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Maintenance

8 Rounds of Maintenance This Year and I Am Still Standing!

January 17, 2020 by Meredith Jones

The doubters said, 

“Man can not fly.” 

The doers said, 

“Maybe, but we’ll try,” 

And finally soared 

Into the morning’s glow, 

While non-believers 

Watched from below.

— Bruce Lee, extract from the poem “Which Are You?”

 

This year was my 8th year of maintaining a 170-pound weight loss. It was the most interesting year yet. You can read my past year anniversary posts here:

 

My 2-Year Anniversary 

 

What Life Is Like 3 Years After Hitting My Weight Goal 

 

10 Things I’ve Learned Maintaining My Weight Loss for 4 Years

 

5-Year Anniversary of Maintaining My 170-Pound Weight Loss (and My 4 Tips for Keeping the Journey Exciting!) 

 

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

 

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

I found myself this year at my highest weight since hitting my goal back in 2012. My maintenance range is to stay between 150–160 pounds. Every year I have managed to honor that goal, but this year was different.

 

This year I spent almost the whole year between 160 and 165 pounds.

 

 I didn’t feel motivated to change. I was not sharing how I was feeling, my plan of action, or what I was struggling with.

 

I was feeling apathetic. 

 

I worked a good part of the year on the Healthy Parents = Healthy Families podcast. While preparing and researching things to help families, I ended up taking in messages that made me feel like what I was doing for myself was wrong or pointless.

 

 I take full responsibility for listening to these messages. I am not a victim; I could have chosen to turn them off. 

 

The messages I was hearing lead to many negative feelings and thoughts:

 

  • that tracking was disordered behaviour
  • that losing weight and trying to maintain a weight loss is pointless
  • that wanting to lower my weight was not a worthwhile goal

 

The funny thing is that I have years of proof that show that these thoughts are not true.

 

I have chosen to not be a statistic. I have worked hard to keep the weight off over the last 8 years. Despite proof from my own life, I still fell prey to these damaging ideas. This goes to show how influencing it can be to hear the same messages over and over again.  It can lead you to believe things even when you have proof they are not correct for you.

 

“People tend to be generous when sharing their nonsense, fear, and ignorance. And while they seem quite eager to feed you their negativity, please remember that sometimes the diet we need to be on is a spiritual and emotional one. Be cautious with what you feed your mind and soul. Fuel yourself with positivity and let that fuel propel you into positive action.” 

― Steve Maraboli

 

What this experience highlighted for me was that I was allowing other’s thoughts and beliefs to distract me from the gifts I have gotten from the process of  weight loss and maintenance.

 

 I am the one that lives in my body—no one else can know how I feel day to day. 

 

They can not know the freedom I feel now versus when I was in a body that hurt and was over 300 pounds. 

 

I have gotten so many gifts from this journey. The self discipline I have found to lose and maintain my weight has helped me with money, running Half Size Me, and homeschooling my kiddos. 

I have freedom every day because I never have to question:

 

  • if I can physically do something
  • if I will physically fit in the seat, booth, or ride
  • if I feel uncomfortable in social settings due to my size

 

The journey has allowed me to do all kinds of physical adventures with my kids. 

 

Playing football with my family

Boxing with my boys

Nature hikes

These are the things I should have been focusing on in my journey this past year:

 

  1. My mindset: I realized I need to be very cautious as to what messages I choose to take in. If they leave me feeling bad, disempowered, or hopeless, then I should stop listening. I finally changed course and began taking in more philosophical and motivational ideas, which have brought me much happiness 

 

  1. Sharing: I realized for me that isolation is a prison I put myself in for being human. I keep my goals to myself; I struggle with my thoughts on my own and with isolating myself from others. These behaviors are a recipe for self sabotage. I can’t grow and evolve if I don’t share.

 

  1. Leaning into support is key to success for me: I have only been successful with my weight loss this time because of consistency with my habits and being in the Half Size Me community. I had tried losing weight so many times in my past but always tried to do things on my own. I have been successful this time in losing and keeping the weight off because I have kept myself grounded with others who are walking this journey with me. 

 

I chose to turn things around this year.

In October I shared with the community that I was going to make changes. I started sharing my food log and pictures of my meals, and started doing weekly weight-loss tracker updates. I choose to remove podcasts and stop following people that had messages that left me feeling apathetic about myself.

 

I started listening and taking in messages that made me feel better. I have been researching philosophy (particularly Stoicism) and working on boundaries, ego, and much more in the last quarter of the year. 

 

I realized a few things about myself and for myself:

 

  1. Discipline and consistency have only brought me good things
  2. Where your mind is, your body will follow—take in things that give you energy, power, and focus
  3. Keep my own scorecard: remember that we need to evaluate ourselves and not ask others if we are good enough, worthy, or right. We decide what makes us happy and what will leave us feeling successful. Looking to those outside of us will not help. They get to do them, and I do me.  
  4. Everyone has their own agenda, and I need to know what mine is, not theirs. I don’t need others to convince me that what I am doing is wrong and what they are proposing is right. If I am happy with my life and what I am doing, than I am the judge of what is right for me.

 

I am proud to say that by  sharing, showing up, and being honest in the Half Size Me community, I am back in my range of 150–160 pounds for my 8-year weight-loss anniversary.

“Live the Life of Your Dreams: Be brave enough to live the life of your dreams according to your vision and purpose instead of the expectations and opinions of others.” 

― Roy T. Bennett

There will always be those that won’t want to do the work necessary for a big change (in any area of life). Joel and I have paid off $180,000 in debt over 10 years following Dave Ramsey’s principles. We had to give up things. We had to be disciplined with money. We had to do hard things. We now have no more consumer debt. We are “weird people,” as Dave likes to say. And I am totally content with being a “weird person.” 

 

I know not everyone will want to do what we did to pay off debt. 

Does that make us wrong? 

Does it mean that because the average person might not choose to do it that I am wrong or disordered?

No! If this is a meaningful goal for me, then who has the right to pass judgment on what makes me feel good, empowered, and focused? 

 

We need to ask ourselves questions: What do we value?

What do we want our lives to look like?

What will make us feel accomplished and feel like we’re moving toward happiness?

 

I am walking into my 9th year of maintenance feeling empowered and knowing that my voice matters most in what is good for me. I am being very cautious in what I take into my life. I am protecting myself from negative and critical voices. I hope you will do the same thing and have a wonderful year of progress!

 

Filed Under: Blog, Maintenance

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

February 12, 2019 by Meredith Jones

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. 

Filed Under: Blog, Maintenance

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

February 1, 2018 by HeatherRobertson

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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Filed Under: Blog, Maintenance, Weight Loss Inspiration

What Life Is Like 3 Years After Hitting My Goal Weight

March 18, 2015 by HeatherRobertson

Editor’s Note: This article was originally sent out to our email subscribers back in February. If you’re interested in getting posts like this, extra audio content, and other FREE resources, please click here to subscribe to the free Half Size Me Newsletter!

There are a few dates that will forever be seared into my memory: the day I got married, the day each of my three beautiful boys were born and the day I hit my goal weight, which was Jan. 7, 2012.

It was a battle I never thought I would see the end to. It felt like it took forever. Each pound was a victory. I dreamed about getting to my goal. The closer I got, the more antsy I felt. I wanted it bad. But believe it or not, there was one thing that meant more to me than getting to my goal. That was keeping the weight off.

It hurts more than words can describe to work your butt off for something, deprive yourself of food, do the exercise, feel the pride and satisfaction of getting to your desired weight—then to gain it all back. I know; I have done this before. It hurts. You enjoy weight loss with others. You are cheered on and you are congratulated, but when you gain it back, you are on your own. No one speaks about it. No one acknowledges it. No one offers to help.

That is why this time was so different for me. I would not just lose 170 pounds; I would make it my mission to live a life I could sustain, so I never gained those pounds back. I would build self-trust and efficacy in regards to my fitness and food. That meant eating cake, taking rest days and being human.

When all I focused on was the scale, I did what it took to just move the scale down. When I focused on maintenance, I lived life and accepted the gains and weeks of no loss. Things had to be different this time so I would never have to experience regaining the weight again.

I am beyond elated to say that for another year I have stayed at my personal goal of 150 to 160 pounds each week. This is a victory for any maintainer. Another year of habits being strengthened. Finding mental security in knowing you are capable. Knowing you are in control.

There have been many lessons I have learned in the last three years, and I want to share them with you. Even if right now you are in the middle of your weight-loss journey, I feel you will benefit from having a maintainer’s mindset. It may change how you face day-to-day decisions and better prepare you for what is to come.

Remember, you may spend one to five years losing the weight, but you have the rest of your life to maintain. Most of your time will be spent finding the balance necessary to keep the weight off.

The following are 10 things I see successful maintainers do to stay healthy and remain at their goal weight.

#1 They continue to live with the healthy habits that helped them get the weight off in the first place. 

They continue to journal their food and exercise, plan menus, find support and make time for personal improvement.

#2 They find a weight that is sustainable, not just achievable. 

They focus on finding a happy medium where they eat in a way they enjoy and exercise in a way they enjoy, and they let the scale balance between these two paths. They allow their habits to dictate what they will weigh, rather than a BMI chart or height/weight chart.

#3 They do not overly rely on cardio, and they prioritize weight lifting.

Many maintainers realize there is a limit to how much continuous cardio they can do. They may have relied upon cardio to get the weight off, but they realize that the longer they do it, the less effective it is if they do not increase time or intensity. Many successful maintainers have realized that weight training has a better metabolic effect and allows them to spend less time in the gym, with more benefits from added muscle.

 

#4 They find a way to cook that replaces their favorite food.

If they love pizza or Italian food, they find ways to incorporate the flavor in other dishes to satisfy their craving without going back to eating the foods they did at a heavier weight. They invest time in learning to cook and experimenting in the kitchen. Eating broccoli and broiled chicken may work when you are losing weight, but it will not sustain you long term.

 

#5 They eliminate or cut back on negative and toxic relationships.

People who make them feel unhappy or who do not help them with their goals are directly or indirectly removed from their lives, or exposure to them is minimized. If you want to keep the weight off, staying around a person who is abusive or who acts as an emotional trigger will make it more likely you’ll turn to food, especially if that is what you have always done. Maintainers find ways of coping with emotion without using food, or develop enough self-respect to limit unhealthy relationships.

 

#6 They find a way to stop resenting the process of healthy living and instead embrace it and find joy in it.

There is a pivotal point for most maintainers when they resent having to continue the habits they formed to lose the weight, but they come to the realization that this is forever. They can accept it and find the pleasure in it and even enjoy the process once they see it differently.

They stop focusing on what everyone else gets to eat and comparing themselves to others and find gratitude in finding what works for them to sustain their weight.

 

#7 They prioritize self-improvement.

When they reach their goal, that is not the end of them getting stronger, healthier and happier. They begin seeking out more self-development opportunities and ways to improve. After years of feeling they could never lose the weight and keep it off, realizing they can makes them wonder what else is possible.

They may find they need to tame their temper or work on their gratitude. Maybe they see things in a negative light and know it brings them down. They realize they are not one-dimensional, so they want to continue to put time into creating the best version of themselves.

 

#8 They find a way to maintain their weight that is not driven by fear of gaining the weight back.

For many, after a life of obesity, the transition to maintenance is scary. You may feel you are walking a tightrope and fear going back. However, fear will only work for so long. Successful maintainers find a way to do it because it makes them feel good both mentally and physically, and they see it more as a positive in their life than as something to fear.

 

#9 They see this as a permanent way to live, not a temporary state of being.

Successful maintainers realize that they cannot stop doing all the necessary steps to remain healthy, and they come to a place of acceptance that this is for the rest of their life.

 

#10 They find a way of eating that they can maintain, and they don’t stay on a diet.

Most people who have long-term success find a way of eating enough food to sustain themselves and increasing calories to maintain their weight. Those who try to eat at their weight-loss calorie level find they binge eat and struggle with maintenance because they are not getting enough to eat. Most maintainers do a metabolism reset or reverse diet to get their calories up to an appropriate level for their activity.

 

I hope these 10 tips help you when focusing on your weight-loss journey, or if you are maintaining, I hope they help you know you are not alone and that, with small changes, the process can get better.

 

And f you are like me and feel there needs to be more help for maintainers, please join us in the HSM community www.halfsizeme.com/join. We have a maintainers’ meeting once a month, and this has been very helpful for me. Hearing what other maintainers experience and setting new goals makes all the difference.

 

You can lose the weight and keep it off; you just have to be willing to try new things and find your way in this journey. Please share where you are in your journey and let me know if I can help you.

Filed Under: Blog, Maintenance, Weight Loss Journey, Weight Loss Tips

9 Things You Can Learn about Losing Weight and Keeping It Off from Successful Maintainers

January 13, 2015 by HeatherRobertson

3-yr-anniversaryThere are a few dates that will forever be seared into my memory: the day I got married, the day each of my three beautiful boys were born and the day I hit my goal weight, which was Jan. 7, 2012.

It was a battle I never thought I would see end. It felt like it took forever. Each pound was a victory.

I dreamed about getting to my goal. The closer I got, the more antsy I felt. I wanted it bad. But believe it or not, there was one thing that meant more to me than getting to my goal. That was keeping the weight off.

It hurts more than words can describe to work your butt off for something, deprive yourself of food, do the exercise, feel the pride and satisfaction of getting to your desired weight—then to gain it all back.

I know; I have done this before. It hurts. You enjoy weight loss with others. You are cheered on and you are congratulated, but when you gain it back, you are on your own. No one speaks about it. No one acknowledges it. No one offers to help.

That is why this time was so different for me. I would not just lose 170 pounds; I would make it my mission to live a life I could sustain, so I never gained those pounds back. I would build self-trust and efficacy in regards to my fitness and food. That meant eating cake, taking rest days and being human.

When all I focused on was the scale, I did what it took to just move the scale down. When I focused on maintenance, I lived life and accepted the gains and weeks of no loss (which I shared here) . Things had to be different this time so I would never have to experience regaining the weight again.

I am beyond elated to say that for another year I have stayed at my personal goal of 150 to 160 pounds each week. This is a victory for any maintainer. Another year of strengthening habits. Finding mental security in knowing you are capable. Knowing you are in control.

There have been many lessons I have learned in the last three years, and I want to share them with you. Even if right now you are in the middle of your weight-loss journey, I feel you will benefit from having a maintainer’s mindset. It may change how you face day-to-day decisions and better prepare you for what is to come.

Remember, you may spend one to five years losing the weight, but you have the rest of your life to maintain. Most of your time will be spent finding the balance necessary to keep the weight off.

The following are 9 things I see successful maintainers do to stay healthy and remain at their goal weight.

1 They continue to live with the healthy habits that helped them get the weight off in the first place.

They continue to journal their food and exercise, plan menus, find support and make time for personal improvement.

2 They find a weight that is sustainable, not just achievable.

They focus on finding a happy medium where they eat in a way they enjoy and exercise in a way they enjoy, and they let the scale balance between these two paths. They allow their habits to dictate what they will weigh, rather than a BMI chart or height/weight chart.

3 They do not overly rely on cardio, and they prioritize weight lifting.

Many maintainers realize there is a limit to how much continuous cardio they can do. They may have relied upon cardio to get the weight off, but they realize that the longer they do it, the less effective it is if they do not increase time or intensity. Many successful maintainers have realized that weight training has a better metabolic effect and allows them to spend less time in the gym, with more benefits from added muscle.

4 They find a way to cook that replaces their favorite food.

If they love pizza or Italian food, they find ways to incorporate the flavor in other dishes to satisfy their craving without going back to eating the foods they did at a heavier weight. They invest time in learning to cook and experimenting in the kitchen. Eating broccoli and broiled chicken may work when you are losing weight, but it will not sustain you long term.

5 They eliminate or cut back on negative and toxic relationships.

People who make them feel unhappy or who do not help them with their goals are directly or indirectly removed from their lives, or exposure to them is minimized. If you want to keep the weight off, keeping a person around who is abusive or an emotional trigger will make it more likely you will turn to food if that is what you have always done. Maintainers find ways of coping without food or find enough self-respect to limit unhealthy relationships.

6 They find a way to stop resenting the process of healthy living and instead embrace it and find joy in it.

There is a pivotal point for most maintainers when they resent having to continue the habits they formed to lose the weight, but they come to the realization that this is forever. They can accept it and find the pleasure in it and even enjoy the process once they see it differently. They stop focusing on what everyone else gets to eat and comparing themselves to others and find gratitude in finding what works for them to sustain their weight. Successful maintainers realize that they cannot stop doing all the necessary steps to remain healthy, and they come to a place of acceptance that this is for the rest of their life.

7 They prioritize self-improvement.

When they reach their goal, that is not the end of them getting stronger, healthier and happier. They begin seeking out more self-development opportunities and ways to improve. After years of feeling they could never lose the weight and keep it off, realizing they can makes them wonder what else is possible. They may find they need to tame their temper or work on their gratitude. Maybe they see things in a negative light and know it brings them down. They realize they are not one-dimensional, so they want to continue to put time into creating the best version of themselves.

8 They find a way to maintain their weight that is not driven by fear of gaining the weight back.

For many, after a life of obesity, the transition to maintenance is scary. You may feel you are walking a tightrope and fear going back. However, fear will only work for so long. Successful maintainers find a way to do it because it makes them feel good both mentally and physically, and they see it more as a positive in their life than as something to fear.

9 They find a way of eating that they can maintain, and they don’t stay on a diet.

Most people who have long-term success find a way of eating enough food to sustain themselves and increasing calories to maintain their weight. Those who try to eat at their weight-loss calorie level find they binge eat and struggle with maintenance because they are not getting enough to eat. Most maintainers do a metabolism reset or reverse diet to get their calories up to an appropriate level for their activity.

I hope these tips help you when focusing on your weight-loss journey, or if you are maintaining, I hope they help you know you are not alone and that, with small changes, the process can get better.

If you are like me and feel there needs to be more help for maintainers, and those who want to have the maintainer’s mindset, then please check out the Half Size Me Community today at http://www.halfsizeme.com/join. We have a maintainers’ meeting once a month as well as weekly support meetings.

You can lose the weight and keep it off; you just have to be willing to try new things and find your way in this journey. Please share where you are in your journey and let me know if I can help you.

Filed Under: Blog, Maintenance, Weight Loss Journey

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