Recovery is an important component of both growth and maintenance. If you run a marathon without proper training, you will probably find it difficult to impossible to walk the next day. If you push yourself too hard, eventually your body will refuse to work. The same thing happens mentally. Have you ever had a tough day at work or had to think too much and found you could not bring yourself to do anything but stare at the TV that evening? Creating a new habit and sticking to a food plan are mental stressors.

You need a break, even to maintain the status-quo of your ability to function. Allow yourself to recover physically and mentally. You also need to take a break if you want to empower yourself to higher achievement, greater endurance, or weight loss. Recovery is an important part of growth. Although we want to push ourselves toward higher achievements, if we do not allow ourselves time to recover between, there will be nothing left to push.

It is not weakness to take a break; it is responsibility. If you push too far, you will not have any thing left to give. If you live at a high level of stress, you may not be able to handle any extra thing and there is always something extra.

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Take a Break to Achieve More

That may work for maybe a week, but eventually your body will go into starvation mode. Your body will hold onto every single morsel you put into your body, you will stop losing weight, and possibly gain weight.
I have made that mistake many times. The best plan is simply to live in balance. Eat a good variety of foods, and count your calories. Now, how many calories should you be eating?
That answer varies.  There are two different ways to do this.  I have used both and like both results.

The first method, take your current body weight, and multiply it by 7. (Ex. I weigh 200 pounds 200×7=1400.  I get 1400 calories a day until I reach my goal.) That is it. One problem I find with this method, and the reason I do not use it, is that whenever you weigh yourself you have to adjust your calorie intake, then re-adjust to a maintenance calorie intake when you reach your goal.

The second method, and the one I use, is eating for your desired body weight. Essentially, you eat the amount of calories for a maintenance mode of a certain weight. This form of eating is not as fast on weight loss, but is my favorite for two main reasons. First off, you get to eat more, which is always a plus. And secondly, you never have to adjust how many calories you take in a day. One time figuring and you are finished.

Again, how do you figure it out?

For a man: Let’s say you weigh 230 pounds, but want to get to 200. Eat like you are trying to maintain a 200 pound weight. So take the 200 pounds, multiply it by 10. You get 2000 calories for the day.
But weight (get it), there’s more. For every hour you workout a week AT HIGH INTENSITY, you can add one calorie per pound body weight. So I workout two hours a week, at high intensity, I get another 200 calories a day.

For women:  Same formula, but I wouldn’t go over 12 calories per pound of body weight.

Either way you go, you’ll get the right amount of calories, and avoid the classic pitfalls of weight loss!

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Undereating Equals Undercutting Weight Loss Results

Available to all Curves members, this new plan offers monthly classes that teach you how to rev up your metabolism, eat all day long and enjoy a variety of foods without gaining weight. Curves experts know that diets that forbid certain foods never work in the long run. Therefore, their Weight Management Plan shows you how to safely and satisfyingly incorporate your favorite eats into your weight loss plan while not sabotaging your efforts to meet or maintain your weight loss goal.

The plan starts out as a 30-day plan that teaches you how to lose weight and keep it off. Once the 30 days are up, you will have just the tools and knowledge needed to maintain your goal weight. The maintenance phase allows you to eat 2,000 to 2,500 calories a day without gaining back an ounce of what you lost! Key to this generous daily calorie allotment are regular visits to a Curves gym to keep your metabolism stoked and your muscles lean.

To learn more about Curves new Weight Management Plan, contact a local Curves in your area, or sign-up for Curves now.

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Curves New Weight Management Plan

Once you’ve met your goal, you kind of feel like a rock star. People congratulate you, want to copy you, ask for your secrets – in short, you are, for a brief moment in time, the greatest thing to hit the weight loss world.

And then the “new” you becomes the “old” you – your new shape is the norm. The adulation is gone, the excitement has vanished – it’s just you and the every day monotony of it all. I’d venture to say that this would be one of the reasons many people regain lost weight. Maintaining a large weight loss is less personally fulfilling than losing weight – the longer you keep it off the less special it seems to other people.

I was chatting with Bill the other day and he had a great idea. After a big loss, people start to see you as being a “normal person” rather than someone who worked really hard and lost weight. Wouldn’t it be interesting to walk around wearing a picture of my “fat self” all the time? Well, yes and no. I don’t find that I need the pats on the back that much any more, as I grow more comfortable in my new body. In fact, when people find out about my weight loss, it almost embarrasses me – it’s easy to see what they are thinking. “Eighty pounds? Wow! She must have been really heavy!”

No, I don’t think I’ll wear a picture around. I will, however, keep plugging away at the running, searching for the fruits and veggies, and making good choices. It’s the best thing for me, even though it’s more difficult than I ever imagined.

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The Worst Word in the Weight Loss World is Maintenance

I’ve been home for about a month since the Season 7 Biggest Loser finale, and it has been one the toughest challenges I have had to face yet.

Now that I’m on my own with my weight, I have had my share of struggles and successes. Many people have asked me what I do now that I’m home. What I eat. How I workout. How did I do it. I have asked myself those same questions everyday since I got back home.

There is one thing about me that everyone should know first off. I don’t put on an act for anyone. I talk straight and tell the truth about what is hard for me and isn’t. And in truth, I have really struggled since I’ve been home with eating. It is hard! Maintainence is more difficult than losing in my opinion. I’ve had trouble following my diet, and have even had fast-food!

I know, I know. What did I learn on the show if I can go back so quickly, right? Well, I learned that one mistake doesn’t have to be followed by another, and you can always learn from them.

So back to those all important questions so many people have.

• I eat 2000 calories a day. My new philosophy with food is adopted from Jillian. If it didn’t come from the ground or didn’t have a mother- I don’t eat it. (Good-bye Oreos).

• I shoot for 2 hours of working out a day. I jog for 60-90 minutes, and spend the rest of my time lifting weights.

• As for my weight, I want to be 200-215 pounds. Dr. H says that is healthy for my body type and is a reasonable goal.

The main thing I take away from every single day is that weight, like life, is and will always be a work in progress. Some things work, some don’t.

We have to face challenges openly to grow and to learn. If we learn and adapt, we may be down, but never out. As long as we keep striving to be healthy, we may not be perfect, but we are definitely on the right track.

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Mike Morelli’s Weight Loss Maintenance after Biggest Loser