Sex Drugs and Rock N Roll: How to Motivate Yourself Towards Weight Loss

The key to staying motivated is to remember that you are doing this to make your life better. It can be frustrating but focusing on the good really does help. How does one stay motivated?

1. Set Realistic Goals of Various Sizes.

By setting small term goals you can revel in the accomplishments you make as you progress but sometimes the numbers seem small and you lose track of how much weight you are actually losing. Setting long term goals can be just as difficult because the road to success seems longer than you can possibly endure. But if you set a small weekly goal, a medium goal and a large and final goal you can feel the progress of each week and month and still make it to the end of your travel.

I suggest making the long term goal first. How much weight do you want to lose? For me, the goal was between one hundred and one hundred fifty pounds. I weigh about three hundred pounds so this will put me right between one hundred fifty and two hundred pounds, a healthy weight for an adult male of my height. To set a time line I did basic exercises at a leisurely pace for a week and set my weekly goal as the amount of weight I had lost the first week, with out dieting. I lost three pounds. At an average of three pounds a week, I count thirty three weeks before I break the one hundred pound mark. One fifty would take fifty weeks, almost a year.

If I can lose more than one hundred pounds in thirty three weeks, I’ve decided to implement several different rewards which will be talked about later in more detail. For now I will sum it up in two words: Victory Party.

To make a medium sized goal I decided that at sixteen weeks I decided I should reward myself with a trip to the beach if I had surpassed expectations. Sixteen times three is forty eight so I expect to have lost more than forty eight pounds on that date. If I have, I plan on doing something very fun and rewarding. For some people this might be go the Las Vegas or a near by Amusement Park. for me, being in Southern California, I decided on the beach. I used to love to swim but have gotten so self conscious about my body I never go anymore.

For a small sized goal I decided that each week I would try to lose five pounds. That is two more pounds than my first week of leisurely exercise so I figured it would take a bit of work and I could be happy with my progress. I asked a friend to give me a reward for my weekly goal and she accepted. She and I have had a kind of broken friendship so I asked just that we can spend some time talking to each other every weekend that I met my goal. Not a long time and not with any specific intent other than to reconnect. She’s a very close friend who I had a falling out with and rebuilding the friendship is a great motivational force.

2. Failure Is Not An Option

If you do not meet your weekly goal, do not give up. You can meet the next weeks goal if you work a little harder. This is true for dieting and exercise. If you eat something that you know you should not be eating, it is okay. Just realize that you have to work harder if you give into eating the brownies.  Just because you stumble does not mean that you have lost.

In exercise, if you can not do things as fast or for as many laps or what ever as you like, it is okay. Just keep trying to meet that goal. You may not need to do one hundred laps in a pool to lose the amount of weight you want on a weekly basis. Try lowering your exercise goals if you find that you are meeting the weight loss goals but not doing as many reps or laps or what have you in your exercises.

3. Set Reminders Every Day, Week and Month

Each day at my break time, the alarm on my phone goes off. For the first month it tells me that I should remember my weekly goals and that I can make them if I try. For the second month, they tell me that fat people don’t get laid. For the third, they remind me that I have lost so much weight already and that I have to keep working to meet the final goal. As the months move on I continue to update the alarms to reflect how I’m feeling. This happens three times each day.

Once a week, on Sunday Mornings, my phone wakes me up with an inspirational quote. I try to remind myself of these quotes.

Once a month, on a Saturday Morning, I remind myself of my monthly goals and rewards and try to keep them in focus.

When I wake up for work every weekday morning I am met with an alarm that reminds me of all that I am going to gain by losing weight. Starting with my health, my mental health, sex, money and so forth.

4. Trace Your Body

Literally. Take a large piece of weight paper and lay down. Have a friend trace your outline onto the page. While seeing the numbers go down on a scale can feel good, seeing the size of your body shrink is one of the most exciting feelings in the world. It is hard to believe that you look different unless you can see where the weight is being lost. Every two months or so, on the same page, have a friend draw your outline and you will see how much smaller you are.

5. Have Friends Bribe You

Some friends may want to help motivate you by offering to sponsor you. When I was in High school I did a swimming marathon for my swim team and had people agree to sponsor me. Each sponsor offered to donate a quarter per lap I did and in the end, two hundred laps later, each sponsor had donated fifty dollars! I had four sponsors so that was two hundred dollars I donated to my team.

I suggest asking your friends to donate small amounts of money, a dime for each pound, say, would be asking each friend to donate only ten dollars (if your goal is one hundred pounds) each to help buy you new clothes once you have lost all your weight. Family members, such as an uncle or grandparent or parent may offer even more. The more money you make the more you will feel better about yourself and you will need an entire wardrobe.

6. Have Friends Participate

When doing exercises, it is important to enjoy yourself. In the exercise section you will notice that many of them can be done in conjunction with someone else. Even if a friend doesn’t need to lose weight, if you ask them to participate they often will. Your friends love you and they want you to succeed. They may not do it as often as you do and they may not work as hard, but if you say to yourself that you want to go swimming every Saturday and ask a friend to swim a few laps with you, they more than likely will.

Ways to increase their participation is to ask more than one friend. Asking one friend to go swimming with you on Saturday every two weeks and asking another to do it on the opposite weeks gives you someone to talk to and feel encouragement from with out exhausting your friends.

Don’t forget to include them in the rewards either! You can not succeed alone, your friends and family play a big role in your life and letting them share your victories is good for showing your gratitude for their help.

7. Piggy Banks Are Awesome

Put money aside yourself. For the exact same reasons it is good to have friends donate money, it is good for you to do it as well. You should try to donate more than your individual friends though. Five dollars a pound can turn into five hundred dollars over a few months and one hundred pounds of lost weight!

8. Get a New Trendy Haircut

Once you’ve been going for a while and you feel you need a pick me up, get your hair cut. This sounds absurd but getting your haircut does a few things which can help motivate you to lose weight.  Do not get it cut at the very beginning of your adventure but somewhere near the end of the second month. Why? Everybody will tell you how good you look. People instinctively feel insecure about a big change in their physical appearance and because of this they feel compelled to tell others how much they like a new look.

If you are male, find the most attractive stylist you can and she will flirt with you while cutting your hair. because she wants a tip but ignore her motivation for flirting and just enjoy having a good looking woman smile and flirt with you. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

9. Meetup.com

This website allows you to meet new people. If you can find a weight-loss group in your area you should join up! Meeting other people who are struggling can help you as you compare notes on how your diet and exercise routines are going. Other groups can be helpful also. In the exercise section you will notice that some of the things I’ve listed aren’t considered exercise by most experts, such as visiting local venues and watching a band play live. You can find groups who are into some of these activities so that you do not have to go alone.

Also, you can find meet ups for ANYTHING you enjoy doing. If you find a work out method that works for you, you can find people who enjoy it. If your plan includes regular trips to the beach, you can find beach people to hang with. One interesting exercise I’ve found and really enjoyed was attending concerts. I love live music and if you don’t sit while at the show, if you keep moving (either dancing, moshing or just swaying to the music) you burn a ton of calories.

10. Drugs!

Most people aren’t into drugs. I am. Well, I’m into one drug. A way I motivate myself as by having my drug be my reward. Also, since my drug is legal and readily available at the local pharmacy, I have decided that I can only buy it if I walk there, not drive. This means once a month I walk an additional four miles in one day. This works with alcohol too, by the way. If you only drink once a month and only if you are on target for weight loss you will try harder to meet those goals.

There are also weight loss drugs you can take but I suggest not doing so until you’ve reached at least the halfway point. Why? If you take them at the beginning you will expect big weight loss results the entire time and will not get them. Once you’ve lost most of the weight you really want to lose, feel free to add weight loss supplements to your diet. These will help put you over the top in the long run and will not disappoint you as you already know that five pounds a week is your goal.

Also, psychiatric drugs can help raise your self esteem and a hurt self image is one of the major causes of gaining weight. When you are depressed and self conscious you begin to sit at home more and to eat more comfort food, comfort food is heavy and full of sugar and fat and calories.

11. Find Your Mantra!

Think of mantra that describes who you are in a positive statement about your successes and strengths. This will help remind you that you are not a failure and that the weight you have put on has been a result of laziness and a lack of self worth. You deserve to be happy and reminding yourself on a daily basis is very helpful. I suggest saying your mantra to yourself ten times each morning and then also, sometimes, while working out.

12. Blog!

If you share your success stories with your friends, they will know that you are working hard and will congratulate you on your success more frequently and this is important. Having people say that you look good, that they are impressed with your tenacity and commitment is a quick and easy way to help keep you in touch with your successes.

13. Make A Collage

If you take a magazine and cut it all to hell, taking the pictures that remind you of how you want to feel when you are done, and then hang it in your room or where you work out, you can remind yourself of all that you are working for. I suggest using pictures of people you care about as a way of reminding yourself that you can become ill and die if you do not lose weight. Use pictures of places you’ve stopped going because of your weight, like myself and the beach.

14. Sex!

Losing weight makes you more attractive. You will have more sex if you lose weight. Keep this in mind and add it to your collage and reminders and you will be more likely to succeed.

Another thing you can do, if you feel comfortable, is approach a friend of the gender you are attracted to and ask them to sleep with you if you meet your goals. Maybe a small term goal is just getting to make out and a medium size goal is Oral Sex and the big one might be full blown intercourse. Friends with benefits are becoming more and more common. Just make sure your friend knows that you don’t think they are a whore who will just sleep with anybody who asks, that might offend them. Also, don’t confuse them with a romantic relationship because, honestly, many people who don’t have sex often can get confused about the romantic nature of a friends with benefits situation.

If you already have a partner you can ask your partner to withhold sex if you have sex frequently. If your sex life is dragging you can ask to increase the amount of sex based on your success.

Get your freak on people! But always be respectful of the people you are dealing with. Be safe and honest in all your interactions. I would also recommend not asking the major hottie you kind of know, but rather a close friend who is mildly attractive and you know is single or in an open relationship.

And don’t forget that sex is exercise!

15. The Victory Party!

Throw the biggest, wildest victory party ever. Seriously. It will feel good to plan the victory party as you go and to have it come true will make you very happy. Your friends will love getting to dance to a live band, having a barbeque on the pool deck or playing wii bowling all night long while sipping on their alcoholic beverage of choice. If you have friends of one gender or sexual orientation, hire a stripper.

This is a celebration of life and you should go completely insane. Everything you feel you’ve lost, everything you miss and want to indulge in should be at this party.

I’m an incredibly lonely person so my victory party plan is pretty simple. Lots of friends! Friends I haven’t seen since school, friends of friends who I met once and enjoyed spending time with, friends I’ve lost touch with, all these are invited and encouraged to bring a friend with them. My nephews wii will be set up so we have games going. We’ll play apples to apples and taboo and scrabble and what ever other games we can find. The pool will be open and my friend’s band will be playing for part of the party. I don’t enjoy drinking but there will be plenty to drink for those that do enjoy getting buzzed.

Also, since it is a pool party, everybody will be in their swim gear. People will be telling me how good I look in my swim suit since I’ve lost so much weight. I really suggest planning your victory party over the entire time you are working to lose weight. If you find something special, find a way to include it.

Anyway, these are just ideas. I’m sure you can find some of your own if you think about it long enough. GOOD LUCK!