Small Lifestyle Changes for Sustainable Weight Loss: 5 Strategies for Realistic Maintenance

Introduction to a Lifelong Health Journey

Whether you’ve started taking weight-loss medication, had bariatric surgery or made significant changes to your diet and lost a considerable amount of weight, congratulations! You’ve taken the first meaningful step to changing your mindset and living a life with your health at the forefront. It’s important that you think of this change as something you’re implementing into your life, for your lifetime, not just as something you plan to stick to temporarily. When you see words like “live,” “life,” “lifestyle,” etc., this signifies permanence rather than something that’s short-term. Instead of thinking of it as simply making a change to your diet, it’s important to adopt the mindset that you’re making a change to your entire way of living.

Realistic Lifestyle Changes

A change to your lifestyle for your health must be something that is realistic, not overly restrictive or limiting. If you start a diet that’s very limiting on one specific thing, whether it is total calories consumed, no carbs, no sugar, etc., it’s been proven that it’s very hard to keep the weight off that you lost because once you start introducing the foods back into your diet that you were restricting, gaining the weight back tends to follow.

Embracing Moderation and Flexibility

A lifestyle change allows you to enjoy the things you love in moderation, while also applying doable changes to your diet and activity level that are realistic to accomplish. Instead of completely cutting out sugar, allow yourself to have a little bite of dark chocolate if you’re craving something sweet. Cut up some strawberries to have on hand to grab for a quick, sweet treat. If you know you are going to an event or celebrating something that involves indulging in treats, up your activity level for that day or eat a smaller meal for one of your other meals to compensate. There are ways to change your lifestyle while still enjoying the occasional indulgence too.

The Importance of Planning

If you’re a meal planner, getting your menu together for the week probably comes second nature to you. Food planning is a critical component of setting yourself up for success. Your goal is to make your diet a lifestyle change instead of a fad, so you will need to make time to plan healthy meals ahead accordingly. Sometimes life gets away from us and we need to make quick stops for food, but if you do your research, you can find quick options that are also good for your health.

Building a Support System

It’s incredibly helpful to get the support of friends and family on your lifestyle change journey too, especially loved ones that you live with. You can strive to make cooking and meal planning fun, including the whole family in the process. After all, they’ll be the ones eating these meals too, so you should take into consideration their likes and dislikes. On your own journey to health, it’s common that the loved ones that you’re preparing meals for and with will lose weight along with you as well.

Nutritional Support with AmBari Nutrition

AmBari Nutrition has a full range of products to satisfy any appetite. From easy, quick prep entrees and snacks for in-between meals to meal replacement bars, shakes and smoothies, AmBari’s products run the gamut from savory to sweet and everything in between.

When you’re preparing food for yourself and others, it’s important to take dietary concerns into consideration. AmBari offers products that meet the needs of many dietary concerns, including: Aspartame-free, bariatric foods, dairy-free, gelatin-free, gluten-free, high fiber, high protein, kosher, lactose-free, low sugar, soy-free and sugar-free.

Writer: Kelli Comer Kelli is a professional freelance writer with more than 12 years’ experience. Much of her work focuses on how to live and maintain a healthy lifestyle. She researches diet trends in the media and current events to stay on top of what’s new in the weight loss industry.

Reviewed By: Dr. K. Huffman Dr. Kevin D. Huffman, D.O., is a board-certified bariatric physician renowned for his expertise in treating obesity. With over 10,000 patients and a reputation as a national leader in bariatric medicine, he has trained hundreds of healthcare providers. Dr. Huffman develops protocols and training materials for medical societies, pharmaceutical companies, patients, and hospitals.