If you’ve ever been “the fat kid” somewhere you probably know exactly what I’m talking about. In the fourth grade, I was the “fat quiet girl” that it seemed like nobody wanted to be friends with. I kept telling myself “looks aren’t important” and while of course I fully understand that to be true now – back then it was devastating. I was teased relentlessly all the way through fourth grade until high school.

We get all sorts of negative comments and looks – and while some people might in a sick twisted way think that will help someone who is overweight, it usually only achieves hurt and resentment.

Negative People are the kinds of people who don’t do you any good when you are trying to overcome an obstacle or reach a goal. They’re the ones who say “I don’t even know why you bother with that low-fat crap” or sarcastically snide “YOU workout?”

I wished for a long time that I could be one of those people with a snappy comeback. Unfortunately, I’m just not that good at thinking on my feet. I’m one of those types who hours later will think to myself, darn it, I should have replied [insert snappy comeback line here].

Instead, I’ve learned a few other ways to deal with negativity in my life, and thought I’d share a few of those here with you.

Walk Away: So much easier said than done, sometimes ignoring it is the easiest solution. This one works especially well for those you don’t need to see or deal with on a constant basis, such as the sneering stranger who gives you dirty looks.

Ask Them to be Supportive: Sometimes people are just completely ignorant that what they are saying could be hurtful. If you are surrounded by negative family members that you’re stuck with, this could be a good option to try and help the situation. Often though if you explain what they are saying is making it worse and give them some suggestions on what will make everything better then you might just find it could make a difference.

Be Positive: When life hands you lemons? Make lemonade, right? Every problem has the ability to become an opportunity. To a caveman, having no light was a problem – but such a wonderful opportunity to create fire. When a negative thought enters your heard or someone says something negative to you about your weight or your goals, try to rephrase it positively.

Get Out and Exercise: I don’t know about you, but one of the best things I can do when I am angry is have a “work it all out”. That’s the equivalent to a workout, except while you’re exercising you’re also burning off that negativity. Put on some angry music or join a kickboxing class. Turn that negative energy into a way to burn calories!

It’s frustrating when people say and do hurtful things, especially when we are working so hard to change ourselves. I hope my tips above will help you with this hurdle in the battle to lose weight – and if you have any tips for overcoming negativity I’d love to hear your thoughts & suggestions in the comments below.

Here are some of our favorite quotes about dieting, exercise, and staying motivated to lose weight:

“Unless You Puke, Faint or Die, Keep Going!” – Jillian Michaels

“You must begin to think of yourself as becoming the person you want to be.” -David Viscott

“The difference between try and triumph is just a little umph!” – Marvin Phillips

“Kites rise highest against the wind; not with it.” – Sir Winston Churchill

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it.” – Robertson Davies

“It is better to wear out than to rust out.” – Richard Cumberland

“Obstacles are those things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.” -Hannah Moore

“The one way to get thin is to re-establish a purpose in life.” -Cyril Connolly

“There are only 2 choices; make progress or make excuses.” – Ellen Mikesell

“You only ever grow as a human being if you’re outside your comfort zone.” – Percy Cerutty

“Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” – Beverly Sills

“Only he who can see the invisible can do the impossible.” – Frank L. Gaines

“The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.” – Oprah Winfrey

“First you fuel the desire, then the desire will fuel you.” – Napoleon Hill

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Louis Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

“There is no failure in running, or in life, as long as you keep moving. It is not about speed or gold medals. It is about refusing to be stopped.” -Ambry Burfoot

“If you haven’t got the time to do it right, when will you find the time to do it over?” – Jeffery J. Mayer

“If you shoot for the stars and hit the moon, it’s OK. But you’ve got to shoot for something. A lot of people don’t even shoot.” – Robert Townsend

“If you want your life to be a magnificent story, then begin by realizing that you are the author and everyday you have the opportunity to write a new page” – Mark Houlahan

“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” – Margaret Thatcher

“When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.” — Charles A Beard

Do you have any favorite weight loss motivational quotes for fitness and exercising? What helps you stay motivated? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Finding the motivation to lose weight is probably the hardest thing to do. We are creatures of habit – we get used to our routines and our bad eating habits and it’s very difficult to break these habits. Losing weight is not about swallowing some magic diet pill or eating “super food”…it’s about changing your lifestyle. You’re not just dieting to lose weight for a couple of weeks – you’re doing this I hope because you want to be healthy and feeling good about yourself for life. Changing is difficult for all of us – and for many of us fighting to change can be a lifelong struggle without the right support and resources.

If you’re just starting to think about losing weight or maybe you tried losing weight for a little while and gave up, these 5 things you need for weight loss motivation might be helpful to get you off to a good start. It is never too late to start – even if you’ve stopped or fallen down a few times.

1. A Reason Why: There’s countless reasons why your doctor or the news and medical journals will say you should lose weight. I could list probably 10-15 reasons right off the top of my head. But none of the reasons matter unless it’s the reason why YOU want to lose weight. It’s not enough to just want to be skinnier or healthier. You need to be specific and be able to visualize that reason. Do you want to be able to fit into a certain size clothes? Do you want to be able to walk up a flight of stairs without losing your breath? Do you have kids or grand kids you want to be healthy for and be able to chase around? Your own personal reasons are going to be the biggest motivator that makes the difference between saying “Aw, I’ll workout tomorrow” or “I am going to drag myself out to exercise for 30 minutes today even if I am exhausted from working all day.” Your reasons why will make the difference between eating apple slices with no sugar added peanut butter and a huge slice of ooey-gooey-double chocolate fudge cake for a snack.

2. A Schedule: Let’s face it: Most of us have pretty busy lives. Whether you’ve got kids or a job or really anything else, it’s pretty easy to procrastinate or push off working out or eating healthy. If you’re one of those people who say “I don’t have time for breakfast” or “There’s no time to workout” or “I’m lucky if I have time to take a shower!” then you need a schedule. Take some time and make a plan of what time you will eat, what times you will exercise, etc. Not only will this help you change your routine, but it will also make a difference in how organized your life is and reduce stress as well. Treat eating right and exercising as important as any other appointment or meeting scheduled in your planner – it is.

3. Support: It’s not easy to do anything alone. Someone once said to me “You’re not the only one – you just think you are.” It’s a good saying to remember, because any time you feel hopeless or like you can’t do something or that nobody understands – it’s usually not the case. You can hopefully find support through family and friends, but if not there are great sites like meetup.org that can help you meet some like minded people near you or you can always join a group fitness class or other activities near you. Having someone who can cheer you on and help you reach your goals together with makes a huge difference.

4. Confidence: When you are overweight, it’s easy to feel a lack of confidence in yourself and your abilities. Maybe others have mistreated you or judged you because of your weight – maybe you have failed at diet after diet that you think you are the failure, not the diet. Whatever the reason is, you have to get that confidence back. Being able to say “I can do this” to yourself over and over again will make it much easier to stay motivated and on task than saying “I can’t do this.” Start off slow – you don’t need to run a marathon. Start off just by moving the different parts of your body. Raise your arms up in the air. Kick your legs. Walk for 5 minutes. Then the next day do just a little bit more. You want to keep pushing yourself – and each time you succeed at the small stuff you will start feeling more and more confident to continue making progress.

5. Progress Tracking: Making progress isn’t going to be evident in the first day or even the first few weeks. But if you keep working at it you will see progress and you will be amazed at how much you’ve accomplished. Our free printable exercise log will help you keep track of the progress you’ve made and gives some tips on using it to help you stay motivated. Rewarding yourself for every accomplishment is important – even if it is a small accomplishment. Maybe you went one entire day going sugar free – you could reward yourself with a relaxing bubble bath. The rewards or the accomplishments don’t have to be big – but by seeing the little changes you’ve made will help you stay focused on making the bigger ones.

If you want to lose weight, and you have all of the things listed above in combination with eating right and exercising, you WILL see results. Remember that nobody is perfect, and of course you will likely slip up a few times here and there. But don’t let that be what it takes to stop you – keep moving forward and before you know it you will look back at where you were and how far you’ve come along.

How are you doing with losing weight? Do you struggle with motivation? Need some help? Feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this post or email me and let me know how it’s going for you!

Here are a few of our favorite weight loss quotes:

It doesn’t happen all at once … You become.  It takes a long time.
Margery Williams

Set your goals high and don’t stop until you get there.
Bo Jackson

Fall seven times, stand up eight.
Japanese proverb

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.
Jim Ryun

The rest of the world lives to eat, while I eat to live.
Socrates

Never, never, never quit.
Winston Churchill

We are what we think.
Buddha

Great works are performed, not by strength, but perseverance
Samuel Johnson

I hope you enjoyed these motivating quotes for fitness and weight loss. Do you have any favorite weight loss motivation quotes to share? Feel free to leave them in the comments below.

When you cheat on your diet, it’s very important to bounce back. Making one small mistake does not mean you need to give up eating healthy for good. It means that the next time you need to try a little harder to avoid temptation.

If you do cheat on your diet, here are some tips for bouncing back after cheating on your diet:

1. Exercise: While exercising isn’t going to directly make you lose weight from what you ate, it will make you feel better and give you the motivation to start eating healthy again.

2. Don’t stockpile on anything: Having a cupboard full of “emergency” sweets and treats is not a good idea. Get rid of anything in your house that you shouldn’t eat – donate it to a charity or give to a friend.

3. Pledge the next day you will be more careful: Making a mistake today doesn’t mean you need to repeat that same dieting mistake tomorrow. Watch it more carefully the next day to make sure you don’t make the same dieting mistake again.

To me though, this seems like a very unproductive way to measure weight loss success. For one, our bodies weight can vary by the clothes we are wearing to how much water we drank to even the time of day we weigh ourselves. For second, weight does not always equate being skinny. You might be trading flab for muscles, which would make you leaner but not necessarily weigh less. Lastly, weighing yourself on a scale is a big way to lose weight loss motivation, especially if you’ve only lost a half pound after two weeks of solid diet and exercise.

For me, the proof of weight loss success is in the pants. Before I started dieting, I weighed around 180 lbs and I had to “squeeze” in a pair of size 18 jeans. After two or three weeks of dieting and exercise I was no longer squeezing in them, but they were comfortable and actually starting to feel baggy. It wasn’t before long I tried to fit in smaller sized pants and I was so excited that my old pants fit again!

Now I’m down to a size 11. I have no idea what I weigh.

The point is when measuring weight loss success is to stop caring about that scale. You don’t need it, and it doesn’t need you. Being able to fit into a smaller size and feeling your clothes become loose fitting is far more motivating than fretting over a half pound here and a few pounds there.

If you’ve become a scale watcher, I want you to take your scale and hide it away for a few months while you’re losing weight. Instead, keep trying to fit into those smaller sized pants. It’s the motivation that worked for me (I was NOT going to buy more pants in a bigger size!) and it might just work for you too.

You may not know where to start to get motivated. You may have the desire to lose weight, but unless you’ve really defined what it will take to get you motivated to start dieting and exercising, you may start without sticking to it. It might seem like a giant obstacle to get to where you want to be. Weight loss motivation needs to be predominant during your entire diet – you cannot start one week full blast and then the next week give up!

To find weight loss motivation, it helps to ask yourself this important question:

WHY do you want to lose weight?

Do you want to look better? Feel better? Have more fun? Do things you can’t do now? Live longer? Attract a partner? Do you want more energy? Less stress? Be healthier? Wear a certain size? Make a list of 5 reasons you want to lose weight. This list will help you remember the motivation behind all of your weight loss efforts. Identifying why you want to lose weight will help you target which goals you want to set and how you will achieve them.

The next step to finding weight loss motivation involves adjusting your attitude. When it comes to dieting and losing weight, it’s easy to become discouraged or feel negative thoughts about your ability to suceed and your overall body image. A poor attitude can be devastating to your weight loss motivation, so it’s important you do what is necessary.

While adjusting your attitude to a “Yes I Can!” mentality and banishing negative thoughts is difficult, there are some tips to help you brighten your attitude and help you stay motivated to lose weight.

Here are some tips on developing a positive attitude for weight loss motivation:

Read Inspirational Quotes Every Day: As I continue to develop this website, I hope to soon offer inspirational quotes by email to my readers. Until then, there are millions of sites offering motivational quotes. Positive and uplifting stories or quotes can instantly be a refreshing day brightener to help you stay motivated during your weight loss journey. Our list of motivating quotes for fitness and weight loss may be of help.

Get Excited: Repeat to yourself: If I act enthusiatic then I’ll BE enthusiastic! Say it to yourself as many times as you have to before you start to believe it. Stir up some excitement however you can. Visualize how you’ll feel once you reach your goals and how excited you will be to have reached them.

Go Public: Sometimes having an audience can help you feel more determined to reach your goal. Consider starting a daily weight loss blog or telling your coworkers, friends, and family about your goal. Knowing that someone else is watching and that you have their support will help you stay on task, even if you don’t always feel like it.

Reach Out for Support: Online forums can be a great way to meet like-minded people and support. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the website MyLot where not only are there a ton of nice people to relate to, but they pay you to post there as well! If you click on this link you’ll automatically be added to my friends list, so be sure you introduce yourself!

Start Realistically: Ever hear the phrase “Rome wasn’t built in a day?” Don’t expect to lose weight over night or even in a couple of days or weeks. Having too high of expectations can set you back in finding weight loss motivation! Instead, start small, with simple goals. Maybe you’ll take the stairs instead of the elevator a few times before you start working out for 10 minutes a day. Eventually you’ll be able to work yourself into finding the weight loss motivated to exercise 30 minutes a day.

Replace Negative Thoughts With Positive Ones: A negative thought would be “I can’t lose weight.” To turn it into a positive thought, think “I’m going to try harder to lose weight.” Try to catch those negative thoughts in action and then quickly ask yourself how you can turn it around into a positive one.

Once you define the reasons you want to achieve your goal of weight loss and practice the tips of developing a positive attitude, you’ll find weight loss motivation will come easier than you expected. Doing the weight loss motivation tips we’ve covered here can greatly help you stay focused and mindful of becoming healthier and sticking to your diet.

Have any tips for weight loss motivation? Share them in the comments below!