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What Motivation Do You Need to Get Healthier?


 Posted by Susan Bowerman, M.S., RD, CSSD, CSOWM, FAND – Senior Director, Worldwide Nutrition Education and Training  0 Comment

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People have different reasons for wanting to shape up. Finding the motivation you need can help you stay on track.

There’s no doubt about it, change is hard. I frequently tell my clients that my job is much easier than theirs. My role is to advise them on how to eat better, while they’ve got the more difficult task of having to actually do it. But my job doesn’t stop at simply handing out advice: I also try to help people find the motivation to help them make the changes they need. The reasons are all over the map. For some, just the goal of getting healthier is all it takes to kick-start the process. On the other hand, that probably won’t motivate those who tell me (and I’ve heard this more times than I can count), “I’m perfectly healthy, I’m just fat.” 

What’s Your Motivation?

blog_may3Whether you’re trying to lose weight, add muscle, shape up or just want to eat healthier, you’ll probably be more successful if you can figure out what’s driving you to do it in the first place. Everybody is different, there’s no right or wrong reason. Most people focus on the positive, like, “I want to have the energy to keep up with my kids” or “I want to look better in (or out of) my clothes.” Others take the opposite approach and focus on moving away from the negative, like, “I don’t want to avoid the mirror any more” or “I don’t want to feel so tired all the time.” Sometimes, unfortunately, it takes a health scare before people ‘wake up and smell the coffee.’ But it can drive people to make incredible strides towards better health. And, as the saying goes, better late than never.

Some people have specific goals that motivate them, like wanting to look good at an upcoming wedding or reunion, or being able to fit into their favorite jeans. One client of mine had a very specific goal. She wanted to be able to just hop into the driver’s seat of her car, rather than having to first move the seat all the way back in order to accommodate her enormous belly before climbing in.

How Does It Feel?

You might get motivated by thinking about how good you’ll feel as you get healthier and fit. How terrific would it be to have more energy, to feel more flexible and strong, or to look great in some new clothes? If ‘avoiding the negative’ is what gets you going, then it might help you to think about how you’ll feel if you don’t take action.

When you feel your motivation waning—which happens to mostly everyone—remind yourself why you embarked on this makeover in the first place. Keep your focus on your feats rather than your failures. Try paying less attention to what the scale says, and give yourself a pat on the back for all the behaviors you’ve changed. After all, the positive changes you make in your diet and lifestyle are really what drive you towards your goal. The fact that you also get healthier and fit is just “icing on the cake.”

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Susan Bowerman, M.S., RD, CSSD, CSOWM, FAND – Senior Director, Worldwide Nutrition Education and Training
Susan is the Senior Director of Worldwide Nutrition Education and Training at Herbalife, where she is responsible for the development of nutrition education and training materials, and is one of the primary authors of the Herbalife-sponsored blog, www.discovergoodnutrition.com. She is a Registered Dietitian and holds two Board Certifications from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics as a Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics, and a Certified Specialist in Obesity and Weight Management. Susan is also a Fellow of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Susan graduated with distinction in biology from the University of Colorado, and received her master’s degree in Food Science and Nutrition from Colorado State University. She then completed her dietetic internship at the University of Kansas. Susan has taught extensively and developed educational programs targeted to individuals, groups and industry in her areas of expertise, including health promotion, weight management and sports nutrition. Prior to her role at Herbalife, she was the assistant director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition, and has held appointments as adjunct professor in nutrition at Pepperdine University and as lecturer in nutrition in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Susan was a consultant to the (then) Los Angeles Raiders for six seasons, and was a contributing columnist for the Los Angeles Times Health Section for two years. She is a co-author of 23 research papers, 14 book chapters, and was a co-author of two books for the public: “What Color is Your Diet?” and “The L.A. Shape Diet” by Dr. David Heber, published by Harper Collins in 2001 and 2004, respectively.


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