My Top 10 Tips for Weight Maintenance

Here's me in my uniform ready for work this morning. But I have something more than a selfie I'd like to share today. It's my top 10 tips for weight maintenance. Now, I'm no expert - this is just what I've learnt over the past 6-12 months and what I've found works well for me. I hope it is helpful for others out there too :-)

1. Be Honest with Yourself

This is my number one tip for weight maintenance. Everything else ties into this point. If you are guessing, hoping, denying, ignoring or just plain kidding yourself, you are not going to have much success in either losing or maintaining your weight.  If you aren't honest with yourself, your lies will only hurt you.  Ask yourself openly the questions that need to be asked and answer honestly.

2. Have Goals and Review Them

Write them down, blog, use an app to record and review your progress regularly. Set realistic targets and then break them into bite-sized chunks and consume them one bite at a time. 

Goals keep you honest. If you are not making progress, then you may need to re-strategise and look closely at where you might be falling over.

3. Focus on Nutritional Benefits

Food is medicine. We can fuel, nourish and heal our bodies with food. To do that, we need know what is in the food we consume. How can you be honest with yourself if you have know idea about the nutritional value of what you are consuming? Just because something 'sounds healthy' like a muesli bar or a sports drink, it doesn't mean that it is not packed with sugar or preservatives. Make sure you are informed about nutrition.  This is important! It will help you to make good choices that will have huge benefits for your wellbeing.

4. Portion Control

It's important to understand how much we are consuming and the impact this has on our weight. Again this is about knowledge and being honest with yourself. You don't have to measure out portions to the gram, but simple guidelines can help to understand portions. For example a standard serve of protein for a meal should be about the size and thickness of the palm of your hand. Another guideline is around 40% of what is on your plate for each meal should be vegetables - mostly the green leafy kind.  Educate yourself on portions and be honest with yourself about how much you really need to consume.

5. Move Your Body

As well as improving health and fitness, physical activity will help you to burn fat and excess calories. I like low impact activities like swimming, cycling and walking a few times a week if possible.  Our bodies were made to move, so move it or lose it.

6. Take Advantage of Tools and Technology.

There are numerous tools available to make the process of monitoring progress  easy. First and foremost, a good, reliable set of bathroom scales is a must. Weigh yourself regularly, at the same time of day and wearing the same clothing (or none at all if you prefer), for an accurate reading.

If you are more tech savvy, there are a multitude of apps available to track eating patterns, physical activity, weight loss progress and count calories. Try a few and find out what suits you.

My Fitbit activity tracker is my new best friend, it is giving me data around the clock to help me monitor my activity levels and prompt me to improve my fitness and reach my goals. 

Another trusty tool is my Nutri Ninja, for making nutritious, filling green smoothies for breakfast. It's fast, efficient and helps me pack a lot of nutrition into one meal. 

Find the tools that work for you and use them.

7. Use a Support Network

I have a good support network in place. My husband sits at the top of the list followed by my Mum and a number of friends who share in my health and wellbeing aspirations. Sometimes a third party perspective is needed to 'keep it real'.  Everyone needs help and guidance or just some positive reinforcement from time to time. Engage your support network if you feel like you are starting to struggle or you think you may be losing your way.

8. Having an Indulgence Limit & Sticking to it!

One of the hardest things to do is to say 'no' to yourself. Especially when you really want an extra portion or a piece of cake with your coffee or someone offers you some fantastic home baking. Everyone enjoys indulging and being able to say yes to their desires. You can tell yourself 'it doesn't matter' or 'I'll make up for it tomorrow' but, it is important to live in the now and do what's right for tomorrow.  When I find myself tempted to say yes, and I know I'm already at my 'indulgence limit' I think ahead to tomorrow. How will I feel when I get on the scales in the morning? How will I feel having to be strict on myself tomorrow because I overdid it today? Usually that is enough to make me re-think. These little decisions are important - don't undervalue them! Everyday is filled with these challenges. The only way to deal with them is head on, with resolve and by being honest with ourselves.

9. Accept Hunger

It really is okay to feel hungry every once in a while.  In order to maintain my weight, there are times that I need to restrict my portions/calories to keep my weight within my healthy weight range. In order to use fat stores, eating less is a necessity and with this comes hunger.  It's not pleasant having intermittent hunger pangs, but I have a few strategies for dealing with them.

Distraction is a good one. If I'm busy, I'm less likely to notice that I'm hungry and the time leading up to the next meal passes that bit quicker. My other strategy is to drink water. Sometimes we can confuse thirst with hunger, so staying hydrated will take care of any confusion in that department and it fills the stomach temporarily stifflling the grumbles of an empty tummy.  

10. Hard Work

You may feel tired or unwell or be carrying an injury, you may have a crazy, busy life with work / family and life commitments.  These things can make prioritising wellbeing difficult, but it is not impossible.

No one likes to hear that it takes hard work to make time for yourself and that it's even harder to use that time to plan your meals, exercise and get good sleep. 

There is no easy way to keep your weight in check. It is a conscious effort everyday to be honest with yourself, stick to your limits, make positive choices that take advantage of nutritional benefits, move your body, utilise your tools and engage your support network when you need extra support to achieve your goals.  But guess what? The effort is worth it! Your health and wellbeing is worth it! 

Sleeping with the Fitbit

Last night was my first night wearing the Fitbit to bed. Here's what it said about my sleep.

Not bad really. I had some kind of disturbance early on after dropping off fairly quickly.  Then I had a good chunk of sleep between 11:51 and 4:48. I'm guessing that is the time when my son climbed into the bed. After that, I was a bit restless but got in a couple more solid hours.

I feel pretty well rested, but there is still improvement to be made. I'd like to have an uninterrupted nights sleep and get my 8 hours in if possible.

It was not a problem wearing the band around my wrist. It is fairly comfortable for a rubber strap. It certainly didn't seem to impact my sleep or getting to sleep. 7 minutes is a quick drop off.

I'd like to have a look at a week's worth of data next to see how it looks and what patterns there may be. Hopefully I have a good weeks sleep ahead.

Fitbit Challenge has begun!

My new Fitbit Charge HR is charged and ready for action.  I've had it on since this afternoon and in just the last part of the day I've clocked up almost 5,000 steps, having been to the park with the kids.

 

I'm trying to lose a little over 2 kgs to reach my goal weight of 76 kgs. This morning I weighed in at 78.3 kgs which is around the lightest I have been in more than a decade.  

I'm quite interested to see what the Fitbit has to say about my sleep activity and whether I am getting good quality sleep or if there is something impacting on it that I'm not aware of. 

It is an investment in my wellbeing and it means there will be sacrifices that will need to be made for a while to pay for it. But, with the Fitbit and a bit of self control I'm feeling confident that I can do this over the next month.

Let's Get Physical

I've made a big push this week to be more physically active.  It's been a family affair for the most part.  

On Monday we took the kids to the cycle park. I managed to cycle around with the kids for an hour or so on my granny bike with the basket on the front. I'm sure I looked like a granny too, but I enjoyed it!

On Tuesday headed to the local school pools and I squeezed in a few laps in between getting leapt on by the kids. It was refreshing to cool off from the heat but also energising to move through the water weightlessly.

On Wednesday evening we walked around an avocado orchard, harvesting avocados in the rain. It was a rewarding outing. Hopefully in a few days we will have ripe avocados to make guacamole. It wasn't has as strenuous an activity as the previous two nights, but it was still got the blood pumping.

Last night - I took a night off to do a non-physical activity and tonight I'm just chilling. The weekend will bring more outings with the kids, so I'll take advantage of that.

It's hard to tell exactly how much of a work out I'm getting. I'd like to get a Fitbit activity tracker at some stage soon to help me stay on track with my goals and motivate me to pick up the pace if I'm not getting in enough.

It's time for me to take my wellbeing to the next level and I'm keen to access as many tools as I can to help me achieve this.

A Christmas Miracle?

By some miracle, my first weigh in is... 79.7 kgs! Here's my first selfie of 2016 - no makeup and messy hair, but I'm ecstatic - I can't believe I'm under 80kgs.

I have been trying to be disciplined over the past  m10 days, but I have had a lot of meals with desserts and I have indulged in snacks of the worst kind - chocolates, chips, fruit mince tarts. So, I must have done a few things right.

My thoughts are firstly, I have been having my Nutri-ninja smoothie for breakfast most days. Secondly, I have been mindful of my portions - especially with treats (I've enjoyed them but tried not to over indulge) and thirdly I have been more active, at least on some days. Basically I've been able to make sure that calories in = calories out.

It still seems a little too good to be true. I'm wondering if the batteries in my digital scales are low and causing a false reading or if I have some kind of illness that is using extra calories, but it seems unlikely - the scales are operating and I have no symptoms of an illness and feel well enough.

I think I have been very fortunate to maintain my weight through the Christmas period. My body seems to have found an equilibrium and is cooperating with my conscious effort to keep the balance.

I plan to improve my overall nutrition over the next few weeks. Although my weight has not been impacted, I know I will feel better for a healthier diet and I'd like to continue to improve my physical fitness and be more active with my family. 

Tomorrow is a New Day

Tomorrow will be my first official weigh in of 2016.

I'm a bit nervous about what the scales will say in the morning, but it is the moment of truth. I need to be honest with myself and start damage control.

Fingers crossed it isn't too scary...