The difficulties and the joys of winning the war against the scale!

After all, reaching the desired weight is a victory!

The success of any weight loss program depends extremely on family support. In fact, people who live with you often unconsciously ruin your plan to change bad habits. Maybe It is your mother who prepares a chocolate cake, or your boyfriend/girlfriend who brings you a box of chocolates, or your husband/wife that wants you to share a bottle of beer…they don’t do it with a bad intention, believe me!

The problem is that food has different values ​​and meanings. It can be a used as a meaning to please or get together. That is why it seems so hard to stand firm when your favorite aunt ensures that eating “just a bite” will not make you fat ...

The solution in this case is to be honest. Clarify to them your goal. Ask everyone to cooperate with you, stimulate change and encourage your progress.
Or if they can’t help, at least, ask them not to ruin your diet!

Remember to tell everyone that during the diet the house has to be free of sweets - especially those representing the greatest temptation for you. The idea is that at the end of the diet, you re-educated yourself how to eat and you are now able to eat “just a bite "... But at the beginning of the diet, the best strategy might be not risking it so just keep the temptations out of your sight!

If you still cannot resist a chocolate, then you don’t have to buy it!

Once your goal is conquered, another key factor is the maintenance period. That new weight you have achieved is not yet "a part of you". Your metabolism will keep for a while the "memory" of your previous weight.

The point is that your body maintains characteristics of its ancestors. Hence, your body faces the loss of weight as a health threat and tends to store as much energy (read fat) to compensate for the loss.

You need to be patient and allow some time for your body to adapt to the new reality. Therefore, when you reach the desired weight, do not stop practicing the healthy lifestyle you adopted during weight loss

Important note: the maintenance period should be proportional to the number of kg lost. For example: if you lost 1 kg, to maintain it you must control for 1 month. If you lost 10 kg, the maintenance should last 10 months to help your body adapt to your new weight, otherwise very quickly you’ll regain all, or more than before

Anyway always remember that to get to the desired weight is a victory!

The goal is to change your bad habits and take a new attitude towards your health. Of course you will be allowed a few meals and snacks outside diet, but when you learn to deal with the excess, everything will be under control! Think about it!

Take every minute as a learning experience that will accompany you for life.
Wish you all the Success!

Translated from: http://www.emex.com.br/mulher/mulher/id/1082/r/as-dificuldades-e-as-delicias-de-vencer-a-guerra-contra-a-balanca

I particularly LOVED to share this post with you guys because it simply says everything I keep saying everyday to my clients and it’s exactly the way it works for diet and maintenance! It’s just a question of you deciding what you want, and then the rest we can work on it easily with a bit of patience and constant motivation! You can do it! Let’s do it!

ps: Just for some of you who lost motivation when reading that maintenance needs that much time: Think like this ---> is it better to keep the excess weight you have, and each year start again dieting and stopping and regaining all, or is it better to think well "now I am 30 or 40 or 50"- whatever your age is - if you do a proper diet with a proper maintenance even if it sounds long, think:" I can start start a whole new life when I am 31 or 41 or 51"

Samia Khoury Dietitian