What Does Maintenance Actually Look Like?

You’ve worked toward losing the weight, hopefully built some better habits along the way, and maybe you’re finally getting to a place where you’re happy with the progress you’ve made. Awesome…now what? There’s a lot of time spent talking about losing weight that maintenance almost never sees the light of day. Lose the weight first and we’ll figure out the rest later, right? Makes sense but it’s not fair when, the “rest” could hopefully be the majority of your life, so I think it’s worth talking about. Whether you’re losing weight with or without taking a GLP-1 or you could even be trying to gain, eventually the goal isn’t going to be seeing that number on the scale constantly drop. At some point, maintaining what you’ve built becomes progress too.

What Does Your Normal Look Like Now?

Now when I’m talking maintenance, I don’t mean holding onto the strictest version of everything you did while losing weight. It can be worrisome with the thought of reverting back to where you started but it’s actually a lot simpler than losing or gaining.  So, what parts of that can become your normal? Not your “I’m locked in for the next six weeks” normal. I’m talking Tuesday afternoon, busy work week, dinner with friends this weekend kind of normal. Because if maintaining your results requires you to constantly live like you’re on some strict weight loss program, how realistic is that going to be for the next five, ten, twenty years? Think about what you’ve learned along the way. Maybe you’ve been eating more protein than you used to. You’ve found a few workouts you actually enjoy. You’re stronger, feeling more active, confident and capable. You understand portions better or you’ve simply gotten better at recognizing when your routine is starting to get away from you. As long as you’re keeping those same active habits that helped your nutrition to get to where your goal was, your caloric intake will be able to increase and rest assured you’ll not have to worry about weight gain or loss.

Your Goal Is Allowed to Change

You’ve spent all this time asking, “How much weight have I lost?” Maybe now you reached your goal, we can start asking what else you want your body to do. Want to get stronger? Improve your mobility? Run a 5K? Pick up a recreational sport again? Keep up with your kids? Maybe you simply want to feel good, look good, and continue doing the things you enjoy. There’s no rule saying weight loss needs to remain the center of your fitness journey forever as that’d also turn toxic mentally. You worked hard to change your body so now what do you want to do with it? It’s yours to live and feel free through so allow yourself to feel selfish to do so. That shift can also give your training and nutrition a completely different purpose. You’re not only doing these things because you’re trying to make yourself smaller anymore. You’re supporting the body and lifestyle you’ve been working to build.

Maintenance Isn’t Perfect Either

Here’s the fun (or not so) part…life is still going to happen. Vacations, holidays, busy weeks, missed workouts, dinners out, stress, birthdays, weekends where you just wanna let loose. Maintenance doesn’t suddenly make any of that disappear and I believe it shouldn’t either. What matters is everything you’ve hopefully been practicing along the way. Recognize, and to make it even more accurate, record when things are starting to drift. Make that little adjustment when things slide a bit but get yourself back to the habits that work for you. You don’t need to maintain perfection. You need to become confident that you know how to return to your normal. As taking care of you isn’t just some temporary thing but a whole lifestyle that you’ve conjured for you. And if you’re taking a GLP-1 and your medication or treatment plan is changing, that part of the conversation belongs with the healthcare provider managing it. You’ll find that the stress that may create doesn’t have to be there. On my end, what we can continue working on are the things surrounding it: your nutrition, training, activity, recovery, routines, and confidence in managing them.

Build a Normal You Actually Want

I don’t want the end goal of someone’s weight loss journey to be spending the rest of their life afraid of gaining the weight back. That’s torture and there’s other aspects to life I want you to dive into, experience and enjoy. I’d rather see you come away understanding yourself a little better. Ask what helps you feel good, what keeps you active, what nutrition habits work for you, what can you loosen up on, and also what do you know you need to pay a little more attention to. A lot of these questions may seem self explanatory just reading this page but your answers probably won’t look exactly like somebody else’s, and they’re probably going to change throughout your life too. That’s totally a-okay. Losing or gaining the weight was one goal. Building a life where you know how to maintain your progress is another.