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4 Lessons I Have Learned from Losing 170 lbs and Maintaining It for 7 Years!

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So here we are again: seven years and I am still maintaining in my range of 150–160 pounds. I want to share the things I have learned this year and have been focusing on with my coaching clients and community members. I want to demystify maintenance and talk about it more from a long-term point of view. I want to help you make peace with your current journey and know what to expect when you are maintaining. The more you know about that part of the journey, the better prepared you will be to make decisions on how you will lose the weight (with maintenance in mind).

Lesson 1

 

The first lesson I have learned is that the lowest scale weight you ever hit—more than likely—will not be your maintainable weight, and that is okay. I have been checking on other maintainers and people I interviewed back when I started the Half Size Me show in 2012. What I have found—if those I interviewed are still sharing their journeys—is that they have gained some weight back. I have come to accept that when we are talking about long-term weight maintenance, the weight we are at on our lowest weigh-in day is not going to be the weight we can comfortably maintain. Of course there is the water regain and normal fluctuations on the scale, but most people find that the level of effort to maintain their lowest bodyweight might require a level of effort they don’t want to commit to on a daily basis. 

 

Remember, maintaining is doing all the behaviors you did to lose the weight, plus eating a few hundred extra calories. After years of doing this and without the “reward” of losing weight, you might end up re-evaluating your maintenance weight or just relaxing your approach to what you can maintain while still enjoying life. 

 

I want to discuss this issue of maintenance sustainability with you because so many people reach out to me and feel like they failed because they lost 100 pounds and gained back 20. They fail to see that they are keeping off 80% of the weight they lost and that they are enjoying their life. That is a huge win, not a failure. The person they were years ago—who was 100 pounds heavier—would love to be them now, even having regained that 20 pounds. This all comes down to your perspective. Which version of you are you being today? The you who started this journey or the you at your lowest scale weight? 

 

Lesson 2

The second lesson I have learned is that a higher maintainable scale weight is not the problem. The thoughts you have about it are what sabotage you. We see our lowest-ever number at one time in our journey and assume that is where we “should” be, instead of selecting an intentionally higher maintenance weight, staying there for 6 months to a year, and seeing if we can maintain that first before dropping down to a lower maintenance point. 

 

For example, if you want to weigh 130 pounds, when you reach 145 pounds, stop there and maintain that for 6–12 months. See how you like maintaining 145 before progressing to 130. If you decide to go to 130 pounds, then create a range that is doable for you on a day-to-day basis—a weight range that will allow you to enjoy your life and still keep the majority of your weight off. It is normal to gain some weight back, and it should be expected. 

 

Unfortunately, I think many of us struggle with that lowest weight number. We hit 130 at some point but can comfortably maintain at 145. We feel that we need to be on constant pursuit to get back to 130. Now having seen the weight fluctuations of other maintainers, I can honestly say that this shouldn’t be the expectation. Settling in at 155, allowing yourself to live life, enjoy treats, and find pleasure in your day-to-day life is more important than hitting that lowest-ever number on the scale. You can hear more about how to find a range and how to think about your weight-loss goal in this Ask Coach Heather podcast episode.

 

Lesson 3

 

The third thing I have learned is that you will have a constant battle every day between the two versions of you that exist. They never go away. There’s the version of you that wants all the cake and all the ice cream all the time. I refer to that as your toddler. Some people call it your lower brain or your primitive brain, but it is the brain that ultimately doesn’t think about consequences. It doesn’t disappear. Even after seven years of doing this work. I still have mine rear up from time to time. 

 

However, over time you can condition the other part of your brain to become stronger, more resilient, and louder. This is the part of you that has goals, ambitions, and dreams. It’s the part of you that understands that keeping this weight off leads to a better life. It’s the part of you that wants to say no to eating all the things all the time. 

 

I feel I’ve spent a lot of time with my coaching clients talking about this over the past year and helping them make peace with this battle—this war—that will continue to wage. Truthfully, all you have to do is acknowledge the toddler and start to say no to it using the logical and reasoning side of your brain. I call it “putting on your adult pants.” Realize it doesn’t have your best interest at heart, and if you allow it to run the show, you won’t have a life that you feel good about. 

 

While losing my weight and keeping it off, I have had to learn how to deal with balancing food and how to create healthy boundaries with treats. This year, I am releasing the Escape the Food Prison coaching cast to teach the ways that I help others find balance and sanity with food. 

 

Lesson 4

 

Lesson four is that life happens. There will never be a time when this is easy. You will have to have various levels of behaviors and habits to deal with different life circumstances. The more concrete your habits, the easier it will be, but it will always be a challenge. I have been focusing this year on refining my minimum, basic, and preferred behaviors. I have been working with my coaching clients and community members to help them with this skill. 

 

I never expect this process of weight maintenance and healthy habits to have a stopping point. However, as we are doing these habits, we have to realize that as life changes, so does the rulebook. Often we get very comfortable in our routine, and we think we will be doing it indefinitely. My experience is  that every time a major life change occurs—divorce, marriage, a break-up, having a baby, kids going off to college, new job, moving, losing a job (really anything that could disrupt the flow)—you should go back to the basics and ask yourself “how are you going to change your expectations?” 

 

I’ve become more attuned to watching out for life changes and now know that I either need to switch my behaviors or possibly switch my expectations. Being aware of my surroundings is key to knowing how I need to adapt what I’m doing. This is why I have created my Refuse to Quit Again coaching cast. I realize that we have to stop expecting life to let us walk through and get to our goals. There will always be roadblocks and issues. We have to learn to adapt and have other ways to move toward our goals. 

 

All I have learned, every issue I have faced, has made me more resilient and able to lead from a place of compassion and understanding. This journey is not easy. Habits become easier to rely on the longer you do them, but make no mistake, this is work daily. However, it is worth it. You will grow in self-efficacy the longer you do this, and you will become wiser about your body and your actions if you reflect on the mistakes and ask “what can I learn?” Your body will change, life will change, and you have to be able to adapt to it over time. But you can do this, it is possible, and it is worth it. 

359 – Half Size Me: Setting Food Boundaries With Megan

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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In this episode of The Half Size Me™ Show, Heather talks to Megan about

  • why she’s never had a problem with binge eating and secret eating
  • what she’s done to set food boundaries while traveling and how it’s helped her
  • how she lost weight while traveling for work 50% to 80% of the time
  • and more!

JOIN The Half Size Me™ Community waiting list! Learn more about the benefits of community membership and get notified when we open again for new members.

About Half Size Me

The Half Size Me™ Show is a weekly podcast meant to inspire you and motivate you no matter where you are in your weight loss journey. If you’re just getting started losing weight, or if you’ve started and stopped so many times you’ve lost count, this is the show for you!

Hosted by Heather Robertson, who lost over 170 pounds by learning new eating habits, getting regular exercise, and, most importantly, changing her mindset. She shares her own lessons and struggles as well as how to handle to real challenge of any weight loss journey… weight maintenance.

So, join Heather every week as she shares information, inspiration, and interviews with women who’ve learned weight loss isn’t just about losing pounds, it’s about finding yourself.

Disclaimer: Heather is not a doctor, nurse, or certified health professional and what works for her or her guests may, or may not, work for you. So, please be sure to talk with your doctor, dietician, or other certified health professionals when seeking advice about your own weight loss or weight maintenance plan. All information included in The Half Size Me™ Podcast and on HalfSizeMe.com is for informational and inspirational purposes only.

For additional disclaimer information, please visit HalfSizeMe.com.

To contact Heather about the show, please click here to use the contact form.

342 – Half Size Me: How Eating Healthier Helps With Depression

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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In this episode of The Half Size Me™ Show, Heather talks to Lindsey about

  • how eating healthier helps with depression
  • what her first key to weight loss was
  • what were the steps she used to gain control over binge eating
  • and much more!

[Read more…] about 342 – Half Size Me: How Eating Healthier Helps With Depression

Six Years of Maintaining My Weight (Or How Not To Be Another Weight Loss Statistic)

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I’ve always said I refuse to be a weight loss statistic.

What this means is I want to beat the odds of regaining weight. Oftentimes, we get so discouraged by hearing about the large number of people who regain their weight after substantial weight loss.

What I realized was there are some ways I can make myself successful in maintaining my weight loss. Over this past year, I had more challenges and wonderful celebrations than usual, but I still managed to keep the weight off.

I want to share with you some of what I’ve learned in my weight maintenance journey — the things I know were the most important to me this year. I’m going to start by recapping 2017 so you can understand why this year was a little trickier than others when it came to maintaining my weight.

A YEAR FILLED WITH CHANGE

From a family and life perspective, we paid off all of our debt. We had been following a modified Dave Ramsey approach for the past nine years and had been paying off various credit cards. This year, we bit the bullet and paid off the remainder of my student loan.

In total, we paid off $180,000 over the past 10 years between credit cards, car loans, and student loans. This is a huge victory, and it has brought many life changes. We are now focusing on selling our home and moving into an apartment to simplify our lives. By removing the house mortgage, we will be 100-percent debt free, and we’re extremely excited about this new phase in our lives.

On a physical note for me, this year also brought a lot of change. My menstrual cycle started to become extremely irregular. I spoke to my gynecologist about this on more than one occasion. She assured me I was too young (at 41) to be going through perimenopause.

However, I knew something was not right with my cycle, and there were other symptoms I was struggling with, like hot flashes at night, night sweats, breast tenderness, and generally feeling exhausted. She agreed to let me have a hormonal panel, and we found out my hormones suggest I am going through perimenopause. I have not used birth control in the past, but she recommended I start because they found a cyst on my ovaries.

I haven’t used birth control in a long time, but my doctor recommended I start because a cyst was found on one of my ovaries. Thankfuly, after I took the birth control for six weeks, the cyst disappeared. This was extremely good news, but all the stress and changes in my hormones caused my weight to fluctuate this year. I have usually not gone above 160 pounds, but I reached out to the Half Size Me community in November and shared with them how much I was struggling with my weight. I was hitting numbers I did not like — 161, 162.

My weight usually does not go above 160 pounds, but I reached out to the Half Size Me community in November and shared with them how much I was struggling with my weight. I was hitting numbers I did not like — 161, 162.

The reality is I know that if I don’t honor my commitment to keep my weight between 150 and 160, there’s a good chance it will just keep going up. I also know from experience that suffering in silence, keeping it to myself and hoping it will just get better never works. That behavior caused me to gain hundreds of pounds in the past.

So, I allowed myself to be vulnerable. I shared my truth and was able to get refocused. The scale started trending back down to under 160 (159.5 as of today).

BE CONSISTENT…

As you can see, 2017 was full of wonderful things, scary things, and lots of life changes.

What I have learned is that we all are going to change. Our bodies will change, our lifestyles will change, and this is why I stay firm with my commitment to this statement:

To lose weight, you must do what you are willing to do for the rest of your life because this is the only way to know you will be consistent with it.

This year in My Fitness Pal, I hit over 1827 days straight of logging. No matter how crazy my life gets or how distracted I may be, I know I can be consistent with tracking my food. However, tracking my food does not mean I micromanage my food.

It means that when I eat a doughnut, I write it down. It means that when I have an extra piece of cake, I choose to put it into My Fitness Pal. It doesn’t mean that I “can’t” or “shouldn’t” eat certain things, and it doesn’t mean passing judgment. It means being consistent with journaling or tracking what I eat. That’s all.

I also give myself lots of permission to switch out the ways I journal my food. So, if I were to list the things I find are the most helpful for weight loss, the ones that are imperative for weight maintenance, the number one thing would be consistency.

Find a way that you can consistently manage your food. Make it something you are willing to keep up with, day in and day out. For me, it’s tracking calories or points or portion sizes, but I always track. Always.

…AND MIX IT UP

The next thing I find to be important to maintain is finding new ways to keep it interesting. This year, I did a lot of fun physical activities. I added in Yin Yoga. I did a jump rope competition in the summer and a pushup challenge with the Half Size Me listeners and followers.

All of these activities were fun and made my exercise regimen way more enjoyable. I find that by adding in different forms of exercise or giving myself new things to focus on, it keeps the journey exciting and helpful to me.

BE YOUR OWN BEST FRIEND…

Another thing I recommend focusing your attention on — and this is the one that affects all the others — is your mindset. If you find yourself struggling with the “all or nothing” mentality, with perfectionism, with beating yourself up for not doing a good job, then you need to work on cultivating your relationship with yourself. You need to become your own best friend.

This year, I became Heather’s best friend more than ever. This doesn’t mean any “woo-woo” fluffy stuff. What it does mean is, for example, if I don’t make Heather’s lunch for tomorrow, she probably won’t be able to make as good a choice. I know that situation stresses Heather out a lot, so I’m not going to make her deal with that. I’m going to watch out for her.

Being your own best friend means knowing your own areas of weakness, knowing the areas where you need support the most, and being proactive. That way, you set yourself up for your best-case scenario, and it helps you avoid your worst-case scenario.

…AND LET OTHERS HELP YOU

The last tip I want to offer is that you DO NOT do this alone! I lost weight with support, and I maintain my weight with support. I do not go at it alone. I’ve given that up. I’ve given up telling myself, “I should be able to do this. I’m a smart person. I don’t need anyone. I’m capable. I can do this on my own.”

I used to believe those things, but what I’ve learned is that attitude does not set us up for success with weight loss or weight maintenance. And this year, more than ever, reaching out to the Half Size Me community pulled me back from a possible cliff I did not want to fall over. I know my weakness is food. I know that when I’m stressed, tired, exhausted or frustrated, I’m more than likely going to gravitate toward food.

I need to have safety precautions in place, so that when I feel myself slipping, I have people to reach out to — a place where I know I can be myself, where I know they get me, and where I don’t feel like a freak.

So, that’s exactly what I did. I reached out to the Half Size Me community, spilled my guts, shared my reality, told them about the cyst on my ovaries, the birth control pills, the weight, all of it — and I felt free. Free enough to start making better choices.

So, these are a few the tips I wanted share with you after maintaining for six years. Don’t think that someday it will all just get easier. It won’t because your life doesn’t stay stagnant; it’s constantly changing. Your body is constantly changing. What I have learned this year is that just because my body changes, it doesn’t mean I have to become a statistic. It just means I may have to change a little bit of what I’m doing to make those changes work for me.

I hope you are having much success in your journey. If you need any support, you are more than welcome to join us in the Half Size Me Community. If you would like to work with me personally, you can click here.

I look forward to hearing from you!

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