Weight Loss - Keep Winning! Make Your Game Plan

Excerpted from
Winning After Losing: Keep Off the Weight You've Lost - Forever
By Stacey Halprin

One reason people gain back the pounds they've shed is they don't create a winning plan to maintain their goal weight. If you're telling yourself that you can maintain your current weight but you don't know how you're going to do it, you probably have a case of wishful thinking. Spare yourself the agony of defeat by being brutally honest with yourself right here, right now. Unless you make an effective plan for keeping the weight off and stick with that plan, the only thing that will stay slim is your chance of maintaining your weight loss.

In the past, every time I lost weight I gained it back. I never had a maintenance plan. I just thought I had to starve myself. I didn't understand how important it is to exercise and I didn't know the right foods to eat or the right amounts. As soon as I started to feel upset, depressed, angry, or deprived, I'd order enough food for a dinner party and eat most of it myself. I had Chinese guys knocking on my door in the middle of the night trying to collect the money I owed their restaurants. I bounced checks at the local diners and pizza parlors and eventually I packed all the pounds back on, plus more of them. This last time I was able to keep it off only because I made a firm decision that I was willing to do whatever I had to do and learn whatever I had to learn to keep the weight off forever. I guarantee you that your mind-set will have the biggest effect on whether you keep the weight off or not. That's why the mental part of your plan is just as important as the food and fitness. Times can get very rough. Trust me that you must be prepared to have the best chance!

According to a study done by the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, people regain weight, at least in part, because they don't stick with a maintenance plan. The great thing about those results is they show that people don't just mysteriously regain weight. It happens because they are not doing what they need to do to keep the weight off. That means that as long as you control what you do and don't do, you can make the right choices to keep the weight off forever.

But believe me when I tell you that there is no coasting in the maintenance game and there is no finish line. There is never a point where you can safely say, "Okay, I'm thin now so I Gin eat whatever I want and only exercise when I feel like it." Sorry, but it just doesn't work that way. If you sincerely want to keep the weight off, you have to make a plan that is structured enough and flexible enough that it will serve you for life.

The results of the same study also showed that people who keep the weight off for several years usually have a greater chance of keeping it off in the future. That is very good news! Many of the veterans in the Winners' Circle (those who have kept the weight off for more than five years) say that their new lifestyle, which includes nutritious low-fat food, plenty of physical fitness, and maintaining their mental health, is now second nature. Even though the first few years of maintaining their weight were in some ways more challenging than losing the weight, once their maintenance plan became a natural way of life, they were able to keep it up without having to constantly think about it. Personally, I can't wait to have a little more serenity in my life! Remember, though, that the people who keep winning don't let serenity turn into cockiness. They are forever vigilant!

The winners accept full responsibility for their choices and they stay in the driver's seat at all times-meaning that they don't even eat one doughnut by default. That doesn't mean they never eat a doughnut. It means that they control when they will eat a doughnut instead of letting the urge control them. It means they plan exercise into their lives instead of fitting it in when or if they can. And they are proving that with a solid game plan, commitment to that plan, and a strong support team, they can win the game! That's not to say you will never fall off the wagon and eat a doughnut mindlessly, but you will even have a plan for that and how to handle it.

Step 2 guides you through the process of designing a winning game plan that is tailor made for you! Your program should be as personal as your signature-no two exactly alike. You will learn how to plan to win by laying a groundwork for your maintenance plan that supports both your body and your mind. You will discover that you can make food and fitness your friends by making choices that help you feel your best. So you don't go overboard trying to make too many changes at once, you'll learn how to balance improvement with acceptance and how to have more control of your day and your mental health by writing your own script. You'll also learn how to make plans instead of excuses and get some real pearls of wisdom on beating the odds from the Winners' Circle. If someone has maintained her weight for years, believe me, I want to know everything she has to say!