Can you believe it’s almost mid way through the September 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge? How do you feel? Has this been your first weight loss Challenge and are you finding it easy or hard to follow? Or have you followed the healthy eating meal plans on the Challenges before?
Whether you’re a Challenge virgin or a professional you may find that at the midway point you need a little extra motivation.

You’ve started with a bang and now you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed. Here are some tips to keep you motivated for the next two weeks:

1) Goal Writing – A Must!

Have you written any goals for the Challenge? What do you want to achieve? Not just how many kilos do you want to lose but other things like “I want to learn how to prepare healthy lunches every day” or “I want to introduce my family to some new foods” or even “I want to do 20 minutes of exercise every day – whatever it is, I just want to get moving somehow”.
These are all great goals to have and making them quite specific will help you to work out how you’re going with achieving them. You can write down in a diary if you’ve exercised every day for 20 minutes or you can see whether you’ve learnt to prepare healthy lunches or if you’ll still heading to the local takeaway shop. Then you can reflect back and see how well you’ve done.
Deciding your goals (and making them realistic) will be a real help to you over the 28 Day Challenges. We have a whole guide on how to set your goals here

2) Are You Using The Tools Provided?

Whether this is your first 28 Day Challenge or you’ve done one or a few before, have you got yourself familiar with the Challenge Hub? Log in and have a look around and see what there is available for you to use. Ensure you’ve filled out your personal details to create your profile, set goals for what you want to achieve and are updating this information as needed throughout the Challenge.
Look through the Challenge Blog for helpful articles and tips on getting the most out of the Challenges, download the free eBooks and check out the links that are there to help and support you.

3) Have You Become A Planner?

Have you tried any of the tips in the weekly food prep blogs to help you get organised for your weekly meal planning? If not then now is a great time to get started on being a little more organised when it comes to preparing your weekly meals.
Remember to think about what types of meals you want to prepare each week and what you have on:

• Do you just want to follow the suggestions made in each plan and prepare exactly what’s outlined or do you want to change things around to suit your lifestyle needs for the week?
• Do you need to accommodate for certain food intolerances or requirements? If so you can choose your weekly meals and then easily adapt them to suit your needs.
• Do you have meals frozen from previous weeks on the Challenge that you can incorporate into your upcoming week so you have less prep to do?
• Once you’ve planned your meal plan it makes it a lot easier to work out what you do and don’t need from the supermarket to make sure you are shopping according to your budget.

4) Have You Got A Buddy Or Support?

If you’re feeling a little less motivated than when you first started the April 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge it’s a good idea to ensure you have the support you need to keep going.
Is your family on board with your healthy eating and exercise plans? Are they making life easy for you or difficult? If you feel like they don’t understand what you’re trying to achieve then maybe it’s worth finding a buddy on the Facebook support group so you have someone who knows what you’re going through to talk to.
Even if you don’t find a specific buddy,  just posting your thoughts and feelings will lead to a huge amount of support and suggestions as there are so many others doing the Challenges who go through the same things as you do.

5) Don’t Dwell On The Negative

If you’ve had a few days or more of little motivation and negative thoughts about the things you maybe could have done better, stop thinking about them! Just move forward.
If you do come across bumps on your path and can’t stick to your well intentioned plan, that’s ok. If you miss a day or two of exercise or don’t eat what you originally planned for the day and blow out your calories, that’s fine – just get back onto your healthy path as soon as you can.
We’re all human and life is about enjoying it, so don’t be so strict on yourself that you set yourself up for failure. Acknowledge when you’re feeling negative or guilty and then move on from that and continue with your healthy eating and exercise plans.
When you have an especially bad day, get onto the Facebook support group and let everyone know how you’re feeling and there’s sure to be someone to pep you up in no time. Or read some of the great stories from our Motivating Mums or mums who’ve done the Challenges before – they are all just like you and going through the same thing and so ready to help you.
Enjoy the Challenge – you will get out of it what you put in.