I reached my goal! And I'm terrified of maintenance!

chaotisaurus

I reached my goal last week! Eff Yeah! I've wanted to get down to 150 for the past 6 years, and I finally did it in the past 9 months. I've lost 26 pounds. It feels great. I couldn't have done it without my AMAZING partner who eats my boring dinners, hides and rations my almonds, keeps his candy at work, and even runs with me (despite the fact his skinny butt is a smoker who has never had any interest in exercise in his life).

I don't want to loose any more weight (although I'm interested in more pointed body sculpting as I've lost a bit of my figure. My waist hasn't shrunk hardly at all but my everything else has so I'm starting to look a little too rectangular for my taste - but I think I'll ask for advice about that in another thread). I'm an emotional eater. I'm prone to binging and purging. There's food hidden from me in the house, because if I even open a peanut butter jar...I'll eat a cup of it that day.

I'm terrified of allowing myself more calories. I do some kind of workout every day, usually Jillian Micheals 30 day shred or Ripped in 30 - the highest levels still make me sweat, but I can pretty much get through all the exercises without modification. I got where I am through strict control. I have hardly any social life any more because being around alcohol is actually painful, but one drink and I'll be eating (or drinking more). I weighed & recorded everything I ate, didn't eat anything I didn't make myself. I've cut my sodium to under 1500mg every day - that's freaking HARD. I'm excited to add more variety to my food consumption...I LOVE food. All of it. But I don't think I can moderate. I want treats in my life, but I've never been able to exercise the control to only have one bite or a half a serving. I've gotten to this weight and this hot body as an all-or-nothing kind of girl.

For this reason, the 4 Hour Body (a somewhat controversial book by Timothy Ferriss) technique of slow carbing with a crazy cheat day is very attractive, but, really, that's bulimia. His tips and tricks for the cheat day are the same things I read on Ana & Mia boards in my teens (online forums for lifestyle bulimics and anorexics).

So...my question is really for women for whom this tale/style resonates with them. Have you all-or-nothing style eaters, bingers, partyiers learned ways to keep the weight off? What are your tricks? How do I go from depravation to moderation? I realize they are just both types of control, but all way I used to trick myself into making depravation work (and even fun!), won't really work as I step into my new lifestyle of maintenance and moderation. Unless it's finding "balance" by being an extreme NO sugar/startch/sodium/alcohol eater and eating only 1200 calories half the week, and allowing myself to eat like the rest of my familial/social/cultural environment on weekends.

Advice? Things that didn't work and then things that worked? How to keep the weight off and still get to live a life of pleasure?

BuffOwl

Try the 80/20 plan. This is where 80% of the time you eat clean - or the way you have been to loose weight. The other 20% of the time you can eat more of what you would like, in moderation, and never 2 days in a row. This is what the plan am on says to do when I've finished my maintenance phase of maintaining my current weight. I feel like this is a doable plan that I can follow.

kimmymayhall

I think the first thing is to work up to maintenance calories slowly. 1200 is pretty low and jumping straight up to something like 2000 (don't know your stats so not sure what your level should be) is a big step. Try increasing by 100-200 calories a week until you are comfortable. Don't eat "diet" foods. Go for the higher fat, full sugar, and whole versions unless you have a good reason not to. You can still eat the same kind of foods you eat now, just eat more. Add in more oil when cooking. Throw an extra egg in your omlete. You should eat treats when you want but only if you can do it without going overboard all the time. Try to practice moderation if you've been depriving yourself of those things during your weightloss.
Best of luck! I'm also try to figure out my mantenance now, too.