Overcoming the Rut: Weight loss: Stay-Motivated Ideas for the Long Haul

Like a space shuttle blasting off in a burst of fire, you were all fired up when you launched your weight-loss program. Now your fire has died down, and you are propelled mainly by inertia.

How do you feed that inertia when you hit a rut and start to get bored? Is it possible to recapture that fiery enthusiasm for exercise and sensible eating when your weight plateaus?

The first thing to realize is that long-term weight loss seldom follows a smooth curve. There may be fits and starts, plateaus, and even the occasional backslide. It is easier to dig yourself out of a rut if you have a plan. Your plan may involve doing something differently, revamping your weight-loss strategy, or simply thinking about your goals in a new, more realistic way.

Here are some suggestions:

• Look on the bright side. Hitting a plateau after several weeks or months of losing weight is not a failure--it's called weight maintenance. Maintenance is an even greater achievement for those who steadily gained weight their entire adult life. "People often view weight maintenance as spinning your wheels and not going anywhere," says Keith Ayoob, Ed.D., R.D., a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. "But that's the whole idea of maintaining--not going anywhere." Making peace with weight maintenance can give you the emotional wherewithal to begin losing weight--again or for the first time--in the very near future.
• Keep a food diary. Monitoring your calorie and fat intake by writing down what you eat is an integral part of many weight-loss programs. It can also be tedious and quickly abandoned. If you are in a rut, dust off that diary and keep a really accurate list of your food intake for one week. Then ask yourself, "How have my eating habits changed since I hit this rut?" You may discover, for example, that you are making exceptions to the dietary rules you had established for yourself in the beginning. Heightening your awareness with a food diary can put you right back on your weight-loss track.
• Reexamine your priorities. Use your rut as an opportunity to determine where you need to make an extra effort to start losing weight again. If you are unwilling to further decrease your calorie intake, evaluate your level of physical activity. Many people find it impossible to lose weight over an extended period without exercising every day or every other day.
• Be more flexible. Be willing to trade your favorite exercise for another whenever circumstances dictate. If you are married to one activity--racquetball, for instance--your fitness routine can be stalled during a business trip or if your racquetball partner has knee surgery. Take up a fallback sport or a solitary activity, such as a brisk walk. If you are a treadmill maven and all the treadmills are in use at the gym, try a new piece of equipment, such as a rowing machine. Rowing will challenge your muscles in novel ways and may burn more calories, to boot. (Even if you hate rowing, doing it for 20 or 25 minutes won't kill you.)
• Reversal of excuses. Instead of coming up with excuses not to exercise, decide that you need a darn good excuse NOT to exercise. Then limit those excuses to illness, injury, or natural disasters. Refuse to let a stock market crash, bad mood, or sale at Macy's interfere with your workout schedule.

Say you have tried everything to lose those last 5, 10, or 20 pounds but still feel hopeless. The rut you think you are in may actually be the place you belong. "If you started at 180 pounds and got down to 150 but really want to get to 135, well maybe that's not realistic," he says. "It's also no good if you can't maintain your weight at 135 pounds."

For many people, the most realistic goal weight is one they have been able to maintain in the past, Ayoob adds. "Don't get delusions of grandeur about what losing incredible amounts of weight will and won't do for your level of happiness."