– keep them somewhere handy for when temptation comes knocking.
‘Just one will be the tip of the iceberg.’
‘Bad for me, bad for my bum.’
‘Junk-food junkie or health-food hero?’
‘One small step for man, a giant step towards my Diet Freedom.’
‘How long will that make me feel good for?’
‘No thanks, that’s what I used to do.’
‘Junk food = lousy mood.’
‘One biscuit is too many, a packet is never enough.’
Maintaining Your Weight
Eventually you will want to stop losing weight and focus on maintaining the great shape you’re in. Because the GL diet is a way of life and not just a quick ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ fad, maintaining your weight doesn’t mean you jump straight back into your old ways – that would just be an extended form of the diet-trap cycle and is definitely not a good move. The likelihood is that, by now, you’d actually find it very difficult to go back to those horrible crash-and-burn days of fluctuating blood sugars, mood swings, irritability and, of course, weight gain.
What you can do when you want to maintain your weight is relax a little more when you’re eating out. You might choose to have a little more alcohol (and no, we don’t mean binge drinking!) or to have the odd dessert, some extra bread or other moderate-GL foods.
The 80/20 Rule
Many people find the 80/20 rule a good way of keeping themselves on the right track during maintenance. The 80/20 rule is about choosing sensibly most of the time, and having a little of what you fancy some of the time. This guide often fits in to the working week, watching what you eat Monday to Friday and relaxing more at the weekend. Please, please, don’t take this as the green light to go hell for leather at the weekend. It’s a sad but true fact that everything we put in our mouths has an effect on our bodies, and we simply can’t get away with bingeing and then starving ourselves to try and make up for it. That’s bordering on an eating disorder and stands for everything we’re against.
The 80/20 rule is fine when you feel very comfortable with your relationship with food, and when you are also really enjoying your GL lifestyle. If you don’t feel safe letting your guard down, then don’t do it yet. Wait a while and come back to it in a few weeks’ time. Go at your own pace.
KOKA – Keep on Keeping Active
This is another important part of KOKO. As we’ve said before, you don’t have to go exercise mad to be healthy and lose weight, but it really helps if you can be more active. Again, by now we’d hope that your daily 1800 seconds are no longer a chore and have become an invigorating part of your routine. If that’s the case then congratulations – you are now a naturally active person and have significantly increased your chances of a longer, healthier life!
When it comes to maintaining your health and weight, your activity levels are just as vital as they were when you were losing weight. This might also be a good time to look at increasing your daily activity levels further, especially if you intend to try the 80/20 rule.
I often advise my patients to view their activity like a savings bank when they are in weight maintenance. If you put in regular deposits, you can make an occasional withdrawal and still stay in credit. This applies in exactly the same way to your energy balance – expend energy through activity every day, and every now and then you can have a little extra intake without piling on the pounds. Unlike your bank account, there is no overdraft limit when it comes to weight control, so don’t be fooled into thinking that an extra circuit around the park once a week gives you enough credit to party all weekend and keep out of the red!
When maintaining your weight, the bottom line is:
Use your common sense.
Start gently with your maintenance plan, and find the level that suits your body.
Remember, it takes a lot longer to burn off excess energy through activity than it does to consume excess energy through food and drink.
In Chapter 2 we talked about increasing your activity through walking with the 1800-second challenge. Getting active is such an important part of a healthy weight-loss plan that we are going to get back on our soapbox again! As well as scheduling your eating plan, social life and support networks, this is also a good time to plan in that activity.
We’ve concentrated on walking because it’s cheap and so easy to do, but there are lots of other activities which will get that heart muscle working and help you build that all-important lean muscle tissue. Remember, muscle tissue increases your metabolic rate and helps you burn more fat, even when you’re asleep!
If walking doesn’t float your boat then find something else that will get you moving:
Dancing
Cycling
Swimming
Fitness classes
Roller-blading
Trampolining
Skipping
Sex
These are all activities you can measure in terms of their frequency and duration – yes, the sex too! You’re looking for that magic 1800 seconds or 30 minutes every day. Then you can rest on your laurels and feel 100-per-cent confident you are being active enough to:
Lose weight faster and keep it off
Boost your immunity
Get a natural high from increased production of endorphins (feel-good hormones)
Sleep better
Boost your brain and memory power
Reduce your risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and high blood pressure
And if all this still sounds just too much then start by focusing on your day-to-day routine, and work out where those 1800 seconds can be found in tasks you have to do anyway. Here are some ideas:
Walking to and from work
Walking the children to school
Using the loo on another floor – take the stairs
Going out to get your lunch – take
