The biggest obstacle to losing weight is finding motivations to work out. Making a life change like losing weight is not something that will happen overnight. Generally, an overweight person will not wake up one day and start working out consistently. They need to have a constant supply of motivation to keep going when all they’d rather do is watch TV and eat a bowl of ice cream. Here are 5 ways to stay motivated and keep working out.

Set Short Term Goals

When we set a goal, we have something tangible to work toward. Couple that with the human drive to succeed and we can use that as a great motivator. Sure your ultimate goal is to lose 50 pounds, but why not set a lower goal and reward yourself for that in the mean time. Say, when you lose 10 pounds you’ll get yourself that new pair of shoes you’ve been wanting. This will play to your brain’s reward system and keep you looking forward to the next goal.

Set realistic Goals

Sure it would be nice to look like a model, but for most that is an unrealistic goal. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to push yourself, but you have to be careful that you don’t set yourself up for failure. If you set the goal too high and don’t reach it within your timeframe, you could get discouraged and give up all together. Instead, set a realistic goal and when you reach it, set a new goal.

Buy yourself an outfit for your new body

Think about your goal body. What size will you be wearing? Go out and buy yourself an outfit that size and hang it up where you will see it every day. Better yet, hang it in or near your kitchen so you’ll be reminded when you’re heading toward food. It might make you think twice about grabbing that bag of chips just because you’re bored. This can work for a man or a woman, it might just be a different type of outfit.

Pictures of your Family

Sometimes the greatest motivator can be family. Have family members, young kids are great for this, buy or make motivational picture frames and hang their picture on your refrigerator. Remind yourself why you are trying to lose weight.

Read fitness websites

There are lots of websites and blogs on the web that can help keep you going. Just surrounding yourself with others that are trying to exercise and lose weight can help keep you motivated. When you’re feeling low and out of energy, there will be someone around to help pump you up and get you excited again. At the same time, you might be the motivation someone else needs to keep going.

Continually finding motivations to work out can be a hard task at times. The five methods above should give you some ideas to get you started in the right direction. Just remind yourself what or who you are doing it for and your work outs will become something you look forward to.