Three Warning Signs to Look Out for if Your Weight Loss Has Rebounded

There will come a time when you reach your weight loss goals.

Things are great — the hard work you put in of throwing yourself into the shark-infested waters has finally begun to ease up.

You are in a comfortable spot — and your ego got a bit of a boost in the process.

It’s always nice when people notice all the hard work you’ve put in.

For once, something went the right way.

Then, as the months after your honeymoon period ends, things start to change.

You notice that the results in the mirror aren’t the same. What happened?

It’s called the “rebound effect”, which can happen to many people.

It also happens to me, over and over again.

All that hard work and now this — it’s enough to make you just that little bit angry.

But, don’t get angry quite yet, because all you need to know are a few things to get you right back on track.

One: We start to become complacent about our food choices

This is a big one because when we are on a weight-loss roll, we decide it might be ok to have extra calories for breakfast, snacks and maybe just a little bit more of anything.

Over time, this can amount to extra calories we don’t need that start appearing as body fat.

If you can be honest with yourself and catch it early, you won’t have a problem getting back to the basics again.

Remember to always check in regularly, but not become obsessed with it by any means.

I like to think of it as having conscious awareness of what I’m doing, eating and feeling at a particular time. That will help me uncover why overeating is occurring and how I can turn it around.

Two: We get lazy when it comes to exercise

Dropping the ball is a big one too, and I’m also guilty of this factor.

When we start our weight loss journey, things are great.

We become super-enthusiastic, always put in that extra effort every day.

When the weight comes off, and we start looking the way we want, laziness starts to set in.

We may skip a workout, do a lot less incidental exercise or spend more time in front of the screen or TV instead of being active.

Although it is good to scale back on your exercise volume, dismissing exercise daily is not ok.

We need to stay active for continual body weight maintenance, but we have to think about training quality rather than quantity.

Lifting weights is a far better option than endless cardio.

Building muscle gives you a metabolic edge over others.

Incidental exercise like walking is fantastic.

Walking is easy to do several times a day without much thought.

If you have an iWatch, always keep your activity tracker within your reach.

I like to use my step and activity goal as my daily motivation. For example, my watch informs me when I need to get up off my backside and move around again.

I love how it keeps me accountable and motivated to hit the target every day.

Remember, you set the target, so make it realistic but not too easy that laziness sets in.

Three: Cheat meals turn into cheat days

This is dangerous territory here, and it could magnify when a holiday break arrives. Usually, the care factor may become a little bit light-hearted.

I always tell dedicated dieters that cheat meal is essential, as it helps eliminate cravings and give you a well-earned break from clean eating daily.

But when these meals become full days, we have a significant problem on our hands!

We don’t want to be eating rubbish daily. Our bodies weren’t built for thriving on trash!

For starters, it’s a red zone for our health and wellbeing, let alone our body fat levels and weight.

Stop and think about all those healthy and nourishing meals you will be missing out on in compensation for these junk food alternatives.

Your body won’t be getting any vitamins and minerals, leaving it susceptible to viruses, ill health, and depression.

Have your one cheat meal per week — make it memorable by sharing the moment with a friend or family member.

Remember, we aim to fill our bodies with healthy food options because living a healthy and vibrant life is a lot more fulfilling than becoming struck down with the illness.

Fortunately, the one thing we can control and use to our advantage — that’s called food.

It’s either going to bring us back to health or leave us in the gutter of disease.

If we think of eating wholesome and nourishing food as a life source, our outlook on dieting will completely change.

All it takes is to make a simple decision every day.

What will yours be?

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