Diet & Exercise Equipment

Written by Sky Taylor, Diet Bites

Are you ready to blow up your new exercise bike?

It's sitting there, like an Albatross around your neck.

That new exercise bike. The one that you either asked Santa for, or the one that you just purchased in order to achieve your New Year's weight loss resolution.

The First Encounter

It looked so pretty back then: new...comfy seat....nice tire...shiny...and....unridden.  That leather seat smelled so nice!  

Since the passing of that magic moment, you have spent hours, days, and weeks riding on that comfy seat that is beginning to take the shape of your sore little muscles, riding, riding, riding and imagining wondrous things!  

- "I'm going to be so thin!" AND "I'm going to be so healthy!" AND "I'm going to possibly be the next Jack LaLanne!" AND FINALLY "My mother-in-law will be so envious of my new shape!"

Diet & Exercise Equipment

And as your mind travels through this maze during your imaginary tour on your motionless exercise bike, you have envisioned soaring past great trees threaded with happy blackbirds, big blue ponds topped with downy ducks, and mobile ice cream carts containing cookie dough ice cream that you whizzed magically past!  

You have imagined weight loss success, meeting your final weight goal - BUT the only place that this stupid, and now rather blood-sucking, sweat-pulling object takes you is to the Land of Boredom.

Ah....the Land of Boredom.  It's a well-known fork on the old Weight Loss Trail.  Many are tempted, for generally a tempting goody is sitting on the fork that the dieter cannot resist! It's saying, "Get off that dull bike!  It's time to have fun again. Time to eat luscious goodies again! You are bored, and life is just too short for radishes and cucumber sandwiches!"

Oh my!  It's ten times worse than 'lions, and tigers, and bears'!  You see the fork, the dangling goody, the Trail of Boredom as it leers through the dusky eve, and you contemplate methods of destroying your once-beloved exercise bike.

Many dieters deter off the trail, sucked into an abyss of weight loss failure. It's sad.  Tragic even.

BUT - you're not going to let that happen!

STEP 1 - Recognizing the danger!

If this story is sounding a bit familiar to your flared ears, stop and take stock. You have worked very hard over the last few weeks - so don't blow it all away.  Keep your thoughts on track.

STEP 2 - Repelling the danger!

When thoughts of straying off your diet soar through your head, start addressing some very important questions.  Questions such as:

- What is really important to you?

- I've lost a bit of weight.  Do I feel better?  Do I look better?

- Am I happier?

- Has my diet made my eating habits healthier?

- Do I really want to stop my diet plan?  

- Do I really want to dodge those feelings of failure and guilt over quitting?  

Exercise Equipment for Weight Loss

New directives to thwart weight gain.

If you find yourself becoming bored with your fitness plans - devise a new game plan!  In order to be successful and meet your weight loss and fitness goals, you must keep the mix INTERESTING!

What Motivates You to Keep on Track With Weight Loss & Fitness?

Find out what motivates you to keep on track.  Some good examples: shopping for an outfit that is a size smaller; a diet food goody as a reward for success; sometimes simply weight loss in itself is enough to keep a person on their diet. Success motivates!

 If you can see yourself slipping into that thinner size - that's motivation!  If you lose weight, and reward yourself with a tasty goody, that's motivation!  It's something that you worked VERY HARD towards, and you achieved success!  And what does success do?

MOTIVATES!!!

Have you ever noticed a football team on a losing streak?  If the team is way down in points, they just about give up hope of winning. They quit trying.  

It is very hard to get motivated. YET, we've all seen teams make a dramatic comeback - against all odds.  

Like the football team, we think there's not a chance of winning - and something magical happens!  We win!

So YES, dieting can be like that.  We get locked into boredom, or inside a weight loss plateau and sometimes we give up.  

Having this knowledge will help you stay on track!  This is a good thing to know!  

When you reach these moments, remind yourself of this.  It will help you stay on track.

Addressing Your Eating Plan

If your daily menus are boring, you are going to be more apt to fall off the diet wagon. Salads, sandwiches, low calorie soups, popcorn cakes, boiled veggies - yes, they are all wondrous diet array!  

But you can only eat so many carrot sticks, and so many rice cakes. So when/if you become bored with your menus, STOP, LOOK, LISTEN.

Think things out BEFORE you become famished.  Plan your meals in advance, and put a little bit of oomph into your dining.

Fitness Isn't Temporary, It's a Life Long Process

Diets come and diets go. The truly successful dieter realizes that 'a diet' isn't a temporary thing. It's a life-long process.

Strengthen your willpower! Stay the course! Stay motivated! Stay on track! You can do this!

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