Oh dear, it’s been about a month since I published that photo with the healthier, fitter and skinnier version of myself! This past month has been a joy and a challenge, with decisions around meal planning, choice of clothes and exercise routines!

My favourite consequence of my new silhouette is getting into my wardrobe and, whatever I choose to wear, it either fits perfectly or feels loose and is immediately sent to the thanks-but-you’re-too-big-for-me pile which I’m gathering for the charity shop. It’s been a long time since I felt so energetic, healthy and happy with my looks and, lucky me, summer arrived even in London!

My previous article created a bit of a stir around the weight I’ve lost. Naturally, I’ve been complimented around my figure and I’ve been asked for advice and coaching. As much as I am happy myself with my own results, of course, it feels wonderful to have some outside recognition for my efforts!

One of the biggest challenges and worries for people who (want to) lose weight is how to ensure the weight stays off once they achieve their goal. I briefly touched on this in my previous post, where I spoke about the three elements of the #RedesignYourBody programme, which I’ve used in order to achieve my own goals around health & fitness.

So here are the 2 challenges that people typically have around keeping their weight in check and how I deal with them:

Challenge 1 – Staying off the sinful foods!

I know, we all like treats. Also, we all want to enjoy living and occasionally indulging with some really, utterly, unbelievably sugary / salty / whatever-you-fancy foods. The thing is… any weight loss programme you follow should, and #RedesignYourBody does, make a point of a weight loss programme not being a limited time only, finite effort to reach your goals around looks and only to completely ditch everything you’ve learned afterwards. No, because this isn’t only about how you look, it’s also about how you feel and how healthy you are. So instead of thinking of it as a temporary abstinence from tasty food, you should think of it as a definitive change in lifestyle, where through food and not only, you are becoming and staying healthier, fitter and slimmer.

Does this mean you need to forever ditch sugar or carbs? No… it just means that this is your chance to hop online, find alternative, healthier treats which don’t have a negative impact on your body but actually support you. We live in this wonderful world where we can google anything and trust me, courgette noodles with pesto are tastier than pasta with pesto, and frozen blueberries covered in yoghurt + vanilla protein powder is better than any cheesecake I’ve ever eaten! And yes, if you fancy something naughty, occasionally and mindfully go for it… and then let me know if you’ve enjoyed it as much as you used to…

Challenge 2 – Keeping up with the exercise routine

We all like to choose the route of least effort and this usually means skipping exercise and then tell ourselves a story full of reasons why this is ok, just to make the guilt go away. Hei, we’ve all done it at some point… But I’ll tell you what one of my dearest friends once told me, something that’s stuck with me, something that I remember time and again, whether it’s in the context of health & fitness or anywhere else in my life…

IT’S NOT ABOUT MOTIVATION, IT’S ABOUT DISCIPLINE!

What’s more, once you get into the hang of exercise and it starts feeling good, and trust me, it does start feeling good, you will want to do more of it! Exercise has your body moving, even those bits you didn’t know you could move, bans away stress, relaxes you mentally, changes your posture, has you leave the gym in a good mood. So why would you skip exercise when it has so many benefits on top of the obvious?

Keeping yourself on the right track is easy…

You probably think I’m joking but I’m not. When people fall back into their old routines after they had great results with a weight loss programme, it’s often because they haven’t tackled the most important aspect of it all – their mindset! #RedesignYourBody didn’t just give me a meal plan that kept me fed and healthy, and an exercise routine, it also worked with my mind by deleting limiting beliefs like ‘I can’t do this‘; ‘I will never be able to…‘; ‘I don’t have the time / the strength / the motivation to…‘ – and replaced them with empowering, more helpful beliefs.

Have I made you curious?