You’ve Achieved Your Goal… Now What?
Maintaining your weight loss after achieving your goal is undoubtedly hard! Unfortunately, there is no secret pill to keep the weight off but there are some tricks that people do to accomplish this successfully. Let’s first start by saying that no, not everyone that loses weight gains it back but, if you return to your old eating habits yes, the likelihood that you will gain it back over time is high.
Some of the basic ways to maintain your weight consist of getting enough sleep, not binge eating because you missed a meal, finding healthy alternatives to rewarding yourself or comforting yourself, and eliminating the distractions by being in the moment when you’re eating by sitting down and enjoying your meal without the TV, social media, and texting.
How to Maintain your Weight Loss
But let’s look at some other beneficial ways you can also maintain your weight.
- If you cook most of your meals at home, you save calories and avoid the excess salt and fats that you normally do not eat. These in fact are known to make you crave more over time causing you to eat those types of foods more frequently.
- Eat your food and not drink it. We talk about limiting protein shakes during your weight loss journey that stays true even at the goal.
- Always take your snacks and water with you. We live in Florida and with so many different avenues of outdoor entertainment and tempting quick high-calorie snacks, it’s easy to add unnecessary calories to a day with just a quick snack.
- Start with a salad! It’s a wonderful source of fiber, and it will help you stay fuller longer. But remember to be aware of your salad dressing choices and portions. Some salads are known to have more calories than a cheeseburger and fries- it’s not from the lettuce and tomatoes.
- Follow your regular eating habits. You’ve learned how to eat during your weight loss journey. Keep the schedule it’s a part of what made you successful in the first place.
- Plan ahead-most people will gain weight because they haven’t planned for the next meal or day and are just getting the quickest thing to eat.
- Add a little exercise into your life. It doesn’t have to be anything dramatic. It can be walking 30 minutes a day if that’s all you can do. But adding exercise creates “happy” hormones in the body.