I Chose Thin

After months of eating healthy and exercising, you're close to fitting into that pair of smaller jeans. You're excited, proud and ecstatic and the truth be told, nervous. Your thoughts are on how hard you worked to lose the weight. You are also thinking about your maintenance program because you have changed your lifestyle and you don't want the weight to creep back.

James O. Hill PhD., who is the director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado says, "Actually losing weight is the easy part. It is keeping it off that is hard."

That isn't exactly what you wanted to hear after working so hard to lose the weight. You thought that maybe maintaining would be a walk in the park.

Now that we know that it is going to take some work, dealing with it will be easier now that we know what to expect.

Choose Support:

Make sure you have a great support system. That can mean your friends, doctor, dietician, personal trainer, online support group or maybe even someone who has been overweight and has succeeded is now maintaining their weight.

Don't let your pride do all of your thinking and maintain alone. Now that you have reached your goal, you still need a support system in place. I can't stress this enough.

Going from weight loss mode to maintenance mode is the part of the dieting process that people usually try doing on their own.

Some people even try to stick with their weight loss program forever and this is the recipe for failure. You can't stay on a diet forever it is doomed to fail. You have to make a healthy lifestyle change.

Find out what keeps you motivated. The scale won't be going down anymore, you won't be getting any thinner and your clothing size will be the same. Your motivation should be to add some spice into your life. Enjoy your new healthy lifestyle. Stop and see the beauty all around you, enjoy looking in the mirror and seeing the new you, and knowing that you are healthy and that life is fantastic.

Now is the time to get busy. Dig into your tool box through the nuts and bolts and find the right tools to making your lifestyle healthy and successful.

Choose Exercise:

You need to include exercise in your lifestyle change. You have to move forward and keep up with your exercise routine. You need to believe that physical activity is now even more important while you are maintaining your weight goal.

Now that you have a smaller body, your metabolism goes down. You require less energy than you did before you lost your weight, so unless you increase your exercise, you have to restrict your calories forever. If you restrict your calories forever then you are setting yourself up for failure. To succeed after the diet, you have to make up for the metabolism drop, by increasing your physical activity.

Plan on gradually making your workouts last a little longer and a little more intense. Now that you have reached your goal then why not add some new activities to your new lifestyle. Try some new sports like yoga, racquet ball, bowling, hiking or swimming.

What Happened?

Despite your best efforts, setbacks are going to happen. So you need to put a plan into action to be able to deal with them.

If you're watching your weight and exercising regularly, just adjust your food intake to help with any weight gain. You have to have a plan if your weight goes up, and for the most part cutting back on your portions will usually do it.

If you slip up, then take mind and get your weight under control before it turns your success into a failure..

Positive self talk is important:

If you gain a little weight do not criticize yourself, you haven't gained all your weight back. You are still worth salvaging. You must take a positive approach to not gain back anymore. Then just cut down on calories or up your exercise to lose those extra pounds.

You may need to go back to the original diet that helped you reach your goal. Learn from your mistakes and keep track of your eating and exercise so that you can prevent a future slip up from becoming excessive weight gain.

Make sure that the small setbacks don't turn in to larger ones, weight yourself regularly, and keep a journal. Losing a few pounds is better than having to lose 40 pounds.

Get in tune with yourself:

Get to know your body and yourself. Know when you are full, hungry, tired or thirsty. It's an inner ability to do what is important for your health, appearance, energy level and strength.

Finding your balance:

Energy balance is matching your food intake to your energy expenditure. The more you exercise the more you can eat. Exercise allows you to maximize your physical activity in a way that's reasonable for your daily activities.

You need to figure out what works for you. Knowing and recognizing that one size doesn't fit all and there will be peaks and valleys in your healthy lifestyle. This will help you in your travels before, during and after you reach your weight loss goal.

Hints:

• Don't over do it!
• Plan your meals ahead of time
• Exercise
• When you eat out plan what you are going to eat.
• Don't panic over a weight gain, just get back on track
• Enjoy your new lifestyle!

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