Millions of people go on diets each year to lose weight and get in better shape. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of these people achieve any kind of lasting results. Starting a diet is easy, sticking with it is much more difficult.

Much like diets, the same things can be said about exercise programs. Many people start them each year only to give up rather quickly and go back to their old habits and lifestyle.

In order to see lasting and life-changing effects from a diet and/or exercise program, there needs to be consistency that leads to the development of positive habits to replace the negative habits. To get to the point where that consistency builds the habits, you will need a great deal of motivation to stick with it through challenges and discouragements.

This article serves as a reference that will discuss several different things you can do to help yourself be able to achieve and maintain a level of motivation that will keep you going.

1. Take Pictures of Yourself Before the Diet or Exercise Program

Some diets and exercise programs encourage participants to take photos of themselves before starting the program. This can help to keep you motivated in a few ways. First, it’s often easier for us to see how out of shape we are by looking at a photo of ourselves. Second, it gives us the goal of working towards the point of being able to take an after picture that will be more like how we want to appear.

2. Record Your Progress

Keeping track of how you are progressing can be key to maintaining motivation. While you will be losing weight and getting in better shape, the result usually seem somewhat slow. However, with consistent effort, those results are likely to be very impressive when you look at the change from before and after. Having it in written form will show you that you are making progress that you might not notice otherwise.

3. Set Goals

If you set goals for your diet or exercise you can always look at where you are compared to that goal, and it should serve as motivation to keep going. In order for goals to be effective, you’ll need to make sure that you will easily be able to measure to see if you have met the goal, and it should be attached to a specific deadline or target date.

4. Workout with a Partner

If you want to increase your motivation for staying consistent with an exercise program, start working out with a friend. By having a partner you will both be accountable to each other, and no one wants to let their friend down. The progress of your partner can also serve as added motivation for your own workouts.

5. Join a Group of Dieters

Diet groups like Weight Watchers are effective because there is some added motivation in being part of a group. Wanting to make a good showing at a weigh in can help to keep you from breaking your diet. By being unified with others who have similar goals, you can all benefit from the others in the group.

6. Have a Reason Why You are Dieting and Exercising

Since motivation is such a critical part of achieving lasting success with a diet or exercise program, it’s important that you know specifically why you are willing to make the sacrifices and what it is that keeps you going. We all have different reasons and things that keep us going through difficult times, so be sure that you know exactly why you are doing what you are doing.

Crystal Wells enjoys writing about the things she has learned through her own weight loss journey. She blogs about dieting. Her blog includes a review of Weight Watchers.