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

2

Replies

  • Candyspun
    Candyspun Posts: 370 Member
    OP, I'm the same. I have no 'before' photos, nor do I want any. I'm choosing to view my weight gain as a temporary state, one that will be soon forgotten. Most of my life, I've been thin. That's what I consider to be my correct state of being, and that's how I choose to see myself. This weight gain is just a bump in the road, as far as I'm concerned.

  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    edited June 2018
    Candyspun wrote: »
    OP, I'm the same. I have no 'before' photos, nor do I want any. I'm choosing to view my weight gain as a temporary state, one that will be soon forgotten. Most of my life, I've been thin. That's what I consider to be my correct state of being, and that's how I choose to see myself. This weight gain is just a bump in the road, as far as I'm concerned.

    I released weight because I have no intention of finding it again. Brain Training. One of my friends has spent several tours over in the 'sandbox'. He's at the top of his game in the military. He befriended me and shared some really good tips from his 'specialized' training. The first thing he told was to to quit saying 'I was losing weight'. It's a disconnect for the brain.

    Befores and Afters. Ditto.

    The brain does not care if you ever maintain a weight loss. Only 5% of the people at the 5 year mark are maintaining. I realize this may give everyone a big pinch but our mileage is going to vary. I have no intention of eating it all back and going out backwards. I've watched too many people do that and it's heartbreaking when they keep starting over and over with another 100 lbs staring them in the face.

    Dieting and Cheating. All or Nothing. Befores and Afters. Clean or Dirty Eating. Food Resets and Food Reboots. All of these are a disconnect for the brain. If you find yourself starting to eat in the unconscious mode on autopilot and you can't stop - reframe everything for your brain. Brain Training.

    The brain will lead you back to ground zero before the body knows what hit it and 100 lbs later, there you are. Give yourself permission not to ever Start Over again, keep going. If you slide off the goose here a little and there a little, so what. Keep going.

    http://"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YuM2PGx51U[/url]

    Sliding off the goose.^^The big bird.
  • Candyspun
    Candyspun Posts: 370 Member
    I should make it clear, I have no problem whatsoever with anyone else enjoying 'before' photos; I was simply agreeing with the OP that I take the same approach that they do.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    Candyspun wrote: »
    I should make it clear, I have no problem whatsoever with anyone else enjoying 'before' photos; I was simply agreeing with the OP that I take the same approach that they do.

    I understand, and I wasn't commenting about you or OP. I was commenting about the linked articles that treat all before and after photos as fat shaming. For what it's worth, before and after photos do nothing for me for the same reasons: I just don't feel my after is an improvement over my before because my weight loss was not primarily motivated by a desire to change my shape.
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    Actually, I just found those articles today in case someone wanted a source. You know how everything is supposed to sourced and documented.

    This was true for me a long, long time ago. I didn't have to research it, I just knew it from the top of head to the bottom of my feet. I threw all my befores in the garbage can. The befores were self-induced body shaming for me. Why there are some that have lost hope and feel defeated because the waist measurement expanded a few inches and heckatoot, someone is gutted because 15 lbs showed up in a photo.

    If it brings them that much heartache, quit looking at them or just throw them away.
  • Candyspun
    Candyspun Posts: 370 Member
    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    Candyspun wrote: »
    I should make it clear, I have no problem whatsoever with anyone else enjoying 'before' photos; I was simply agreeing with the OP that I take the same approach that they do.

    I understand, and I wasn't commenting about you or OP. I was commenting about the linked articles that treat all before and after photos as fat shaming. For what it's worth, before and after photos do nothing for me for the same reasons: I just don't feel my after is an improvement over my before because my weight loss was not primarily motivated by a desire to change my shape.

    Gotcha :smile: I didn't notice those links before, but I did look back and find them after. I'm funny about it: I love looking at other peoples' before and after results, but I don't like the idea of having a 'before' photo myself.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    Candyspun wrote: »
    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    Candyspun wrote: »
    I should make it clear, I have no problem whatsoever with anyone else enjoying 'before' photos; I was simply agreeing with the OP that I take the same approach that they do.

    I understand, and I wasn't commenting about you or OP. I was commenting about the linked articles that treat all before and after photos as fat shaming. For what it's worth, before and after photos do nothing for me for the same reasons: I just don't feel my after is an improvement over my before because my weight loss was not primarily motivated by a desire to change my shape.

    Gotcha :smile: I didn't notice those links before, but I did look back and find them after. I'm funny about it: I love looking at other peoples' before and after results, but I don't like the idea of having a 'before' photo myself.

    I'm the same!
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    edited June 2018
    There you go, yes to all of you.

    I don't spend all of my time researching weight loss. I already did that while I was tooling along. I threw all of my dieting books in the garbage along with the Before photos.

  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    edited June 2018
    The Declaration of Independence
    From Dieting

    I hold these things to be self-evident. When through the course of an adult lifetime of dieting events and dieting cliques and clubs and multi-cr@p - I had to dissolve the bands and chains that connected me to one diet after another.

    I hold these truths to be self-evident. All people are created equal.

    In the pursuit of your happiness if you spend your entire lifetime dieting - Houston, we have a problem. If all of your previous diets yielded little if any results over the long-haul it's time to abolish dieting.

    Doing what you've always done will get you what you've always gotten. Lay down a foundation for your very own Positive Food Management Plan. MFP. Do everything on your own terms. Your food and your exercise. Think what you want about everything. Use your head besides something to part your ears with. moving-crazy-rabbit-emoticon.gif?1292793774[img]. If your past eating experiences hath shown that after much clean eating you became a 'dirty' eater, you literally got down in the mud and rolled around in it until your fingers were pruny, you must now give yourself permission to do exactly what you want to do. Don't listen to anyone else. Go to the window and yell, I'm mad as hail and I'm not going to take it anymore. Think "Network" here. If you've been riding that long crazytrain of dieting that leads to nowhere, fruitless dieting attempts, sliding back off the goose, get off of your caboose. Happiness is a state of activity. Dieting results in rebounding back with every pound plus more. If one one diet worked perfectly there would never be need of another. One diet. One time, should fix you for the rest of your life but one diet is never enough. As a representative of the tired and dieting weary and by the authority of good common horse sense and experience I declare myself free of diets. I took back my full power to eat what I want. Think what I want. No one has to live in our body. I declare myself free of all food prisons and imaginary food freedom based on more dieting malarkey. I pledge that I will never diet again. Oooo, and I don't give a rat's @$$ about who is a moderator or who is a restrictor personality type. Pounding more square pegs into round holes. Nor do I care about somebody's brain over the binge or who's moon is over Miami, who rephrases all of the old dieting terms with new ones. If the pants still fit, you must acquit. I'm free and I just had to stop by to tell you that. It's all fun, really. http://"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InMJ0L4K4L0[/url][/img]
  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,111 Member
    I maintained for 3 years successfully before it started creeping back on. I gained back 30lb of the over 80 I’d originally lost before I found this site and got back on track. For me, I will continue logging in maintenance this time because it holds me accountable and keeps me aware. I will keep doing everything I did to lose the weight both times too through my fitness efforts. This time I won’t let myself make excuses to stop being active. I’ve switched my workouts to be more group based so I have an amazing support system in place that will check on me if I stop showing up. I keep setting new fitness goals too so even though I’m not trying to lose weight I am still pursuing goals that keep me doing the things that helped me lose weight.

    When I gained some back I had switched jobs and moved in with my now husband. I was busier and life was full but I stopped prioritizing self care. I like to think I’ve learned from my mistake this time around.

    It took me longer to lose this 30lb than it did to lose 84lb the first time. I don’t want to have to do this again and have it be even slower and harder.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    MonkeyMel21 wrote: »
    Pretty easy going for me. Continue working out regularly, but don't beat myself up if I need a break. And if I get over 140, start eating at a deficit till I get back down to the lower range of my goal (135).

    Pretty much me for the last 5+ years. I always put a little weight on in the winter because my overall activity dips, but I take it off in the spring and into summer when the cycling season heats up.
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    Throw them out. Or not. It's all good, if you want to save your 'pickles and pimentos', momentos. Save them. My mileage is going to vary.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    CarvedTones wrote: »
    Many of my before photos are me with kids or me doing something I enjoy or at a place I enjoy or with friends/relatives who have passed away. I don't have photos of myself that aren't kept for a reason. I did not take any "look how fat I am" pictures in the mirror at the beginning of the loss. I posted in one of those "show me before/after photos" threads and my before photo is me with a fish I caught and my after is me paddling a SUP. My pictures are pages from my life story; i am not throwing them out just because I wasn't happy with the shape I was in.

    That is me for the most part...I do have one before and during that I did on purpose, but it's only on my profile here and nowhere else.

    Otherwise, all of my pictures are just me living my life...one of my favorite pictures is me and my oldest boy riding the train in London when he was 3...I am the fattest I've ever been in that picture, but it's such a sweet picture of me and my boy.

    I keep 2 before. One on my phone and my old i.d. badge. It's all I keep. I also keep pictures of living life.
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    MFP and dieting. There's a big difference. I don't believe in food resets. Reset from what. Very few people have so many allergies that they need a food reset. Self-diagnosed allergies are mostly imaginary and can be used as a cover for disordered eating or a way to keep enabling it. ;) Unless you have some actual medical tests to confirm an allergy to everything, you can be talked into all kinds of things if you're inclined but I'm not.

    Many may think they've graduated or that their bodies are miraculously healed, fixed when all of the weight releasing is done. The work is not done. You move forward onto maintenance and maintenance is something you'll be doing for the rest of your life when you have spent way too much time on a cluster of diets.

    "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 messed 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."

    This is why you see some long term veterans still here. They're no longer dieting, they are maintaining and keeping their data points is a part of that process. I'm simply ridding myself of everything that pertains to diets and eating protocols and round after round of food resets and food reboots followed by the eating it all back lallapaloozas.

    http://"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM5ZEWz67nA[/url]
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    elisa123gal wrote: »
    i feel the OP, if you fight food the rest of your life..the struggle is always there. I have decided to be relaxed in the knowing that i will not regain the weight. i know how to eat, how to move, be active. one meal isn't going to make me fat. i am not cursed.. i've done the work to get rid of the weight. now it is time to live in the confidence that i am in control.

    Yaaaassss. Now is the time to celebrate our freedom and liberty. We're all in this thing called life together. Let's enjoy the ride now. ballerina-crazy-rabbit-emoticon.gif?1292793873.
  • Evamutt
    Evamutt Posts: 2,761 Member
    I was out of town for 4 days, no weighing my food or myself, just ate the way I always do & we went out to eat one time too, it was all good
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    edited June 2018
    CeeTee, I don't adhere to anyone's restrictions, rules or regulations. You know that by now.

    I did flip the switch. I gave myself permission to do everything on my own terms. Liberating. I changed everything UP. I don't like dieting books or dieting clubs or anything that resembles a diet. If you saw my log you would fall through the floor. When I look at the pages of variety there I am happy about it. I don't worry about the Big Kahuna trigger foods anymore.

    Another member recently shared that one day suddenly everything changed for him. It only takes one day and one decision to do that. You have to mean it with all of your being.

    Pain is the precursor to change. When the pain gets so great that's a motivator. When the pain goes away you do have to remember why you wanted the change in the first place. There was a time when I read everything I could get my hands on to try and solve the mysteries and find the secret keys why only 5% are maintaining after 5 years.

    There are more variables than grains of sand on the beach. Your mileage and mine will vary, along with everyone else, too. No one has all of the answers and I don't care if someone looks like a younger version of Claude Van Damme or Arnold S. with a big face grimace and grunting or if they're the powerlifting champion in their little corner of the world. I love people, all sizes, all shapes and all walks of life.

    The entirety of life is just too huge to contemplate - how meticulous every meal is and how clean the food is. Get out there and blow the stink off. Live it UP and don't make rationalizations for yourself. Take full responsibility for everything. On a one day at a time basis, I can't remember the last time I let the comfort of food immediate gratification style eating - override my desire to have freedom from dieting.
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
    @Mari22na I think you are missing the point. I said I see how people can consider it a diet. You flipped a switch and did it on your terms - but your terms had to include a calorie deficit to lose and has to be even (usually through offsetting deficits and surplus days) to maintain. From one perspective, restrictions are what make it a diet. Most of the time, I consider what I have done to be a lifestyle change but every now and then I do get a binge urge and/or have trouble staying within goal without discipline. At those times, imposing the restrictions does feel like a diet.
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    We're seeing it differently and that's alright. I don't let yesterday use up today. I don't make up for overeating one day by undereating the next day. To me, that's overthinking everything.

    I've spent the last 5 years undoing the bonds of food prison and dieting. All of the food prepping and planning and learning and introspecting in the world means nothing if you don't go do something.

    So I threw out all of the dieting clutter in my brain and house to the best of my abilities. Tracking my food here is not about me being perfect. Writing it down is an essential tool but I don't consider my data points a diet. I keep track of my fuel and mileage, oil changes for my vehicle. Those reference points help me see how far I've come and where I'm going...waaaaaay down the road.

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