12 Habits Of Women Whove Lost 100+ Pounds—And Kept It Off

The scale is most women's biggest frenemy; it makes us happy when the number goes down, but sends us into a spiral of sadness and disappointment when the needle starts to creep up. But surprisingly, after they dropped the weight, the scale lost its power for nearly every woman we talked to.

Sara Kaplan, who lost 150 pounds and has kept it off for over a year, calls it "the non-intelligent box" to take away some of its power, and now weighs herself once a month just to check in. Like Sara, most of the other women we spoke to only step on once a month to make sure they're still on track—and if the number happens to be a little higher than they expected, they don't let it ruin their day. "I'm teaching myself to love myself entirely, and that isn't dependent on the number on the scale," Briand says. (Here are 12 empowering ways to track your weight loss without a scale.)

Meal prep, meal prep, meal prep—it seems to be the foundation of any weight loss plan, and for good reason. Even after losing the weight, all of the women we spoke to say that preparing meals is the single most important thing they do to maintain their size. "If I go into the kitchen and I don't know what I'm going to eat, there's huge room for error," says Jenny Jahn-Hudec, who lost 100 pounds and has kept it off for over a year. To eliminate the potential for mindless eating, she prepares a few breakfasts at a time and cooks enough for dinner that she can bring leftovers for lunch the next day. "That way, I'm already set up for success," she says. (Give these 3 make-ahead breakfasts you can eat all week a try.)

Think of your typical weight room—we're willing to bet your mind just filled with testosterone. Well, Jahn-Hudec says it's time to start imaging women doing bicep curls and bench presses, because strength training is absolutely essential when it comes to maintaining her weight loss. "Strength training burns a lot more calories than cardio, and when you build muscle, that burns calories even after your workout," she says.

In fact, Briand completely rejects the idea of "cheating" on your diet. "I don't believe in 'cheat meals' because I'm not actually cheating on anything," she says. "I'm just living life." If she feels like eating a chocolate bar, she eats a chocolate bar—and she doesn't feel guilty about it. Letting go of that guilt helps her and Kaplan, who treats herself to a dark chocolate peanut butter cup almost every day, keep from feeling like they're missing out or restricting themselves—and ultimately means that they can stop at one piece of chocolate or a single serving of chips, instead of eating the whole bag. (Here are 7 ways to prevent a binge.)

Here's the thing—your body just can't handle exercising all the time. And women like Chiara Gravell, who lost 150 pounds and has kept it off for 4 years, know that a day of rest is more important to maintaining weight loss than working out every day could ever be. "It's not just about maintaining my weight," she says. "It's about letting my body recover." She's watched multiple friends who've lost 50 or more pounds injure their knees or their back, and then not be able to work out for months. Without regular exercise, all the weight they lost, plus some, crept back. And taking a day of rest is also about letting yourself relax. Tiffany Kessler, who lost 100 pounds and has kept it off for 4 years, takes a day every now and then to catch up on all her favorite shows. "Sometimes I order pizza and just veg out!" she says.

Before she lost weight, Kaplan never wanted to be in family pictures. In fact, there's no evidence of her in photos from the first five years of her oldest child's life—even though she was there every second. Now, Kaplan posts a selfie to her blog and Facebook page every day. She calls it "stepping into the picture" and says it has been "a big, fundamental shift that helps me feel and value my worth." It helps her take a more active role in her life, and show her friends, family, and the community she's built on her blog that she's finally showing herself some self-care.

Like Kaplan's blog community, Briand and Gravell also use the support of friends and family to stay on track. Briand has been public with her weight loss, letting her community and others on Facebook follow along, which helps her stay accountable. Gravell, who had weight loss surgery, still goes to a support group for people who've undergone the procedure. "It helps me remember the struggle of being 300 pounds," she says. "And sometimes, when I want to give it up, and just throw it all away with reckless abandon, those meetings give me the social support I need."

Does losing weight makes you happy and stress-free every day? Of course not. (In fact, there are several things losing weight will never fix.) But both Briand and Jahn-Hudec stress the importance of staying positive through ups and downs. "You've got to wake up every morning with a positive outlook and remember that you're the one in control of your actions and your reactions," Briand says. Jahn-Hudec says having a positive attitude is absolutely essential, even when you might not reach the exercise goal you set or maybe had a little too much junk food. "You need to always remember that as long as you're trying, that's a positive. So if one day wasn't what I wanted it to be, then I'll make a plan for tomorrow and keep going," she says.

Eating the same thing every day, going on the same run, doing the same workout at the gym—that's bound to get dull. And it's boredom, not lack of motivation, that Jahn-Hudec says is likely to make you want to give up. (These 9 motivating walking workouts will burn fat and beat boredom.) "When I feel like I'm losing motivation—I start thinking Ugh, why do I have to keep going?—that's a big signal that I'm just bored." So she switches it up, maybe by finding a new recipe on Pinterest or taking a different class at the gym. Recently, Gravell started to get bored with running, so she started to focus more on biking and swimming to "charge back up." Now she's ready to run again.

Often, women like Kaplan and Margaret Suther, who lost 135 pounds and has kept it off for 2 years, put everyone else before themselves, which gets in the way of maintaining weight loss. "When I began losing weight, I finally started realizing that I wasn't just a mom, a wife, and a daycare provider," Suther says. "I'm me. I'm important, my health is important, and feeling good about myself is important." Kaplan had also been putting her family's needs above her own, but it was actually hurting her relationship with her family. "I realized how resentful I was, and I was so quick to snap at my nearest and dearest because I was really, truly unhappy," she says. Now she spends a few minutes every day remembering the things that give her joy and what she's grateful for, in order to focus on herself and her happiness.

Drink more water—you've heard it a million times before. But for good reason. Nearly all of the women we talked to suggested drinking about half of your body weight in ounces each day; for a woman who weighs 150 pounds, that's about 75 oz of water. Can't stand the thought of giving up flavored drinks? Patricia Barrow, who lost 230 pounds and has kept it off for 6 years, mixes in different combos of fruit and fresh herbs to give her water a little punch. Her favorites are lemon + cucumber + mint, and blueberries + strawberries + raspberries + mint.

One of Jahn-Hudec's biggest food triggers was the TV. "My snacking time would always be right after dinner. I'd think, What can I eat? What can I watch on TV? It was obsessive." Eventually, she got to the point where she hated the shows she would watch because she knew they'd make her binge. So when she started losing weight, she dropped the nighttime TV as well. "I started recording my shows and I would go to bed when the kids did with a glass of water and a book," she says. Now, about a year after dropping 100 pounds, she's down from watching TV all night to just keeping up with the two or three shows she and her family love—and has cut out mindless snacking completely.