Morning
Often, a person who wishes to lose weight doesn’t have just the physical challenge of having to shed some pounds but a mental challenge as well.
Most diet plans disregard the emotional challenge a person might face while trying to shed weight.
This is a mistake as your mental state can often dictate whether you manage to lose weight and keep it off or not.
Fllowing a diet plan is never a smooth process, you need to to be motivated at all times. One excellent way to do this is with an accountability buddy.
Having such a buddy can prove to be a great way for you to stick to your program for as long as it takes, for you to shed all your excess weight and to create new and healthier habits for the rest of your life.
What is an Accountability Buddy
An accountability buddy should be a person who is close to you, a friend, family member, or fellow class member. You need to be able to have some trust with your buddy and to confide in them, because you’re going to be sharing a lot with them.
Basically, your buddy helps to keep you accountable and to achieve your short and long term weight loss goals.
This is how an accountability buddy helps you lose weight and keep it off:
1. You decide on action steps that you need to take in order to achieve your goals. These may include exercise, sleep time, lifestyle changes, and eating habits. For instance, you may decide that you won’t be eating more than 1 small piece of chocolate each day or you may decide that during a single day, you need to do 30 minutes of running outdoors.
2. Email or text your buddy all the action steps that you need to take for the day. This has to become a routine and you need your buddy to be ready for this regular contact.
3. At the end of the day, you email or text your buddy with the things that you did and the things that you didn’t. You have to be honest with yourself and with them. If you’re prepared to lie to this person who has accepted your request to help you lose body fat and improve your life, than this won’t work.
4. Each time you do not do the things you told your buddy that you would, you have to pay them a fine. Say, £5 that you just give your buddy in cash. You don’t get rebates and you don’t get the money back no matter how good you are the following day. That money is gone.
The reason why this works is that the fear of losing money is so strong for most people that the commitment to sticking to your workout and diet plan becomes much stronger. And £5 per infraction is not too much as it won’t impoverish you, but it’s not too little to hurt. You will not want to give up those £5, even if your accountability buddy goes and gives them to charity.
The power of negative rewards
Research has shown that people are motivated more strongly by the fear of loss than by the prospect of gain. For instance, you will work much harder to avoid losing £5 than you would to gain £10. There’s something about losing what you already have that is much more powerful than trying to gain something you don’t. Don’t ask me why that is. I’m not a psychologist. This is just how it is.
If you want to motivate yourself to stick to your plan, a negative reward system with an accountability buddy can prove to be very powerful indeed.
I believe that using money is the way to go. Losing money is something that hurts us all so this threat is a powerful motivator. It may seem like something strange that may not be right for you. However, I urge you to give it a try first and see how you do before discounting this.
In conclusion
I believe that an accountability buddy can prove to be a powerful way to boost your motivation and to stick to any diet or workout plan. It has to be someone you trust and feel that you can speak freely with. Using such a buddy works in other areas of life and not just weight loss. Try it and you’ll see how well it works.
Goal Setting/ Accountability seminar
Next Wednesday 3rd April, I will be doing a small seminar at the end of the Boxercise session, starting just before 7pm. I will go over a 90 day action plan, breaking it down in to 60 and 30 days. The basics of a diet plan, the role of insulin and working with an accountability buddy ( me or someone in class ). If you would like to attend this, then please let me know
Paul 🙂
07887868872
www.liverpoolpersonaltrainer.com
