I received some great questions from a valued reader of the Fat Loss Quickie blog recently that I would love to address here in hopes that you and many others will benefit too. Debora’s questions were about preventing weight regain after achieving your fat loss goal, emotional eating, craving sweets, and which diet programs I recommend. Let’s start with preventing the weight regain…

Debora mentioned, “I’ve succeeded in losing fat (in particular when I had some event as a motivation I’d lose 10-15 kg in about 2 months) but then gained it back.”

The Power of Planning and Events

Debora mentioned something very important in this statement, and it’s actually one of the best strategies for fat loss success, which is the power of planning an event around your fat loss goal.

One of the keys to long term success is to set new goals once you have achieved your current goal. After reaching your desired body fat percentage it would be great to set a 12 to 16 week goal of adding some sexy muscle to your body. That may be a foreign thought to you, but trust me, that little bit of muscle will look very sexy in a strapless gown. As a woman, you are not going to gain large amounts of muscle during this time unless you are taking drugs. Adding just one to two pounds of muscle throughout your entire body will make a tremendous difference and will produce a very desirable and sexy result.

After adding a little bit of muscle you can set an 8 week goal of trimming down some more. But your goals don’t always have to be about burning fat or gaining muscle. You could set a goal of doing 12 unassisted chin-ups, 50 push-ups, or running a half marathon. Each of these goals would keep you on the path of living an active and healthy lifestyle and will greatly reduce your chances of weight regain.

I definitely recommend planning a series of events throughout the year and attaching a health and fitness goal to them. One event may be a vacation, another event may be a wedding, another event may be a reunion, an other one can be a photo shoot too

Why Did You Want To Lose Weight To Begin With?

It’s important to understand why you were motivated to lose weight in the first place. What was it about the event that motivated you to put forth great effort and consistently follow your program? Was it purely vanity? Was it confidence? Was it to attract a member of the opposite sex? Was it to lower your cholesterol so that your doctor wouldn’t have to prescribe drugs to you? Was it to have more energy to play with your kids or grandkids?

After you achieve your goal you must ask yourself, “Did I just want to have increased confidence for this one event or do I want to have increased confidence for my entire life?” “Do I want to have more energy to play with my kids in this one moment or do I want to continue increasing my energy so I can be the best parent possible for as long as I live?” If your goal is purely vanity, “Do I just want to look great for this one event or are there other events or times when I wish to look my absolute best?”

It’s important to write down all the wonderful emotions and feelings that you experience once you achieve your goal and promise yourself and others, that you will never allow these emotions and feelings to slip away from you.

Your New Fitness Plan

Before completing your fat loss goal you should already have a plan in place for what you are going to do after you achieve your goal. I’m a bit of a fanatic and have my entire year planned out. Before completing the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet recently I knew that I would take 3-7 days off and get back on the Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle plan.

My goal is to release the last few pounds of belly fat and then move onto gaining 6 pounds of muscle by the end of the summer. During my week off I listened to an interview with Tom Venuto and his Holy Grail Body Transformation Program came up. This program is designed to help you burn fat and build muscle “at the same time”. The fat loss nutrition principles are pretty much in line with Tom’s Burn The Fat program, which I was about to follow and there is a variation for building muscle while shedding a bit of fat at the same time.

I thought, “PERFECT! The Holy Grail Body Transformation Program is exactly in line with my goals for the next 12-14 weeks.”

My plans for the year also include Nick Nilsson’s Muscle Explosion program and my own Fat Loss Quickie home workouts.

Angie has the next several months all planned out too. She doesn’t follow diet plans, but she does vary her workout programs. She basically lives the Naturally Thin Lifestyle when it comes to eating.

Currently Angie is follow the Fat Loss Quickie home workouts in combination with Nick Nilsson’s Gluteus To The Maximus program.

Once we return from our beach vacation in July she will be following Valerie Waters “I Want My Bikini Body 3.0” program and then she’ll follow Valerie’s “Action Hero Babe” program in the Fall.

Angie and I always have something new to look forward to when it comes to health and fitness. We give 100% of our effort toward each program then move onto a new and fun challenge.

Over the years we have discovered that our body’s respond better to certain programs and styles of training. What we do is take those programs and come up with a yearly schedule for ourselves. From time to time we are introduced to a new program that peaks our interest and we simply substitute that program for one of the programs that we were planning on following.

Bottom line… there is always a program and plan in place once we complete a program and reach our goal.

This may sound a bit cliche, but it’s worth repeating, “Health and fitness is a lifelong journey.” Fitness and healthy eating are not meant to be temporary. We are designed to move. There are so many ways that we can improve our health and fitness that extend well beyond any 12 week transformation goal. It’s a shame that exercise has been labeled as something that is only done when you want to lose weight. Our body’s are absolutely amazing and fascinating. There is no reason why you shouldn’t continue to sculpt it and become the best you that you can be.

There’s Nothing Like Accountability

The smartest move that I made immediately after completing the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet was telling you, my valued reader, that I would continue posting weekly pictures of myself on my blog to show my body transformation. If I do not post a picture each week you can assume that I’ve been slacking off and have not improved my physique… and you can call me out on it too

Angie and I are here to lead by example, but we’re far from perfect. If we slip up you’ll know about it. And if I slip up, I’m going to call upon you for support.

In addition to documenting my current journey on the Holy Grail Body Transformation Program here on my blog I’m also keeping a journal in Tom Venuto’s Burn The Fat Inner Circle where I gain the support of thousands of like-minded and motivated individuals.

It feels great to know that during my moments of struggle and challenge I can reach out to the members of the Burn The Fat Inner Circle and call upon them for some inspiration and motivation. It feels even better to celebrate my victories and achievements with them!

Conclusion

To sum things up when it comes to preventing weight regain, it’s important to view health and fitness as a lifelong journey, create a long term plan that includes a variety of workout programs, set multiple health and fitness goals and attach events to the goal dates, hold yourself accountable to continually improving your physique and health.

Diet Programs That I Recommend

The #1 diet program that I recommend is Tom Venuto’s Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle plan. It’s actually the first ebook that I ever purchased and has been my fat loss bible for the past 7 years.

I have also followed Jon Benson’s Every Other Day Diet. This is actually the only diet plan that Angie has ever followed. She followed it along with me to show her support for me.

Isabel De Los Rios also has an outstanding diet plan called The Diet Solution. I always learn something new from Isabel and I totally love her recipes.

Mike Geary and Catherine Ebeling’s Fat Burning Kitchen is also another great nutrition book that I have learned from. Mike is definitely ahead of the game when it comes to making the most nutritious choices with the foods that we eat. I learn something new every time that I read his emails that contain valuable nutrition tips.

I recently followed the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet, which is a temporary program lasting 25 days. It’s challenging and not for everyone, but it produced results for me. If you follow this plan you will need to have another nutrition plan to fall back on after you complete it.

Another short term rapid fat loss plan is Nick Nilsson’s Metabolic Surge program. I’ve been a fan of Nick’s work for several years and his workout programs have played a key role in transforming my physique.

Tom Venuto’s Holy Grail Body Transformation Program is both a diet and workout plan. It can be used for fat loss or muscle gain, or both at the same time If you have a significant amount of weight to lose I recommend that you follow Tom’s Burn The Fat program before attempting the Holy Grail Body Transformation program.

Those are the only programs that I can vouch for as I haven’t tried any others. One program that has peaked my curiosity is Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat. I may give that a try in a few months.

I also plan on reading and reviewing a couple vegetarian and raw food diets soon, but I don’t plan on going raw or vegetarian myself any time soon, so my review will be based on what I learn from the material.

There is certainly no shortage of workout and diet plans out there. You have plenty to choose from when planning out your year of fitness and continuing on this health and fitness journey.

Continue to grow as a person and become the best you that you can be. Discover your true potential and live your life to the absolute fullest!

To achieving your limitless potential,

Scott Tousignant