Maintaining Weight And Ten Tips To Help.
No really, I use these simple tips.
Lost all that weight and now in the purgatory of having to maintain it? You can’t go back to old habits but instead, have to have the middle ground between your new habits and your old ones.
Maintaining is much like weight loss, it needs constant effort from you, but it gets a lot easier with time. The same habits it took to lose weight reflect into maintaining your weight and keeping the weight off.
For me, maintaining weight has been helpful with food balance and knowing when to listen to my body. I have had to play around with what I do, but I think I got it down.
Eating your veggies is imperative!
Not liking vegetables is a no-go when maintaining weight loss. (It is possible though.) Veggies give you nutrients while filling you up at the same time! Make it fun by adding healthy fats like butter, oils, and even spices to make it more palatable.
Fun combinations I like to eat are:
-BBQ sauce +salad.
-Tuna + green beans.
-Carrots + bean dip/refried beans.
It isn’t easy.
With keeping in tune with your body, maintaining weight is hard. There is temptation everywhere.
So, you must keep vigilant to “keep on track” with your eating routine. If you fall off the wagon for a day, a couple of days, or even a week, no worries. Getting back on track is easy because maintaining isn’t about being “all good” or “all bad”, it is about consistency.
Eat foods you like!
Maintaining weight shouldn’t be hell.
Incorporate foods you like into your food routine every day. Foods for me that I have almost daily are bread, fruits, sandwiches, noodles, and candy.
Having one or two treats isn’t bad, food is food and should be used to nourish yourself. To maintain is to have balance with your food intake.
Drink your water, not your calories.
Drinking water is important since it helps many of the body’s functions. With water, there is the evil counterpart of beverages with calories in them. Aside from the neutral party of protein drinks, drinking your calories isn’t smart.
They don’t fill you up and unless it’s a drink you “love” and “can’t live without”, forgo the drinks with calories in them.
Keep up with exercise (that you like).
This is something I cannot stress enough! Maintaining weight is better when you work out in a way that you enjoy. Doing a workout for fun will ensure that you will stick to it and keep pushing yourself.
Weigh yourself to check…
Checking if the scale is creeping up or down is how to maintain weight. How do you know if you are maintaining if you are not checking every so often? This can be daily, once a week, or even monthly for mental health.
Keep foods you don’t have control over, OUT.
Buying foods you know you are going to overeat or binge on is counter-intuitive, is it not?
Keep in tune with yourself, check-in
Asking yourself questions is the best way to understand yourself. What do you need nutrient-wise, emotionally, or physically? I find I am doing best with myself when I am meeting all my emotional and physical needs. Everything sorts itself out if you implement what you need.
Get enough sleep
When we are tired, we don’t make the best decisions. Getting enough rest will help you make the best decisions for your body and keep on track. Getting enough sleep also helps with the recovery process after tough workouts, helps with having the best immune system, and also helps retain information.
It’s a process of learning how to maintain:
With life comes kids, jobs, college, debt, marriage, and so much stuff that we have to do every day. Life is stressful! If you don’t get it right at first when maintaining, don’t beat yourself up! It takes time to learn and become good at new things.
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I know these tips have been preached over and over again but for me, they really do help me maintain my weight.
Other small things that help are knowing what time of the day to eat, how you want to make your meals, and what to do for yourself that will help you. You are the person who knows you best. It is a process of learning how to maintain but once you got it down, it is totally worth it.
