Maintaining the motivation to lose weight commonly the most challenging aspect of losing weight. Most people have no problem starting a new diet or fitness program and getting all pumped up at the start. It’s actually sticking with long term goals over a period of months and years that most people find hard. If you’re tired of losing and gaining the same weight over and over, here are some sure-fire tips to consider to maintain your motivation to lose weight.

Know Your Numbers. The motivation to lose weight is not only about your pysical appearance and feeling better. It’s really about feeling that you are healthier inside! One tip for you to keep motivated is to visit your doctor and have a blood test just prior to you beggining your new diet. You can go back at regular intervals to observe changes in your blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, and other important numbers.

If you have been diagnosed with diabetes or another health challenge, simply coming off of your medications and having the knowledge that you have gotton rid of the health risk can be a great motivation.

Give Yourself Credit. You can maintain the motivation to lose weight by measuring your achievement of goals on a regular basis. You essentially want to give yourself praise for all of your hard work, and you can do that with things like a sticker in a notebook or a checkbook in your day planner. If you are handy with the computer you can even put together a chart that you update daily.

Team Up. If you can team up with a friend or family member who will hold you accountable, you could both reach your targets much faster and push through the challenging times. It’s more difficult to miss a workout when you know there’s someone else relying on you to show up.

You might even want to create friendly competition or set a prize that only one of you can win at regular intervals. If you have a competitive spirit this can be a great way to maintain the motivation to lose weight over a longer period of time.

Set Yourself Challenges. Alternatively, you can sustain your motivation to lose weight by continually challenging yourself. Sign up for a 5K run (even if you have to walk it) every month or so and challenge yourself to improve your time.

Rewards. Setting rewards to be enjoyed at regular intervals will help you keep your eyes on the prize. Having only one reward at the end once you’ve achieved your ultimate weight loss goal won’t be very effective since it is so far off, but smaller rewards set every 5 or 10 pounds will deliver that motivation to lose weight.

Have A Strong Set Of Reasons For Doing It. It’s easy to say you want to drop 40 pounds so you look hot in your bikini, but what are the deeper reasons you want to lose weight? Take some time to write down a very detailed list that includes all of the reasons why you want to lose weight. Stick it up around your home or keep it in your purse so you can read through it whenever you’re lacking motivation.

Now, take some time to turn this around on yourself. Make a list of all the things that could happen in the future if you don’t take action to lose weight. Which list do you want to be living in the next 5 years?

Consider your own personality quirks to come up with more unique ways to create the motivation to lose weight.