Soon to be maintainer..

First off, nice work on the first 40 lbs, that's certainly nothing to sneeze at.

As far as your plan is concerned, I think you're on the right track. It's good practice to incorporate diet breaks into a long loss phase and provides an opportunity to trial strategies for maintenance that you'll need long term to maintain your loss. However, in terms of a mindset, by telling yourself it's harder over the summer you're artificially making it less likely you'll be successful by speaking/thinking the scapegoat for process failure into existence. Don't make the mistake of underestimating the power of self-talk and how that translates into positives of negatives. As far as implementable strategies, if structure helps keep you on track during the school year, try to find or define structure and routine in your summers. I know that's worked for me when it comes to weekends or holidays; in terms of eating and logging I started thinking about them the same as any other day and it's improved my adherence greatly. Prior to that I'd be on point for about 4.5 days per week but would similarly stray in terms of logging and adherence Friday night through Sunday; correcting that put me in control. How that looks is going to differ person-to-person. I find success in planning and pre-logging as much of my meals as I can, even as far as what time I'll roughly consume them. A little effort and thought first thing in the morning or the night before makes a world of difference in how I go through my day.

I say this with a tinge of sadness: I think personalization is the secret sauce to achieve best odds of successful maintenance. By "personalization", I mean finding habits that are easy, practical, even enjoyable where possible, that help a person stay at a healthy weight, in the context of their individual lifestyle, preferences, strengths and limitations. What that is will differ, person by person.

I've been maintaining a healthy weight for 5+ years now, after about 30 years of being class 1 obese before that. I can say how I do it, and why I think it works for me, but that doesn't mean the same things will work for you.

I still log my food most days, still use a food scale for most things. For me, that's easy and automatic. For some people, it's annoying and obessive.

I like that logging lets me eat every last delicious calorie I earn, and get consistently good nutrition, while maintaining a healthy body weight. Knowing via data where I stand is anxiety-reducing for me, though it would be the opposite for some other people. The roughly 10 minutes a day it takes me seems a small price to pay for the benefits. Now, if things get busy or I eat something very tough to estimate, I calmly skip days sometimes, knowing it's a drop in the ocean of my overall eating. Daily weigh-ins (non-stressful for me) and a weight trending app will catch any cumulative problems before they get out of hand. (During loss, and the early stages of maintenance, I logged every single day, even if I had to estimate: I already knew that MFP's estimates were quite incorrect for me, and I wanted good, sound personal data about my calorie needs, to use as I went forward).

I was very active long before losing weight, for almost 20 years now, even competing as athlete (not always unsuccessfully) while still obese. During loss, and now, I keep up pretty much the same general approach to exercise (mostly even the same activities), with occasional tweaks to things for variety or to work on specific goals. I've been active so long that I don't worry that I'll quit altogether if I take a few days off: I know I'll start feeling kind of cr@ppy, stressed, tense, stiff, grumpy after a while, and that I'll start being active again to counter that. (It rarely takes more than a few days, tops.)

In maintenance, I like to "calorie bank": Eat a little under actual maintenance calories most days (maybe 100-150 calories) in order to indulge a bit once a week or so. It's not a pure weekdays/weekends thing, because I'm retired, and the weeks aren't structured that way anymore. Now, in maintenance, if it's been a while since a higher day, and I'm feeling a little cumulative fatigue, or if my bodyweight drops below a certain level, I'll have a higher-intake day. Mostly, just having a social life, with more indulgent restaurant meals or at others' homes, has leveled things out OK.

That's pretty much the stuff that works for me, that I can think of.

What will work for you is a puzzle that - I'm sorry to say - I think you will need to work out for yourself. Others' methods are only an input to that thought process, and your experiments.

Best wishes!

sgt1372 wrote: »

charmmeth wrote: »

MikePfirrman wrote: »

My wife and I hit goal weight a year apart nearly 10 years ago. She's gained around half of it back.

The other day, she says to me, "I have no idea how I gain weight...". "I don't eat anything in the AM...".

I do the grocery shopping. She goes through 1 gallon of sweetened coffee creamer a week -- 14K calories worth. She honestly believes she uses 10 calories or so a day.

"I have no idea Honey...". SMH. My mind is like a flippin' calorie counter, though I haven't counted in four or so years.

Maybe you could mention the creamer?

Have you ever been married? If so, you should know better. LOL!!

Exactly. After 10 to 15 times doing it in a nice way and getting slammed for bringing it up, you give up. Ironically, my daughter has gotten her to change her creamer from one that is 35 calories a TBS to 10, a huge improvement, just this week.

My wife is an Aries. Very strong willed woman that doesn't like being told anything. And I'm a Scorpio (control freak), so it's a miracle we've lasted 30 years already.