In order to lose weight and maintain it for the rest of your life, an inner transformation has to take place as well as an outer transformation. True success includes more than reaching your goal weight. It requires you to hanging the way you look at yourself, your life, and your relationship with food.
   I wanted to bring this up because so many of us forget this, making it so much easier for us to continue yo-yo dieting and unconsciously setting ourselves up for failure. I've heard this from so many different sources like Youtubers who've succeeded in changing their life, shows like the Biggest Loser and Dr. Oz, and online articles. 
   I've known this for a while but I'm still a work in progress. But being a work in progress is a good thing because your trying to improve yourself, which really should be a life-long journey since no one is or should be perfect.
   These inner transformations can be difficult for many different reasons: environment, friends, family, self-esteem, and your overall motivation or lack-there-of to change. You have to want change bad enough and for many that just isn't so. Finding motivating resources like books, online communities and articles about health can push you towards change and sometimes even scare you (in a good way) into it! 
   For example, you may read about how exercise and a plant based diet drastically reduces risks for heart disease and the shocking statistics to go along with it. You also may experience a health scare like a near heart attack or maybe you've developed pre-diabetes or full-blown diabetes. Maybe breast cancer runs in your family and you want to cut down your risk. And maybe you have relatives around you dealing with obesity related illnesses and you want to help them as well as preventing a similar fate.
    Unfortunately, you can't want it badly enough for someone else, but you can try to motivate them in addition to transforming your own life. Sometimes seeing someone in their/your life transforming their body and health can give them the courage and motivation to change themselves/yourself.
    Emotional change takes time and effort but think of the wonderful benefits you'll have in your life! We have to remember to change our thinking as well as our bodies. And don't try to be perfect, but instead try to imagine what you really want for yourself and take small steps as well as making long term goals.