External Motivation & The Fatloss Plateau

Most of us who set out to burn fat, lose weight, and get fit start out by setting fitness goals driven by extrinsic motivation. You want your weight or bodyfat or cholesterol at a certain number because of external reasons; an upcoming event, your doctor, your exhusband's new wife, or bikini season. Your workouts and your eating (your behavior) are driven by the goal (the reward).

Your behavior is a means to an end and initially this is a great way to get going but what happens over time when you no longer get the reward? You step on the scale and you haven't lose any more weight, you check your body fat or cholesterol and and you've reached your goal, or you lose the weight and finally feel good about yourself next time you run into your ex and his new wife.

All your actions up until this point have been motivated by that external motivation and once you have the reward your mind no longer sees a reason for the behavior to continue so the behavior stops and like most people you end up where your started or worst you gain even more weight back.

The reason this happens is the behavior itself was only a means to an end and never truly the reward. When you workout to look good you never learn to see the workout as the reward and if you really stop to think about it you probably weren't even present during the process. You were just going through the motions focusing on getting to the end vs. enjoying the journey.

This is one of the primary reasons why so many people fail to "stick to an exercise plan" long term. Some of my closest friends and relatives operate this way and they are never able to continue with their exercise plan or their healthy eating no matter how hard they try.

So how do you shift your fitness goals so they are driven by both external and internal motivation? Learn how to workout for the love of working out. This may sound foreign to you but plenty of people make this shift in mindset and soon find that exercise is 100 times more enjoyable than it ever was and this leads to consistency which is what keeps you lean for life. Here's how to get started.

1. Learn about a new type of exercise that you've always been curious about for no other reason than to learn about it.

2. Get in touch with how exercise affects your organs and your brain instead of just learning about an exercise because it will provide a six pack.

3. Be present during your workout and focus on what is going on inside the body and how it feels to be able to do what you are doing.

The more in touch you are with how rewarding the act of working out can be mentally, physically, and emotionally the more likely you will be to continue the behavior if you have a setback or once you do reach your goal (get the reward). And being internally driven is what will keep you fit and lean for life.