Kelly’s 5 tips for maintaining her 100-lb weight loss

Kelly lost 100 lbs with Medifast and the support of her blog, and has been maintaining that loss. Keep reading to learn more about her journey and her five tips for maintaining goal weight!

In my house, warmer weather means crawling into our attic to retrieve the summer clothing. The attic’s opening is a slight 16” square, and the space went unused for five of the seven years we have lived in this house. Why?

Because I could not fit through the opening.

But when summer came in 2012 and I was no longer 240 lbs, I slid through that hatch as if I was being beamed onto the Enterprise. I threw bags out of the opening onto the floor below, knowing that most of last summer’s wardrobe would be headed to Goodwill.

I hit my goal weight of 140 lbs*—a total loss of one hundred pounds. However, even as I stepped off the scale on that morning, beaming with pride over my accomplishment, a voice deep in my head was telling me it would be short-lived. Losing the weight and getting to goal was the only goal that I really ever had. For me, the sense of accomplishment wore off quickly. I was left with a feeling of “What’s next?”

Here is what people don’t tell you about being at goal and maintenance: It can be scary.

The pressures, real or perceived, mounted around me. People around me fell into four categories:

1. Those who were waiting for me to fail and say “I told you so.”
2.  Those who wanted me to succeed so badly that they became my personal cheer squad.
3.  Those who didn’t care anymore. The story has ended and they moved on.
4.  Those who tell you that you inspire them. What if I let them down? In my mind, that was the worst outcome.

I lost track of my purpose. I forgot who I did all of this work for—myself and my family. The old voices started to creep back in.

“You’ve worked so hard. Go ahead, you deserve to indulge!”

“You’ll get back on plan come Monday. Don’t worry—those extra pounds will fall right off!”

“Don’t worry about the extra weight. There’s no way you will ever gain back 100 lbs.”

People often ask me what the biggest piece of advice I have for people on a weight-loss journey and maintenance. Everyone’s journey is so different and there is no one size fits all plan. However, I have one word: Prepare. Here are my five tips to help you prepare for maintenance:

1. Accept that people will treat you differently. Sometimes it will be good, sometimes bad. But no matter the reasons, you are the only one who is on control of how you react to it.
2. Stay accountable. To some, this might be as simple as teaming up with a friend. For others, like me, this means checking in with a professional. During my journey, I faced a lot of hard truths and resolved many issues on my own that caused me to turn to food. I begin seeing a professional next week to work on coping solutions that do not involve food.
3. Make new goals. Whether it’s signing up for fitness challenges like a race or a weekly class, keep something on the schedule. Make commitments to yourself and others.
4. Keep learning. The thing I love about Medifast is that the ease of the 5&1 Plan gave me the space to learn about the healthy foods I want to eat in the future. I didn’t have to overwhelm myself all at once with learning how to eat while learning how to lose a large amount of weight. Before you get to your goal, be sure to read about Medifast’s Transition and Maintenance if you’re following their program. Compile your library of healthy recipes now. The plan you’ll follow after goal is even more important than the diet you are following now.
5. Give yourself permission to fluctuate a little. Just as you need to mentally settle into the new you, so does your body. Keep doing all the right things and you will find a happy medium (or large, if that’s your size)!

The beauty of maintenance is that you can put the brakes on and stop things before they get out of control. You can regroup and figure out where you are going wrong. My maintenance goal is not weight loss but getting myself in order so that I will never see 240 lbs again.

There are many creatures in the attic of my mind that I will spend a lifetime dodging, but the only thing I’ll be pulling out of my actual attic next summer are the clothes that will be donated to Goodwill.

Read all about Kelly and her weight-loss journey and maintenance on her blog, The Turnip Farmer. 

*Results vary. Typical weight loss on the Medifast 5 & 1 Plan® is 2-5 lbs per week for the first 2 weeks and 1-2 lbs per week thereafter.