Whether it has taken you 3 months or 3 years to reach the weight you worked hard to reach or to get to a place where you feel good about yourself, it’s now time to enjoy your #m3newme life. The difficulty is maintaining your achievements and end result, and not sinking back into old habits. It’s as though we think that once we reach that momentum, that it will simply last that way and the effort is behind us. But NO ONE wants to go back to square one. If you want to maintain your result, you will need to keep a lot of those new habits you have learnt. It’s time to stabilise, so you can enjoy your success for the long-term. Here are some tips that will allow you to enjoy life, whilst still being mindful of those sneaky numbers on the scales going back up or those clothes getting tighter.
Remember what you have learnt and keep applying it:
Whilst on the M3 pledge, we have taught you a lot about what a balanced diet entails. Apply these rules as often as you can to keep yourself on track:
- Fill your meals and plate with vegetables
- Go easy on the fats, and choose quality over quantity
- Try to eat according to your hunger and feeling of satiation
- Eat without distractions, really take the time to enjoy the food on your plate
- Chew your food and learn to eat slowly
- Have a healthy snack ready for if you struggle with regular cravings
- … find more on our articles about having a balanced diet and a healthy level of activity
Treat yourself every once in a while:
It’s perfectly normal to eat some chocolate, or a dessert or even a few peanuts once in a while. It only becomes an issue if this becomes recurrent or is done without thinking and without paying attention to the quantities consumed.
Apply the same rule as with a meal. Try and eat your favourite treat mindfully and completely aware of every mouthful. Don’t scoff it down. Enjoy your moment of pleasure, because that’s what it is! It’s not a moment of sin or something to beat yourself up about. A balanced diet INCLUDES some sweet or savoury treats. If you feel bad about “enjoying” an ice-cream in the summer with your children… then you haven’t really enjoyed it, and you might resolve to “punishing” yourself for “deviating” and eat more than you should. So remember, have a scoop of ice-cream, enjoy it, and remember you CAN have it again. Just maybe not every day.
NOURISH YOUR BODY:
You might still be in the mind-set that food equates only to calories which in turn equates to weight-gain. Please get out of that belief and remember something important. Food is a source of energy, but it is also a source of vitamins, minerals, fibre, antioxidants and all the other good stuff your body needs. When you eat, you are nourishing your body. Remember that the food you eat and the nutrients that are contained within it are actually making your body work, making you healthy. If you start to think like that, then you’ll be able to see that eating fruit is not only fresh and delicious, but it also feeds your body with fibre, vitamins, water AND sugar. The sugar is energy, so yes, calories, but your body NEEDS calories to keep you going through the day. You might start seeing cheese as a good source of calcium for your bones, protein for your muscles and yes, also fat and salt. But as long as you’re not eating huge slabs of it, and you’re varying your diet, know that cheese is ALSO nourishing you.
Be kind to yourself
Remember that you only have one body. You’re not going to suddenly get to exchange it with a different “better” one, so respect it and remember to care for it. When you get to thinking like that, you can really see the joy of giving it what it needs. Keep it hydrated and add some extra support to it if you lead a busy life or simply to make sure it’s getting all the nutrients it requires. Adding some supplements from the Modere nutritional range can really help you take care of your body when it needs it most. Sometimes it can also start by treating it from the outside in with our Modere self-care range of products.
Stabilising is all about learning to give your body what it needs, and when it needs it. It needs to be hydrated, nourished and exercised to function correctly. But it’s also about having a healthy attitude towards yourself and your mind. You don’t have to live a life of restriction. You CAN enjoy less nutritious foods that also bring you joy as part of a healthy lifestyle. It’s all about listening to yourself.
