Message Boards › Goal: Maintaining Weight
LumberJacck
Posts: 559Member Member
Posts: 559Member Member
Maintainers - how do you keep your head in the game?
LumberJacck
Posts: 559Member Member
Posts: 559Member Member
I'm just wondering if you do anything that helps keep your focus towards maintenance, and preventing gains. Are there any traditions, things you do, preventative methods etc that you do which help you stay at your current weight. I'd love to know of any.
Replies
I lost 74lbs annd have been on maintenance since June. I think you have to find a way to live and enjoy maintenance. Personally I think if life feels like one long endless diet then you are more likely to return to your old ways. For me, logging and working out keeps me on track. I can get bored easily so I like to try new things - currently kettlebells and I would like to try C25K later this year too.
No more than 2 meals out a week and if poss stay within my daily limit or use exercise/activity to balance it out over the course of the week.
Also nothing is excluded - I like ice cream and love cake too. So my 'plan' includes these food items in moderation.
Occasionally I slip or fall of plan - tomorrow is another day and I get back on and keep going. This is a new way of thinking for me... there was a time I would slip off plan and then go AWOL for months!
Enjoy your success, remember how hard you have worked to achieve it - don't let it slip away.
I think what logging consistently has made me a 'mindful eater.' I consciously choose to eat a meal or a snack. I never just plop down on the sofa with a can of honey roasted peanuts & just mindlessly shove handfuls in my mouth.
I plan all my meals out in advance - especially when I eat out. I tend not to go to restaurants without a published nutrition guide.
Keep Learning About Yourself: I recently had a craving for Peanut M&Ms so I bought a bag out of the vending machine & devoured it. I went to log in my calories and was like 'oh that was SO not worth the X amount of calories AND when it was all gone I was left rather unsatisfied.' So I learned that when I snack now, I really want something that satisfies & deemed worth the calories ie. PB on Choc Chip waffle. Less calories, less fat & less sugar than the Peanut M&Ms but BOY is it SO much more satisfying!
Good luck!
I'm far more interested in my fitness goals now - joined the Y, already increasing the weights/switching around my workout every couple of weeks, plan my next workout while I'm doing my current one, planning on entering a 5K in July , focusing on building up muscle tone in both legs post-knee surgery, am scouting places for yoga classes.. And those are just the "targets" I have right now. The first time I run 2 miles non-stop I'm getting a running watch. I was always too heavy to run comfortably before, but now I struggle NOT to run (surgeon's orders)!
In comparison, I use the food diary primarily to plan the next day's meals (it's just so efficient and makes preparing the family meals post-swim practice much easier), and making sure I get the nutrients I need. I also use the recipe builder to adapt recipes I've always done to increase the protein/fiber/healthy fats and reduce the refined starch and sugar, which I'm finding challenging and interesting.
Honestly, watching the scale and calorie target is the basic metric which means it's possible for me to do the more interesting stuff.
I do not log and haven't done so in over 18 months...I am mindful of my consumption in terms of both quality and quantity...my nutritional profile is excellent and I exercise regularly. I have bad days and bad weeks here and there, but by and large I live a very healthful lifestyle which has allowed me to maintain these past 18 months without keeping any kind of diary or logging...just being mindful.
I would also add that I regularly sign up for various cycling events...I'm by no means a competitive athlete, but I enjoy getting out and participating in these events and just having a good time and it keeps me motivated to train, train, and train some more.
1) Planning.
Every Saturday or Sunday, my husband sit down and plan out our menu for the week. We go shopping. I create the recipes in MFP. We decide what meal we're eating when (this lets me balance macronutrients - carb-heavy meals will be followed by a lower carb meal, for example). We write it down, do any necessary prep (like roasting squash for a risotto, for example - things easier to do on a lazy Sunday than after work).
I pre-log every workday without exception. The means deciding what I'm eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner the day (or days) before. Sometimes my whole week is pre-logged by Sunday. I pack up my food the night before and it's all ready to go.
This method really keeps me on track.
2) I log my food most of the time.
3) Exercise.
This is key. I have a bunch of friends at my gym so it feels fun. I am on the Board so I know a lot of staff people too. It's a community.
I get into certain gym classes, I sign up for races, I set goals. Exercise helps with everything in my life: stress, depression/anxiety, weight. It's key to my success.
4) Activity.
I also try to be more active in my day to day life. My fitbit helps with this - the 10k step goal is awesome, I love being #1 on the weekly rankings among all my Fitbit friends, I am more apt to walk to someone's office than call, and I just plain move more.
But mostly, what keeps my head in the game is remembering how much more I enjoy my life now than when I weighed more than 300 pounds. Things are more fun, I am better balanced and more confident, and I just ... prefer it.
So if I have an off-day, I remember where I was and where I am and I make the choice to live this new life instead of my old one. That doesn't mean I'm perfect, that doesn't mean I never give in and order pizza (just did this Sunday..oops). It just means that, in the long-term, I know where I want to be and what I need to do to get there.
130 pounds lost. 2 years of maintenance.
Oh, yes. Definitely this!! It's not that I didn't love myself before, but now I'm actually amazed at how I look and what my body can do for me.
To do so, I use the same tools that worked to help me lose:
Also, I just have to look at one of my "before pics" when I was at my heaviest. That gives me enough motivation as I never ever want to get to that point again.
I've been maintaining for 2 years.
I focus on fitness, not weight. Having goals I want to hit with my lifting makes it much easier to stay on the rails with food.
I still weigh in regularly. For me it's daily but I don't think that's for everyone.
I still log food. There may be a point where I no longer do. The new recipe builder may make that day arrive sooner rather than later.
So I don't feel I need to deny myself anything and I just watch my portion sizes. I eat out a lot but split meals with my husband or take home half. Logging helps me make sure I eat enough.
And I do LOVE looking sharp.
Regular bicycling.
Logging.
Reminding myself of past failures.
Logging.
Looking in the mirror.
Logging.
Visiting the success forum on MFP.
Logging.
Strength training regimen.
Logging.
Looking at old pictures.
Logging.
Looking at other men my age and older who are out of shape.
Logging.
Looking at other men my age and older who are in shape.
Logging.
Telling my story to other people.
Logging.
Remembering that other people know my story.
Logging.
Fear of failure.
Logging.
Liking my new wardrobe.
Logging.
Noticing that I still have a tendency to overeat sometimes.
Logging.
Threw out my old wardrobe.
Logging almost as soon as I finish what I've eaten.
Knowing that my wife is proud of my success.
Logged consistently for almost 1500 days so I keep logging.
My diet nuggets (see my blog at http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/nehushtan).
Logging.
Having a cycle of breakfasts that are easy to make, stock, and rely on.
Logging.
Having calorie-cheap easy-to-make suppers.
Logging.
Having a wife that has been through the process with me and supports me knows what I need and what I can't eat and buys and cooks food I can eat and eats them with me even though she isn't currently on a diet.
Logging.
Knowing that other people are following my example.
Logging.
Not putting logging off to the end of the day.
Making room in the daily calorie budget for a little fun food at the end of the day.
Logging.
Knowing that I can count on myself to keep at it.
Knowing from experience that a holiday or a mistake will not destroy everything.
Knowing that logging is going to keep happening after a holiday.
Remembering to log things that I forgot to put in yesterday's log.
Logging holidays and binges and birthdays and mistakes.
Keeping track of my calories on a weekly basis so I can save up calories for splurges later in the week.
Logging (again).
Logging is honesty.
Logging is another way of looking in the mirror.
Logging is for me not for you.
Persistence.