Regain Weight | valshealthblog.com

Have You Regained Weight? 4

June 30, 2010 admin No comments

Hi,

Hope you have seen all three previous posts on the have you regained weight series. If not please check the archives.

Last time we left off with the power of 36 and how it can help you maintain the weight you want.

So the premise is that you have found the lifestyle you want, you have made the choices on what to eat and how much to exercise to maintain those lifestyles.

You have gradually gotten to exactly where you want to be from a health and body weight point of view.

Now what? As mentioned last post, just getting to this point the proper way will go a long way to help maintain your healthy body.

But, there is a way to lock it in for good.

As you are aware most diets never address what to do once you reach your weight, and most people gain all the weight right back.

Part of this is because it is only natural to celebrate achieving your goal. And to most, celebrating means food and drink.

But, reaching the goal is only half the battle. Maintaining it is the other half.

And this is actually pretty simple. It only takes 36 days.

The goal is to make your new lifestyle habits permanent. Now most psychologists say it takes 21 days to make a new habit permanent.

I don’t know where they got this from. I could find no research that shows this to be true. And I know it never worked for me.

But, in my trying to find out where this came from I ran across a really interesting study about astronaut training.

Because astronauts in a weightless environment are sometimes upside down, some of them get disorientated. This makes doing simple things, while upside down, more difficult.

The researchers in this study were trying to determine what to do about this problem.

They developed some glasses that inverted the images that the astronauts saw. So even though the astronauts were in a regular upright position in the training lab, everything they saw was upside down.

They had to wear these glasses 24/7.

Well, a very interesting phenomenon happened on the 34-to 36th day for every one of the astronauts.

They reinverted the images. So even though the images they were seeing with the glasses on were still inverted, the astronauts started seeing them as normal right side up.

The body and mind were actually reprogrammed to deal with the changes.

So I put 2 and 2 together and came up with my own theory. And I do not have any proof that this works for everything, but it just seems to me that it will take 36 days for your body and mind to get used to the new you.

So after you reach the new you, then continue doing what you are doing – with no other changes – for the next 36 days to lock in the new you.

Now you will have homeostasis working for you. It will actually take a concerted effort on your part to regain the weight you have lost.

And wouldn’t that be a nice feeling, never having to worry about regaining weight.

For more information on how to change your eating patterns then you might want to check out my stop dieting book.

Thanks,

Mike Val

Have You Regained Weight? 3

June 29, 2010 admin 4 comments

: Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Hi,

This is part three in the have you regained weight series. Please check out the archives for parts 1 and 2.

Last post I left you hanging with a major problem with making those permanent changes.

You might remember, I proposed that instead of going on a temporary diet (all diets are temporary) you should look at how eating will affect your permanent lifestyle goals.

If you decide that – for example – eating a little less calories and eating a healthier diet is something you want to do on a permanent basis that is great.

But there is a problem. That problem has to do with how your mind and body work together.

So you have made your decision and now you are eager to get started. This is only natural, but it is a problem.

Most people will do two things. They will drastically reduce their calories and start (or greatly increase) exercising.

However, doing these two things is setting you up for failure. I would say that these two things are the number one reason people will regain the weight.

Anytime you make drastic changes to your lifestyle patterns, your body, your mind and your spirit are going to resist.

Your normal pattern is something you are used to. It is something that is considered normal by your whole essence. It is called homeostasis and it means basically “the same old, same old”.

You want to stay the same, even if you think you want to change. Your body is set up to stay the same.

Yet, you can change. You just have to do it gradually. Making drastic changes only causes your body to fight you. It causes your mind to fight you. And it sucks the spirit right out of you.

Oh, it doesn’t happen on the first day, but it does happen. And it happens in a relatively short time.

Look at your original weight gain. Did you gain 20 pounds in a few days? Probably not. You did it over several months, or even a few years. A little bit at a time.

That is how you lose the weight naturally – over a period of time. Now it doesn’t take several months or even years to lose 20 pounds, but you are not going to do it – and keep it off – in just a few days or weeks.

If you look at your weight loss goals as where you want to be permanently, then it becomes easier to plan for and actually do. You don’t have to worry about what to do when the diet is over, because you are already doing it.

And it has become a part of your lifestyle. Once you reach your desired weight loss this becomes your new you. Your new homeostasis. And just like before, your body will resist changing from your new weight.

To really make sure of this, you will use the power of 36 to lock this in place.

Find out how the power of 36 will keep you from regaining weight in the next post.

Thanks,

Mike Val

Have You Regained Weight? 2

June 28, 2010 admin No comments

weighing yourself

Hi again,

Have you regained weight? If you are like most dieters the answer is yes. And as you saw in the last post, even people that give weight loss advice have problems with regaining weight.

There are many reasons for this, but one of the most important ones is based around the reason you are losing weight in the first place.

If it is for some reason like, your partner, friends, family or doctor wants you to lose weight I can almost guarantee that you will not be able to keep the weight off.

That is because the only one that counts is you. Do you want to lose weight? Now most will say yes.

But, that is really not the right question. You see, it is easy to say yes, I want to do something. It doesn’t even matter what that something is.

If it sounds good – like – do you want to be a better person – then, of course, everyone will say yes.

But, will they do anything about it? The answer is usually no.

That is because just saying yes, doesn’t mean anything. The real question should be why do you want to lose weight?

If you can answer that with at least 5 solid reasons why you want to lose weight then you have motivation.

This motivation has to come from you. So a reason like, because my doctor told me to, is not a solid reason.

These solid reasons to lose weight have to come from you. Why?

Is it because of your health? Is it because you have no energy being overweight? Is it vanity – and there is nothing wrong with a little vanity.

It doesn’t matter what your solid reasons why are. They are yours and they are the basis for you staying on a life program for losing and keeping weight off.

That is the 2nd part of the equation. To lose a few pounds is pretty easy. Most of the first few pounds will be water loss anyhow.

But, what happens when you lose the amount of weight you want to lose? Most people don’t know what to do next.

They never think about what happens after the diet is over. And that is a basic problem.

First a diet is only temporary and the whole mentality of a temporary fix is built into dieting.

Think about changing your perception. Instead of going on a diet, think about what kind of permanent changes you want in your life.

Then, decide what and how much you eat plays a role in this permanent change.

If you look at things over a long run it is easier to make the changes. And this brings up probably one of the main problems with dieting.

Which we’ll cover in the next post.

Thanks,

Mike Val

http://www.valshealthsite.com

Have You Regained Weight?

June 25, 2010 admin 40 comments

weight loss success

Hi,

Have you regained weight after dieting for so long? If so you are not alone.

Check out this post – actually a couple of years ago so I don’t remember the author – that shows what one person went through. It is from The Capessa Blog: Sharing the Wisdom of Women

Losing weight and changing one’s eating and fitness lifestyle is hard work — that’s a given — but maintaining a weight loss is even harder. There’s no longer the challenge of juggling numbers or the reward of seeing them drop, and keeping up the enthusiasm and dedication necessary to stay at the weight that you worked hard to get to doesn’t come easy.

The National Weight Registry surveys and collects data from “regular people” who have managed to maintain a weight loss of 30 pounds or more for at least one year. Based on the data that they have received from more than 7,000 people, there are certain things that almost all successful “losers” seem to do to maintain their newer and slimmer figures:

Participate in aerobic exercise for least one hour or more each day
Focus on watching calories
Keep food logs
Choose healthier and lower fat foods

I never thought I would be (nor did I want to be) one of the many people who have lost a significant amount of weight only to gain a lot of it back. But, it is high time to admit that I have gained 15 pounds since the start of the year.

Yes, that’s right. I just admitted that on the world wide web, for all to see, that I have gained back 15 of the 50 pounds I worked so hard to lose.

So what happened?

Well, I stopped doing what successful losers do to maintain a weight loss. I stopped exercising as much as I was. I started to think, “a little bit of this and a little bit of that won’t hurt.” And I stopped writing in my food log, because if I don’t write it down, it doesn’t count, right?

I lost track of calories and stopped being accountable to myself. I started to neglect myself. I stopped preparing meals and snacks ahead of time. I stopped getting up early to get to the gym because I was busy and tired. My will power began to crumble, eating special treats everyday rather than on special occasions only.

I have been watching my weight creep up these past 8 months, and instead of getting back on the beam right away, it has become a bit of a vicious cycle.

You become depressed because you know better. You get angry with yourself because you can’t believe you let yourself go. You get paranoid about what people will think—especially since you write this blog about maintaining your weight. You get emotional because getting dressed puts you in a bad mood; pants you looked awesome in a few months ago, no longer fit.

The last thing you want to do when you feel so bad about yourself is get up early the next day, go to the gym and forego the ice cream as the last days of summer arrive. I have been struggling with not throwing in the towel, not caving in and eating everything in sight, only to see the scale not budge or go up!

Now that that skeleton is out of the closet, what do I do?

Well I pick up the tools that have been so freely given to me by the successful losers that have come before me; the same tools that have helped me to be successful in the past, and I apply them again (food logs, calorie watching, exercising more). And this time I try not to think that I am ever cured from my tendency to overeat and under exercise.

In admitting my weight gain I end it there. I hold myself accountable because no one can do this for me, but me.

That pretty much sums up the problems of losing and regaining weight . Fortunately, there has been a lot of research that shows you how to easily keep it off for as long as you want.

Stay tuned as we explore this in future posts.

Thanks,

Mike Val

valshealthblog.com

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