For many brides, their wedding day is the motivation they need to choose healthy foods, lose weight and be in the best shape of their lives. Whatever gives you the inspiration to look after your body, you want to make the most of it and embrace the lifestyle change.

However, one study that tracked the weights of over 8,000 people found that, on average, married women gain 24 pounds in the first five years of marriage. The start of your married life should not be the end of your fitness journey. Post-wedding, you may want to spend a little more time snuggling on the couch, but if you’ve experienced dramatic weight loss, you probably don’t want to put it all back on again.

Here are my tips on how to maintain your weight loss, feel energized and improve your health for the long term.

How to Not Gain Weight After Wedding

Keep Your Pantry Full

For me, having a pantry full of healthy foods, delicious snacks, and fresh fruits helps keep me accountable. I don’t want to be wasting food, so I’m motivated to cook with what I have. I know that if I have to pop to the grocery store after work before I cook dinner, I’m likely to opt for a takeaway. So making sure I get stocked up for the week ahead is really important and worth it.

Choose Low-Calorie Meals (sometimes!)

You might have given up fast food in preparation for your wedding. But that doesn’t mean that it needs to become a regular part of your routine. Choosing nutritious foods to build your eating habits around can help prevent you from gaining weight. It doesn’t have to feel like deprivation. If you’re really craving it, go ahead and indulge in a small portion of your absolute favorite fast food. If you think of your diet as being made up of 35 meals a week (3 meals a day, 7 days a week) one meal isn’t going to throw the whole thing out of balance. But view it as an occasional thing, rather than an everyday meal.

That’s the thing about food, one meal isn’t going to change everything. The same goes for eating a salad once. It’s not going to dramatically change your weight. But building a habit of consistently eating better, little by little, will do wonders for your overall health in the long run. If you did work hard to lose a lot of weight for your wedding, pick out the bits of that schedule that you liked. Maybe you fell in love with smoothies for breakfast, or a new boxing class, or a healthier way to cook. Keep that and layer in more good habits to crowd the bad.

Work It Out

Daily movement should be part of your routine if you want to remain at your wedding weight. This doesn’t mean spending hours in the gym or doing a type of exercise you hate. It means finding a way to move your body in a way that feels good to you. It could be running, walking with a girlfriend, dance classes, lifting heavy weights or swimming. Anything that you enjoy and will actually get out the door and do. How many times have you decided you’re going to start an activity that you don’t like, because you know it’s good for you? Enough of that. Do things that feel good and you’re more likely to do them. And that’s what’s important.

Enlist Your Spouse

Now that you have outwardly declared that you’re going to be together for better or worse, it’s time to work together to make sure it’s for the better. Having an open and honest conversation with your partner about how you feel, how you want to eat, and what support you need will help strengthen your relationship. Explaining how you’d appreciate them supporting you on this journey is much better than just getting frustrated when they bring fast food into the house. Get them on your side and work together to live healthy, better lives together.

You could even find a way to support each other with exercise. Maybe there’s a boot camp you can join together. Or schedule your gym sessions at the same time. Or, start small. Suggest a walk after dinner. It’s a great way to improve your digestion, sleep and you’ll have a chance to chat through your day. It could be the start of a beautiful new habitat for the two of you.

Start With Veg

Whenever you’re loading up your plate, make sure you start with the non-starchy veggies first. Add some spinach and tomatoes to your omelet. Make a big salad to go with your pasta. Load your homemade chili up with vegetables that you wouldn’t even know were there. Filling up on vegetables is a great way to get in all the nutrients and vitamins that you need before you overdo it on the processed carbohydrates.

This also works on the crowding out method. The more good healthy food you’re putting on your plate and in your body, the less space there is for unhealthy options.