Keeping your weight within a five-pound range after weight loss



As difficult as losing weight is, keeping it off is equally challenging. And if you've lost weight, and want to keep it off, you need to say, "Challenge accepted!"

And it will mean making a change from just moving the numbers down on the scale (which is impressive, make no mistake) to other ways of managing how you see your body. And the first thing to do is to look at it, which many people just can't do (in spite of mirrors being common and inexpensive). After that, if you're brave enough, you can take off your shirt (I'm assuming that you're male like me), stand in front of a mirror, tense up your abs, and take a selfie (no, I'm not going to show you that, it's for my eyes only).

After you've done that, staying within a five-pound range will be fairly easy. As of this writing, I'm within my range, which is between 160 and 165 pounds. Less than that I'll save for if I get the part of the next Wolverine (which ain't gonna happen!), and over that is when I notice difficulty buttoning my blue jeans. There's no need for you to panic about a couple of pounds - a full-grown man can fluctuate that much from day to day, based on water retention, waste materials waiting to be disposed of, that sort of thing.

This past summer, after I strained my shoulder (which is OK now), I got up to 170, which is too much fat for me. I was weighing myself, and thinking that I was building a lot of new muscle, but when the weather cooled off and when I switched from my elastic-waist shorts to bluejeans the first thing I realized was that I couldn't button them (it's fat, not muscle, that causes that). I definitely had developed "the pudge", so I accepted the challenge to lose ten pounds, which I did as of earlier this month. Now I'm onto the next step, which includes not panicking when I see the numbers go up a bit on the scale in the morning.

I'm 162 pounds this morning, and it's fine. I'll continue to weigh myself and take my mirror selfies, but mostly I'm gonna relax a little with the calories, continue to train, and just keep myself within a five-pound range.

I'll let you know how it goes.

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