How to keep the weight off!

What happens when you have achieved your goal? What happens when you have reached your goal weight - where do you go from here? Hopefully you will feel fitter and more energetic. You should now be feeling more in control of your eating habits. There are things you can do to help you remain in control.

List your achievements.
Write down everything you have achieved since you started to lead a healthier life. Include the amount of weight you have lost, your new body measurements, the difference in clothes sizes. Don't forget to write all those other achievements ike having more energy, clearer skin, feeling more confident. By listing these all down will give you more motivation to stick with it.

Renew your goals.
Just because you made goals doesn't mean that you can't amend or revise them. They may no longer be valid. Revise them so that they apply to you today. Make yourself a contract to list what it is you now want to achieve. Sign it and place it somewhere you will see it everyday.

Keep monitoring
Keep the food diary going and if you have been doing a mood and activity diary keep those going too. They are really effective tools at keeping you on track and if you stop you are more likely to give in to temptation because it wont be written down reminding you.

Evaluate
Decide how often you are going to evaluate your progress. Then look back on what is working well for you and what isn't. Ditch the things that aren't working and try other methods and strategies. You may be doing things because they feel comfortable and reassurng as opposed to being effective. Be string and ditch them! If you are struggling with a regime or strategy then stop struggling and change it so that it fits more easily into your lifestyle. This is not failure, this is recognising something that wont work and amending it so that it will.

Motivate
Reward yourself regularly - but not through food!!! This is really important. If you coud only manage 30 minutes of exercise at the beginning but can now do 45 minutes then reward yourself for that. Set up little goals that you will reward yourself in advance so that you are more motivated to reach those goals. Swimming an extra 10 lengths, running another mile, running up the stairs, the list is endless, just make sure that they are achievable in a realistic time frame. If they are too hard or will take too ling to chieve then you may end up demotivating yourself so remain realistic.

Be vigilant
Just because you have reached your goal weight doesn't mean that you can stop thinking about it and stop being vigilant. Don't stop planning your meals and booking your exercise plans into appointments in the diary. You may be able to relax any restrictions you put in place but never relax your vigilance as this is one of the main reasons people slip back into old habits.

Enjoy being slim
Enjoy your new way of eating and all the new clothes that you can wear! Remember this is not a permanent diet it is a lifestyle change. LIFE style! It is what you do for the most of the time that counts and it can take a while for new eating and exercise regimes to become habits but once they do you will reap all the benefits two fold.

LAPSES
Distract yourself
Remember that a one time slip does not undo all your hard work. When you get the urge to eat something unhealthy wait five minutes to see if the craving dissipates. Move yourself away from the situation if you can. Cravings are often associated to certain places so take yourself away.

Check your hunger
Are you physically or emotionally hungry? Physical hunger will normally create a gnawing feeling in your stomach. Emotional hunger normally targets a specific food group, usually fat and calorie laden and is triggered by boredom, stress and anger. Make sure you only eat when you are actually physically hungry.

Plan ahead
If you are going to a party or out for dinner, planning ahead will make it a lot easier. Having a small snack before hand will prevent you from overeating later. You can still have high calorie foods just take SMALL portions. If you do over indulge, acknowledge and then balance it out but cutting back the next day and taking more exercise.

Avoid negative self talk
This is really important. Negative self talk is one of the worst things you can do after a lapse. These thoughts are driven by guilt and inevitably lead to further unhealthy eating if you let them. What you do and eat for 80% of the time is what counts. If you have a lapse, accept it and move on.

Work out what went wrong
Use the lapse as a learning opportunity. Instead of feeling guilty work out why you lapsed and what you can do in future to avoid it happening again. Give yourself a list of alternative things you could do next time to avoid repeating it.

Damage limitation
You can indulge one day and then get your balance back by cutting back the next day. This is not advisable to use all the time but rather for the rare times when you do overindulge. It certainly isn't half starving yourself! Instead make an extra effort to eat more healthily and then do 30 minutes more exercise than you would do normally. This is an excellent strategy for if you are going out for a meal and you don;t want to offend the host by not eating their food!