After Kimanzi Constable served as his brother’s best man in 2007, the pictures posted on Facebook afterwards horrified him. “I was appalled to see how big I looked. I cried myself to sleep that night,” he writes in a blog post for The Huffington Post.

Determined to lose the weight, he successfully shed 132 pounds in six months. But before long, he had gained it all back, plus 38 extra pounds. Another wedding was the kick in the pants he needed.

“When I got on the scale I was 370 lbs. I worked so hard the first time — how could this happen again?” the published author remembers asking himself. “On June 17 of 2013 I didn’t start my weight loss journey, I started the journey to create healthy habits that ultimately changed my life.”

This time around, Kimanzi quit the job he hated and moved to Maui, Hawaii. In one year, he dropped 170 pounds. “I’m not worried about gaining it back,” the motivational speaker writes. “This time around I learned what it means to have a healthy lifestyle.”

kimanzi constable

Here are the seven healthy habits Kimanzi adopted to lose the weight for good!

  • Patience

“Losing weight takes time, especially if it’s a lot of weight…Instead of focusing on that big number I focused on taking this journey one day at a time. Every day I would wake up and just focus on what actions I needed to take that day.”

  • Sacrifice

“To lose the weight it meant sacrificing the things I wanted. I gave up soda; I gave up fast food and junk food. I gave up my TV time to exercise. Instead of trying some fad diet I exercised portion control with my meals.”

  • Realistic Planning

“Success with weight loss means having a realistic plan. I set the goal of losing 170 pounds in one year’s time frame. Breaking that down meant that I had to lose 15 pounds a month. That number was a realistic number in my plan.”

  • Life Change

“You can’t look at weight loss as dieting and exercise. To have success, and continued success, you have to look at this as a lifestyle change. I didn’t learn that habit the first go around, and the weight came back as a result.”

  • Consistent Exercise

“I was determined to be consistent with exercising; my plan had me exercising five days a week. Consistent exercise gives you more energy and teaches you discipline that you can use in every other area of your life.”

  • Accountability

“One of the best things you can do for weight loss, and any change in your life, is to keep yourself accountable to someone else. It can be friends or family, but have someone be there to help keep you on track.”

  • Perseverance

“Whether it’s losing weight, leaving a job you hate or any big change in your life, you’re going to need perseverance to get through the 1,000 times when you want to quit…There will be times when you experience failure. Accept that failure for what it really is: a small bump in your journey.”

Visit Huffington Post to see Kimanzi’s full article.