simon030413

1. Eat healthy, count calories, exercise. No gain is good, a loss is even better.

2. Keep a pair of jeans/shorts/underwear from when you were at your biggest (do you want them to fit again?)

3. Put free weights equal to the amount of weight you have lost in a pack, try and pick it up when you are about to pick up something you shouldn't eat/drink (do you want to carry that weight around again?)

(yes, I have done these steps)

carolynnq

Good tips, Simon! Especially #1.

I'm tall-ish, and my extra weight was pretty equally distributed, so I didn't ever have any huge clothes. But I don't know if I'd want to keep a reminder around.

Re your #3, whenever I pick up a 10# bag of something or a 40# bag of birdseed, I do imagine my body carrying that mass around (and cringe!). I also use a 1# block of cheese as a visualization (cheese because I know what an ounce looks like). Sometimes I visualize my previous body and then imagine 30 1-lb blocks of cheese stuck all over it. Yuck! Mostly I use my cheese block to keep up my will power in avoiding things I shouldn't eat. My husband brought home a cinnamon streusel coffee cake. Besides the fact that I've sworn off sugar and white flour, it's tempting sitting there. It's 200 calories for a smallish slice. I visualize that eating it would slap a 1-oz hunk of cheese on my waist or hips and a lot of times that's enough to make me walk away.

Edited to add: Great job on the weight loss!

simon030413

thanks! you too! just like it was a habit to over eat, or eat junk, it becomes a habit to eat what you need, and eat healthy foods (granted it took me 2 years to make it a habit)

frenchhen3

I've done all these things too Simon! It certainly helps the mind stay on course. Especially the no gain is good. I see that no gain is one step in the "Maintain the previous loss" column.