These all sound like great tips and suggestions. I have one to add that has helped me considerably with motivation.
I think sometimes when I look at my body and criticize it or feel resistance to how it is
now or just have a negative, burdened kind of feeling about it, it derails my motivation and then I have to really push myself to exercise and eat properly. It makes the process harder. I've tried just thinking positively about my body, but often, I'm sucked down into a vortex of bad thinking habits built up over the past. So recently (in the last six months) I have made a ritual of loving my body for 10-20 minutes a day.
How I do it: I put my favorite belly dance or other inspiring music in my c.d. player, put the headphones on so I can't be distracted, and really pamper my body with lotions and focused attention. While I'm putting vaseline and socks on my feet for the night, for instance, I'll internally admire my feet and be thankful for all the great things they can do, how strong my ankles are getting with all that en releve practice with the 3/4 shimmy, etc. If a negative thought comes in, I just let it pass through and move on to something more loving toward myself, appreciative of my unique beauty. You can do this for your face while looking deeply into your eyes in a mirror, your lips even when you apply a little chapstick or gloss during the day, or right out of the shower putting on oil or lotion or self-tanner or whatever. Now, I admit this can be awkward and hard to do at first with your hips or bottom (or any part you've grown to hate through internal criticism
)... but if you keep doing it regularly, you really start to love all of your beautiful body, to see it not as an object (how we are taught by the media and culture at large) but as a radiant vehicle for
you as you journey through this life.
And then you
want to exercise and eat right, and it's easier to keep your motivation. Plus, an added bonus is a better body image around other people, even tiny 18-year-olds in class
Of course, you can all create your own beauty rituals, unique to you and what you love about your body
. It's fun to be creative and use our incredible mind-power for something positive for once!
Didi