Maintaining Weight Loss

Losing a significant amount of weight is a great accomplishment for many people! However, maintaining that weight loss for the long run is another task in itself. If we learn how to stay consistent and continue to improve our weight loss habits, maintain the weight can be easy. Here is a great list of things to remember once we hit that weight loss goal and are moving on to the maintenance phase.

• Consistent activity and eating plan
• Re-calculate your calorie and nutrient needs and make adjustments as needed
• Build those muscles
• Having more muscle mass increasing your resting metabolic rate
• You can building muscle by adding a strength and resistance program to your exercise routine
• When getting to the maintenance phase, sometimes strength training is more important than aerobic training
• Set goals
• Make long-term, realistic goals
• Goals can either be based on nutrition, exercise or training for an event- or a combination of them all!
• Set some goals for some fun, exciting events to increase your motivation level
• Practice mindful/intuitive eating
• Be present while eating. Try to avoid watching TV, answering emails and surfing the internet while eating a meal
• Listen to your body's hungry signals; eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full
• Have a plan
• At the beginning of each week, plan out all of your workouts and meals so yo are more likely to stick with them when times get busy
• Practice non-food coping strategies
• When feeling stressed and emotional, find a non-food way to deal with it
• Try calling a friend or taking a short walk when you want to indulge is food when stressed
• Find a support system
• Find people who will suppport you and join in your healthy lifestyle habits
• Eat real, whole, clean food
• Remember how you lost the weight and the foods you ate to do so, and stick with it
• Ditch the proessed and refined foods that are in your kitchen
• Stay within 3 pounds of your maintenance weight
• Weight yourself once a week only to stay updated with your maintenance
• If you exceed 3 pounds gained, check-in with yourself to see where you can make adjustments
• Setbacks happen
• This is reality and it will happen- how you respond to it will make the difference
• Have a plan for events that may cause setbacks such as vacations, holidays and family gatherings
• Stay hydrated
• Stress management
• Stress can play a major role in weight re-gain
• Try deep breathing and taking 1 minute breaks throughout the day
• Sleep 7-9 hours each night
• Sleeping keeps hormones at proper levels which gets hunger and fullness feelings back to normal as well