Recipe for Success: Lasting Change

In my last post, we talked about the commitment required to make life change happen.  Just making a commitment will help get you through the weight loss, but a commitment to change alone won’t get you through maintaining that weight for the rest of your life.  You’ll need a commitment to life-long sustainable changes.

This is the biggest reason why I am personally against most diets or dieting aids.  The majority of diets out there (by their own definition) are only temporary changes to eating or lifestyle.  How can you expect to keep the weight off as soon as you stop doing what it is that let you lose the weight in the first place?  I could never find a good reason to diet when I had no intentions of continuing it long term.

I was so attracted to the 20/20 Lifestyles program because they were very up-front that what they were selling was life-long.

As I made specific changes to the way that I ate and lived, I consciously made a determination as to whether that change was something I was willing to change forever.  Some changes were easy: Jared and I discovered that we liked most reduced fat cheeses even better than that regular versions.  Some changes weren’t: I like salt.  A lot.  At first, I ate an amazingly reduced sodium diet (no added salt and low salt foods).  I quickly decided that this was not a sustainable change in my life—so this was a change I chose not to continue.

Make sure the changes in your life are lasting—realistically consider the practicality of each choice.  And consider all angles of compromise as well.  If it’s completely unrealistic to think you’ll rarely go out to eat, then consider changing what you tend to order at restaurants.  There are often ways to make smaller changes if a big change is unlikely.

Have there been any changes you implemented in the past that you’ve been able to maintain?  How have those changes differed from others that weren’t sustainable in your life?