“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.”
– John Quincy Adams
You’ve made it! You’re finally at your goal. You look great, you feel great and you can’t go anywhere without everyone talking about your amazing transformation – you’re on top of the world. Or maybe you’re scared to death, fearing that all the weight you’ve lost could be regained just as quickly. Many of my clients feel fear or anxiety when they think about the amount of effort required to maintain what they’ve worked so hard to achieve. The reality is that, as with anything else you fear, once you confront your fear of weight maintenance you realize it’s not insurmountable. Yes, you’ve only just begun your journey. Together we’ve corrected the mistakes you made in your past. Now it’s time for you to embark on the lifestyle that will help you maintain your weight loss for the rest of your life.
You might be feeling invincible right now – and that’s great – but before we proceed I would like to offer this word of warning: It’s easy to fall back into bad habits. In fact, more than 90 percent of people who lose weight will have gained it all back within two years. But don’t worry. Right now we’re going to make sure you are part of the 10 percent that keeps it off. It’s important to hold yourself accountable, especially if you haven’t enlisted the help of a counselor or coach. Since structure works so well for those I personally coach, I am going to provide you with the exact maintenance plan I give to my clients. More rules and limits, you ask? You better believe it! Discipline equals freedom! If you stay disciplined and follow a structure that meets your needs, you will never have to be afraid of losing the body you’ve worked so hard to achieve. When you realize you have control over your food and your lifestyle, you’ll continue to grow in ways you never thought possible. During the maintenance segment of my program, food isn’t your enemy – spontaneity is! You must not abandon the structure that worked so well for you all along.
The reason 90 percent of people gain back their weight is that they have the idea that they can simply slide back into their old ways after reaching their goal. “Okay, I’ve lost 100 pounds, so it doesn’t matter if I eat these cookies.” DANGER! This type of internal dialogue will definitely result in damage to all you’ve accomplished. Slipping back into old habits is the worst thing you can do. A few cookies may seem harmless at first, but inside your brain those destructive mental associations – the ones that we worked so hard to short circuit – are quickly becoming reestablished. As soon as you begin to think that you’re in control and “everything in moderation” becomes your mantra, you are on a dark path. Moderation is fine, as long as it’s planned, followed and is truly moderate. If you walk by someone’s desk and gobble down a handful of M&M’s you could say, “Oh, it was just a handful and only one time.” Wrong! You are veering away from the course and structure you’ve committed to, worked so hard on and succeeded at. One handful of M&M’s eaten unconsciously is extremely dangerous. It leads back to the place of no control, no plan and no discipline, which will then lead you back to the store to buy bigger clothes again!
“Many of my clients feel fear or anxiety when they think about the amount of effort required to maintain what they’ve worked so hard to achieve.”
HOLDING YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE IS KEY TO KEEPING THE WEIGHT OFF.
If you are going to have something you wouldn’t normally eat, such as a Refuel Meal, you need to plan for it. Spontaneously eating a handful of M&M’s is the same to me as someone working hard to save money and then spontaneously spending $1,000 on a new outfit. Although that person may have the money to purchase the outfit, doing such a thing consistently – or unconsciously on a consistent basis – will ultimately result in the quick loss of all his or her hard-earned wealth.
To maintain your ideal weight, you have to make wise choices and you have to make them count. All of the people I’ve coached to their goals have been able to maintain their success because they’ve learned how to make healthy eating and exercise fit into their lifestyle. If you’ve sought the help of a counselor or coach in reaching your goal, you need to strategically create a step-down plan of less frequent visits so you can become more accountable to yourself. This means it’s time to invest in a home scale if you haven’t already. I suggest coming up with a weight range in which you’re comfortable – no more than three or four pounds above or below your ideal weight. I recommend weighing yourself the morning of your Refuel Meal so you can be certain the week has been a success and you’ve kept yourself within the range you’ve specified. Weighing yourself once a week is enough. This will help you maintain control without becoming obsessed with the number on the scale. After all, ultimately it’s your level of health and happiness that matters, not a number. Your weight can be misleading – certain times you may be retaining water, for example. Your energy level, how your clothes fit and your overall health are the best indicators of your physical condition. That being said, a weekly scale reading is very helpful in keeping you where you want to be.
“To maintain your ideal weight, you have to make wise choices and you have to make them count. All of the people I’ve coached to their goals have been able to maintain their success because they’ve learned how to make healthy eating and exercise fit into their lifestyle.”
When your weight is near the lower spectrum of your ideal range, you may be a bit more liberal when you have your Refuel Meal. This does not mean having a crazy pig-out; it means you can plan to have a few more carbs than you might otherwise have had. Conversely, if you had a week where you missed several workouts, were not as strict as you should have been on your food plan or weighed in near the high end of your weight range, then you should skip the Refuel Meal altogether that week. Stick to the maintenance plan over the next week and your weight will be back on target.
What is the maintenance plan, you ask? Eat according to the following recommendations 80 percent of the time. Make sure any deviation accounts for less than 20 percent of what you eat. As for exercise, it has to be 100 percent! While you were losing weight, your focus on the foods had to be 100 percent. Now, it’s simple math. The amount of food going into your system has to be balanced with what you’re expending each day. As we discussed in Chapter 8, your body requires a surprising amount of calories just to perform daily functions. To figure out just how many calories you need to maintain your current weight, see sidebar at right.
The best way to design a maintenance plan is by slowly introducing higher-energy foods such as healthy complex carbs and healthy fats back into your diet. Most of us don’t need as much energy in the evening, so start off by introducing small quantities of these items to the first three meals of the day, and eventually to all meals except dinner. For example, at breakfast you can now have some cereal with the protein shake that you had first thing every morning during the weight-loss plan. At this point, you can also choose from more options for each meal (You might find it helpful to refer to the list of foods in Chapter 8).
HOW TO CALCULATE YOUR DAILY CALORIE REQUIREMENTS
To find out how many calories you need in order to maintain your current weight, you first need to calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) (Step 1). This will tell you approximately how many calories your body burns daily, not including physical activity. Then you need to multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor (Step 2). If this sounds like too much math, there are also several online calorie requirement calculators.
STEP 1:
Calculate your BMR
Women
BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)
Men
BMR = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)
STEP 2:
Multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor
Little or no exercise: Daily calorie needs = BMR x 1.2
Light exercise, 1-3 days/week: Daily calorie needs = BMR x 1.375
Moderate exercise, 3-5 days/week: Daily calorie needs = BMR x 1.55
Strenuous exercise, 6-7 days a week: Daily calorie needs = BMR x 1.725
Very strenuous exercise and a physical job: Daily calorie needs = BMR x 1.9
EXAMPLE:
If your BMR is 1,500 and you exercise moderately, your equation would be:
1,500 x 1.55 = 2,325
The answer (2,325 in this case) is the number of calories you need to eat daily to maintain your current weight.
MAINTENANCE DIET PLAN
BREAKFAST
One serving of protein and one starchy complex carb
Examples:
protein shake and a bowl of oatmeal
eggs and a bowl of cereal
marinated or scrambled tofu and a bowl of quinoa
MID-MORNING SNACK
One serving of fruit, healthy fats or high-protein carbs
Examples:
1 serving of fruit
1 serving of almonds, cashews or dry roasted soybeans
½ protein bar
1/3 cup cottage cheese with two slices of apple
Low-fat string cheese stick
1 serving of soy yogurt
LUNCH
One to two servings of starchy complex carbohydrates, one serving of lean protein and one to two servings of non-starchy complex carbs
Examples:
Grilled chicken, turkey or salmon on a salad plus a bag of baked chips or one cup whole grain rice or one serving of roasted sweet potatoes
Turkey, tuna or chicken sandwich on whole-grain bread
Black beans, green veggies and avocado on a brown rice wrap
Tofu or chicken stir-fry on buckwheat soba noodles
AFTERNOON SNACK
One serving of fruit, healthy fats or high-protein carbs
Examples:
1 serving of fruit
1 serving of almonds or cashews
½ protein bar
1/3 cup cottage cheese with two slices of apple
Low-fat string cheese stick
1 serving of soy yogurt
DINNER
One serving of lean protein and two or three servings of non-starchy complex carbs
Examples:
Lean protein (meat, poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, quinoa) with green veggies or salad
AFTER DINNER
One serving of fruit or high-protein carbs
Examples:
Protein shake
No-sugar-added fruit popsicle
Low-fat or Greek yogurt
After two months of maintaining your weight successfully, you can introduce one more Refuel Meal to your weekly schedule. This Refuel Meal can be for breakfast, lunch or dinner, but it needs to be scheduled in such a way that your Saturday dinner Refuel Meal (which you’ve been having all along) is at least two nights after that meal. This means you should have your second weekly Refuel Meal on a Tuesday or Wednesday to make sure that it is not too close to your Saturday Refuel Meal.
FROZEN FRUIT POPS ARE A GREAT CHOICE FOR AN AFTER-DINNER SNACK.
MASTERY LEVEL: CREATING A “TEST” DAY
Note: The following is a step in mastery. I wouldn’t recommend taking this test until you’ve maintained your weight loss for at least one year. This is an advanced way of testing your commitment to your new way of life. It is not for someone who is fresh to this lifestyle or who believes that straying from the diet, even in a planned way, could trigger a relapse into old habits.
If you’ve maintained your weight constantly for at least a year, and the thought of eating something you haven’t allowed yourself on this weight-loss journey inspires fear in your very core, I understand. When we’ve achieved tremendous success by following a specific course of action, changing course, even slightly, can seem daunting. But becoming a master of your mind and body requires that you continue to grow and test yourself. In my practice I have encountered clients who fear the idea of having a bowl of ice cream or piece of cake so much that they avoid any socializing where they might have to make a choice about eating or not eating these items. This behavior can eventually lead down a dangerous path toward eating disorders and other psychological issues.
You’re bigger than the food! You need to know that you can control yourself. If you will be at a holiday gathering or celebration that is meaningful to someone who would like you to celebrate with them (and to them celebration is equivalent to bad foods) you need to thoroughly think out what you are going to eat during the event, and label that day far in advance as a “test day.” This will be a day where you go off-course in a planned way. You will maintain control by having only a small amount of the food in question, and by resuming your program 100 percent the next day, as planned. By doing so, you’ve proven to yourself that you are in control. I recommend that you do this only once or twice a year at the most. If your test-day experience is anything like those of my clients, you’ll indulge in something rich only to find that it makes you ill – and you won’t want to be repeating that incident again, anyway.
I remember days right after reaching my goal weight, when the thought of having one little Hershey’s Kiss disturbed me to the point where I thought I could totally mess up everything I’d worked for if it even entered my system! Crazy, right? I’ve been where you are. I get it. The point is that the food won’t screw you up irreversibly – but getting back into the mindset you once had certainly will. While I don’t find sweets appealing anymore, I know that if I have them, I am in control and have made a conscious decision to eat them. Although I hate the way these “un-clean” foods make me feel, I know that by taking this test and having them, nothing is lost. I know my mindset about those unhealthy foods hasn’t changed in the slightest. I am on target, and the test was a part of the plan. By testing yourself in such a way, you have demonstrated that even though you’ve consumed a food item that once was a factor in your becoming overweight, that food no longer controls you – you control it. This reality banishes the fear that plagued you when you were overweight. You face it, confront it, test yourself, pass the test and move on. Most of the people I’ve coached in this step have reported that they actually feel disgusted eating the foods they once believed they couldn’t live without! They have to forcefully eat the junk they once craved. They test themselves as rarely as possible because they know how wonderful their healthy new diet makes them feel and they don’t want to go back to feeling lousy and eating the foods that were at the core of their original problem.
“By testing yourself in such a way, you have demonstrated that even though you’ve consumed a food item that once was a factor in your becoming overweight, that food no longer controls you – you control it.”
What a great revelation! Don’t fear food. You are in control. As with a Jedi, this is just another step in mastering yourself, proving that you’re bigger than anything you’ve ever faced or ever will face. You are in control, so long as you choose to be.
YOU WILL BE AMAZED AT HOW WONDERFUL YOUR HEALTHY NEW DIET MAKES YOU FEEL!
SUCCESS STORY
“A better, more productive, happier person.”
NAME: Cheree Daven
AGE: 43
HEIGHT: 5'6"
WEIGHT BEFORE: 183 lbs
WEIGHT AFTER: 135 lbs
WEIGHT LOSS: 48 lbs
AS A REGISTERED NURSE, CHEREE DAVEN KNEW THE IMPORTANCE OF HEALTHY EATING AND EXERCISE; unfortunately she didn’t make them a part of her lifestyle – at least until she met Charles. Her weight gain had started slowly during high school and increased steadily, year after year, until she was a 183-pound size 18 – numbers Cheree never thought she would see.
Cheree had her “Aha!” moment when she was going through family photos and discovered very few pictures of herself. When she finally came across one, she was horrified. Although her weight had not yet caused any health issues, Cheree knew that they would be lurking around the corner if she didn’t make a change – immediately. She didn’t want to risk losing out on creating happy memories with her children. Cheree had tried fad diets before, to no avail, and this time she knew she needed something different. That difference was Charles D’Angelo. Cheree appreciated his passion, confidence and down-to-earth manner, and she felt comfortable knowing that Charles had experienced the same struggles with weight. Cheree had finally found the motivation to begin her journey.
Within days of starting the program, Cheree’s weight began to drop. In fact, she says she had never experienced an easier, more healthful form of weight loss than she had on Charles’ plan. Cheree’s initial goal was to lose 30 pounds, but Charles convinced her she could go for more. Cheree ended up dropping 48 pounds in six months and now wears a flattering size eight! She says she feels better than ever and has exceeded her wildest dreams. She now has the energy to play with her kids and the confidence to take photos with her children. Oh, and she loves it when her husband calls her “skinny, sexy and hot”!
Best of all, Cheree has realized how important it is to make the time to take care of herself. She forces herself to set aside one hour each day for her workouts so she can be “a better, more productive, happier person.” She has also come to terms with her poor eating habits. No longer does she rely on drive-thru meals to get her through the day. She now chooses restaurants where she can order healthy fare that will properly nourish her body.
Cheree is very grateful for Charles and his program. His guidance and support have led her to an incredible weight-loss experience. She relishes the memory of the day she went below 140 pounds, saying she was so thrilled that she grabbed Charles and gave him a massive hug!