Some thoughts about maintaining a healthy weight over the long term.

When I turned 30, I realized that I was gaining about 5 pounds a year for the last decade. My blood pressure was high and a doctor mentioned getting on medication for that. Heart disease runs in my family and this was a bit of a wakeup call. I got super motivated and lost 40+ lbs (6'1 dude and 217 at my heaviest). That was over a year ago.

I have gained back 15 pounds in the last 6 months. I still feel pretty good and healthy overall but am concerned about my weight trending upwards. I want to pivot towards more healthy eating again, but I am also not feeling as motivated as I once was.

What I am realizing is that you cannot rely entirely on motivation alone in the long term. Motivation naturally goes through highs and lows. Studies show that a high percentage of people will gain back weight that they lose.

The issue is: how do you maintain a certain behavior (healthy eating) when you are not feeling particularly motivated?

One thing that seems to work for me is to make eating healthy the "lazy choice".

For example:

1. When my motivation is low, I will eat fast food on the way home from work. Solution: Keep healthy snacks in my car. I will eat the apple in my car instead of the Wendy's burger because I am too lazy to wait in the drive thru line.

2. When my motivation is low, I want to drink beer at night while watching TV. Solution: I do not keep beer in the house. I allow myself to drink if I really want to (it is not a prohibition), but only if I drive to the gas station and buy a single serving of beer to bring home. Most of the time, I am too lazy to do this.

3. When my motivation is low, I crave ice cream at night before bed. Solution: I stop buying ice cream with the groceries. Instead, I make sure the fridge is stocked with healthy food, for instance grapes. When I open the fridge, all i see are healthy choices. So I just eat a bowl of grapes.

Most of this requires a little bit of pre-planning. I need to be diligent when I do the grocery shopping. But, he benefits last throughout the week. My worst habits are beer, ice cream and fast food, so I am mainly thinking about how I can make those things inconvenient.

Basically, I am weaponing my own laziness and this seems to work well for me.

submitted by /u/Not_a_masturbator
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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/r51yq2/some_thoughts_about_maintaining_a_healthy_weight/