by Matt Weik
How many times have you tried losing weight only to blow your plan and gain all of your weight back? Probably more times than you care to remember, right? You’re not alone, and it can be incredibly frustrating. But here’s the thing… Where most people go sideways is that they allow their frustration to send them down the rabbit hole, and then they never pop back up. They get set in an unhealthy route and never seem to snap out of it. As the months go by, they keep gaining more and more weight.
Well, we’re going to change all of that in this article and help you get back on track after falling off the wagon. If you follow the steps listed below in this article, you can kickstart your program again and stay on track this time around.
1. Get Up and Ease Back into It
Many people out there lose weight, gain it back… lose weight, gain it back. This is due to most individuals following some sort of yo-yo diet versus an actual lifestyle change. So, first things first, get back up, dust yourself off, and shift your mindset. Stop following silly diets that cut carbs, cut fat, cut this, cut that, only to have you craving just about everything until you blow your diet and gain all of your weight back (sound familiar?).
The first thing you need to do is look at the big picture. What can you change TODAY in your lifestyle and nutrition plan that won’t cause you to feel like you just took on a second or third job?
Ease back into your weight loss journey by removing a few items such as regular soda or unhealthy snacks from your home. You can even set out to take an after-dinner walk by yourself or with your family to get up and moving more. But ease back into things – don’t go all in, all at once, or you’ll likely get overwhelmed and give up.
2. Stop Feeling Guilty
The more guilty you feel about gaining all of your weight back, the more stress you’ll put on yourself. Stress itself can cause weight gain due to a rise in cortisol and ghrelin levels, but overall, carrying the weight that comes along with guilt is enough to crush your motivation and energy. Let it go. Take responsibility for what took place and move on.
A step in the right direction is establishing that you messed up. Vow to yourself that this time you’re going to do things the right way and stick to your plan. And most importantly, hold yourself accountable.
3. Get a Support Team
One of the best things you can do is get a support team around you. This can be anyone from a family member, a workout partner, a co-worker, a friend, or even a personal trainer and nutritionist who can help keep you accountable for your actions and commitment.
Sometimes we need someone in our corner rooting for us and who will be there to tell us when we are sandbagging a workout or becoming a little lax with our nutrition plan. Knowing that someone is there to help you and keep you on track is enough to assist you on your weight loss journey. It’s also the feeling of “not being alone” in this journey.
If you have someone else willing to go through the process with you, you form a team and bond that will allow each of you to hold the other accountable for showing up and putting in the work and effort each and every day.
4. Create a New Plan
The old plan clearly didn’t work out. Why didn’t it, though? Was it too restrictive on the nutrition side of things? Was it too much, too soon for how intense your workouts were? Figure out where things went awry and make corrective changes to prevent that from happening again.
Remember, you want your new plan to fit your lifestyle and your schedule. Planning a three-hour workout every day may sound like a great idea, but more than likely, after two days of giving it a go, you’ll find yourself back at square one by giving up on that particular plan.
The same can be said about your nutrition plan. If you throw everything unhealthy away from your home within 24 hours, all you’ll do is sit there staring at the refrigerator or pantry craving all of the items you just threw away.
By making the plan fit your lifestyle, you can stop looking at food as healthy or unhealthy. Instead, look at the big picture of your caloric intake for the day. You don’t have to eat “clean” 365 days a year. You can have things in moderation, but that in itself is the golden rule – everything in moderation.
Telling yourself that you can’t eat something is essentially creating an unhealthy relationship with food because you’re creating a list in your head of all the things you can’t eat. What do you think will happen? Yup, you guessed it. You’ll crave it until you finally give in and binge on everything you’ve told yourself you can’t eat. Then all of the weight will come right back.
5. Track Your Results
You don’t know what you don’t know. Therefore, you should track your calories and macros each day along with your workouts and weight. This will provide you with a visual of how things are progressing and if they are going in the right direction or not. From there, you can take the data and make changes to your program according to how things are trending.
If you want a helpful tool that many swear by, download the MyFitnessPal app and use that to track your weight, calories, macros, and even your workouts. The free app provides you with tons of information you can use to chart your progress and understand how your new lifestyle is affecting your body and health.
