Most weight loss diets focus on just one thing - losing weight.  Once you've reached that golden "Goal Weight" the perception is that your journey is complete.

Not so with LighterLife - losing the unwanted weight is actually the start of the journey as far as we are concerned.  The most important part is keeping the weight off to enjoy a far healthier, more active, fun life.  So, here are the five key ways to achieve that success:

1.  Be Mindful.

Being mindful is being aware of exactly what you are putting into your body and when.  One of the easiest ways of re-gaining weight is to return to old habits of grazing, or big portions with little or no thought about what and how much you are eating, until your jeans start to feel tight again!

2.  Recognise the unhelpful thoughts.

If the Inner Child in your brain starts to tell you "You're slim now, you can do what you want", or, "You can't possibly expect to be perfect all the time - go on, have that extra drink/chip/cake, you've been so good" etc etc, don't let it get a hold of you.  Talk back as if you were talking to a naughty child, something like "Well I could, but that would be going back to old habits wouldn't it and I've got a new way of thinking now and a new respect for my body, so I'm going to stick to my new healthy habits".

3.  Believe you can.

Clients who have been weight maintaining for several years now tell me that the hardest time is for about 18 months after they finish the Management stage of the Programme (the bit after the weight loss when you return to food and gain an education in nutrition and healthy eating).  Some of it is down to their inner child urging them to go back to eating and drinking like they used to "because its easier than learning a new way" and some because those around them have an expectation that they will return to their old habits now that they are "off that diet".  Except of course they haven't been on just a diet, they have been on the LighterLife Lifestyle Change Programme so they have learned that change has to happen for the weight to stay off.  It's very easy to feel vulnerable at this stage and start to convince yourself that you can't change, well, yes you can!  And you deserve to keep the body and level of fitness you have worked hard to achieve - you simply have to tell yourself that every day - "Yes I can!".

4.  Become smarter at your knowledge of food.

Now, I'm not suggesting that you become an expert in nutrition or anything like that, but, if you do the Management stage of the Programme properly you will learn about nutrition, GI, portion management, calorific values, food groups, everything basically that you need to be able to view food with different eyes.  So, instead of seeing cake as lovely, comforting, sink your teeth into stuff that will "make me happy", if you instead view it as a mass of simple carbohydrates (virtually no nutritional value), saturated fat (clogs up the arteries around your heart), and refined sugar (sends your blood sugars haywire and attacks the enamel on your teeth amongst other things), and high calorie (a small square of carrot cake is around 400 calories) then you can view it in a different way.  I'm not saying never have cake again, I'm saying be smarter about what you have and when.

5.  Keep a record

Either in a diary (you get a rather nice bound journal as one of the freebies in Management) or on an App like myFitnessPal, record what you eat and drink, and the time, BEFORE you have it.  The BEFORE is key.  If you make yourself think about what it is you want to eat and/or drink and ask yourself a few key questions like:
i. Am I really hungry - when did I last eat?
ii. Is the need for this triggered by emotion?
iii. Is this useful for my body?
iv. Roughly how many calories are there in it
You can make a mature, adult, informed choice about whether or not to have what you were planning to have! If you use the App you could be quite shocked at what you find.  One client who did this was used to going down to a local shop and buying their "Meal Deal" for lunch every day.  When she realised that the three items totaled nearly 1000 calories and were packed with saturated fat, simple carbs, colourants, caffeine and refined sugar (none of which your body needs and most of which are harmful) she changed her lunch plans!

You may look at this and think "that all seems like far too much hard work".  Well, you won't have to do this for ever, this is part of learning a new way of being, the new healthy you, and, the more you do it the more your body and mind adjust to a new way of thinking and after a few months it will become your new "normal" and you'll still be slipping into those smaller sized jeans.

If you have not experienced the uniqueness of LighterLife before then give me a call on 01509 234433 or email me at debbie.ford@lighterlifecounsellor.com or text on 07860 017700 (text only, this is not a mobile phone no.) and I'd be delighted to meet you and tell you more about the Programmes we offer in a relaxed environment with absolutely no "hard sell" involved.

If you are a past member there are a variety of group times and dates for you to use, just drop me a line for my current timetable.

I look forward to meeting you.