No one wants to go through the effort of losing weight just to put it back on after the diet 'ends'. Today's video covers my top 3 tips for maintaining your weight loss and making sure the weight is gone for good.
TIP # 1 - LEARN HOW TO TRACK YOUR CALORIES
Even if you don't follow flexible dieting or a "calories in, calories out" style of diet, I think it's important to still learn what foods have how many calories. Having that knowledge regarding how to track your food and how many calories are in the foods you eat is invaluable, even if you're not dieting. Any given day (even if I'm not dieting or tracking) I can take a minute or two and calculate a rough estimate of how many calories I've consumed. The only way that was possible was through tracking during my weight loss.
Having that baseline of knowing how many calories I burn in a day roughly, and knowing how many calories are in the foods that I'm eating just gives me that knowledge and that advantage to not stress or worry about it because I'm fully aware of the fuel that's going into my body and the expenditure of that fuel.
TIP #2 - FIND A HEALTHY PASSION
I know this one is a little bit of a cliche but it is so important.
You have to find something that's going to get you up and moving and on your feet, something to help you stay accountable and continue that drive and passion. Having that same attitude like you had when losing weight towards another aspect of your life is a huge help. As much as I enjoy helping all of you, having social media accounts like I have helps keep me accountable and in check as much as it helps anyone else. I've set up those systems in place, not only do I have my progress at stake, but I have a lot of eyes on me.
Beyond that, I've really found a lot of passions in different activities. Hiking, weightlifting, or cycling are things I really enjoy doing and I would still do them regardless of the calorie burn or the health benefits. So there's never a concern where I'm going to lose motivation and gain the weight back because I'm doing what I want to do and what I'm doing is keeping me on track.
TIP # 3 - HOLD YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE BY CONTINUING REGULAR WEIGH-INS
Weighing myself has now become part of my daily morning routine.
I know there is some controversy that surrounds daily weigh-ins, but for someone like me that's purposefully trying to keep my weight the same I feel like I don't have that stress that can come from daily weigh-ins that makes them controversial. I weigh myself; I log it and it's done. It helps me keep on track and just remain aware.
Beyond the scale, things like measurements or how your clothes fit will also do this. I remember during the backslides that I had in the middle of my weight loss; when I stopped weighing myself and I stopped tracking those metrics I was really hiding from my weight and my mistakes causing me to backslide further.
So continuing keeping that awareness on the forefront for me has made a huge difference. I'm aware of where my body's weight any given day, but I'm also aware of how to control it and change it. The longer it's been since I finished losing the weight the more prepared and confident I feel in keeping it off. There's not a doubt in my mind that I will have any trouble in the future maintaining this lifestyle and this weight because I've set it up in a way that's sustainable and fits into my life best.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I hope you guys got some benefit from this, it's not too often that I see people talking about their best tips and methods for maintaining that weight loss.
During the final stretch of my weight loss, all I could think of was "Is this going to have to be the rest of my life, am I going to have to be this conscious or proactive as the years go by?" The answer is yes and no. I feel like I'm equally aware and conscious now, but the difficulty level has just gone way down. These are honestly and truly the things that I do to keep myself accountable.