Welcome to Volume 1. of the
How to Maintain Weight Loss
Once you have started losing weight, it is crucial to maintain the weight loss for the long term.
It may seem hard to believe, but taking the weight off is the easy part of dieting. Maintaining your new or ideal weight, is where the real challenge lies. If you are like millions of people, you have tried countless diets only to gain the weight back. Millions of dieters are able to lose weight, but 95% of these dieters gain it back over time because they have focused only on the weight loss. They follow the diet until they get to a particular number on the scale and then, shortly after they go back to the old lifestyle that made them overweight in the first place. In fact the many of the diets out there leave your body in a state that enhances your chances of gaining the weight right back. For most dieters, the weight comes right back. Sometimes even more!
Almost everyone can lose weight, but only 5% keep it off. Let’s take a quick look at what the successful dieters are doing. These are the published Weight Loss Registry's figures. The Weight Loss Registry followed highly successful dieters and came up with seven reasons why people were able to keep the weight off.
1. The dieters accepted failure and kept on trying.
2. The dieters did not deny themselves--they indulged from time to time.
3. They weighed themselves often.
4. They exercised one hour a day.
5. They added little bits of activity into their daily life.
6. They followed a high carbohydrate and low fat diet.
7. They ate 5 meals a day.
When we compare our own Fit For Life® clients weight loss success’ to the list above, we find some striking similarities. Clients say they learned how to maintain weight loss due to the following:
1. Our clients do the best they can with what they have available. Sometimes they are not always in a perfect situation with the healthiest choices, but they make do with what is there and they stick to the plan. If they make a choice that is not to healthy, they don't beat themselves up for it.
2. Our clients eat DELICIOUS and wholesome foods. They use the finest ingredients and make taste tempting meals which helped them stick to Fit For Life® Weight Management System. To us and our clients, indulging does not mean eating junk.
3. Our most successful clients use a tape measure and an accurate scale to keep tabs on their size and weight. They send in their results weekly to the Fit For Life® Center as part of our program, to track how they are doing.
4. Our clients exercise regularly and they will pick the exercises they that enjoy the most from the lists and cards provided with our plans. They are consistent. Many of our successful clients do some heavier housework or other activities around the house to get their heart rate up and they may try different forms of exercise if they get bored.
5. We believe it is vital to get moving every day, somehow, and it doesn't always mean you have to be in an aerobics class or on some sort of machine to get your heart rate up. Just make it happen.
6. Our most successful clients eat organic whole foods and healthy oils. Healthy oils are not the enemy. The rights oils will actually speed up the metabolism. Our clients understand this as it is clearly explained in the comprehensive handbook.
7. Well six out of seven isn’t too bad. Our clients eat only 3 meals a day and occasionally snack.
Our clients understand that while losing weight is a good thing(if you are overweight), they also think of the health they have now and the health that they carry into the future EVERYDAY.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Fit For Life® Center 's dietary and maintenance tips are not the only path. While these are time tested, and proven ideas, if you think you have an idea that works better for you, great! As all of our clients know, we are not all the same inside, and as we have discovered neither should our diets. The bottom line is, keeping the weight off once you have lost it can be tough.
Ultimately, we think it is crucial to focus on health when you change your eating habits. So many companies focus on the losing the weight fast, and consider health secondary. There are two quotes that are overused but for a good reason, they make perfect sense. First, “if you don’t look after yourself, who will?” And ultimately “if you don't have your health, you don't have much.”We believe being thin will mean nothing to you if you compromise your health along the way. People want to enjoy their older years, and they want to be healthy. They don't want to sit in a rocking chair because they have to. They don’t want to complain about symptoms and the things that ail them and say that they should have done something about it earlier.
I hope these few tips have helped to show you how to maintain weight loss in a healthy way.
Give yourself time to adjust to a new and healthy lifestyle and enjoy yourself along the way. A year from now your body will be thanking you for it!
Coming in next Month’s Issue