10 Tips on Maintaining Weight Loss ...

You probably learned how important it is not to skip meals and to eat small healthy meals or snacks every 5-6 hours to keep your metabolism going, right? Same rule applies here; you might be tempted to eat less often since you want to maintain your weight loss, but skipping meals can lead to overeating later.

There’s nothing more discouraging than hitting your goal weight only to step on the scale and see your weight go up. Your body weight fluctuates for a variety of reasons and it’s not fair to you to constantly weigh yourself and get frustrated. Instead of weighing in daily, keep a food and exercise diary to track your input and output and limit yourself to weighing in around once a week.

You might have certain foods you turned to for meals for convenience or preference but an important part of maintaining weight loss and health is to eat a variety of foods. Be an adventurous consumer and try out new foods like kale chips or goji berries. Try or make new healthy recipes to prevent boredom and to keep from turning to junk food. Check fitness blogs or websites like AWS for fun and healthy ideas!

Commit to your new way of eating and exercising to maintain weight loss. Even if you initially lost weight for a special event like a wedding, don’t let that event be your finish line. Continue eating right and exercising consistently and you’ll not only maintain your weight loss but you’ll feel the difference. Make a contract with yourself to eat healthy and exercise on regular basis, it really works!

Losing weight is hard to do solo and it can be doubly hard to maintain weight loss by yourself. Your friends and family have seen the result of all your effort and hard work, so get your best cheerleaders together to keep you on track. It’s easy to skip workouts or overeat and that’s an easy way for the pounds to creep back.

Don’t let workouts go to the bottom of your to-do list! Make sure you that you carve out time for workouts or find a way to incorporate short workouts during the day that adds up to 30-45 minutes of physical activity. In order to maintain your weight loss, make sure that your workouts are fun and include a variety of activity like cardio and weights. Try out a new class at the gym or play a new sport.

It’s perfectly fine to go out for a meal occasionally, just don’t make it a regular habit. Restaurant meals have way more fat, sodium, and unhealthy carbs, not to mention much larger portions than a meal you would make at home, so keep your meals out to a limit. With meals at home, you know exactly what goes into your food and you can control portions so keep this in mind next time you’re debating getting take-out.

Alcoholic drinks, smoothies and fruit juices are high in calories plus have little nutritional value and won’t satisfy you like a healthy snack or water. You don’t have to swear off all alcohol and juice, just be sure to limit your intake and choose wisely. Swap your regular mixed drink for a white wine spritzer or regular beer for light beer; it’ll make a huge difference in calories!

Be aware of what foods trigger you to overeat and exercise caution when it comes to portions. If you know that you can’t just have one bite of dessert or you go nuts eating pasta, make a plan of attack. Eat one serving and wait 15 minutes before going for seconds. Eating slowly and waiting will help you differentiate between hunger or a craving.

Having a plan is imperative for success in weight loss maintenance. Your plan should include an eating plan, workout plan, and goals. Remember you lost the weight, you can definitely maintain it! Identify goals, reward yourself and keep focused on your new lifestyle, not just a number on the scale. You can do it!

Weight loss maintenance can be hard but definitely not impossible. You put a lot of hard work into your initial weight loss so don’t let life’s little curveballs deter you from reaching your goals and maintaining your weight loss! You can do it!

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