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Staying Fit After Weight Loss

Posted May 7, 2008 at 04:00 PM by Martinique Haller

Section: Her Fitness, Her Health, Body Image, Her Nutrition, Weight Control

In this column, staff writer Martinique Haller explores the misconceptions of dieting and evaluates her own ideas of weight and weight loss in regards to herself. She also delves into the timeless predicament of how to maintain weight loss once the initial triumph is replaced by the routine of everyday living.

Last week I chronicled how I decided to lose weight and then successfully lost 30 pounds over the course of nine months.  But I wanted to be a true success story and keep it off.

Before, during, and after my weight loss, I worked out.  I first started riding my bike to work when work was three miles away.  Then we moved two miles north and work was six miles away, but I kept riding.  Then I got a new job two miles south, and I still kept riding the seven miles to work.  Then we moved three more miles north and now I ride the 10 miles to work (weather permitting).  I also ran my first 5K two months after I first met my weight goal.  My sister is a runner and I realized I also enjoyed running.  A few days a week I would even ride my bike to the gym before work and then still ride the rest of the way to work.  I was pretty awesome.

I love riding my bike and running. I even love lifting weights. I feel incredibly good about myself when I can accomplish a quicker time, boost more weight, and feel less fatigue.  I feel good just being done and being sweaty and breathing hard---endorphins really are a wonder drug. 

At first it was really easy to maintain my weight loss.  I was riding all the time, it was summer, and the eating habits I had formed over the course of the previous nine or ten months were fresh and well formed.  I simply kept right along; not much changed except maybe an extra granola bar or a little more rice at dinner or an occasional brownie. After all, I had to increase my food by a bit so I wouldn’t keep losing weight. My goal was not to be a size zero.  My wife and I kept choosing new recipes and going to the grocery store frequently so we always had fruit and vegetables in the house. I was still going to Weight Watchers meetings and really liked my leader, and by now membership was free for me since I had met and maintained my goal for over six weeks.  But looming ahead was a trip to Europe (my first!), followed by a trip to Cancun for a cousin’s wedding and then the gray, cold, long Chicago winter.  This, of course, coupled with the fact that I had a severe case of illiotibial band syndrome that took me off running and ruined my plans of training for a 10K.  Of course it’s easy to maintain your ideal weight when conditions are perfect, but what about when they’re not?

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Tags: bike riding, eating healthy, habits, lifting weights, martinique haller, nutrition, running, scale, vacations, weight, weight loss, weight watchers

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