Maintaining for a month

For the past year, I've been working hard to lose 75 pounds. Some months I pushed harder, but I was really focused on losing. For the month from July-August 15, I've been focused on maintaining the 75 lb. weight loss.

During this phase, I've been eating a bit more (healthy things), and exercising a bit less, to keep my calories burned = to calories consumed. It's been really enjoyable to see how my body responded when a few times I'd indulge a bit, and then the next few days get back on track and work a bit more. It's been very encouraging to see that I can maintain my weight for a month while living normally! One of the reasons I chose this month was because I had a vacation which I blogged about, as well as a few trips to Cincinnati for random things, like Becky's 21st Birthday, where I knew I'd be eating some cake!

Those are events that are normal, so it's good to see how I do when I'm trying to maintain a weight during normal circumstances.

(Pumpkin and I at Becky's Birthday!)

But...

Now I'm on to lose the last 25 lbs.!

I will blog a bit more about my plan to lose the last 25, but here are a few maintaining tips...

-When you've reached maintenance, decide if you want to consume more calories, or work out less. I did a combo of the two. It's still very important to exercise at least 5 times a week, but it's also very important to not revert to eating bad foods, or over eating.

I chose to increase my calories to 1600, so I added some whole wheat pretzels in at lunch, an additional piece of fruit with breakfast, and a little more dinner.

-I didn't weight myself once during this time. I went by how I felt, how my clothes fit, and just generally how my body looked. I still ran and shredded, but I don't think my body changed too much.