During a weight control journey, there is little-no chance that every week will result in a weight loss. Rather, there will be weeks when weight control seems almost impossible such as holiday weeks, vacations weeks, business travel weeks, birthday weeks etc. During those weeks, focusing on dietary intake, avoiding socializing with the use of alcohol, finding exercise time, etc. all seem somewhat impossible.
Very importantly, we cannot allow a week(s) of weight gain to “steamroll” into multiple weeks of similar behaviors. For long-term weight control success we need to ensure that there are more weeks/higher quantities of weight loss than more weeks/higher quantities of weight gain.
This is why I stress the importance of weighing yourself at home, keeping track of those weights and aggressively acting on weight gain weeks. When you are coming to us for your visits, the accountability and support are important factors of helping you get back on track. However, when you are not in the formal visits in our program anymore, the weekly monitoring falls 100% on “you”.
When you experience a week of weight gain take a few minutes to analyze what exactly contributed to the gain: Was it alcohol usage? Skipping meals? Too many carbs and/or fruits? Not drinking enough water? Less exercise time than usual? Once the causative factors are identified, then proceed to figure out ways of navigating around these obstacles the following weeks.
If you are graphing a long-term weight loss, that line will not be a straight line down from weight “A” to the lower weight “B”. There will be bump-ups along the way. However, if there are more “downs” than “ups”, your weight goal will eventually be met.
Let’s all take “One Step Up” to higher levels of health and happiness by focusing on our weight control.