No motivation? These tips will change your attitude forever (Free EBook)

Achieving goals like weight loss, muscle building, or more body definition is like climbing a steep mountain. Before you can begin climbing, you must recognize what your goal is— it would be silly to run up a mountain when your goal is somewhere in the valley. To determine your route, you must first define your end goal and, if possible, define the smaller milestones in between. Your goal may seem unattainable at first, but, with patience, it is achievable. Sometimes your journey goes uphill, sometimes downhill, and sometimes you must face unpredictable obstacles on the way or even change your route. It can be long and difficult, but it also makes you stronger. Of course, you can risk climbing the mountain alone, but a guide can help you on your quest. With the Upfit Motivation Guide, we give you smart methods and tips that will lead you to the highest mountain peaks.

You want to change your diet and get fit, but every time you’ve tried before you’ve always failed? We’d like to accompany you on your journey and help you to reach your goal by providing you with knowledge, tips, and above all the necessary motivation to succeed. The very fact that you are reading this guide is a good sign. It shows that your shoes are laced, and you’re ready to start your expedition.

In preparing this guide, we asked ourselves the 3 most important questions:

1. Why do most diet changes fail?
2. What can be done to prevent failure?
3. What happens after you reach your goal?

1. Step 1 is defining your goal. We will explain to you below how to define your goal according to a few simple rules. If you skip this step, you will be disoriented, because your goal defines your route. For example, would you like to change your diet to lose weight and feel healthier? Perfect, Step 1 is of prime importance to you so that you can actually get motivated to “get started”,set your goal, and make your initial plans.
2. Step 2 is “following through”. Our smart questionnaire and checklists will help you at the beginning and throughout your diet change to follow through with achieving your goal.
3. Step 3: Staying focused. We will show you how to master your focus and make sure that your achievements are sustainable after you complete your diet phase.

We recommend you read this guide carefully. As you read, ask yourself whether the suggestions resonate with you or not—because we are all different and thus motivated by different things. During your first reading, write down the things that motivate you or that you can easily integrate into your everyday life. In this phase, you’re compiling your “tool-kit”. We will also provide you with motivational sayings and affirmations. Do you like one affirmation in particular? Print it out and hang it in a place you see often, such as your fridge or desk. Read the affirmations often to learn them by heart. Positive affirmations are proven to mitigate the effects of negative thinking and improve your sense of wellbeing.

You should also take a look at the tools listed here and test out at least one of them (e.g. the checklist, questionnaire, or “3 good things” method). Not only can they help you control and improve your behavior, but they can also help you feel better every day. After all, having the right equipment is key to a successful mountain expedition.

Tips: Get a notebook to write down your experiences. How did you feel physically and mentally during the day or the week? Did you make mistakes and feel bad about them? What achievements do you feel good about? You can also include helpful details about your diet, such as what and how much you ate and how it made you feel afterward. Just put in everything regarding your diet, health, and mental state that could help you to control your path and reach your goal.

You don’t have the time or desire to read this whole guide? Then jump directly to the checklist; it summarizes the key messages in this guide.

Before you can tackle your goal, you must choose a suitable strategy. It sounds simple, but it’s not. The seemingly endless supply of nutrition programs, concepts, and guidebooks do not offer clear solutions to individual problems but rather spread more uncertainty.

The overwhelming amount of nutritional information in the media—often characterized by contradictions in messages, such as “carbs in the evening make you fat” or “fat makes you fat”— leads to “consumer confusion”. This is problematic because this confusion makes it difficult for many people to choose the “right” nutrition program—many people get so overwhelmed by the oversupply of information that they lose their motivation entirely and give up all together.

Mountains can be climbed from many different sides, but with smart planning, you can find the easiest route for you. How do you know which way is the “right way”? Quite simple: find out which health goals are important to you, set priorities, and search for a nutritional concept that can be easily integrated into your everyday life. A good first step is to determine your BMI and optimal nutrient distribution here. The best nutrition programs will do a lot of the work for you and don’t require you to make compromises. Choose a program that will take into account your personal preferences and individual needs. It is proven that people have much higher success rates with individual meal plans that are easy to integrate into their everyday lives than with cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all nutrition plans off the shelf.

You prefer a certain diet? You have food intolerances? You work and don’t have time to cook or don’t like certain foods? Upfit’s tailor-made meal plans adapt to all of your needs and save you time, planning, and work—so you can focus on your mountain climb.

Once you have decided on a suitable path, 3 steps will affect how—and if— you achieve your personal goal:

• Step 1: Getting started
• Step 2: Following through
• Step 3: Staying focused

Each one of these steps is so important that they each earned their own chapters in our guide. They all have one thing in common: self-motivation. Self-motivation is the strongest driving force when it comes to achieving goals. The good news is: self-motivation can be trained—and leads to more long-term satisfaction in life.

Motivation is divided into two main areas: intrinsic and extrinsic. A person can be intrinsically motivated, i.e. motivated from within themselves, or they can be extrinsically motivated, that is, motivated by factors in the outside world. Someone who needs a high level of extrinsic motivation does something because he or she will get a reward—such as recognition from other people for their good looks or athletic performance.

An intrinsically motivated person, on the other hand, does a certain activity because he or she has a personal interest or enjoys it and sees the reward in the activity itself (e.g. self-improvement, curiosity about new foods, increased personal health).

Examples of intrinsic motivation:

• A love of healthy foods
• Passion for sports and exercise
• Curiosity about trying new recipes
• Recognition of positive changes e.g. higher energy level, improved health

Examples of extrinsic motivation:

• Positive recognition from friends or partner
• The desire for a certain “look” or to live up to a certain standard
• The desire to improve one’s physical first impression
• The desire to save money on medical costs

However, it is a disadvantage if you are neither intrinsically nor extrinsically motivated. In short, when you completely lack the motivation and thus the “drive to succeed”. Lack of motivation will be one of the main factors as to whether or not you successfully reach your goal. Therefore, it is important that you become aware of what motivates you and what discourages you. What motivated you to read the motivation guide so far? What motivated you to think about changing your diet? Take 5 minutes to write down what motivates you intrinsically and what extrinsically motivates you. Write these things in a notebook, so you can always refer to them. Make each item listed very specific and clear. Once you have written down all the different things that motivate you, arrange them according to personal importance. Refer to your motivation list often and in many different situations.

You will see that the things that motivate you can change over time or become more important depending on the situation. Do not forget to add new items to your motivation list as well. This will help you as you continually assess the benefits of your diet change, or when you modify your personal goals. Your nutritional goal may be praiseworthy, but if you can’t find the motivation to implement in your everyday life, your diet change will fail. To make sure that does not happen to you we will focus intensively on motivation in this guide and help you to help yourself.

The beginning is … not so difficult. At least not with the following 6 tips. Focus on the mountain peak and start hiking!

1. Begin!

Are you afraid to fail? Or you have already failed so you do not even try anymore. Start today with your planning! Because doing something is always better than doing nothing. Do you want a change in your life? Then you yourself have to change also. It’s best to go one step at a time. You do not have to do everything at once. Trying to do everything at once will overwhelm you and make life seem outside of your control. The main thing is, start with just one step in the right direction. After you have achieved your first few successes and look back and see how far you have already come, your confidence will increase and your motivation to climb to the mountain top will be even stronger!

2. Keep your goal in mind

Be specific about your goals. What do you want to achieve—weight loss, muscle building, body definition, or just a healthy, clean diet? When do you want to reach your goal? In a month, three months, or half a year? Why is it so important to you that you achieve this goal? Write all of this down and learn it by heart.

As soon as you realize the deeper meaning of your actions, you will be even more motivated and work more purposefully towards this goal. The visualization of goals, e.g. with old photos of yourself in peak physical form or of another role model, is a particularly strong motivator. Visualize your goals as often as possible and imagine them as vividly as possible. What do you feel? What do you see? What do other people say to you? What do you say to yourself? Above all, you must set realistic goals. Goals that are too high are harder to reach, increasing the likelihood that you will fail. To avoid setting overly ambitious goals and then getting discouraged, we recommend you to formulate smaller intermediate goals. For example, if you want to get rid of your beer belly and get six-pack abs, your first intermediate goal should be weight loss i.e. “I want to lose x kilos in y weeks”.  After losing weight, you can start focusing on goal 2. — building muscle.

3. Setting intermediate goals

It is highly motivating to set smaller and more easily achievable intermediate goals. Achieving small goals is fun and boosts your self-confidence. Plus, you get to be proud of achieving what you set out to do. It does not matter how “banal” or small these goals seem. Focus on the positive feelings that you get when you achieve your goal and always try to keep that feeling in the back of your mind. Collect personal data throughout your diet change (e.g. photos, weight, body measurements, feedback from friends and family.) and collect it in your motivation diary, so you can refer back to it and see your progress. Just as with mountaineering, you’ll sometimes have to negotiate challenging obstacles during your diet change. Setting and achieving smaller goals will boost your self-esteem and further strengthen you on your path to the mountain summit.

Things to be considered:

• Formulate your goals positively and attractively: “I want to fit in my favorite jeans again” vs. “I cannot fit in my favorite jeans anymore :-(“
• Set realistic goals: “I want to fit in favorite jeans again in three months” vs. “I want to fit in my jeans again in a week”
• Reflect: read over your journal entries every week and ask yourself questions like, “Did I achieve my goals this week? What went well and what can I do better next week? “
• If you make a mistake, don’t beat yourself up about it—learn from it. Reflect on what you can do to prevent it from happening again. Clarifying the changes you need to make will make it easier for you to reach your goal in the future.

Tip: Write down your big goals and intermediate goals, and then come up with a reward for each of them, such as a visit to the cinema, a nice piece of clothing, or a professional massage.

4. Throw out all unhealthy foods

An unhealthy diet will sabotage any goal, whether it’s weight loss, definition, building muscle, or personal health. To avoid the temptation of junk food, we recommend that you “purge the pantry”: go through your cupboards and fridge and toss out any unhealthy foods or snacks. Having junk food within reach just makes it unnecessarily difficult for you. Get rid of it asap.

5. Stock up on healthy foods

Grab your grocery list and make sure you have everything in your kitchen that you need to get started. After stocking up on all the healthy foods included in your customized Upfit Meal Plan, you’ll be well prepared. Good preparation gives you a good feeling and strengthens your perseverance and self-efficacy.

6. Make a before-photo.

Find a room with good lighting, put on underwear or a bathing suit and take an honest set of photos of yourself. Stand straight—don’t hunch or suck in your stomach— and photograph yourself from all sides (front, back, sides). Why? So you can compare the “before” photos with later “after” images. Change happens gradually, and when you look in the mirror every day, it’s challenging to notice your body’s physical changes. By having comparison photos however, the positive physical changes become much clearer and this can be very motivating. In addition, measuring the circumference of your hips, legs, and waist with a tape measure is a great way to document your body’s physical changes over time.

A diet change is a challenge for many people because it affects every area of life. In contrast to working out—which you do just a few times a week—your diet is something that you face every day. This means that at the beginning of a diet change, you have to struggle several times a day to adapt to the rules. This is easier for some and harder for others. During your diet change, you may make some mistakes, or feel like you have reached your limits. Taking the time to pause and reflect can help you in these moments. However, it is important that you resume your journey after a setback and do not give up! Everyone has a weaker inner self, who comes up with excuses about why you cannot exercise or eat healthily, or distracts you with unimportant things. The following 5 points will help you win the fight against your weaker inner self.

1. Separate yourself from unhealthy eating habits

You’re sitting on the couch in the evening watching your favorite series. The power of habit calls for a bag of chips or some chocolate. The temptation is too big; you cannot resist, and in a matter of minutes you’ve sabotaged your diet. It’s a situation many of us can relate to. So what do you do to prevent this from happening?

At this point, look again at the fourth point from step 1: “Throw out all unhealthy food “. It is important to get rid of unhealthy eating habits in general. How do you do this? Separate yourself from these unhealthy habits step by step. The hamburger with fries in the company cafeteria, the bag of potato chips while watching TV, or the obligatory after-work beer. No matter what unhealthy eating habits you have, be clear about what they are and start changing them now. How? Find healthy alternatives that you still enjoy. For a cozy TV night, there are healthy snack alternatives that are delicious and easy to prepare. The simplest option is to get plenty of vegetables, such as cucumber, carrot, paprika, tomato, radish, kohlrabi, and celery, and cut them into snack-sized strips. Vegetables can be safely consumed in large quantities. This ensures healthy satiety, you do not have to worry about the calories, and you have replaced a negative habit with a positive one. Pistachios or other foods that need to be prepared for consumption can help you lose weight. The cracking of the individual pistachio nuts forces you to eat more slowly and less overall. Plus: pistachios are rich in protein and fiber. The same goes for cracking walnuts, hazelnuts, or peanuts instead of just grabbing them out of a packet. Berries in combination with nuts or almonds also offer a healthy alternative to the diet-killing chocolate bar. Likewise, small changes to the ingredients or variants of your food can have a major impact on the feeling of hunger, calorie level, and health. For example, the use of whole-grain products can help you stay fuller for longer. The same goes for low-fat cottage cheese and yogurt.

2. Set priorities and say “no”

To achieve your goal, you must often make tough decisions. Are you going to walk past you’re your favorite pizza joint or are you unable to resist the temptation? Just the thought of greasy and sweet food sends our brain an immediate reward signal in the form of a taste sensation. The negative consequences of junk food—such as weight gain or fatigue—are serious and even fatal, but unfortunately, we don’t become aware of them until later. You should, therefore, be clear about your priorities and always ask yourself if the good taste of your favorite guilty pleasure is more important to you than the good feeling of having achieved your goal or than living a healthy life. Likewise, you should praise and motivate yourself every time you have managed to pass the pizza by or resist a particularly seductive snack. Tell yourself, “good job, next time, I’ll do it the same way!”. The nice thing about this: the more time you successfully say ‘no’ to junk food, the easier it will be! Because you will begin to feel better and better the longer you eat a healthy diet.

3. Learn to live with mistakes

No one is perfect—and that’s what makes us human. We all succumb to temptation now and then: we skip a workout or eat something we regret. And let’s face it, who can go without the lavish traditional dinner at Christmas? Even in everyday life, numerous situations come up where there is a danger of “overindulging.” It’s not particularly useful to just beat yourself up when you make mistakes in these situations, what is useful here is to develop strategies on how to reduce the “damage” of these mistakes. For example, plan an extra work out into your schedule, grab a salad instead of the pizza at the restaurant and avoid sugary and alcoholic drinks. Learn to deal with mistakes and to never let them define you or bring you down. You can learn from your mistakes and failures by changing your attitude. Making a mistake is not bad, but you should not do it twice. Find out what lead to the mistake in the first place and prevent it from happening again. The most important thing is: Do not let setbacks stop you! Just because you have a bad day, you should never lose sight of your goal—the mountain top. Making mistakes is human, but giving up is not an option! Learn from them instead.

4. Find a role model

Motivate yourself by getting inspired by others. Many people have undergone incredible transformations, and among them are people who formulated similar goals to you. Choose a role model whose story and path to success you can relate to. Let yourself be led by example and keep telling yourself: “I can do it just like they did!” You can also hang a picture of your role model on your fridge or desk as a daily motivational boost. Tip: Let yourself be inspired by the various Upfit success stories on our website.

5. Acknowledge even small achievements

The way to your goal can be very rocky and long. You travel through mountains and valleys without realizing how far you’ve already come. Therefore, our recommendation is: always take time to stop and enjoy the view, no matter how small the hill or intermediary goal is! This means recognizing and appreciating all your small achievements and above all rewarding them. Document your progress. This can be done with the bathroom scale, tape measure, your favorite pants, or before and after photos. The main thing is, you recognize your achievements and are proud that things are going in the right direction. Practice consciously reformulating your thoughts to be optimistic— this will boost your self-esteem and, over time, can retrain your brain’s thinking patterns positively. Attention: This does not mean that you should weigh yourself every day! This can have the opposite effect, since your weight can fluctuate greatly, for example, due to changes in your body’s water content.

Tip: Use the “3 Good Things” method, listed at the end of this article, to focus on the positive experiences.

ExerciseIt is well known that exercise has a positive effect on body and soul. But why is this exactly? On the one hand, physical activity has positive effects on both physical and mental health. It has been scientifically proven that exercise improves mood, reduces anxiety and depression, and increases self-esteem. Also, physical activity causes your body to release its own special narcotics, a form of opiate, to reduce your pain and relax your joints during exercise and thus reduces the feeling of tension overall. Another benefit: Exercise not only stimulates your metabolism, which activates fat burning, but also—primarily during strength training—anabolic (muscle-building) processes are set in motion that turn your body into a high-performance, fat-burning machine. Check out this post to learn more about exercise and sports nutrition. As you can see, exercise is anything but evil. So here are our 5 tips to help you get up off the sofa.

1. Have fun

First and foremost, you should choose a workout that you enjoy. As explained in the chapter “Why most diet changes fail,” enjoying your workouts is an intrinsic form of motivation. Because this joy is consistent, it is much more effective than extrinsic motivation. So choose an activity that you will bring you joy—this increases the likelihood that you will continue to do it in the long run. How about mountaineering, for example?

2. Find your routine

Our weeks fill up quickly. Between work, family, and friends, we all have many other things to do. That’s why you must consciously plan your workouts into your schedule to integrate exercise into your weekly routine. Keyword: routine! You will thereby automatically plan other activities around your fixed workout hours. Again, a success diary can be of help here to record (and reward yourself for) your daily routine. The goal is that you won’t be able to say “I do not have time to exercise” or “I’m too exhausted to work out”. These kinds of excuses can also turn into negative routines one day, and to prevent that from happening, it’s best to not even allow these kinds of excuses in your everyday life in the first place. Instead, pack your gym bag (the night before your workout days), choose a nearby gym or sports club (for example, between work and home), and find a sports buddy who will motivate you in difficult moments. Our free weekly planners can help you find a weekly exercise routine and improve your stamina & performance.

Additional tip: Enjoyable morning rituals are proven to have a positive effect on your overall well-being. For example, try listening to your favorite songs every morning while you’re getting ready—the ones that remind you of beautiful moments—and you will get a small positive boost for the whole day.

3. Bring a Friend:

Working out together is much more fun than alone! Plus, it is much tougher to skip your workout if your workout buddy is standing in gym clothes right outside your front door. Ideally, find a training partner who has similar goals to you so you can encourage each other together. It is best to schedule fixed workout times together in advance. This automatically creates a “win-win situation” for you both. And again, when your friend appears at your door with a packed gym bag this creates positive pressure. You can also use social networks to meet new motivating people in your neighborhood and join forces with them to start a running, yoga or workout group or meet-up.

4. Better short than not at all

You’re short on time? It can happen to the best of us. Nevertheless: Better to train for a short time than not at all! No time is no excuse. It is scientifically proven that short, intense workouts can be just as effective as long endurance exercises, and there are already well-known and popular training methods, such as the HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training).

5. Take control

Fitness trackers have proven to be very helpful in self-control as they keep track of your activity levels during workouts and everyday life. Most trackers measure calories burned and training achievements. Also, they serve as a motivator because they remind you to, for example, move when you have been sitting down for too long. Some fitness trackers even have fun functions where you can compete with other users and celebrate successes together. Again fun plays a big role as a motivating factor here – friendly competition can be very appealing. The mutual comparison and encouragement push us to outdo ourselves and our friends and thus increases our success. If you do not want to spend money on a fitness tracker, you can use free tools such as Google Fit or Nike Plus pedometer apps.

Often too little attention is paid to this particular step. We want to change that. What good does it do to work towards a goal for months, achieve it, and then end up back in the original or even worse condition after only a short period of time? That is exactly what we want to avoid. It is important to achieve your goal sustainably. How do you do that? By making long-term changes in your behaviour! It sounds complicated at first, but it’s not. If you want to keep at it in the long term, you need to bear these 3 things in mind: continuity, patience and sustainability, especially if you want to follow a path that makes you feel good – a path you want to guide you for life. The following tips will help you to “keep at it”.

1. Internalise successes

Hopefully you followed the tip outlined in step 1 “Getting started and took a before picture of yourself. If not, it doesn’t matter because you most likely have one or two other pictures that show your “before-self”. Following the same principle, take the hard-earned after picture now and compare the two. Do you see a difference? Have you reached your goal? Just listen to yourself and no one else. Do you feel much better than before? If so, congratulations! And if you have “only achieved intermediate goals so far, also congratulations! Every small step towards the summit increases the likelihood of you achieving your personal goal.

2. Celebrate successes

Let’s assume the following: You have made a positive change or even reached your goal. Enjoy this success! Be proud of what you have achieved! Even if you are not quite where you wanted to be, you have made progress and are now a step closer. Show your joy and share how you now feel about your body with those around you, especially if friends and acquaintances are suddenly starting to come up to you and ask about this great achievement of yours. Sharing your success on social media can make you feel even prouder and strengthen your motivation. You are now a role model!

3. Set new goals

Don’t rest on your laurels! Unfortunately, many people make this mistake which is just a matter of attitude that needs to be worked on. For some, it is a kind of reward for the “hard work” to slip back into old behaviour patterns and “sin.” Just like the motto: “Now I’m allowed to do it again!” What prevents you from making this mistake? Setting yourself new goals! You can also set yourself the goal of maintaining your performance and, for example, continuing to following a balanced and healthy diet in the future. So you don’t just want to climb the mountain, but – because you like the view so much – you also want to pitch your tent and set up camp there permanently. At Upfit, for example, there are nutrition plans that build on each other and accompany you step by step from losing weight to building muscle and body definition.

4. Never give up

You haven’t reached your goal? Don’t give up. Keep at it! It’s part of life to fail sometimes. No one is perfect. There can be many reasons why you didn’t make progress. Maybe something major happened in your life, you had a lot of stress, or you just couldn’t motivate yourself? Whatever it is, take note and try again. You probably won’t fail again because you will have learned from your mistakes!

It is undisputed and long known that the modern diet is responsible for much of the obesity, nutritional deficiencies and other health problems in our society. In 2016, it was determined that 39% of the world’s population was overweight, and 13% were obese. Being overweight and having an unhealthy diet makes it hard for people to feel good in the long term and even harder to enjoy long-term good health. You do not want to be this kind of person anymore and have decided to change your diet? Very good! But let’s be honest: A diet change means discipline and a lot of tough work. The good news is that you can greatly simplify this work: firstly, by following the tips in this motivational guide, and secondly, by finding a suitable nutrition program that does most of the work for you. In our interview with Anna and Lisa Hahner, you will learn how the two Olympians stay motivated every day.

The quest you are facing is going to be challenging. You’ll need handy tools such as a compass, safety ropes, and a map. An Upfit Nutrition or Exercise Plan includes the most important aspects of this guide and will help guide you throughout your journey. The tailor-made plans are based solely on your goals, desires, and needs, and 100% adapted to you. The creation of each plan goes down to the micronutrient level and takes into account your personal eating habits (vegetarian, vegan, paleo, etc.), allergies and intolerances (lactose, gluten, histamine, nuts, etc.), as well as your personal preferences (short cooking times, meal prep, low food budget, exclusion of certain foods and much more.).

Our smart shopping lists—with recipes and serving sizes optimized for you—will save you several hours of planning and preparation time each week. With Upfit, achieving your goal—be it weight loss, muscle gain, body definition or healthy diet—is easier than ever. There are thousands of Upfit success stories—start writing your own today!

This checklist serves as an overview of the most important topics of this guide. It is not a “must” to follow all the recommendations in the checklist. Rather, it’s about experimenting and finding the recommendations that work best for you. You will find that they will help you tremendously in reaching your goal. Print this list and start reaching the mountain summit.

Getting started

• Begin!
• Keep your goal in mind
• Set clear, achievable, intermediate goals
• Eliminate all unhealthy foods
• Stock up on healthy foods
• Make a before-picture

Following through (Nutrition)

• Separate yourself from negative habits
• Set priorities
• Learn from mistakes
• Find a role model
• Recognize success and honor it

Following through (exercise)

• Choose workouts that you enjoy
• Plan your workouts into your schedule
• Workout with like-minded people (e.g. find a workout buddy or group)
• Better to work out for a short time than not at all
• Learn self-discipline

Stay focused!

• Take before and after photos
• Enjoy your successes
• Set new goals
• You have not yet achieved your goal? Don’t give up. Try again. Stay focused!

This questionnaire will help you become aware of and positively change your own behavior. You must be honest with yourself—it will do you no good if you try to deceive yourself. The questionnaire consists of three simple yes/no questions. No time is, therefore, no excuse not to fill it out! It is quite sufficient if you go through this questionnaire once a week but you can also use it daily. The questions help you to check your current state of mind and how you are actually behaving. By answering the questions with “yes” or “no”, you will automatically compare your current state of mind with your “target state” (how you would like to behave). You cannot answer all the questions with a “yes”? Then find out why and learn how you can turn the “No” into a “Yes”.

• Did I adhere to the guidelines of my diet change? yes/no
• Did I get as much exercise as I intended to? yes/no
• Am I one step closer to my goal? yes/no

During your diet change, you will most likely have days where you have negative experiences or are disappointed with your behavior. Example: You were celebrating or meeting with friends and overindulged or did not follow your diet guidelines. Often we attach a greater value to the bad things that happen and think they outweigh the good. This ultimately affects you and your mood negatively. The result: You are stressed, discouraged and unhappy. Through the “3 good things” method, you shift your focus to the positive events in your life. How does it work? Write down 3 things each night before bed that you consider positive, such as, “I’m proud of myself because today I followed the rules of my diet.” or “After working out today, I felt really good and fit.”. The events may be small, but over time, they will help you to focus on the beautiful things in life and thus to “program” your outlook positively.