5 Years Under 75kg

At weekly weigh-in this morning I was 400g up on last week at 72.2kg. It was an important weigh-in for me because today marks five years of successful maintenance after my weight loss (over a period of about 14 months prior to this I had managed to trim down from about 110kg).

Of course, there has to be a graph to celebrate the occassion!

As you can see there has been a bit of fluctuation over the five years, hitting 75.0kg exactly on three occasions, getting down to a minimum of 68.2kg in May 2006, and averaging exactly 73.0kg over the five years.

There’s no doubt that maintaining a goal weight is easier than losing weight, but it is not easy! It takes a lot of discipline, common sense and will-power. Here are my top tips for successful weight maintenance (it’s all common sense really, not rocket science).

1. Exercise sensible portion control. I firmly believe this is one of the biggest contributors to our obesity epidemic – our meals are usually just too big!
2. Think about what you eat. I think my mind-set change has been to think about eating a “fuelling your body”, if you think about it this way it does make you think about what you put in your mouth.
3. Learn about how your body works and about good nutrition. There are so many good books out there, and so many web sites, and knowing about how your body works and what it needs to work properly for you, just helps so much.
4. Don’t deny yourself the things you love, everything is okay in moderation. I can’t do without my red wine and chocolate!
5. Exercise consistently. Successfully maintaining the required level of exercise is all about making it a habit. Once you get into the habit, you will start to crave it and find you can’t live without it.
6. Find some forms of exercise you enjoy. This sounds obvious, but if you can find something you love doing, obviously you are more likely to do it often.
7. Cross-train. Most forms of exercise will emphasise some part of your body or other, and if you just do that one type of exercise, that part of your body may tend to wear out. Finding two or three different types of exercise you like and your body will thank you.
8. Log it. Keep track of how you’re doing in a training journal or spreadsheet. I have found this to be extremely helpful.
9. Set goals and tell everyone about them. Set yourself a few different goals and then make sure everyone knows about them. This will make you much more motivated to succeed.
10. Get good medical advice. If you get injured, or get any little niggles, go get some expert advice (this probably isn’t your local GP, unless they are a very good one). A sports doctor is a good idea as they will be very sympathetic and understanding of your deisre to stay active. I was really lucky to find Dr K., and a couple of very good physios, they got me through my knee issues.
11. Look after your body.Spend time to stretch, practice self-massage (I love my foam roller), apply ice if needed and also spend time strength training.
12. Go follow some blogs of some like-minded people. It is amazing how motivating and helpful, reading about and communicating with others who are on similar journeys can be. You’ll learn heaps from so many different people with different perspectives.

And to all of you out there who have helped me over the last few years, especially you Ausrunners who got me started on all the fun runs, and encouraged me in the early years, I am eternally in your debt, I wouldn’t be where I am now without you!

Todays exercise was a bike ride of just over 36km in about 1:25.

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