What are your long term maintenance strategies for the rest of your life?

Diatonic12
Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Don't diet.

I threw all of my Before pix in the garbage can.

I threw all of my dieting books in the garbage can.

I'm not starting over gain. I don't believe in food resets. I believe in a brain reset.

Constant restarts and food resets are a total disconnect for the brain.

If dieting really worked, it would take one diet, one time, to permanently fix you.

Just because someone rephrases all of the old dieting terms with new slick buzzwords, it's still a diet.

People who actually have a natural and 'normal' relationship with food don't ever start over. They don't take Before photos of themselves and put them on the fridge. They don't plaster photos of celebrities all over their house.

I've released a 100 lbs but will not be making comparisons with myself. The Old Me vs. the New Me. No side by sides, ever. I am one and the same.

Start observing those who've never dieted a day in their lifetime. Watch them closely. They simply move, live and enjoy all of their being. Dieting is foreign to them.

Actually visit a foreign country and see how the rest of the world lives. I've traveled all across Europe and over here in the U.S., we seem to have the most struggles with food and weight. They find our way of thinking about food to be about as nutty as a fruitcake.

I'm going back to my original factory settings. That's my overall goal and strategy for health and wellbeing. I've been duped by diets and led astray by those with disordered eating. I started thinking for myself outside of the perpetual loop of dieting.

Ooo, and I admire the old hands and veterans here. They inspire me. My strategy going forward is to not look to the left or right or back over my shoulder. I'm going to keep tooling along with my data points and stats. Thanks for listening.



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Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,416 Member
    Congrats!

    Centered right on the balance-beam, I say.

    It is a life-long project to figure out how to accept or reject anyone else's reality. :)
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    edited June 2018
    @johnwhitent It's just that simple. No more dieting. No more food delivery programs that taste like dog food. No more food group eliminations. No more imaginary detox's. No magic potions and powders. No more club dues with new yearly material to buy. No more dog breath or carb flu. No more hair falling out and watching it circle the drain. No teeth becoming loose and mostly, no more sliding back off the goose.
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
    Logging and weighing. After some time, pretty far down the road, I may try going without logging sometimes but never go long without weighing. Max weight is a no excuses max; if I hit it, I will set goal as a reasonable (not excessive) deficit, log everything and maintain the deficit it until I hit the bottom of my range.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    All the above... with one thing added. I have to have a goal besides staying static. I know I will suck at maintainance, so I have to do something. Bulking, recomping, hopefully never a hard cut. Until my body finishes healing itself and my hormones get better, lean bulking it is. Most of us tend to regain some weight. I figure, might as well do as much muscle as I can. I have not binged, yet. I try to stay as controlled as I can with life. Balance is really hard for me, so I might just be one of those people that it's moderation in a few aspects, but completely in or out on others. Cheers y'all.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    Mari22na wrote: »
    @johnwhitent It's just that simple. No more dieting. No more food delivery programs that taste like dog food. No more food group eliminations. No more imaginary detox's. No magic potions and powders. No more club dues with new yearly material to buy. No more dog breath or carb flu. No more hair falling out and watching it circle the drain. No teeth becoming loose and mostly, no more sliding back off the goose.

    Marinna, what the kitten have you been through? Dang..... I hope you are better now.
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    edited June 2018
    What have I been through. Thank you for asking. I've been through hail and back. There's a few veterans of dieting on here who understand what keto/IF/paleo/primal/food group elimination diets/food delivery/powders created in a lab and manufactured in plant - chemical sheetstorms can do to you. They can ruin your relationship with food and they can make you lose your hair. Oooo, there's all kinds of side effects from dieting. We haven't got the time. I could go on forever.

    But in a nutshell and not the whole bushel, don't start dieting. Don't start none and there won't be none.
    Side effects of dieting will get you nowhere good.

    Here's the one positive. I see a real shift, not necessarily out there in cyberland but on here. I see folks returning and they are hail bent on not falling back into old habits that got them and me nowhere good. I like it because they're through with being duped. They want the truth.

    http://"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWSx0bBiNIs[/url]

    I can handle the truth.
  • born_of_fire74
    born_of_fire74 Posts: 776 Member
    You may want to hang onto your before pix. I regret not taking more progress pix. Now that I'm in maintenance, I have to rely on how my clothes fit to judge how I'm doing. Plus, I have nothing to show off for my success.
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    Like many others on here, I have been taken advantage of by shysters. Programs and protocols that promised the moon but delivered nothing. If I had a dollar for every dollar I've thrown down the toilet, wasted on multi-cr@p and imaginary miracle weight loss cures, why I'd be dang rich.
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
    CarvedTones wrote: »
    Logging and weighing. After some time, pretty far down the road, I may try going without logging sometimes but never go long without weighing. Max weight is a no excuses max; if I hit it, I will set goal as a reasonable (not excessive) deficit, log everything and maintain the deficit it until I hit the bottom of my range.

    Rereading this; it sounds a lot like I am treating the loss phase (if I creep up) like a diet. I didn't mean for it to sound that way. I would still keep eating what I want within reason just like I did on the way down and the way I have been for 3+ months since I have been below goal. It doesn't sound like much compared to others here, but I have never done that at a truly healthy weight before. The only times I have stayed close to goal for that long before was with the goal weight ~20 pounds higher.
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    edited June 2018
    Actually, @psychod787 - we are on the same page. The brain will quit fighting so hard against you to immediately eat it all back after 2-3 years. Many dieters think that once they reach their optimum setpoint that they're cured and fixed. Nuh huh.

    Those hunger cues and that appetite control center located in the brain will still be on tilt after 3 years.

    https://www.anareisdorf.com/single-post/2017/08/23/Why-Intuitive-Eating-is-a-Cop-Out-1


    "Over time this has become a popular treatment for people with eating disorders, where I think its quite appropriate. People with anorexia or bulimia do need to learn to trust their hunger/fullness signals again and this can be a great approach for them that removes the obsession over calories and good/bad foods. Although eating disorder rates are increasing in the US, they are not nearly as big of a problem as obesity.

    But, I am not talking about normal weight people or even people who are considered a little bit overweight. I am talking about the potential harm of using intuitive eating as a method to counseling people who are literally DYING because the are so overweight, this is where I think it is a complete cop-out.


    I used to work with patients who were morbidly obese and preparing to have gastric bypass weight loss surgery. The program where I worked, required a 6 months preparation class before patients were allowed to have surgery. During this class, they worked with myself (a dietitian) and a therapist to help tackle food and psychological issues that might be impacting their weight. It was a great program, but was made "optional" eventually because patients saw it as a barrier to a life-saving surgery and filed lawsuits against it. I saw so much change in these patients in the 6 month class, many were able to lose weight the weight on their own. The fact the program pretty much went away is really sad.

    But, I get it that most of these patients were at least 100 pounds overweight and struggling with MULTIPLE medical conditions. The surgery was their last hope. Sadly, during the 6 month waiting period, I had several patients die from obesity-related complications. Now, they may or may not have survived the surgery in the end, but the obesity KILLED them while they were waiting for it.

    Even weight loss surgery, doesn't have good long-term success rates, with patients being able to only lose about 65% of the weight they need to lose. Many of them remain obese even after the surgery, and many gain the weight back, although the weight loss does help improve some medical conditions related to obesity.

    When you are sitting in front of a person who can barely walk because they are so obese, who is actively dying from uncontrolled diabetes or high blood pressure, is it really reasonable to say to them "take 6 months to be mindful about your food and figure out what makes your body feel good, maybe in 6 months you will drop 10 pounds or none, either way love yourself and accept who you are"? I am sorry, but if I came to an RD DESPERATE for help and he or she said that to me, I would be furious, I might punch them. People who are obese are looking for a solution, hopefully one that can help them step off the edge, they don't need to hear "love yourself" or "listen to your hunger signals". That is just complete bullsheet.


    "People who struggle with obesity simply do not have the same ability as normal weight people to "listen to their hunger cues". First, the obesity has screwed up their hormones. Many are resistant to insulin making them eat more AND leptin making them unable to stop eating when they are full. So, telling obese people to listen to their hunger signals is simply impossible."
  • born_of_fire74
    born_of_fire74 Posts: 776 Member
    Mari22na wrote: »
    No, I have no regrets. I'm glad that every Before photo is in the garbage can. I don't need them. Those are actually a hook and a link to the past for the brain. You see, if every Before photo changed everything for you then, there would be no such thing as eating it all back. But rebound weight gain happens more often than not.

    The brain wants you to eat it all back. It doesn't care if you ever reach or maintain your optimum setpoint. It doesn't care if you look back upon a 1000 Before photos. It's not lazy but highly efficient at conserving energy and keeping those old grooves in the brain. The old status quo and comfort level.

    When you put a Before/After of celebrities, others or yourself on the fridge, around the house - you find yourself looking directly at them but not actually even seeing it. They all start to become a blur because the dieting brain is on mute. That's when you know that you've moved out of the 'dieting' phase right into the eating it all back phase. Rebound weight gain with friends.

    You can't see any motivational photos - the brain has trained you to look right through them like they don't even exist. The brain is back in charge with procrastination or deliberately sabotaging your hard work and efforts. It's another mind warp and the biggest battle we have to fight for the rest of our lives. This is the legacy of someone who starts dieting, especially in the teenage years while the brain is still not fully formed and operational. Running on all cylinders.

    I've had Before photos and they didn't change one thing for me. This time, I changed everything up. I started thinking completely the opposite of everything I've done in the past. If we do what we've always done we will get what we've always gotten.

    This is what makes me sad when I see someone who has eaten it all back that's going to do exactly the same thing, using the same strategy they used the last time. There's no such thing as the finish line, especially with maintenance. You don't get to coast backwards when you reach your setpoint.

    The body and brain will fight against you for 2 years to see to it that you eat it all back. After 2-3 years, it does get easier but that's the power of the brain and those deep grooves that were created because of your first diet.

    Who are you trying to convince, me or yourself? So much of what you say here is utterly irrelevant to my comment and most of the rest of it is a bunch of (incorrect) assumptions about me. Good luck to you. You are going to need it.
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    edited June 2018
    "Who are you trying to convince, me or yourself? So much of what you say here is utterly irrelevant to my comment and most of the rest of it is a bunch of (incorrect) assumptions about me. Good luck to you. You are going to need it."

    I sorry that gave you a pinch but I wasn't talking directly to you at all. I share what I've learned over the past 5 years. That's the amount of time that I've quit dieting. Everything I'm saying here is what I've done to myself and how I pulled myself out of deeper holes I've dug from way too much dieting.

    My dieting career started at the age of 23 with flops and failures and restarts and reboots and resets and mostly just filled with disappointment from dieting malarkey. Dieting and eating it all back is a food prison.

    Befores and Afters are a part of that misery. Why just today I've read where people couldn't stand seeing themselves in photos with only 15 lbs to lose. That's sad. Befores = Misery and sadness and trigger all kinds of things. But there's not one Before photo in my life that ever motivated me to make any permanent kind of changes. They were a way of saying, just look at what you've done to yourself.

    I started thinking about the big landscape. Waaaay down the road and where I wanted to be for the rest of my life. I'm still standing.

    When you take all of the misery out the equation and the self-induced body shaming, something happens. When you give yourself permission to eat everything you like in reasonable amounts, permission to do everything you want, something happens. You're no longer a dieter.

  • Pastaprincess1978
    Pastaprincess1978 Posts: 371 Member
    johnwhitent wrote: »
    I did maintenance once before, and gained several pounds when I took my eye off of calorie intake and the scale. That's when I joined MFP (over seven years ago) and lost the few I had gained back, plus more. Now my strategy is simple - log everything I eat and weigh daily. Forever. It comes quite easy for me, so I don't consider it a burden. I'm a creature of habit and routines, and weighing daily and logging at MFP is both habit and routine, as easy and natural to me as breathing. The struggle is over for me, and I'm enjoying fueling my body rather than comfort eating.

    That's what I need to remember
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    I will likely continue tracking and weighing for the foreseeable future. If that ends up being for the rest of my caring years (which is what is likely to happen) I'm completely okay with that.

    I'm also bracing for some of the mental aspects of it and recognizing complacency early.

    Other than that, I think I have pretty established habits and a favorable mindset, proven by my ability to maintain balance during my maintenance breaks (one of which lasted a year).
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    I'm not there yet, but I don't really have a plan. I am used to gaining weight (on purpose) and losing it. I do kind of diet though, my food choices are quite different when I am cutting vs. bulking or maintaining. That works for me. Most likely I will keep my eye on the scale and adjust my intake accordingly.. go through phases of slight gain and slight loss. Pretty much what I did before I started on MFP, but with more protein.

    And progress photos are really important to me so I can compare my results over time, especially if I am maintaining I will hopefully do some minor recomp.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    The key for me is to stay active. Being active gives me a lot more wiggle room in my diet. Of course I also need to just keep an eye on my food intake as well and be intentional about what I’m eating, rather than grabbing a bag of chips and sitting on the couch mindlessly eating. I try to make better choices during pot lucks and that sort of thing. Load up on fruit and veggies and try to not eat 15 rolls. Lol. But really staying active is the biggest thing for me. I burn so many more calories with an active lifestyle than I do just sitting on my butt all day. So making that a priority for the rest of my life is very important to me...
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    edited June 2018
    @cwolfman13 You're the lucky one. For real.


    I can't get that song out of my head now. No connection with you, though. I had a guy like that once upon a time. :p:p:p

    http://"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcRZ_J_VgNc[/url]




    My thoughts precede behaviors, choices and immediate gratification.

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