Maintenance is a Win

Listen ladies! I want you to hear this loud and clear. Maintenance is a win! Let me say it one more time for those of you who didn’t quite believe me the first time. MAINTENANCE IS A WIN!

I have spent so much of my life chasing weight loss. Whenever I wasn’t losing weight or making progress I felt like a failure. I mean, when you still have fat to lose and progress to make then staying where you are is failing, right? WRONG! Maintenance is one of the hardest things to do and it certainly isn’t failing. You managed to maintain your health and your progress through whatever happened in your life and that, my friend, is success!

I’ll be the first to say I have come a long ways in my journey, but still have some progress to make towards being a healthier me. I will also be the first to say I had amazing intentions of doing just that this past year, but then Covid happened and the quarantine began. It was stressful. It was depressing. It was downright horrible. And guess what? My goals for the year flew right out the window. But guess what else happened? I MAINTAINED. In the past I would have seen that as a huge fail or I would have gained back quite a bit of weight. But not this time. This time was different!

I took what I had learned from my journey with SFM and knew it was something I could control when all else was in chaos. However, I also knew it was not the time to try and hit my fat loss goals and that I would be better served eating at maintenance while dealing with all the stress. So I maintained and boy is that a glorious place to be. Before SFM, I would have let the stress bring me down. I would have given up and just gone back to eating whatever I wanted because I thought it made me feel better. It never did, but I always defaulted to bad habits. But not anymore. This time I had macros in my tool belt and I loved myself more than I ever had before. So I maintained and I’m dang proud of that!

I’m willing to bet there are quite a few of you who maintained as well through that stressful time in your lives and that should be celebrated. You should be so proud of yourself! We did not lose an entire year. We gained a better understanding of how to deal with our stress and mental well being. We took a break from the constant need to try and “be better” and we lived in the moment and did what we needed to do. There is nothing wrong with that!

I’m also willing to bet that there are many of you who maintained over this summer while doing all the fun things one is supposed to do in the summertime. I can almost guarantee that now that summer is winding down many of you are starting to feel that guilt creep in about how you didn’t stick strictly to your goals and the plan. Maybe you even gained a little weight on the scale and are feeling defeated, but honestly staying within the same 5 or so lbs is maintenance people! Those scales can fluctuate so much.

So how about instead of beating yourself up over what you think you should have done, you embrace the fun you had, give yourself some grace, and move forward. Maybe now is the time you decide to hit it hard and meet those goals or maybe maintenance is still where you are at. Whatever you decide is perfectly fine! In fact, being in maintenance is one of the best things we can do for ourselves. In reality you should spend more time there then in a deficit. Not only is maintenance more fun, but it’s good for our health – both mental and physical! We weren’t meant to be in a deficit 365 days a year.

So please, don’t be afraid of maintenance. Know that it is an incredible place to be and one that we need to be at often. You are not a failure for maintaining. You, my friend, are an absolute SUCCESS!