this each week until you are incorporating regular exercise into your days.

Note down in a diary when you’ve actioned these specific tasks and then you can look back at the week and see how much you’ve achieved. It’s not just about what the scales say, if they haven’t moved for the week, that’s ok – look at your diary and see how much you’ve achieved with your weekly goals.

Create New Habits

Much of what we do everyday is habit. We get up and skip breakfast, choose a takeaway option for lunch as it seems so easy, drink soft drinks or sugary snacks in the afternoon as we feel we need a “sugar hit” to give us energy or are always too busy to do regular exercise.
These are all habits. Skipping breakfast or needing sugar at 3pm everyday is usually just something you’ve done for a long time so your brain makes you feel like you need to continue with this behaviour. Just like smoking cigarettes or drinking too much alcohol, it’s a repeated behaviour that becomes a habit.
It’s been said that it can take between 21 – 60 days to create a new habit so turn your bad habits into good ones. Using the “small steps” process outlined above you can ensure you eat a healthy breakfast everyday for three weeks and sure enough it will become something you feel like you’ve always done.
Don’t reach for a chocolate bar at 3pm, have a healthy snack instead and soon enough your brain won’t be telling you that you need to have sugar so often. Include a short walk or some other exercise into your daily routine and in about three weeks you probably won’t even think about not doing it, it will just be like making the bed, doing the washing, going to work etc – part of your regular daily routine.

Don’t Think About It Too Much

Often we spend so much time thinking about how we don’t want to go for a walk, we don’t like eating certain foods, we’d really prefer a burger for lunch, we’re never going to achieve our goals, what’s the point in continuing etc. We need to try and stop this constant internal chatter – try to not think about it too much and just get going.
Don’t waste time dwelling on whether you’re going to achieve your goals or not and just get into your action list. Just get up and do some exercise, just stick to your meal plan for the day, just walking around the block is a start. Once you get started you’ll feel so good, you’ll continue and get closer to achieving what you want.
Making changes to our lifestyles with new meals and new exercise plans can take some time to get used to but just get started on your journey and that’s all you need – to get started!

Be Positive

It’s very easy to be negative – we’re all pretty good at thinking about how tired we are, how we or the family have been sick, how it’s raining outside, how we wish we could eat something unhealthy.
Often these negative thoughts come all too easily and we often love to tell others about all the negative things in our lives. Next time a negative thought pops in your head like “I can’t do this” try and turn it into a positive one like “I can do my best for right now and that’s all that matters”.
The more you think positively and know that you can achieve what you’ve set out to do, the more likely you will get the results you’re after.

Like Attracts Like

Being part of the Lose Baby Weight Facebook Group or a place like this where like minded people who are going through similar thoughts and experiences as you, is a great way to get your motivation back and be accountable.
When you are around people with similar goals who are doing similar things as you to achieve them, you bounce off each other and feel the motivation to stay on track.
Be accountable and post about what your goals are for the week in the group. Then check back in and let everyone know how you’re going, even if you haven’t achieved what you’ve set out to do. Let everyone know what might have stopped you reaching your targets.
Others will be inspired by what you’re doing and vice versa and you can use each other for support, pats on the back and guidance when you’re feeling helpless.

Celebrate Often

Ensure you have a list of rewards to give yourself when you achieve your goals and celebrate every achievement, even the small ones.
If you’ve exercised three times a week for 20 minutes at a time and that was your goal for the week then give yourself an indulgent bath and buy some new body products to make you feel special or have a massage. If you’ve followed your healthy meal plan for the week then buy a favourite magazine or hire a new movie and sit down for a bit of ‘me’ time.
Rewards don’t have to be extravagant, just little things that make you feel good and say “well done me, I deserve to feel special”. Knowing you have a reward when you achieve each little goal will get you excited and want to keep going to reach the bigger goals for the bigger rewards.
Choose appropriate rewards for your goals. Don’t for example have a dessert binge as a reward for eating well for the week, you’ll just feel disappointed and like you’ve undone all your good work.

Get Back Into It ASAP

If you are feeling low and as though it’s all going to take too long or your circumstances have prevented you from following your healthy plan for the week, then acknowledge those feelings, let them pass and get back into it as soon as you can.
It’s ok to have a down day or you’re unwell and can’t exercise or eat what you’d planned to. But try and get back into your healthy lifestyle as quickly as you can. The more days in a row you aren’t following your plan, the more likely you are to want to stop all together. Just like with the habit formation details above – if you continue to not eat well and stop exercising, this will become your habit.
So:

• keep your goals small and achievable,
• increase them as you progress,
• use the support of others in the same situation as you,
• think positively and just get started, stop making excuses
• and reward yourself for all that you’re achieving, even the small stuff.

And you’ll be able to keep up the motivation and stay on track to reach your ultimate goals.
It does take time and you do have to stick at it but soon enough eating well and regular exercise will just be part of your usual lifestyle and something you wouldn’t ever change.
Need to stock up on Healthy Mummy Smoothies? Then see our shop here
And join our 28 Day Weight Loss Challenges here