Losing belly fat is a great victory, but, for many, a fleeting one. Often the weight creeps back on despite best intentions. Weight loss maintenance is all about continued vigilance and continuing good habits. Here are three easy ways to help you stay on guard against belly fat gain:
1) Keep A Food Journal
Nutrition can be a particularly perilous slope for those seeking to solidify weight loss.
Losing belly fat is all about developing good eating habits and correct portion sizes. But with all of the food freely available (most of it unhealthy), it is easy to slip back into poor habits or ingest more calories then realized if attention begins to wane.
Keeping it honest: To keep yourself nutritionally honest, maintain a regular food journal. You can use a physical notebook, a Word document on your computer or even your smart phone. Just make sure you capture each item that you eat, including portion size.
Just the act of writing down each food item consumed will force you to consider everything you eat and how it fits into your new healthy lifestyle.
Recognizing eating patterns: Keeping a food journal will also allow you to recognize eating patterns and gain awareness of eating weaknesses.
If you notice that you always succumb to salty snacks at night, perhaps you need to eat more dinner or at least exchange those greasy potato chips for something a little healthier like a dish of fruit with yogurt or steamed vegetables.
Enlist someone to review your food journal: Ask someone you trust to review your food journal regularly. Not only will you have to face the sordid truth of your day’s doughnut binge, but your food journal reviewer will know your deepest, darkest eating secrets.
Anticipating that someone else will be reviewing your eating habits is usually enough to make you put the doughnuts down and reach for the whole wheat bagels instead.
2) Vary Your Exercise Routine
Boredom and plateaus: What begins as an unbreakable commitment to exercise for at least an hour every day can quickly fade as boredom and plateaus set in.
If you perform the same exercise routine day after day, not only will you lose your motivation, your results will eventually level off as your body adapts to the exercises.
Switch it up: Switch up your exercise routine on a regular basis. Instead of walking or running on the same track, find a local trail or try a fun treadmill workout. Better yet, bike or swim.
At the gym try different pieces of equipment or use free weights. Change up the amount of weight you use as well as the number of sets and reps you do for each exercise.
Move outside your comfort zone: Changing up your fitness routine challenges your body in different ways, which translates into more belly fat loss and muscle development. Moving outside of your comfort zone will also help banish boredom and expand your fitness options.
3) Recruit Support
Developing a strong support system of friends and family who will cheer you on and help reinforce your good habits is a crucial component to dropping pounds.
When you’ve kicked your belly fat to the curb and reached your ideal weight, make sure that your social network doesn’t evaporate away.
Remind your loved ones that a healthy lifestyle is a lifetime endeavor and ask for their continued support. Run with friends in the morning, shop for healthy foods with your partner, ask your coworkers not to offer you cookies or doughnuts or whatever little temptations appear in the break room.
Maintaining a strong support system will give you even more reasons to stay fit and healthy and will make the transition much easier and enjoyable. Who knows, your great example may even convince some of your friends to join your healthy ways.
