If you were a part of the most recent Healthy Fleet Challenge, you may be thinking about how to maintain your weight loss, or even continue losing pounds, now that the challenge has ended. I’m here to help!

Now that you spent a couple of months cleaning up your diet and getting more active, it’s important that you notice the difference between your current diet/lifestyle and your diet/lifestyle from before the challenge began, in order to recognize what really had to change in order to get you results. Was it the change in portion sizes, or the increase in fruits in veggies that helped you shed those pounds? Maybe it was the reduction in processed foods, or cutting out alcohol that made the biggest difference. For most people, it’s all of the above. Everyone’s starting point was different, but you need to recognize what yours was so that you don’t fall back into those habits.

Indulge, just less often 

The way you ate before is not the way you will be eating in the future. However, you’ll still be able to eat the things you love, just not as often!

Instead of getting your favourite snack, perhaps a donut, every time you go through the drive thru for a coffee, make it a once-a-week treat, or better yet, once-a-month! You’ll still be enjoying your favourite foods, but they will fit with your new way of eating, and won’t get in the way of your results! Look forward to birthdays, holidays, events, and other special meals where you will get to indulge, and do your best to stay on track in between.

Mini Challenges

Keep the mini challenge habits a part of your life, both daily and for one week stints. Hopefully some of the weekly challenges have found a permanent spot in your routine, like doing strength exercises 3 times per week, eating meals on smaller plates, or cutting out soda. For some of the more challenging ones, such as cutting out alcohol or only drinking water, try incorporating them for one week each month to keep yourself on track! Our mini challenges will remain on the blog section of our website, where you can review them at any time.

Keep moving the needle

Your diet and lifestyle are a journey, and should always be improving and evolving. Ideally, your diet and exercise routine will look different 5 years from now than it does today, because you will be learning more about yourself and what works, as well as pushing yourself to constantly improve. This doesn’t have to happen overnight, though! Enjoy the stage that you’re at, and focus on the small changes and steps that will take you the furthest, like getting each workout done before the end of the day, and packing more lunches. These are the things that move the needle just a little more each day!

Understand your weight will fluctuate

It can be scary to feel out of control as you see the scale fluctuate – this is normal! Your weight loss journey is not linear, and the numbers on the scale won’t drop consistently. You’ll have periods of rest, busy months, vacations, and more that will cause your weight to go up a pound or two, but as long as you stay conscious of your choices, you’ll be able to get back to weight loss when you’re ready. Not only is this healthy, it happens to everyone!

Always get back up

When it comes to your healthy lifestyle, no matter how hard you fall, you can always brush yourself off and get back up. Whether you slip up with one meal or a whole month’s worth of meals, every meal is an opportunity to get back on track and eat something healthy! Workouts are no different, so if you lose your groove and find yourself out of shape and lacking motivation, slowly ease back into your routine on day at a time. You’re in this for life, and we’ve got a lot of healthy meals and workouts ahead of us, but we’re going to take it one day at a time and enjoy the journey!