How to Stay Focused

One of the things that will help you to achieve and maintain your weight loss and fitness goal is to keep your focus in not only your daily life, but also through the unexpected things that tend to pop up.

Family issues arise, sometimes your duties at work increase, you get sick, on certain days you have less energy, your emotions fluctuate depending on what's going on in your life....the list goes on and on. It's at those times that the real challenge comes in.

Here is where you will have to rely on a few concrete tools that can help you keep your eye on the ball.

First off, you should already have a few things set in place to keep you in mind of what you're trying to achieve.
We already discussed keeping a food and exercise journal. Whether you're doing that or not, you can also use to do lists and reminder notes that you can keep in places that you're sure to see them often.
I like to carry a little notebook with me everywhere I go. I use this notebook not only to stay organized, but to write things in that keep me inspired and informed. Quotes, new exercises that I can try, maybe some info from an article that I read, a reminder to buy some new healthy food stuff that I read up on, etc. I also will write out a meal plan or two, and make lists of the things that I can snack on that are better than the Cheezits and Snapple iced tea that I crave when I'm in the mood for a snack, and goals that I have, fitness related and otherwise. Just keeping everything close to the front of my brain seems to help me out in my weaker moments.
If you have a day planner, you can also jot little notes in it to remind yourself to work out, or just a note to yourself saying "eat healthy today!", or any bit of something that can keep you in the right frame of mind. We read all this stuff on the net and in books about weight loss and fitness, but sometimes forget about it when we turn the computer off. Make it your business to keep good info right in your face when you need it.

Another thing that you can do that helps is to use your friends, spouses and family as allies in your journey.
Ask them to question and ride you a little bit about your workouts and your eating habits. I've been known to ask my friends "are you gonna work out today?", and my brother knows that I will pick on him and ride him like a bull if he tells me he ate six pork chops, or something crazy (which he actually did one day!) Having people around that check up on you from time to time can help keep you accountable and wanting to do good.

Most importantly, be sure that you're taking good care of yourself in all other areas, such as getting enough sleep, drinking plenty of water, and having someone to talk to when you're going through something that's making you angry, sad, depressed, feeling overwhelmed, etc. Use all the resources around you that you possibly can to get what you want, which in this case, is a strong, healthy body and life.

Keep up your efforts! Good things will be sure to come from it! ;)

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