Weight Loss- Be Encouraged!

On your journey to weight loss, fitness, and health, you can without doubt become discouraged. As a matter of fact, discouragement is what makes a lot of people to quit when they may have been close to a point of considerable progress and encouragement in their program.

I've compiled my "top 10" tips of encouragement to help lift your spirits up on your journey to weight loss, fitness, and health.

1. It actually gets better - and most times very quickly! A lot of people that are considerably overweight or that have been inactive for a long time find any form of movement, even strolling a few hundred feet, to be very hard and painful. Be expectant, countless physiological changes take place very swiftly once you start moving. Walking, for instance, begins to get easier and more comfortable within few weeks. Continue moving - every day will be a little better! Be optimistic!

2. I find irresistible this lady's story. It just makes you want to applaud her while sitting before your computer. Ruth from Nairobi, Kenyan had a weight of 296 pounds when she began walking in her locality. She says she began by walking about half a block two times daily and that it was extremely hard at first.

By the second day she had made up her mind to give up but a neighbor dissuaded her from quitting. Every day she walked the same distance however, she added a little distance each week. She declares there were countless days when she wanted to give up, but she desired desperately to lose weight and be healthy. After many months, the people in her neighborhood began noticing her regularity and her improvement and started giving her praise and words of encouragement. According to her, following a few months of walking, it went from painful to pleasurable.

About ten months into her walking plan, she started her morning walk as usual, but she observed people out in their yards. As she passed each yard they were applauding and cheering for her, "go Ruthie", "we're confident of you", "congratulations ruthie!" She shed tears of joy through her entire walk that morning as so many people cheered her on all the length of her route!

3. The noticeable indications of improvement in a weight loss program are most times very slow to come. Healthy weight loss consumes time, but that can be very daunting. Be encouraged to acknowledge that for every day that you work out and take healthy foods in reasonable amounts, you have made advancement. It might not be quantifiable that day, but you have made improvement and it will be assessable over a period of weeks and months.

4. Mandy was 43 years-old and had been stationary for 20 years. The scale had not altered in those 20 years - she still weighed 136 pounds, however she knew she had reduced in muscle and gained more fat. Her waistline was larger and she couldn't fit into clothes of the same size that she did 20 years before now. What troubled her most was that she was always fatigued and never had any vigor.

She made a decision to begin walking and weight training but gave up after a week. She exclaimed, "It’s too painful, I can't continue doing this." I encouraged her to carry on and advised her that it would get better. She "stopped" three times in the course of the next two weeks. We conversed regularly. Six weeks after she began noticing some muscle tone and she observed that her endurance and strength level had improved drastically. She exclaimed, "I'm very encouraged!" Eight months afterward she had added two pounds on the scale but lost three inches in her waist - and she walked a marathon! Yeeeeeeesss! Be motivated!

5. The whole plan behind bodily training is that you press on your body to accomplish a little more than it's relaxed with and it act in response by making physical and physiological adjustments. These adjustments make you able to do little more with less uneasiness.

6. Gerald in New Orleans, Louisiana shed 85 pounds after he began walking and weight training. After he had shed the weight, he made up his mind to do something that would make him to fully value his weight loss. For a whole day, he carried all about a sack that contained 85 pounds of metal weights.

Getting around throughout that day was a fight and very exhausting. At the end of the day he was worn out! Life without the weight is immense!

7. Keep documentations of your advancement. Every day write down the helpful changes you've observed and also document the work out you do every day. Write down what exactly you did, for how long, and any reflections about your work out that day. Keep a running sum of your minutes. You can reflect on what you've done with a huge sense of achievement and you'll be motivated to do more. Be encouraged!

8. Daily exercise will transform your life! I believe God fashioned humans to be active every day. Why? For the reason that when you are, many good things happen..

- You are in good health

- You feel better and have more strength

- You are unlikely to have cancer, heart disease, stroke, etc.

- You have better sleep  

- You have a better life outlook 

- Your relationships with people are improved

- Your skin looks better

- You are sick less frequently

- Your immune system is have more energy

- You shed fat

- You add toned, lean muscle

- You appear healthier

9. Quincy Aigbe in Yahunde, Abijan sent me a mail, After 21 years of marrying a complaining, cynical man who didn't see anything pleasurable in life, I saw all that transform over a period of about a year. Harrison was the classic 70 pound obese couch potato when he was frightened into working out and improved eating habits by the demise of his 44 year-old friend."

Harrison's doctor suggested that he began walking every morning and after a few weeks Harrison told Quincy that he desired to start eating better. Harrison actually took-off with this "health thing" and shed 72 pounds and developed into a new man – within and without. In Quincy's expressions, "I have a new husband. He walks for an hour every morning and he is a delight to be around. His eagerness for life makes our marriage fun." Be motivated!

10. Progress and advancement produce encouragement. YOU can progress and get better and be encouraged put more effort. Tomorrow morning, wear your walking shoes and take a stroll, even if it's for a few minutes. The next day, repeat it – advance and improve.