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How to maintain weight after you’ve reached your goal weight is a bit of a conundrum for some. It can be tricky, but it is not necessarily hard.
Maintaining your targeted weight after spending hundreds of dollars on a program or product is a big deal. You’ve reached the desired weight, but now your program has ended. Your diet can’t be maintained. It helped you lose weight, but now what?
It really shouldn’t be so difficult to stay at your desired weight. But for so many people, the weight creeps back up. Why? Because the program didn’t teach you how to live a healthy lifestyle. They didn’t tell you what to do to maintain your weight after the product ran out. And you’re stuck with no more program, no more product, and no direction.
There is a way to maintain your weight, set new goals and stay where you need to be without products. It’s called Balance8life. Learn to use self control to balance your nutrition, rest, exercise and more, for a balanced lifestyle that keeps you where you need to be, forever.
HOW TO MAINTAIN WEIGHT WITH PROPER NUTRITION
The first thing to pay attention to is your nutrition. It was your old diet and eating habits that put the weight on. So going back to your old eating and nutritional habits won’t magically work any differently than before.
When you find yourself at the end of a “diet”, it is easy to feel lost. Most diets are just that, a diet. Meaning, they are only there for a specific purpose, to help you lose weight. They aren’t healthy, and definitely not sustainable. But their purpose is to get you where you want to be, and fast.
At the end of it, you’re left with your after picture, and a “what next?” because dieting isn’t a lifestyle.
Or is it?
Through Balance8life, I promote a very balanced, nutrition-packed lifestyle of eating healthfully. Not counting calories or measuring portions (though portion control is definitely important). It is all about balance. A balance of fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, whole grains, seeds and legumes.
Maintaining healthy weight means maintaining healthy habits.
This isn’t a diet, it is a balanced, nutritional lifestyle.
The best way to keep the weight off is the vegan, plant-based diet. It is sustainable, healthy, balanced, and complete.
VEGAN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS – RESOURCES:
Though I say being a vegan is the best diet to follow, it is easy for me to say because I am a vegan and have been for years. But for most people, it is new, and foreign. But don’t worry, many have gone before you into the plant-based world! Here is some help for you though, in case you aren’t sure where to begin.
What is a vegan? Why is a Vegan Diet one of the Best Diets? Some common misconceptions about veganism. Where do you get your protein if you’re a vegan? Should you go gluten free? You’ll find a link to part 2 in the first article. And, can you actually bulk and gain muscle on a vegan diet?
MAINTAINING WEIGHT WITH EXERCISE
If you did an exercise program to lose the weight, you can’t stop exercising after you’ve lost the weight. Trust me, if you quit, those pounds will catch back up. You may need a new or different program, somebody else to coach you, or a little self-help on YouTube and Google. Quitting is not an option.
You have to look at exercise as a healthy habit. It is a daily must-have like showering and eating. Weight gain is not just from loving food. It is also from loving a sedentary lifestyle. We were made to move. So move daily and often.
Forming habits, good habits, keeps you on your forward journey to a successful healthy lifestyle.
MAINTAINING WEIGHT WITH HYDRATION
Water. Your new fave drink. Even if it isn’t your new favorite drink, tell yourself it is. Here’s some help to make it tastier if you really can’t stand it.
Your tea, soda and other sugary drinks cannot return to your refrigerator. You’ve got to keep them out of your grocery cart, out of reach, and not in your house at all. Water should remain your number one go-to for hydration. Always.
Be careful with “zero cal” drinks and “no sugar” drinks. A lot of these drinks are still loaded with artificial flavorings and colors and have very little water which makes them even worse than a natural drink that contains sugar and calories.
HOW TO MAINTAIN WEIGHT WITH SLEEP
Your body needs a break. A full 7-8+ hours of good sleep is a must to keep weight off. No midnight snacking. In order to rest well, you need to be sure you do not eat before hitting the hay.
Your last meal should end at least 5 hours before you go to bed. Your stomach needs to be empty and you literally need to give your digestive system a break. It’s called fasting to some, and to others its just simply sleeping.
If you struggle with sleeping, there are also a few great things that can work, and they work naturally.
Here are 8 Steps to Improve Your Quality of Sleep. Also, check out my favorite supplement, Nrf2! This supplement is 100% natural and plant-based. It isn’t exactly made directly for sleeping, but as a result of the age-reversing process of ridding free-radicals, I went from not sleeping for over 4 years, to sleeping like a baby every night. (It took being consistent for 3 months before I did finally sleep that well. I first experienced enhanced mood, zero fatigue and over-all great energy).
MAINTAINING WEIGHT MEANS NO SNACKING
Not even celery sticks or apples.
Yes these things are healthy. No, they are not making you healthy when eaten between your meals.
Don’t do it. Ever.
Period.
More on why fasting and no snacking is best below.
CURB YOUR APPETITE WITH SUNSHINE
Sunshine benefits you more than you would think. Sunshine is actually a natural appetite suppressant. Have you ever experienced a day out at the beach and realized you hadn’t eaten anything all day? Sunlight is also a mood
enhancer. Often people eat, not because they’re hungry, but because they’re sad and lonely, or just bored. Go find something to do outside instead of eating, and you might find you aren’t really hungry.
MAINTAINING WEIGHT WITH A SET MEAL TIME
Make meal times regular. When you do this your body settles into knowing what to expect, and therefore doesn’t get as hungry between meal times. (Providing that you are eating foods that have dense, complex carbs and healthy fats, that is.)
It is easier to wait to eat when you’re used to eating at a certain time every day.
There is a common misconception that eating 6 small meals a day is better because it helps keep your metabolism buzzing.
(INSERT “WRONG” ALARM HERE)
“A lot of times people think they’re going into starvation mode when they skip a meal or fast for a day, and that’s truly not the case. Unless someone has a prolonged, dire lack of access to food or an eating disorder like anorexia, it’s very hard to go into complete clinical starvation mode.” Dr. Joy Dubost RD, CSSD Registered Dietitian, Board Certified in Sports Nutrition, Food Scientist.
“Fasting is an excellent way to treat disease. A day or two of fasting each week would do most people more good than any amount of medical advice or treatment.” – Agatha M. Thrash, M.D. Preventive Medicine (Full article here)
Fasting allows the body’s enzyme system to focus on detoxifying. If you’re constantly eating, you’re not giving your body the proper time it needs to eliminate toxins, and therefore your body is more susceptible to disease.
MEASUREMENTS OVER SCALES
Don’t weigh yourself every day. When you’ve finished your program or diet, measure and weigh yourself, write it down, then put it aside.
If you are exercising or changing your diet, keep track in 4-6 week intervals. Measure and/or weigh, but don’t worry so much about your weight as much as your measurements.
If you’re measuring good in all the right spots, understand that muscle weighs more than fat, and could potentially throw off your “healthy weight expectation.”
GUT FEELINGS AND GUT HEALTH
When your gut is healthy, you’re going to be feeling a lot better about life. When you feel good, it is easier to stay on the journey to better health. Having a healthy gut is core to healthy success. A healthy gut also helps keep you from being sick.
The bacteria in our gut not only play an important role in digestion but it can also play a major role in your ability to maintain a healthy weight.
Maintain a healthy weight by maintaining healthy habits. You’ve got this!
If you would like some face-to-face coaching with Sabra, email me and let’s talk. 😉
Please feel free to comment below, contact me on social media and follow me here! I love hearing from my readers. 🙂 I am on Facebook, Instagram, E-mail, Twitter, Pinterest and balance8life.