I get asked quite often how to stay motivated. Before I start this blog, I want to say- you need to be motivated from within. If you are constantly making excuses for yourself, you will NEVER get to where you want to be. If you are TRULY motivated, nothing will ever stand in your way

1. Do Not Crash Diet
Crash dieting may result in quick weight loss at first, but as soon as you stop starving yourself or doing a diet that isn’t conducive for the long haul, you will gain all (if not more) of the weight right back. 

2. Never Limit Foods
Limiting foods and telling yourself you CAN’T have something is a sure-fire way to make your brain only crave the food that you “can’t” have. Instead, have planned treat meals in your plan (talk with me or your coach about this). If you need more information on the importance of treat meals, I have an entire post about those! Limiting food won’t result in a lifestyle change. On that note- avoiding foods like dairy and alcohol, in my opinion, should be a lifelong decision.

3. Find Alternatives To Cope With Emotion
A lot of people stress eat. If this is you, you need to keep all of your binge food out of the house. You also need to find a new way to deal with stress. For me, it’s lifting. For others, it may be running or listening to music or yoga or meditating. Whatever yours is- find that.

4. Ask For Support
There are fewer things more powerful than accomplishing a goal with a friend or spouse. A support system is definitely needed during a weight loss (or weight gaining) journey! Ask for support, take friends to the gym, involve the ones you care about the most!

5. Make A Fit and Fat Basket
Make 2 baskets and label 1 your fit basket and label 1 your fat basket.
Make a bunch of notecards, color-coordinate them. For example:
Blue- meal plan
Purple- water
Green- supplements
Yellow- lifting
Orange- rest
(etc)
Label notecards with every single positive aspect of your new fitness lifestyle. Make 30 of each color for each day of the month. So you will have 30 meal plan cards, 30 water cards, etc

At the end of each day, place your daily cards into either your fit and fat basket. So if you stay on your meal plan the whole day, the meal plan card goes into the fit basket. If you didn’t drink the water you should, the water card goes in the fat basket, etc. At the end of the month- you will see really quick where your weak points are and you will know what you need to fix

I hope this helps!!! If you need a coach, I would love to help, my rates are on sarahbowmar.com/packages