For years I’ve been helping
clients and students to lose weight. Over time I’ve observed how the average approach to weight loss leads to putting pounds back on after not too long. One of the biggest reasons this occurs is the following:
When most people start to diet and exercise
they do so with a temporary mindset. Most believe that exercise is painful and dieting takes all of the foods they love away from them. So, they set out to make these lifestyle changes only long enough to lose “X” number of pounds. Once goals have been achieved they return to their old eating habits and stop exercising. Of course, this series of events causes the weight to come right back on, and sometimes even more than before. Thus, the famous yo-yo dieting cycle.
The maintenance phase of weight loss isn’t a mystery,
but it is illusive. Since what we were doing before was what got us into our unhealthy state in the first place, these are not the habits we should return to with our newfound healthy body if we want to keep it!
Unfortunately, most of us have only been
in one of two places for too long: overweight, or trying to lose weight. With that in mind, how do we begin to live life as a fit and healthy person when it’s been too long to remember what that looks and feels like?
There’s a simple answer – We need to prepare for life with a fit and healthy body while we’re losing weight.
For example,
when we start to diet our new ways of eating should not only support our weight loss, but they should also support us in learning new foods and recipes that are both healthy and taste good. When we’ve reached our goals we should be able to simply turn our diet into healthy eating habits. This, of course, comes with a little bit more leeway for eating things we really like that aren’t as healthy. Learning this is paramount to being able to keep our new, healthier weight.
When we start to exercise,
we need to find out what we like (or hate the least). Then, we exercise not only for the calorie burn and the beautiful body, but for the increased alertness, the energy, the positive outlook, better sleep, better skin (etc., etc.,). In doing so, we exercise not only for the weight benefits, but for everything else we get from it. This is how we continue to be motivated to exercise long after we’ve lost weight and keep our healthy body long into the future.
Finally, each time we make a change
it should be reasonable. Diet and exercise changes work best when we change one small thing until we get it down, and then take the next step. This is how we get to be familiar with each new stage of the game, so it becomes a more natural part of our life instead of a giant effort all of the time. When we do it in this way, it’s much more sustainable.
By the way,
I coach students in incorporating healthy eating and exercise into everyday life in a way that’s realistic and sustainable in my online class – Mind Body Blast. I give my blog readers advanced notice when the next one is about to start, so keep watching for that if you’re interested.
Also, everyone on my e-mail list
get tips on realistic, healthy, everyday living- tricks that I use myself and tips I give to my clients. I also give special discounts on classes and other events to my e-mail list, so click here to get on that if you haven’t already! (And right now, I’m offering a 2-week free e-course if you sign up!)
See You Online.