Short Term Goals Can Fuel New Year’s Motivation

Losing weight is a very common New Year's resolution and goal for many. The reasons can be as varied as the stars, but for many of us it's often about getting healthier and/or getting more comfortable with ourselves. It's common when you decide you want to lose weight to have a "goal weight". This number is your target and ideal weight that you'd like to see. For those of us with more than 5 pounds to lose, we aren't going to hit our goal weight next week, and our weight loss journey is something that we'll be working on for several weeks (or maybe even months).

In order to stay on track and motivated towards your goals, it's important and helpful to set a few mini-goals or milestones. Milestones are great at helping us do two things in particular:

• Track and celebrate progress for accomplishments achieved

• Stay motivated to continue working towards accomplishments to come

Part of being successful is setting yourself up for success. This means first setting goals that are attainable. So, be sure to take a moment and critically think about your number or goal and ask yourself "is this realistic?" If it's not, then it's OK to tweak your goal and make it something that is more attainable. Taking the time to plan your weight loss journey can help you convert your thoughts into sustainable actions. A well though through plan can be the difference between a successful New Year’s resolution and another failed attempt.

Here are some other ways that you can help see yourself through to the end of your New Year's resolutions. Apply these tips to both your long-term New Year's resolution and the mini-goals that you are going to achieve along the way. We promise, the journey will be all the easier for it in the long run!

• Recruit Healthy Support - Most often, people are their own worse critic. Recruiting a workout buddy or having a family member participate in your journey can help you stay on track and reduce stress!

• Hold Yourself Accountable - Keep reminding yourself what you will gain by achieving each goal you’ve set. This adds relevancy and is a vital component for motivation moving forward. Are you losing weight for an event? A new dress? A vacation? Print a picture or set your phone background to a reminder of your goal. Keeping your goals top of mind will help you stay on track more consistently.

• Set a Realistic Resolution - Too lofty of a resolution only sets yourself up for failure. Make sure your goals are realistic to you. Remeber that achieving smaller goals early on can boost your motivation to keep you on track - so go ahead and set some milestones between now and your goal that you want to hit, too!

• Stay Persistent, and Be Patient - Part of losing weight and keeping it off is developing new habits. New habit formation takes time - but more importantly it takes persistence. Be regimented and be true to your goals to develop new habits that actually stick!

• Track Your Progression - Measuring your weight loss achievements will help identify areas where there is still room for improvement and allow you to fine tune your path to success. Take a before photo. While we know you won't love the first photo, you are going to be so glad that you did take it as you work towards your goals. Schedule non-food rewards for yourself. When you hit your milestones, plan a shopping trip, get your nails done, buy a new book - additional tangible rewards can help to solidify feelings of accomplishment and provide motivation to continue forward.

At MRC, we take weight loss seriously - but not too seriously! Weight loss is hard work, and you deserve to celebrate your success - and that means success of ALL sizes (large and small). When you get started on an MRC program, you can look forward to celebrating all of the big wins and the short-term goals, too!

• Milesone Moments! We don't just celebrate you when you reach your goal. We celebrate you at every 10 pounds lost, too! We take a photo at each one so you can see the difference and healthy changes your body makes at just 10, 20, 30, and more pounds down - you'll be amazed at how these seemingly little milestones add up to big wins!

• Prescritpion-free Zone! There are many conditions that are correlated with excess weight. Two of the most common are blood pressure and diabetes. It's not uncommon to go on prescription medication in an effort to healthily manage these conditions. It's also not uncommon to come off of these medications as you lose weight (if these conditions were a result of excess weight to begin with). When you do come off of your prescription medications, we're going to celebrate it!

• Inches Lost! Part of knowing how far you've come is knowing where you started. Weight loss isn't just about the number on the scale. Your body changes physically when you lose weight, too, and we help you track those physical changes by helping you measure and track inches lost!

• Lifesytle Wins! Our wellbeing revolves (unsuprisingly) around being well. There's so much happening outside of the scale and the mirror to look forward to and achieve. Think about the ways in which your life is changing as you work towards your goal outside of the scale. Maybe you can walk 2 miles instead of 1? Maybe you can keep up with your grandkids at the park easier? Maybe you choose to take the stairs to your office or apartment instead of the stairs? Maybe sitting on a bus or airplane is just a little more comfortable than it used to be? Think about these things as you notice them, and make a mental note of how good it feels to be at this place in your life. So one day or week when the number on the scale doesn't move quite as much as you thought it should, you can reflect back on all of the other many ways that your life is better (and continuing to get better) because of the progress you've already made!

Whether you're working towards achieving a resolution on your own or through a guided program like those provided through Metabolic Research Center, remember that you are worth of the success you seek. You are capable of great things! Just don't forget to track and see yourself through the little things first. You've got this! And if you're ready to get started on a weight loss or wellness program, but don't know where to start, click here to get connected to an MRC Team near you to learn more!