I know that losing weight is one of the most difficult pursuits in health. However, keeping the weight off is perhaps even harder than losing it in the first place.The statistic often stated, is that only 5 percent of those who lose weight are able to maintain it long term. Thankfully, there are several quick and easy things I can do every day that’ll help me keep the fat off.
1. Don’t Try to Diet
While dieting is the most popular way to lose weight and keep it off, it is very hard to sustain. Also, it generally gives regular people like me unrealistic expectations. Even more problematic is the structure of a diet. Diets pretty much always have a set end point. Keeping weight off is an ongoing journey, with no set end point. It requires a totally different mindset that people used to dieting may struggle with. I know that I did.
2. Make Realistic Goals
While I don’t want to have one goal that I’m working towards, I do want to have a series of ongoing goals that are realistic goals for me. This is the mindset that I have to have if I’m going keep weight off for good. I have to make small goals for myself that I’m trying to hit each week, and then keep setting them. Don’t stop. If I do, there is a very good chance that I’ll gain the weight I’ve just lost.
3. Don’t Have Any Cheat Days
While cheat days are all the rage in health blogs and social media accounts, many experts feel that they are not actually a good idea. If I have one cheat day, I’ll inevitably be tempted to have more. This doesn’t mean that I should never eat unhealthy food. However, setting aside a time to eat as much junk as possible probably isn’t the best idea. It hasn’t worked for me, and it probably won’t work for anyone else. I can’t be seduced by the pictures of delicious food that everybody is posting to their Instagram account. If I cheat once, I’ll almost certainly cheat again.
4. Make Sure That You Manage Stress in a Healthy Way
It is tempting to eat to relieve stress. I’ve done it, everybody has done it. It goes without saying that this is very unhealthy. This practice is probably responsible for more weight gain than any other. However, there is a good side to this. There are healthy ways I can get rid of stress than consuming unhealthy things. Exercising is very good for this. Just a quick jog on the treadmill can get rid of my stress for the entire day.
5. Take a Little Time to Plan: It’s Worth It
It can be tough to find a few minutes to pick out healthy foods or exercise. Our days seem to get busier and busier in these fast-paced modern times, and it’s easy for me to get into bed at the end of the day and realize I haven’t done anything to stay healthy and keep weight off. If I just take a few minutes to plan and follow these plans every day, I only need to spend a short amount of time and I can keep weight off easily.
Featured photo credit: Pablo.buffer.com via pablo.buffer.com
