Reaching your goal weight is surely a cause for celebration, but are you also a little worried about regaining the pounds you've shed? Once you've lost the weight, it's time to put fear aside and focus on the next step: Maintaining your weight loss over the long term.

Dr. David Lau, who specializes in obesity and is a professor in the faculty of medicine at the University of Calgary (he’s also the president of Obesity Canada), says keeping off the weight may mean bidding adieu to your old, bad habits. "We’re talking about helping people to change their habits on a permanent basis," he says. If you regress to your old habits, you’ll gain the weight back. Here are six ways to make sure that doesn't happen.