t's six months into the New Year and many of you have done an excellent job making lifestyle changes that support weight loss. I'm so excited to see the people I worked with in January come back to reveal body fat percentages in the healthy range instead of the overfat or obese range! If you count yourself among those who have successfully modified their eating and exercise habits, you may now be approaching your goal weight and wondering, "How will I maintain my new weight?"

Before we explore how nutrients affect our skin, we need to understand that food does not have a map when it enters our bodies. It may seem to some of us that sweets stick to our hips, but they really don't. That's the good news. The bad news is that you can't necessarily eat healthy foods to burn the fat off your hips or diminish wrinkles on your face. But don't give up hope! Put down that cookie and pick up that salad because there's plenty of evidence that healthy skin requires proper nourishment-from the inside and the outside.

Weight maintenance is considered by many registered dietitians to be a greater challenge than weight loss itself. It requires making a life-long commitment instead of setting short-term goals. That's the primary reason why I'm always harping on making small changes that you can live with instead of making huge changes that you can't live with for more than a couple of months. It's the difference between eating whole-grain cereal instead of a bagel for breakfast, as opposed to cutting all bread and pasta from your diet.

With age, gravity takes its toll, skin loses its elasticity, and collagen production slows down, all contributing to wrinkles and sagging skin. Collagen, the skin's major structural protein, acts like glue that holds skin cells together. Elastin, as you may guess from the name, contributes to skin's elasticity and firmness. Skin also loses moisture as it ages, making it drier and less vibrant.

In order to lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you consume, hopefully by eating fewer calories and by exercising more. In order to halt and maintain your weight loss, you will need to balance the calories you eat with the calories you burn, which is a little trickier than just creating a calorie deficit of any amount. This will probably be a trial and error process for you, so you'll need to experiment with adding one more daily serving of protein or whole grain to your current eating routine, tracking your weight for two weeks, and then adding another serving or cutting back until you are not losing or gaining weight.

In addition to finding the right energy balance, there are several behavioral factors that both The Lean Habits Study (the world's largest prospective study on behavior and successful weight loss) and The National Weight Control Registry (a prospective study of adults who have successfully maintained at least a 30-pound weight loss for more than a year) have found to be associated with successful weight loss and maintenance.

Flexibility

Flexibility in terms of your eating habits seems to be one of the most important factors in long-term success. It may have to do somewhat with personality, but it may also be an indication that you've truly acquired the knowledge and skills necessary to make healthy food choices in all situations. In contrast, someone with rigid eating habits can follow a diet to the letter but lose all composure when faced with eating a meal in which none of the foods are on their diet plan. For example, in a social situation where only unhealthy, fat- and calorie-laden foods are offered, a flexible person would find a crudités platter and eat small quantities of the high-calorie foods. A rigid person might avoid eating a single bite of food or throw all restraint out the window and eat with abandon. That's the main reason why I don't like to write out sample menus for people — an all or nothing approach is a recipe for disaster and a major reason why diets only work for the short term. Creating a healthy lifestyle and focusing on health, rather than weight and calories, is a good way to foster flexibility in adjusting your eating as the situation requires.

Consistent Eating Patterns

Basically, don't skip meals and only snack if you're hungry. Some people think skipping meals is a good way to cut calories, but it actually encourages you to overeat at your next meal. Breakfast is often overlooked, but it's the most important meal of the day and it's the secret of skinny people everywhere. Eating breakfast boosts your metabolism and your energy level. It also prevents your body from going into starvation mode, where it will use your muscle for fuel and store the food you eat at your next meal as fat. When you do eat, remember to create a pleasant, mindful eating environment. Turn off the TV and radio, put away the newspaper, and place your napkin on your lap and your food on a plate to help carve out a special time to focus on yourself and your healthy diet.

Portion Control

Implementing portion control is half the battle of weight loss, since the less you eat, the fewer calories you consume. Review portion sizes (see my January 2004 Nutrition Notes at www.gelsons.com) and use your measuring cups to serve yourself when you eat at home. Creating balanced meals is a good way to fill yourself up on relatively low-calorie, nutrient-dense foods. If you're still hungry after a portion of protein, one to two portions of whole grains and two servings of vegetables, eat more vegetables. To slow down and fill up, take a sip of water between bites of food.

Choosing Healthy Foods

Healthy foods offer nutrients naturally and are minimally processed. Vegetables, fruits and whole grains should form the basis of your diet and small amounts of lean meat, fish, poultry, beans, nuts, non-fat dairy products, and olive oil should complement them. Try to choose healthy foods most of the time, but allow yourself to eat your favorite foods like chocolate or pizza sometimes — they're good for your mental health!

Regular Exercise

While all of the behaviors discussed here should ideally be incorporated from the start, exercise is really the only way to burn calories and improve your metabolism for the long-term. One hour of brisk walking daily is the form of exercise most commonly employed by people who successfully maintain their weight loss. However, it's not about what form of exercise you choose or the length of time you do it, it's about doing what you enjoy and finding an activity you will perform consistently. Additionally, exercise is so good for your health and happiness that you don't even need to use the benefit of calorie burning as a motivational tool.

Using Stress-Reduction Techniques

Eating is not an effective way to deal with anger, stress, boredom, disappointment, or anxiety, even though these feelings are a major reason why people overeat in the first place. Learning to redistribute your negative emotions towards breath work, meditation, visualization, or yoga can help curb emotional eating and bring your focus back to your health goals.

Journaling

People who use food journals are more successful at losing weight and keeping it off than people who don't record every bite of food they put in their mouths. Journaling forces you to "own" your eating behavior and your food choices. It can also help you identify unhealthy patterns in your eating habits. If you'd like a food journal, come visit me at your local Gelson's this month where I'll be doing complimentary body-fat testing and handing out food journals.

Successful weight loss does not happen by accident. I've discussed here several of the behavioral factors that The National Weight Control Registry and The Lean Habits Study associate with both short-term and long-term weight loss. Three years into The Lean Habits Study, the people who adopted these behaviors permanently had the greatest long-term success. Additionally, the more behavioral changes study participants implemented, the more successful their long-term weight reduction. I hope that you've already taken a sensible approach to losing weight so that many of these practices are already becoming habits for you. Even if you've used none of these tactics and still lost weight, I encourage you to adopt at least one or two. You don't need to become an exercise fanatic or a health nut, just take a moderate, steady approach to improving and maintaining your health…for good this time.