Wow… Melissa Joan Hart has revealed a new slimmer body. Her interview was seen recently in the June issue of People magazine.

“It was as hard for me as anyone else” the former Sabrina, The Teenage Witch star claims. However, after 14 months of hard work, she has lost a whopping 42lbs! She is currently at a svelte 113 pounds. Amazing for a mother of 2, I must say!

She reached this goal working closely with a nutritionist and a personal trainer. This journey was made easier by the motivation from her friends and mom.

It just comes back to tell us how very important motivation is to achieve our weight loss goals. Perhaps a few lessons can be learnt from the reality show “The Biggest Loser”. One of the main things that the contestants have is the motivation to lose weight. Of course we can argue that they have so many people around them and the TV crew following them around the whole day. It does not leave them with much choice. But what does it take for you and me to be motivated?

Simple things like finding a buddy to work out with or sharing with a friend who has the same goals as us. Motivation can be the single most important factor  as to whether you reach that weight loss goal or not. In the Journal of  Consulting and Clinical Psychology, it was found that recruiting 3 friends or family members to help in the weight loss had better results in losing and keeping the weight off than those who had no buddy system at all.

These may be small things that we frequently overlook when embarking on our weight loss programs. However, this “small” detail may actually determine the success of our undertakings. Having somebody in the background to stop us from having the second helping or getting us out of bed in the mornings when we rather sleep is extremely important. It keeps us on our tracks and accountable.