Habits for Maintenance

I approached it along the lines of losing weight by making the same choices that I would hope to make while maintaining... albeit more loosely during maintenance.

I was "fortunate" in that I had a lot of weight to lose so started to eat at a target level for a lightly active person of my future weight... and continued losing while eating at that same level of intake, and, in fact, moving to a higher intake when low overweight to slow down my weight loss as I had ended up being more than very active by the time I got there.

Looking at my first three years post faster weight loss I averaged the same intake (within 20 Cal) while slightly reducing activity and weight.

This moved me from a position of slow weight loss (-11.2lbs) during my first year post faster weight loss to full maintenance during the next two years at the same intake level.

Some "rules" "regulations" "inhibitions" probably have to be in place to initially maintain and help get us to the first "2 year post weight loss" bench mark.

What I like about the calories in / out approach is that it frees me from any constraint subject to meeting the calories. It reduces my decision making to "is it worth it to me right now, or not".

With "worth it" being variable and able to take whatever form I want. Such as taste/satiety/social aspect/useless anxiety induced munching. Subject to the caloric cost.

Personally being worried about seconds, plate size, eating window, type of foods beyond some basic goals such as fiber and protein and colorful veggies, and similar other constraints that people often use to control their eating sits less well with me than just holding myself to my caloric balance.

But, as with most things, this is individual. If the rules based approach works best for you... that's what's best for you. It doesn't work that well for me because I wanted (and even now mostly want) to maximize every darn calorie I can have... so it would be insane for me to leave some on the table if I could just have a <insert item> within my remaining calories!!!

One thing that I KNOW I can't ignore... is not reacting when the weight trend goes up and my logging is confirming that there is a good reason why this is happening.

I agree that there are habits for maintenance. That is, the habit of always logging everything I eat. Having a set calorie limit that I maintain (going a little over and a little under now and then). Weight regularly so that if I see a gaining trend begin to happen, I can think about why and do something about it. It's part of healthy living and making it a habit, makes it easy.

@robingmurphy Yes, I agree - this time round (I too have lost and regained more than a few times in the past) I have done some big thinking in the space of habits and what is realistic and sustainable for me to maintain. This has helped me make decisions about how I eat, exercise, and live my life.

I had an honest reflection/evaluation of where the weakest links have been in the pasts - the factors that lead to me slipping off the good path back to weight regain - and then worked to find solutions or extra support to hopefully help me avoid making the same mistake next time. It's not enough to say "eat healthy and exercise", I had to think through all the influences that can make that simple advice hard to follow at key points in life.

In the past, I have at times joined a gym, or done a fitness challenge, or gone to a yoga studio etc to try to be fitter, stronger, more toned etc. However, this time round, I was realistic: I know that I will not be motivated to keep that up for longer than about 6 months. Sooner or later something unexpected will happen - I'll get an injury, or get sick, or life will throw a curve ball - and I'll stop going to the gym because it (a) is not convenient, (b) costs too much money, (c) I hate doing it, (d) other urgent priorities.

For exercise habits, this time I have thought "how do I create a habit around exercise so regular and strong that even if something unexpected comes up I will likely stick to it because it is my new normal, like brushing teeth?" Now I exercise every single day, first thing in the morning - I even went running on Christmas morning - but it is stuff that doesn't cost money, doesn't take much time, doesn't need special equipment. I run in my local neighbourhood, I do yoga at home (Yoga with Adriene on youtube), I do HIIT at home using a free app (7 minute workout). I have no rule about what kind of exercise I do, simply that I must do some exercise every day.

By making it a daily habit I don't have to battle with reluctance or motivation levels. It's such a part of my normal every day I just get up and do it. This makes it a million times easier than when I had a general goal of going to the gym 2-3 times a week (which would lead to lots of mental battles between the 'me' trying to do the right thing versus the 'me' who tries to get out of it, wants to sleep in, comes up with excuses to put it off to another day, etc).

When it comes to eating habits, similarily in the past I have tried various different approaches to eating healthily and without excess calories - and I didn't find any of them very easy in the longer term when life gets hard and I don't have the same level of willpower/motivation/spare capacity.

A key challenge is that I live with my husband and daughter who have had terrible eating habits and outnumber me, so there is major "nag" factor to eat unhealthy foods, combined with own human weakness and temptations - so when I am tired, stressed, busy, etc I have often given in and eaten whatever they want for our meals even if I would prefer something else. Don't want the argument, don't have the energy to be the one cooking all the meals all the time, etc.

This time round, I have found intermittent fasting combined with LCHF wholefoods to be amazingly effective, and I think it is something I can do even when things get tough. If my family want to eat something unhealthy, I can simply fast. Skipping a meal isn't going to kill me!

I've also started batch cooking healthy meals, so there are always healthy options in the freezer. This means I only have to cook 2-3 times a week, not every day! Huge time saving plus healthier eating choice than if we were to fall back on takeaway or convenience foods (as has happened before in the past).

I've created better sleep and stress management habits. I used to be a night owl, and find it difficult to find a good time of day to exercise - now I have shifted my bedtime by about 2-4 hours, so I go to bed a lot earlier, and get up at 6am pretty regularly so I have time to exercise in the morning before I get my daughter up and off to school etc. I get better sleep and have higher energy levels throughout the day as a result.

And, I no longer bother with CICO. Weighing, tracking, inputting every bite, felt like a burden in the end. It was useful in the past when I had no idea about how many calories or macronutrients are in different foods, but now I have a general idea about different foods, and also I think there are some flaws in how CICO is implemented (false accounting loops I've found myself in in the past), I think it is more realistic and sustainable for me to follow some basic healthy principles that don't require so much effort. I'm not eating sugar or processed foods etc, so there aren't really any "empty" calories in my diet, and I just don't think we get fat when we eat healthy nutrient-dense whole foods.

I do think it's important to consciously create good habits, and work to break bad habits. I focus more on behaviours and outcomes rather than energy balance.

Of course, only time will tell whether these strategies will work! I've only been in maintenance for 4 weeks.

At maintenance you can and perhaps should experiment with different strategies, not a bad idea to try new habits while losing too. Even those experiments that fail sometimes teach you a valuable lesson or reinforce what you know about yourself.

e.g. I know I like dietary freedom but gave 16:8 fasting a go. It simply made me less happy for the same calorie allowance. But it reinforced that for em ad hoc breakfast skipping is a useful tactic for calorie control.

But as you have repeatedly bounced back considerable weight I would suggest a hard "red line" that triggers action far earlier when you hit a certain weight. You shouldn't be regaining so much weight and having to lose significant amounts all over again - that's really not healthy and it's making things far harder than they have to be.

It is food for thought.

When I look back at why I regained every time, it has a lot to do with seasonality. Even if I am able to form good habits, my CICO needs do change with the seasons. In the spring and summertime, I spend a lot more time outside biking, hiking and diving, burning a lot of calories - but also spending a lot of time basking in the sunshine eating tapas and drinking cocktails. During wintertime, the CO part declines heavily as I have a lot less daylight time, and the CI increases as I want more comfort food - but then I'm also much more consistent as I eat at home much more.

Therefore, this year I will keep on logging everything in order to have a better understanding of both scenario's - to find the right balance and I truly hope I can start building good habits as from next year, depending on the situation, without having to log.

I've shared this as this is also a factor that I think you need to consider.

Yoga with Adrienne is great. She has loads of routines so it doesn't get stale, and because you do it at home there isn't travel time, parking, payments to a gym, etc. Also the time of day is your choice. Some routines are light and some are difficult, so you can pick what you have the energy for on that day. About seconds at meals, I tell myself if I am still hungry in 30 minutes I can get more vegetables or something, but it's very rare that 30 minutes later I still feel any appetite. Every so often I still feel lacking so I make a salad (homemade low cal dressing) and fill the space with that. If you take note of your habits and make a log of them you will be able to see over time anything that is changing or that doesn't serve you.