Why you gain weight after losing it and how to stop the cycle…

1. You may not have been 100% ready to begin losing weight

The decision of when to begin losing weight when having children is different for everyone. For some of us, it may be four months after baby, for others it may be 12 or 24 months.

If you begin your new healthy eating plan without being fully emotionally ready to do so, you most likely won’t be able to stick at it.

You need to have your mind committed to the cause so that you can overcome any bumps on the road. If you have no idea where to start with your weight loss journey, we can help you with our 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge.

2. You may have not had enough support

Support is vital when you are changing the way you eat and exercise, as it can feel like a serious shock to the system for many women. It’s not realistic to think that you can change the way you eat and incorporate exercise into your day without anything else changing too.

So it is imperative that you speak to your partner or a close friend about your goals, and get them on board with your weight loss.

Jump onto our amazing and supportive online community of mums for regular updates, support, motivating articles, recipes and weight loss tips from real mums just like you.

By working as a team rather than on your own you are more likely to achieve your goals.

3. You could have been too strict on yourself  

Often when people begin trying to lose weight, they find themselves being very strict about ‘the rules’ for weight loss. For instance they might say ‘that’s it, I will never eat chocolate again’.

Willpower might be enough for the first few days, but often as the cravings come and hit you it can see you going to the opposite extreme and gorging yourself on so much chocolate that you make yourself feel sick.

A much more realistic approach is to be honest with yourself about what’s negotiable and what’s not. For instance, you might be able to comfortably give up things like donuts and croissants, but chocolate could be your weakness.

So you could say to yourself that on Fridays you will enjoy some good quality dark chocolate after eating a healthy home cooked dinner.  This is a much more realistic approach to treats, as it means that nothing has to be off limits.

4. You may need to remove distractions and triggers

If you have committed to losing weight, one of the first things you should do is get rid of anything that can hinder your progress.

If you still have cupboards full of chips and biscuits, and soft drink and cake in the fridge it’s going to be nearly impossible to resist eating them when a craving hits.

All too often we do well with our healthy eating, then have a junk food binge and feel as though there is no point continuing.

Having a bad day doesn’t mean that you can’t start over again tomorrow – the secret is to treat each day as a new opportunity and not let yesterday’s mistakes dictate your success.

And for lots of healthier versions on treats, check out our 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge.

5. You may see weight loss as a temporary thing

For many people, the idea of a diet is something that you do for a short time in order to see a result.

But The Healthy Mummy will encourage you to see this as a complete lifestyle change, rather than a 6 week crash diet or 24 hour slim down.

When you decide that this is forever, you can focus less on the diet side of things and just focus on being healthy. The weight loss will follow on from here, as you will be eating things that make you feel good and are beneficial to your health.

So if you only feel as though you can commit to eating healthy food for a short period of time, perhaps you aren’t 100% ready to lose your pregnancy weight just yet.

6. You might not be realistic with your goals

Many people give up on weight loss after a short period as they become frustrated at not seeing fast results.

So it could be that after two weeks of eating well and exercising you haven’t lost the 10kg you want to lose, so you figure that it’s just not worth bothering with.

Setting yourself such unrealistic goals will inevitably lead to disappointment as it’s just not feasible to think that this can be obtained in a safe and healthy way.

Join the 28 Day Weight loss Challenge and utilise all the tools on the app to help you break the cycle