This is an excerpt from an Elite Body interview with Fit Yummy Mummy creator Holly Rigsby about how to create and maintain motivation for fat loss.

Jim: You personally have shifted the way that you eat; the way that you look at things; how do you keep yourself motivated and how do others create motivation for fat loss?

Holly:    This is a great question and it’s so funny that you ask me this because I just held a coaching call last night for my Fit Yummy Mummies.  It was all about motivation because a lot of women are like “Ah how do I keep this motivation?  I’m so excited.  I don’t want it to go away.”
For them, I mentioned four strategies that they need to do up front right away when they begin to help their motivation; keep them going strong.  The number one step is absolutely goal setting.  You have to know what you want and most importantly why you want it.  Then of course put your goals in a place where you can see them on a daily basis so you keep focused.

The second strategy is daily affirmations.  Watch your . . . putting positive phrases and words in front of you and watching your self talk.  Women are notorious for beating themselves up and filling their minds with negative things.  It’s important to switch that around to a more positive outlook.

The third strategy is creating a vision board which is taking the goal setting to another step.  It’s actually a collage of your goals.  It’s a very fun project, but it really puts meaning into what you’re doing.  I told the ladies “Bring the belief you have in yourself to life by creating a vision board.”

Of course, recruit assistance and with my community – my Fit Yummy Mummy club – it’s all about staying connected and blogging and ask for help when you need it.  Because they have access to each and every one of the members, they can also read through the successes of others and feel inspired to be able to do the same.  Staying connected is very important.

For me to stay motivated, like I shared with them the healthy habits that I practice day in and day out are just that. They’re habits for me at this point because I’ve been practicing them for so long.  It just becomes something that I do.  I don’t really think twice about it.  Of course we associate habits with brushing your teeth.  You don’t think about it.  But unlike the mindless monotony of this habit, there are so many immediate rewards attached to the healthy habits of eating right and exercising.  I absolutely look forward to eating my supportive meals and I crave my workouts.

Yes, I’m human.  I have days where I have to talk myself into it; however, I stay motivated because I remind myself of how good I will soon feel.  I do it also by considering from the inside out.  I always focus on the positive outcomes physically and emotionally.

First and foremost my energy levels – I love the energy I get from my workouts and from my meals.  A lot of clients that I work with — one of their major obstacles is later in the afternoon when they feel they want to take a nap or they’re craving those high sugar processed carbs to give them a quick pick me up.
When if you – this is the coolest thing I’ve noticed since I’ve lived this healthy lifestyle is that I don’t have those any more.  Yes, my exercise plays a role in it, but it’s also because I’m choosing to eat different types of foods.  I don’t get that drop in energy in the second half of the day.  I’m more productive the second half of the day.

I also love how empowered I feel after I get my workout in.  It helps me to make better choices for the rest of the day.  I love how my mood has improved.  I love how I’m less stressed.  Improved mood and reduction in stress together these two outcomes are what allow me to truly enjoy the time I spend with my husband and my son.  That improves the quality of my relationships.  Physically it feels good to feel lean and toned.  Your posture changes.  You feel strong from the inside out.  This is what truly motivates me.

Jim:    That’s my favorite part of any of these calls is because you’re so congruent in the way that you’re saying it.  So many people are surrounded by people that maybe don’t have the health or body that they want and so they’re constantly hearing those beliefs and those perceptions.  To hear you describe it so congruently, we know you live it.  It’s so great for you to be explicit about it.

One of the things I’d like to point out is that because you didn’t bring out the physicality of it until the end.  Sometimes people go into it and they’re just focused on the weight.  They are focused on the size clothes.  They wonder why they can’t maintain the motivation.  The things you just described that really kind of jazz you up continuously are so much deeper than that it sounds like.

Holly:     That’s where the lasting power is.  People are like “How do you stay motivated?  Where do you get it from?”  This is where it is.  You can have this too.

Jim:    It sounds like it depends on how you look at it.  That goes hand in hand with what you started off with – those four steps.  That makes a lot of sense.  Again, anyone who is looking to jump into something and really get going with something, start by right off the bat doing something different.  Re-describe why you want to do it, not just the size clothes or the weight loss, but the emotional reasons; the energy levels and the things that are really going to affect the quality of your life.