Ep.81 The 10 Secrets For Teens to Stay Motivated In Their Healthy Lifestyle Journey

In this episode, I share 10 simple but powerful ways for teens to stay motivated while building healthy habits. 

From morning routines and accountability to small rewards and positive self-talk, you’ll learn exactly how to keep going—even when it’s hard.

I’m Dr. Jenny Gourgari—pediatric endocrinologist, certified in obesity medicine and a health coach.
After helping hundreds of teens struggling with their weight and hormones, I’ve created a whole new path by doing what most programs miss: balance puberty hormones naturally and create habits that actually last.

Here's what makes this different:
✅ No dieting. No calorie counting. No shame.
✅ No more food fights between parents and teens.
✅ No weight obsession—just healthy habits
✅ Real science behind how puberty hormones affect weight
✅ A safe, supportive approach that prevents eating disorders

Because when teens understand their hormones and get the right support, they don’t just lose weight—they gain strength, energy, confidence, and freedom!

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Transcript

Hello, welcome to another episode of the Lifestyle and Weight Loss For Teens podcast. This is Dr. Jenny Gourgari and today I decided to talk about motivation because if you don't have motivation then you are likely to lose the momentum that will keep you going as you try to get into a healthier weight. Now the problem is we all start with very big motivation if it is New Years, if it's the beginning of a certain period or if it's after an event, or if we wanna reach a certain amount of, goal in a certain period of time, and then once this pass, we lose our motivation. Or we may start because we have a wake up call because our doctor says, you have insulin resistance. Or we try hard for a month and then we give up. What are some of the things that can keep our motivation to keep on going and building healthier habits over time so that we don't lose the motivation and we always stay on track? So that's what I want to cover on this episode. The first thing is to set the tone in the morning. The first 10 minutes of every day can influence the next 10 hours of your day. So for example, when you first wake up in the morning, you can decide that what you wanna do is drink water, stretch, write one positive thought so that you start your day with your affirmation, reminding yourself why you're doing this. If you start with a morning routine, it becomes a routine so you don't forget to do it. Okay? So that will be number one. Number two is post your personal why somewhere where it's visible. Why are you in this journey? Why is it important for you to get to a healthy weight? The reason we wanna post it somewhere is because the brain remembers better when it sees something like a reminder every day. And not just when you randomly have a thought, it's actually a thought that is visually there. So by posting your why, maybe it's a sticky note, it's a photo maybe you put a screenshot on your computer or you have a photo on your phone. That way you see your why every day and you keep up your motivation. Secret number three, to keep up the motivation is to have a support system. You can enroll, for example, in a coaching program the Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens coaching program where there is a community of other teenagers to support each other. You can have your best friend, you can have your brother, your cousin, somebody that you know. And the secret is because when you have accountability towards a person or a community or someone like a coach, then you can keep your motivation higher because you know you're gonna meet with this person, they're gonna ask you, you're gonna ask them. There is this checking in with each other. So that can also help you with keeping your motivation High . Secret number four, to keep the motivation high is to reward small wins that you have. For example, don't wait until you lose 10 pounds or you lose 10 kilos to celebrate a big win. Even if you go and exercise 15 minutes, celebrate that. That's a small win that makes your brain release dopamine and which trains your brain to actually enjoy those healthy habits. So reward every little small habit that you conduct successfully, and that will also keep your motivation high. Secret number five is to use the technique that is called visualization, where you spend a few minutes every day where you actually close your eyes and you visualize how will you be, when you get where you want to get, like you can visualize yourself where you are exercising every day, you're eating healthy meals, you're wearing the clothes you have, you have a lot of energy, when you play your sports, you are happy, you are confident. You smile in the mirror, you wake up happy, imagine how this person looks like and then having this visualization will help you keep your goal and will help you keep your motivation high so you reach that goal. Secret number seven is to try to have habit stuck on each other. So what that means is that once you have one habit, let's say you brush your teeth, then you can say, after I brush my teeth, I will have one glass of water. This reduces the reliance of executing the habits on just power, and it builds upon the power of habit because habits become automatic. So you are more likely to build on new habits if you have already a habit that is established and then you built on top of that habit. Secret number eight, to keep your motivation high is to use uplifting music. Particularly if you wanna exercise you can feel happier when you have your favorite music on so it doesn't feel like a burden, you enjoy it. If you're stressed, you put your favorite music that helps you feel more energized, so use music and actually create your favorite playlist. You know what music makes you happy, so use that and listen to the music very powerful to keep your motivation higher. Number nine secret is try to retrain your thoughts on how you think about yourself. Like for example, instead of saying, oh, I can't do this. I tried this, I cannot do this. This will never lead anywhere. I'm not the same as other people. You can try and change the thought and say, I'm learning to improve every day. I'm learning to exercise more every day. So all this positive self-talk eventually will make it easier for you to keep your motivation high and keep on going. So you can say, I can do this. I have this, I am on top of this. So that will keep your motivation for healthy habits high. And finally, number 10 is you can, end your day with a reflection, like when you go to bed, you can say, I have great progress, because today I had eight glasses of water. Similar to when we start the day with a great easy healthy habit and we set the tone for the day, the same thing we can set the tone of rewards and reflection with one or two minutes every night. Maybe you can write it in your journal. That's what I did. I'm very proud of myself. I will do that tomorrow. Or if it didn't work the way you want it, you can also say what you're gonna do differently tomorrow? So my take home message for you would be to just choose one or two of those things that you think are easier for you to keep up your motivation and implement that and see how it goes. And then maybe next week you can try something else. Don't forget to go to lifestyleforteens.com/free and download the free resources to help you keep going and if you like this episode, share it with your friends and family. I'll see you next week. Take care.