Since we are in a new month and making new goals.....

Ways to Fuel Your Fire  

Article By: Natalie Nodecker

 

When you hit that mental plateau, backing down from your daily routine of eating right and exercising, finding reasons to get back on a program is hard. But there are ways to invigorate your motivation for living well and staying fit.

  Palma Posillico, General Manager of Service and Training for Weigh****chers, says that mental plateaus often become a problem when a person starts their weight-loss plan motivated by avoiding pain—your clothes are too tight or one flight of stairs is too difficult to climb.

 

Long-term health and raising your self-esteem, on the other hand, are positive, life-long motivators. Once you achieve the goal of fitting into last year's pants, the painful motivation is gone. What's going to keep you going now?

Get Going with Goals Since our ultimate goals tend to be long-term and more difficult to achieve—whether they be to lose 60 pounds or 10 percent of your body weight—you have to break down those goals and structure more immediate success along the way, Posillico says.

Some Steps Toward Stepping It Up Staying fit and healthy forever requires a lifetime commitment. Here are some ways to help invigorate your mind and shake off a mental plateau.

• Set goals—long-term and short-term. Set mental goals, too. Reward yourself once you achieve them—new clothes, a massage or a night out often do the trick.
• Keep an exercise journal. One benefit of keeping a journal is being able to look back on a good week and see why that week worked. During slower times, looking back on the best weeks can often get you started again.
• Remind yourself that the long-term benefits of weight loss and getting fit will be so much more rewarding than that triple-layer chocolate cake. Imagine your life once you've achieved that final goal. How good will you feel?

Remember, hitting a plateau doesn't mean you've failed. Take the time to look at what's happening around you and consider it feedback. ("There's no such thing as failure, only feedback!")

What can you learn from how things are going in your life? By learning to persevere through the rough spots, you'll find it even more rewarding when you feel the success of achieving your ultimate goal.