Life After Weight Loss

Hello good people, welcome to a very important addition to the blogs I am calling ‘life after weight loss’! Of all the things I have spoken about in the blogs, this is probably the one that I wish I could have read myself around 6 or 7 years ago. It is most certainly the thing I have struggled with the most, and as we come to the end of another 6 week shred, this is the best piece of advice I can pass on to everyone completing it, but also, anyone who is leaving Ginger Fitness to go it alone. This is certainly a must read! I’m sure all of you can already relate to this somewhat, and you probably already know the answer to the question ‘what happens now you’ve lost the weight?’.

With the help of bodybuilding, I have always been the master of losing weight, my record being 6 stone in 4 months, sound extreme? Well, it was, it was also absolutely pointless, staying in control after losing weight is probably the hardest part for me, and having a proper exit plan after shedding the stones is the most crucial part, and why we find it so important to label Ginger Girls as a lifestyle change and not just a diet. In my first year of bodybuilding I got down to about 10 stone 11 lbs, this was in June, I was absolutely shredded without an ounce of fat on me, I felt great, I’d won a competition, I felt validated, the hard work had paid off! I’d also undergone extreme restriction for a long period of time, so what was my answer now I was free? Eat all the foods I’d missed so dearly in one sitting! That sitting lasted 6 months, and before I knew it, I’d hit an all time highest weight of 18 stone. I absolutely cringe at myself when writing this, thinking how stupid I was, over 7 stone gained in not even as many months, I was distraught! My answer was, do another show, and get shredded again, and guess what happened after that? Well, I think it goes without saying. So why do I feel its important I put this in a blog? We’ve had some people return on their second shred, and quite a few of these people’s weight has climbed a little, which is understandable, but it doesn’t have to be the case. The shred is a challenge to push you to your limits, and watching people reflect on what they love most about it, not one person has said the weight loss, so before I go any further, this is not anti-shred, because it is an unbelievable challenge where you will learn things about yourself you absolutely didn’t know, and if you're in two minds, talk to anyone who has completed it and they will 100% persuade you to give it a go.

As I’ve been there myself to some degree, I want to make a little prediction as to what you’re planning to do when you finish. You’ll have something special to eat in mind, you’ll plan a little rest and you’ll enjoy yourself for a little while after the hard work has been done. And who could blame you? You’ve worked very hard and you deserve to enjoy yourself, what you absolutely must NOT do, is then think “I’ve had one bad meal, the day is a write off, I’ll go back to normal tomorrow!” All that leads to is you extending and extending the treats, promising yourself your going to start again Monday, and become stuck in a rut of trying to emulate the intensity of the shred without the accountability side of it. I know this because I see a lot of people saying they want to stick to the same shred meal plan, or even worse, the same level of intensity of exercise. One doesn’t happen without the other trust me. You will eat bad, avoid the scales, try and burn it off (which we know isn’t possible) and because your not accountable, end up failing and becoming disheartened. We end up in a cycle of massive restriction to account for the bad foods, or burning yourself out through too much exercise, the shred is a challenge, not a lifestyle, you need to find some balance and get yourself back in an accountability group, so you are able to find the middle ground instead of hitting lows faster than the Oblivion at Alton towers. The scales then become terrifying, you know you’ve been bad, so you won’t go near them for fear of what the number will be, and slowly but surely the number will unknowingly creep up until you work up the courage to step on and just like I did, sign yourself up for something extreme once again for the cycle to be repeated. I even made the papers, with a few alterations to save embarrassment.

Enough scare mongering, let’s get to the solutions. GET BACK TO BASICS! What are the basics I hear you ask? Accountability and Train & track groups are. We all know how much your capable of, but this is over 6 weeks, you must now find what you are capable with for the rest of your life, because a little failure will affect you mentally more then you realise. Instead of saying, “I’m going to stick to 20,000 steps now for the rest of my life!!” take it down a notch, 10,000 is fine, so do that for a week or 2, if it’s easy, then add a few on! The same goes for your food, don’t restrict yourself unnecessarily, start adding nice things back in and get some variety. Eating something like 2 pieces of fruit in a day will still feel like a failure in your head, and we can very easily go from an “oopsie”, to hitting the fuck it button! If changes aren’t permanent, results will be temporary. Classes are the same, aim for the recommended 3 a week, anymore is great, but don’t tell yourself it’s a must, its just about finding the middle ground, if you can’t do it for the rest of your life, don’t do it for today.

I would also make maintaining your weight for a couple of weeks a priority, don’t keep yourself under the constant weight loss pressure, just make it about being healthy for a little while, weight loss will come when you are ready for it again. You have to find balance at your new weight, because restriction got you there, but it won’t keep you there, and if your at your happy weight, then I am so happy for you, lets stay there and not just make the same mistakes I did in my past and think all my problems were solved now, if anything, learning to live at your new weight can be the hardest part of your weight loss journey.

Not everyone will want to hear me waffle on, so I’m going to bullet point my advice for you to share with any of your friends who want to know about life after weight loss:

· Give yourself variety.

· Don't keep yourself restricted.

· Don’t overestimate the level of exercise you are able to maintain.

· Don’t consider setbacks as failures.

· Concentrate on maintaining weight for a little while.

· Make being healthy your priority.

· GET BACK TO BASICS

I hope you can take this on board, as I know it can be tough after pushing yourself to achieve your goals, but lets enjoy your new healthier body, not destroy it through poor decisions.

Big Love,

Aaron “The yo-yo dieter” Lowe