Maintainers - how do you keep your head in the game?

Hi

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 switched my goal from weight loss to fitness. Being over 50 I do strength training to improve my strength and reduce muscle loss. I think if my only goal was to lose weight, I would have stopped putting in the effort once I hit my goal.

I continue doing what worked for me during maintenance.

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.

I've been maintaining for more than 18 months, and here are some of the things I do:

• I weigh myself almost every day, to make sure I'm still in my maintenance zone (a 4 pound range). This does NOT work for everyone's psyche, but it works for me.
• I log my food 4-5 days a week, with weekends off. It keeps me mindful of what I eat without making me feel oppressed.
• I'm more relaxed with my food choices on the weekend, allowing myself more treats, so long as my weight is in the maintenance zone.
• I log my exercise on MFP every day, and I've linked to EveryMove, which gives me points toward rewards. I choose the charity rewards, and feel good that a charity is getting an extra dollar every week or two because I exercised!
• I do cardio I really enjoy, and I use my weightlifting time for guilty pleasure TV shows.
• I enjoy and appreciate my body!

for me, maintaining is about skipping meals, eat more one day, punish yourself the next day by eating less, weigh daily, watch your sodium levels, expect tough flucations in weight... Sounds harsh, but works for me, and I've been maintaining since April and haven't even gained back a pound.

The only clothes I have are the ones that fit NOW, and I've invested a fortune in them, so I have tremendous motivation to make sure they continue to fit.

To do so, I use the same tools that worked to help me lose:

• I maintain a +/- 3 pound range, and reaching the +3 means going back to weight loss strategies...logging everything and staying within macros.
• I take breaks from logging, but I always come back if I start developing bad habits, add new foods to my diet, want to focus on exercise goals, or start approaching the upper limit of my range.
• I typically eat the same things, but when I add new foods or go to new restaurant, I plan accordingly.
• I make choices based on my budget and decide what is "worth it" to me. I still eat some of my favorites such as breakfast tacos, french fries, and ice cream, but typically not all on the same day...all are fine as long as I've got enough calories in the budget.
• I even plan for the occaissional binge weekend (2-3 times per year...vacation, holidays, etc.) by increasing workouts and decreasing calories to lose in advance to the lower end of my acceptable range.

I weigh myself regularly. If it seems to be going up, I cut back a little, if it's the same...I keep doing what I'm doing.

Logging.
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.

Staying in maintenance is fairly easy for me (now 2.3 years of main) because the alternative is simply unacceptable. I made a promise that I would NOT regain the weight that I worked so hard to lose. I have a maintenance plan that I've developed that is working for me and that's really all I need. I eat smaller portions and limit my junk food, two new habits I needed to develop, since junk food and too large portions were largely responsible for my weight gain. With those in check, together with staying active and prioritizing eating nutritionally dense food, maintenance has been pretty easy.

It also helps to remind myself that eating better and exercising regularly is my choice. No one is forcing me to do these things. Choices have consequences and I like the consequences of my healthier lifestyle. I certainly could choose differently and eat tons of junk food and be sedentary and watch a lot of TV, but those choices would have a lot of negative consequences that I just don't need nor want. So I choose a different path.