Problems After You've Reached Your Goal

Everything is not perfect when you lose a lot of weight. It’s not the end of a movie where everything is flawless and not one thing is out of place. There are problems for you after losing a lot of weight that you may not even think about and the following might help you prepare for what is to come.

• Way too many clothes that don’t fit.
Before losing weight this was a problem too but everything was too tight but at least you still had a couple of 'fat day' clothes. After you lose a lot of weight nothing fits you anymore and you look like Hobo even in your ‘fat day’ clothes. You have to buy a whole new wardrobe and that can get expensive. Don’t forget when the weather changes into winter or summer you’ll have to buy new clothes all over again for the clothes that you had stored away for the season. This includes coats/jackets which no longer fit properly too. You’ll be buying more shoes also, with all the exercise that you’ll be doing the treads on your shoes will wear out four times faster.

• You’ll be a lot colder.
I can’t believe how cold I get now. I use to be one of those guys who could wear shorts all the time (Yes, I know that’s not fashionable but my modeling career never took off, so who gives a flip). It didn’t matter if it was below freezing my legs just wouldn’t get cold. Now, I feel as if I’m freezing all the time and I always have to check the thermostat to see if someone has turned down the heat.

• Wedding ring doesn’t fit anymore.
My wedding ring was one to the triggers that started my weight loss journey; it was getting too tight and on the verge of not coming off at all. Now, the things always flopping around on my finger and I have to take it off a lot in fear of losing it while doing activities.

• Having to always be asked, “What’s the secret?” by everyone you’ve ever come into contact with before you lost the weight.
Short answer, there is no secret, eat less and exercise more. No one believes you though and you have to spend a lot of time convincing them that there is no secret diet out there.

• It’s a lot harder to lose weight now.
I put some weight back on after Halloween so I took myself off of maintaining to lose it. It was a whole lot easier to lose three pounds, 80lbs. ago, than it is to lose it now.

• Picky eating
Even after losing weight and you’re maintaining you still have to pay attention to what you’re eating. Just because you can eat more now that you’ve reached your goal doesn’t mean that the 'all you can eat buffet' is open. I can attest to that from my Halloween experience that I just went through. Plus, your friends get irritated with you when you’re still picky about where you eat once you’ve told them you’ve reached your goal. They at least could understand when you were on a 'diet'.

• It’s hard to get out of your routine.
My exercise routine is what got me to my destination, but I’ve found it hard to deviate from it. I can take more time off from it now but I find it hard to do that and that’s a sign of insanity to me. If I don’t get my exercise in for the day there’s a part of my brain that yells at me to ‘just do it!’ even now that I’m just maintaining. If I go out for a night of fun it’s not as fun as it could be because of that insane little voice in my head critiquing me.

• No more excuses.
My weekends use to be full of naps. I’d never get any chores done because I was always tired and would nap my weekends away. Now that I’ve always got energy or I’ve found time to exercise, my wife doesn’t buy the excuse that I had a hard week and need a nap during my Saturday/Sunday afternoons.

Many of these problems are a good problems to have and what I’m really trying say is just be prepared for some of these changes that you may have when you finally reach your goal. I wouldn’t trade any of these ‘little’ problems for the ‘big’ problems that I was facing before taking my journey and they’re all worth it. Good luck to you all and I hope all of you get to enjoy the problems that I'm having now.