How to Keep the Weight Off Once You've Lost It - 7 Ways

Do you realize it's a lot easier to lose weight than it is to keep it off once you've lost it?

When you are trying to lose weight, you're singularly focused on the task at hand, and if you have an effective workout program, the task becomes even easier. But once you're down to your target weight, you have to balance weight maintenance with other factors in your life.

On a daily basis, that requires you to continually correct yourself and bring yourself back on course.

Weight management is a journey rather than a destination.

PSYCHOLOGY OF WEIGHT MAINTENANCE

Positive thinking patterns are crucial to successful, long-term weight management. People who are not successful at managing their weight tend to:

* Make excuses that let them overeat or not exercise.
* Focus narrowly on the pleasure of eating and forget their weight-management goals.
* Doubt their ability to change.
* Set unrealistic expectations for themselves or others.
* Judge themselves - and other people - harshly.

In contrast, those who are successful tend to:

* Remind themselves of their long-range goals.
* Notice even small successes in weight management.
* Use positive self-talk to keep themselves on the right track.

7 STRATEGIES FOR WEIGHT MAINTENANCE

1) Make Exercise a Regular Part Of Your Life

Without regular exercise, weight maintenance is exceedingly difficult.

Of course, making exercise a part of your daily routine is easier said than done. I recommend you choose a range of activities that you enjoy and can turn to when you're in different moods - or confronted by bad weather.

Example: I run interval sprints in the morning. On days when it rains, I climb the stair-stepper machine indoors.

2) Reduce Saturated Fat Calories

Most Americans eat way more saturated fat than they need. We're exposed to a lot of fatty, but very tasty foods, so we develop a taste for foods that are readily available. However, you can change your taste buds and actually learn to prefer foods not necessarily lower in fat, but higher in "good" fats. Some of the best fats you can put into your body are olive oil, flax oil, and fish oil.

Strategy: Start small. Don't necessarily eliminate red meat, learn what the best (leanest) cuts are. Any cut ending in 'loin and round are usually as lean as, and sometimes more lean than, chicken. Cook with olive oil and use it on salads instead of traditional dressings. Make smoothies with an added tablespoon of flaxseed oil.

Bonus: Switching from a higher saturated fat diet to one that has the same amount of fat calories, but are mono/poly-unsaturated instead, may help you lose fat. Higher intakes of fat reduce your appetite. Plus, the essential fats found in fish and flax are potent fat "decouplers". They help release and 'break apart' stored fat in your body to be used as fuel. Studies have also shown it is virtually impossible to accumulate fat from eating the Omega-3 fats found in flaxseed and fish oil.

3) Control Binges

Between 25% and 50% of all people who attend weight-management programs are bingers. The biggest trigger for binges is negative emotions - anger...depression...anxiety.

Strategy: Keep a two-week journal to record your eating behaviors - meals, snacks, binges. Also record the circumstances - how you feel, what you are doing and your thoughts when you are eating. This will help you identify triggers for eating and develop strategies to avoid them.

Example: When I get anxious or stressed, the first thing I do is to think of food. But all I'm really looking for is a release from the perceived stress I'm feeling at the moment. Since I've now identified these feelings as a trigger for eating (whether I'm hungry or not), I found an alternate way to take my mind off my stress -- I play with my dog. I'll get on all fours and romp with him until I laugh, smile, and play my stress away. And it didn't cost me an extra calorie to do so. Your challenge is to find something creative and distracting for you.

4) Eat Moderately

To successfully maintain a low weight level, you must keep your caloric intake under control.

Strategy: Pre-plan how much you're going to eat at every meal. Most of us eat until we're full. This backfires on us because in order to feel satisfied from a meal, 20-30 minutes needs to elapse after you first start eating in order for the satiety reflex to kick in. The problem is, 20-30 minutes after starting to eat we've usually shoveled enough food into our gullet to feed a small army.

Try eating more than the three meals we usually eat per day. Four, five, and even six times is better. Why? Because our blood sugar levels are steadier throughout the day. A lowered blood sugar level will trigger ravenous hunger pangs and cause logic to be thrown out the window.

5) Think Smart

Focus on your long-term goal of weight maintenance, give yourself instructional thoughts and pat yourself on the back for positive behaviors.

Mistake: At the office, a co-worker is passing around slices of cake. As a slice comes your way, you see only the cake, not your goal. You rationalize, telling yourself that you've been good for weeks and you shouldn't be deprived when everyone else is eating it.

Better: As a slice comes your way, remind yourself that you've worked hard to lose weight, you feel great and you want to keep the weight off. You tell yourself that the momentary pleasure of the cake isn't in your best interest. You decline the cake. As your co-worker moves on to someone else, you feel good about yourself and congratulate yourself for forgoing temptation. Of course, if you're following my program, you can allow yourself to have your favorite "junk" foods every 3-5 days or so knowing this will actually "help" you lose fat, not prevent it. The key though is only 1 day out of every 3-5 days though. Anything else and it will backfire. Combining this eating strategy with a targeted weight lifting routine makes it work even better.

6) Handle Lapses

Everyone backslides on occasion.

Strategy: Avoid turning a lapse into a relapse. Instead of having a second donut, go to the gym to burn off the calories or cut back on your calorie intake the rest of the day or tomorrow.

The best way to minimize damage -- go to the gym. Studies have shown that sugars taken just before working out don't get stored as fat. Instead, they get used for fuel. Any excess gets stored into the muscles you've just worked as glycogen (muscle fuel).

7) Create a Lifestyle That is Satisfying to You

The last thing you want to say at the end of your life is that you devoted the majority of your life to watching your weight. While weight maintenance is important to health and psychological well-being, your life should be about something more meaningful.

Create a mission that makes you feel your life is worth living. Find a way to be creative, contribute to society or do something that's important to you.

In Summary:

* Make exercise a regular part of your life
* Reduce saturated fat calories
* Control binges
* Eat moderately
* Think smart
* Handle lapses
* Create a lifestyle that is satisfying to you

Next, get my 20 "Blueprints" I created that allowed me to dramatically transform my body and win the 1998 Body For Life contest. Imagine finally getting the body you've always wanted! Only available at Harry's Blog