Have you already dropped the ball on your New Year’s resolution to lose weight? Did you fall for silly diet season or try to stick to an unrealistic fitness plan that would put an elite athlete to shame?
We live in a world that’s increasingly driven by short-term rewards, but successful long-term weight loss can only be achieved if we make changes we can live with for the rest of our lives and stick to what works, every day.
If we don’t, the weight comes back. Simple as that.
I first wrote about the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) almost three years ago, in the story, Best Strategies for Maintaining Long-Term Weight Loss. Last March 2014, I met James O. Hill at a presentation for health journalists at the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center at the University of Colorado. Hill is one of the co-founders of the NWCR, an ongoing study tracking the habits of over 10,000 people who have lost significant amounts of weight and kept it off for a long time. On average, they have lost 66 pounds and kept it off for 5.5 years. It was great to interview Hill for this story and dig deeper into the strategies that work for the NWCR participants.
What are the successful weight-loss maintainers doing right? Lots of things and surprisingly, most are not rocket science. The secrets of success lie in the mindset to embrace sustainable changes, and doing the things that work, consistently, with a long-term view for improved health.
It was a real pleasure to profile Ann Douglas for the success story. Ann graciously shared her experience about how she lost a significant amount of weight and has kept if off for more than two years. She followed the learning of the NWCR and focused on the long-term rewards of her improved health. Ann is a prolific parenting author, speaker, and has just published Parenting Through the Storm: How to Handle the Highs, the Lows and Everything in Between, a guide to parenting children with mental health, neurodevelopmental and behavioural challenges.
Check out my story online by clicking on the image below. Coming soon – an adaptation for the Canadian edition.
