It’s the 400 pound elephant in the room. Trust me, as a former 400 pound object myself, I knew one day I would have to face the evil monster. So many have faced the giant but so few have had the wherewithal to take him down, myself included.
The first two times I faced him, I collapsed in exhaustion and succumbed to him. He is the dreaded experience for all current and former Scale Warriors. His name is Maintenance.
When you first start your fat loss journey, you’ve probably noticed that the first few weeks, the weight starts to pour off. Why is that?
- Water weight is the first to go.
- You’re probably at the peak of motivation and more likely to be consistent.
- Your body, being at its heaviest burns more calories.
A lot of people are able to convert this positive energy to greater motivation. But eventually, and especially when your weight gets lower, the weight seems to go off more slowly. Maybe you even hit a plateau or six on the way down. And all of a sudden, the halted progression makes you question yourself, your motivations, maybe even the programs and protocol that helped you lose enough weight to get to this plateau in the first place. You’ve picked up a pound of motivation for every one the scale dropped. Then your plateau hit and so does your motivation.
Imagine a full time plateau. That’s kind of what maintenance is. If you’ve been filling your tank with weight loss gasoline, when it stops, it won’t be long before you’re running on fumes. Maintenance the willpower slayer swoops in and before long, you’re losing a pound of motivation and gaining a pound of fat.
So what can you do to avoid this monster?
Make sure your motivation isn’t solely based on the scale
The first goal you set is likely to be a weight based goal. And as someone who had a number on a post it note in his car for years, I won’t discourage you from having a number in mind that you are visualizing for your weight loss journey.
But if I can be so bold as to suggest that having this goal led you to make such drastic improvements as to drop a significant portion of your body weight in fat, maybe you should continue to have goals in your life. The weight goal obviously expires when you hit the weight, why not aim for other health and fitness goals. Some examples could include:
- A 5K/10K Time
- A long distance race completion
- A certain weight lifting number
- A Triathlon
- An experience like climbing a mountain or hiking a trail
To make sure that Maintenance doesn’t swallow you up, at some point early on, start setting goals that aren’t scale related. When should you stop setting goals? What does Master Bruce say?
Other than goals, what else can you do?
Follow your high school yearbook comment’s advice.
I like to say that I remember exactly what I had to eat the day after I hit my goal weight. It was the exact same thing as I ate the day before. I know this seems self evident, but if you go back to eating exactly what you ate when you were at your heaviest, chances are you’ll get back there.
That isn’t to say that you can’t incorporate some of your favorite meals. I don’t do it today but to each his own. I’m not holding your snacks ransom here. But if you’re anything like me, you can’t control yourself around them. When it comes to Doritos, I’m Zack Morris and Nacho Cheese is Kelli Kapowski. I couldn’t stay away if I tried. Even if she cheated on me with that Bozo, Jeff from the Maxx. (check that reference off my bucket list).
Burn your ships
There’s an old story oft told that isn’t truly based in history. Some have attributed it to Hannibal. There’s a story that he brought his army to an island where they would wage battle against a vicious foe. He had his crews leave the ships and wait on the shore as he had the boats burnt into the water and explained to his confused soldiers:
“Now that the ships are burnt, we either win or we die.”
This analogy has to do with making sure you don’t ever give up and go back. What does burning your ships equate to in your weight loss journey?
- Get rid of your “fat clothes.” By holding on to them, your keeping those ships at the shore where you could safely retreat. By donating the clothes, you are making sure that weight regain also would require a new wardrobe (LADIES, THIS IS NOT ‘GOOD’ SHOPPING).
- Don’t keep crappy foods in the house. This is only inviting the monster into your kitchen. Crazy.
- Don’t celebrate, mourn or love with food. For so many of us, food becomes our comfort blanky that we retreat to every time something is going very right or very wrong. You’ve got to eliminate the emotional connection with food as much as possible in order to avoid losing your head around it.
What about you, Tim? Is the Maintenance Monster coming back for you?
My goal is to squat 315. Deadlift 405. Bench Press 225. Then I’m sure I’ll add another 90 to each of those for my next goal.
I still eat the exact same way. If I was a superhero, my secret ability would be consistency. I will do the same thing, forever. Tomorrow morning is my Dynamic Back and Shoulder day. Next Tuesday morning will be as well. And on and on and on.
I don’t own any fat clothes. Except one pair of my actual pants for halloween costumes.
All I own is motivation. Pounds on Pounds on Pounds.
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