Don't Let Your Guard Down

Don't Let Your Guard Down.

I had a sad conversation with someone just the other day. They'd done really well and lost a lot of weight in one of our recent Biggest Loser groups. Unfortunately, just three short months later, they'd put all the weight back on.

After they finished that particular Biggest Loser, they'd had college classes to content with, along with lots of kids activities going on. Basically, they went from being really active to not moving at all.

This is pretty common. It's hard to maintain Biggest Loser levels of intensity for much more than a few months at a time. Then there's going to be a point when you have to ease up a little bit.

Ideally, that's when you go into maintenance mode. You back off a little in your workouts, and relax a little in your diet. It's normal. After a little break, if you have more to lose, you get back on the weight loss train.

Some people though, just completely let off the gas. I've known several who lost 100 lbs, only to put it back on a year later. Maybe even half the people who loss some serious weight put much of it back on.

I think it has to do with fatigue. Physical and mental fatigue. They get tired of it all. It seems easier to just let go than keep fighting and hanging on. So when life starts pressing in, they simply surrender. Later, they wake up to the realization that now they have to do it all over again.

Fortunately, the knowledge of what to do is still there. They also know they CAN do it, because they've done it before. They just need to pull the trigger on the whole thing, and get started again. But even that can be difficult because they know how hard it was the first time.

So don't let this happen to you. Once you've achieved your goals, stay watchful. Stay on your guard. If you're paying attention, you can catch it quickly when things start slipping back the other way.

Better to make some small adjustments now than having to make big adjustments later. As Ben Franklin said: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Or pounds of cure!

Work out a little longer, a little harder, or maybe even a little more often, and you'll burn off those excess calories. Or dial back your diet and deal with it that way. Even better, do a little of both. Pick up your activity level AND tighten up your eating.

However you do it, stay watchful. Don't let your guard down. Keep a close eye out for danger. You can take a little break as long as you keep doing the little things. Stay the course. It just might keep you from having to do it all over again!