Target Weight Loss Dates: How They Are Used For Motivational Purposes

Anyone that has ever attempted to lose a couple of pounds will know that it is a real challenge at the best of times. Very few people manage to do so when they first try, although it is often easier to succeed later on because you have more experience. One of the best things you can do is to use target dates to motivate yourself to succeed.

So in other words you want to pick a date in the next few months that is very important to you. It is now January at the time of writing, so Valentine's Day could be a great target date if you're planning something special with a loved one. This is because you will obviously want to look your very best on this very important day.

You could also pick your birthday for this target date, or it could be a day that has some kind of significance, for example it could be the day that you got married. It doesn't really matter what day it is. The important point is that it should be important enough to make you want to hit your weight loss targets before this date.

When you have a date in mind, you can then start your weight loss journey. When you do so, you will generally find that you are a lot more motivated than you would be if you had no target day to aim for.

It acts as a natural motivational tool because you will often visualise what you might look like if you have successfully hit your target by this date. For instance you may see yourself wearing your favourite dress that no longer fits you on this particular day.

This alone should ensure that you do not entertain the thought of giving up at any time. You will hopefully have a great deal of motivation to do whatever it takes to achieve your goals in time for this big day.

What you do not want to do is have no targets whatsoever and just amble along from week to week hoping that you will lose a few pounds here and there. This kind of lazy approach will not get you anywhere, and I can pretty much guarantee that you will not lose a massive amount of weight as a result of not having any kind of plan or targets to aim for.

If you want to know what you have to do to lose weight before your target date, it is simple to work out. You just need to take the total number of pounds you need to lose, and divide it by the number of weeks that you have left before this date.

If you find that you need to lose no more than two or three pounds per week, then this is easily achievable. You just need to eat healthy foods, do plenty of exercise maybe four or five times a week, and possibly think about taking a diet supplement to help you along.

If you find that you need to lose more than this every week, then I'm afraid you are setting your sights too high. Trying to lose more than four or five pounds a week is very hard to do, unless you are really heavy to begin with. So you should either lower your sights slightly or postpone your target date to later on in the year.

Anyway the message I want to get across in this article is that setting myself a weight loss target date is often a very good idea, and will often motivate you to do whatever it takes in order to get in shape for this big day.