Two year maintenance anniversary

Wow, congratulations!! I think you are statistically in the clear, aren't you? Keep it off for 2 years and your set point changes, isn't that what they say?

What an inspiration you are!

Dang, my ticker is wrong. Need to fix. My goal is NOT 112.

Hm, maybe. But that's just biological. The bigger problem is psychological - I was overweight for 40 years. That's a lot of time with poor eating habits and bingeing behaviours to overcome. No, I still have a lot of changes to make in how I see myself before I feel comfortable at maintenance. I don't mean "not seeing myself as still fat." That's a very important self-image to change and I've really spent the last two years working at it and I'm pretty comfortable that I have changed that self-image.

Now I'm working on not seeing special occasions - vacation, weekend trips, visits to my mother, and so on - as times I can let go and eat as I please. When I think that way, what I'm really doing is seeing my "natural" behaviour as eating a lot of food and any kind of food. I'm trying to reverse that thinking and see my natural behavior as eating carefully and thoughtfully.

The first year of maintenance I thought that I had conquered my poor eating habits. And then my Mom got sick, I spent three weeks with her in another state and it was a very stressful time. By the end of the three weeks, I was bingeing on food like crazy. I couldn't believe how my old eating habits came back so quickly. Thankfully, I was able to stop when I got back to my own home. But I've had several similar episodes since.

Enough to make me realize that maintenance is all about learning how to eat through all the tough times. It's only when you've successfully been through some tough times that you can really say you're being successful at maintenance. I may have kept my weight down but I haven't fully changed my eating habits yet.

Jeanne