
I Promise You Can Lose 100 Pounds-Weight Loss Motivation Is Not the Only Tool to Lose Weight
I Promise You Can Lose 100 Pounds-Weight Loss Motivation Is Not the Only Tool to Lose Weight
On my weight loss journey, the weight loss motivation ran out about week 2.
I still lost 120 pounds, and I have been maintaining it for almost 6 years.
Sound Impossible?
I totally understand! It took me until I was 42 to figure it out. I spent a lifetime trying to lose and maintain 100 pound weight loss.
I lost 100 pounds the first time at 21 after being punchline in a very cruel joke.
My friend and I used to go to the NCO club to learn to country dance and play pool.
I learned to two step and three step… one of the best times of my life.
UNTIL…
I had a crush on one of the guys there. His friends found out and dared him to make friendly with the fat girl.
Let’s just say I found out after I kissed the boy… (Yes there’s a country song there…)
I used the anger and shame from that scenario to power through a 100 pound weight loss in the record time of 4 months.
Talk about MOTIVATED! But it was not a healthy motivation and I will-powered my way through it… the weight came back!
I did this for a different reason at 31, but at 42 I knew I NEEDED to lose weight and I knew I needed tools besides weight loss motivation and Will-Power so it would be the last time, not just another time….
Don't Know Where to Start Creating a Simply Healthy Lifestyle?
If you're new here, and you don’t know where to start on your journey? I lost 120 lbs and I have kept it off for almost 8 years. Check out the following posts to get you started.
- Switch Your Focus To Become The Healthy Person You Want To Be
- Ditch the Fear of Getting Started and Get Healthy
- Start Using a Printable Habit Tracker to See Quick Success
- Using Non-Scale Goals to Create a Healthy Diet for Weight Loss
- 3 Weight Loss Tips I Used to lose 100 pounds
And while you're here ya should definitely grab guide to get started creating some basic habits, the pre work no one talks about to creating a Simply Healthy Lifestyle.
Why We Think We Need Weight Loss Motivation
We think we need motivation because we have been trained to believe that weight loss is 100% about eat less and move more until we hit our goal weight.
AND this just SUCKS!
This implies, we give up everything we enjoy and focus on that goal number.
But what happens when food is our companion, or food is what we use to make us feel better for a variety of reasons?
Well, this is when we go off the rails… and no amount of motivation is going to help us, unless of course we are 100 % focused on that number and our motivator is something big, like being the brunt of a cruel dare.
Let me just say, it’s not healthy to focus on that kind of anger and shame to lose any kind of weight, and it usually backfires because we end up hating on ourselves.
So let’s circle back, if weight loss isn’t all about eat less and move more and staying motivated to do these two things… What the heck is it about?
In reality weight loss when you have 100 or more pounds to lose is more about the daily habits we have and how we use food in our lives.
STOP STRESS EATING WITH HABITS
The Downfall to Relying on Weight Loss Motivation
Motivation is not a consistent flow, it’s more like a faucet where the flow is turned on and off by what’s going on around us.
Motivation is usually high in the beginning…. that beginning can be the start of the year (New Year’s Resolutions), the start of the month, week or day.
But it’s not going to stay consistent, and that is normal!
You are not broken or lazy because your motivation dies out over time!
There is an entire course on the psychology of motivation, and it’s an entire field of study. The course bored the crap out of me. LOL
But it did help me as I worked on my weight loss the 3rd time and I realized motivation wasn’t going to keep me going the whole time.
So the big downfall to relying on motivation is the fact that it’s naturally going to ebb and flow.
TRACK YOUR WAY TO HEALTHY BY CREATING HABITS
Where We Want to Rely on Weight Loss Motivation
So I have been really down playing motivation… but there are times we want to rely on it
Motivation is a tool to help us get started. So yes we do need it, but the trick is using it as a springboard to bigger and better things.
The third and final time I lost 100+ pounds, I used my initial motivation to map out a plan for myself….
Guess what?
There wasn’t a list of foods I couldn’t eat, or a workout plan insight when I did this.
I focused on the small daily tasks that I could do that would help me get healthy.
Weight loss was my goal, but I knew if I focused on the number on that stupid scale it would send me into a tailspin.
A side note, I weighed daily through my weight loss and I still weight daily. But I use it as one metric of how I’m doing. It does not define me as a person.
I created my own plan based on daily actions including, more water, getting rid of all the processed food I was eating and trying to move a little more.
The movement was not a big focus until much later because moving hurt really bad when I started. But I did walk a lap around my house for each trip to the bathroom. And I didn’t ask my kids to get me stuff, I focused on getting up and getting it myself. This was a lot for me in the beginning.
So motivation is the initial stepping stone so we create healthy habits to rely on. These habits are the starting point to permanent weight loss.
Let’s Close This Out…
I hear so often I’m just not motivated, or I lost my motivation and regained all my weight.
This is a major downfall to relying on motivation to lose 100 pounds. Or really any weight at all.
Motivation isn’t going to flow like a river, it’s more like the rain, it comes and goes.
The goal is to use the motivation peaks to create small daily habits that we do that will lead to weight loss. Habits are automatic, and they will support you when the motivation is gone.

Coach Michelle
Ace Certified Health Coach, Precision Nutrition PN1 Coach, Fit Chicks Certified Fitness, Nutrition & Wellness Expert
Hey You Amazing Lady!
Let me help you reach your healthy lifestyle goals. I've lost 120 pounds and maintained it for 8 years, and helped countless others reach their goal too. I'm an ACE Certified Health Coach, a certified Precision Nutrition Level 1 Coach and a Certified Wellness, Nutrition and Fitness Coach for people who want to reach ONEderland (below 199 on the scale) and stay there, I coach you and give you the tools to change your nutrition and movement habits and change you life forever.
Through my passionate and open hearted Online Wellness classes, Digital products, and a Simply Healthy Accountability membership. I'm here to inspire you to change your approach to weight loss and wellness—while making it all feel like a natural part of who you are.
And when I'm not coaching you can find me walking with my teens, hanging with my hubby, or playing with my dogs (all four of them).