After the Challenge–What Then?
by: Michael Harris  3/19/2007

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So, your results were good, and you’re looking forward to living a “normal life” now. Only one thing is bothering you–you’re not sure what that is going to look like. You are also more than a little worried about your ability to hold onto this newfound you, right?

First, the “good news.” It never takes as much effort and suffering to maintain good health as it does to get it back. You won’t have to work out quite as hard, nor will you have to eat quite as strictly to maintain your physique. Now, the bad news–you’ll have to figure out how to do it on your own!

Continuing to eat the six smaller meals a day helps make your new life easier. Since the whole purpose of eating six small meals a day is to stabilize insulin levels and blood sugar levels, which minimizes cravings, mood swings, and fat formation, it makes sense to keep that up. If you lost weight and burned fat while on the six small meals regimen, and you are now at or below the weight you want to be, then you’ll need to add a bit to each meal. Eating 42 meals a week, you really only need to adjust upward about 50 to 100 calories to stop the weight loss cycle. As an example, if your “meal” is a Myoplex, all you would need to do is add about 3/4 of a tablespoon of flaxseed oil to the shake and you would add about 100 calories to that meal. Just an ounce more meat or a slightly larger carb would accomplish the same things. So, whatever you do, don’t go back to eating plates full of food at each opportunity. Make very small dietary adjustments, or you’ll be trying to catch up with the gigantic swings that can take place!

You’ll know when you get there with the diet. It will feel right. The key is to still stay away from the “trigger foods” that cause you issues, and to allow for the usual free day excesses as well. Sugary snacks should probably always be strictly a free day activity for all of us.

And what about exercise? Once again, you’ll need to find your plateau. I am sixty now, so I recover more slowly than most of you would. So, what I do in maintenance stage is work each body part every 6 or 7 days, and that takes about 30 to 40 minutes four days a week. Now, that means an extra workout day a week, but that’s not a problem since I work out at home. For me, working out each muscle group one day a week nicely maintains both mass and injury-free joints if I’m careful. I really don’t think anyone who is happy with their body needs to work out with weights more than a couple of hours a week, but if you enjoy it, and you still want to try to add mass, go for it! As far as cardio, I still do the 3 HIIT sessions a week, early in the morning on an empty stomach, and that will never change.

May I emphasize once again, because this does take trial and error, that the key is “small adjustments” so you don’t have huge swings. You will know that things are basically staying the way you want them by your weekly weigh ins and waist measurements, and if either gets more than 3 pounds or 1/2 inch out of where you want it, then make those adjustments and see what happens next week. Get your checkup regularly and keep tabs on those blood lipid levels.

Don’t let the maintenace phase get you down. It’s no different than owning and operating an auto. Checking the tires, the fluid levels and the operating systems are part of that responsbility, as are the same kinds of things with your body. This IS Body for LIFE, remember?