back sliding.

nagaisgich
nagaisgich Posts: 20
edited October 3 in Motivation and Support
wow, soon after starting a maintenance type of "thinking" eating, I gained back 5 pounds. I could tell that I was ignoring that voice in my head ... I wanted to be on a maintenance level but the louder voice in my head was saying "now you can have a once in while dessert as long as you don't have a big one", or "now you can snack differently at work once in a while". The quieter voice in my head was saying .... "pay attention, your snack was twice the calories of your old snack, not just a few extra" and "you want to have ice cream tonight, should you really have that offer of a chocolate at work today?"

Need to get to a place in my head for maintenance where the sentences don't start with "now i can have..."

Well, today I will get back into weight loss mode to drop the 5 pounds. Then maybe dive straight into my secondary goal of a further 10 pounds before attempting a maintenance program again.

Replies

  • MJ7910
    MJ7910 Posts: 1,280 Member
    i have 10 lb to go and i've been thinking a lot about maintenance. My weight was at it's lowest when i was 16, which was done with a lot of exercise and restrictive eating (way too restrictive). It went back up because my body was in starvation mode and i wasn't making good choices.
    Then I lost 15 lb when i was about 21. Took me several months and was done in a healthy way. But i did not really change my eating a whole lot, and the result was i slowly built back on the weight between 2003 and 2007.

    Then, i was pretty stable around 140 lb from 2007-2009. But i wasn't exercising as much, was in grad school, wasn't taking time to pay attention to what i was doing. i was eating ok but not the greatest.

    2009-2011 i got pregnant, had a baby, gained weight after breastfeeding and was out of control. i got to my highest weight. i was totally not watching anything i was eating, not exercising, nothing....

    then in august of 2011 i finally kicked myself back into gear. i still have 10 lb to go to be back where i was in 2005. but once i get there, i have to watch this backslide. my plan is to only take Thanksgiving and Christmas off and still try and be reasonable those days. and if i want a dessert, small slice only. and only one treat every few days... i need to keep my eating similar to what it is now b/c as soon as i back off, i will slide. weight maintenance is a lifelong thing... and i have to exercise. no more slacking. that is the plan so far. i'm interested to hear what others went through and what they did to help maintain, or what they didn't do...
  • TwinMamma09
    TwinMamma09 Posts: 140
    Oh no...sorry to hear that.

    I just switched over to maintenance. I am scared to death of that happening. I feel like maintenance is the hardest part. Losing the weight was easy but knowing how to balance life and eating once you reach the goal is the hard part.

    Go back to the basics and get yourself under control again and you should be fine. At least you recognized it early.
  • MJ7910
    MJ7910 Posts: 1,280 Member
    oh and portion size is key. if you want to treat yourself now and then, fine but don't overdo it on huge portions. and restaurant eating usually is higher cal than what you woudl make at home so that is where it is most important to be vigilant.
  • MrsCon40
    MrsCon40 Posts: 2,351 Member
    If dessert fits in your maintenence macros (or while you're losing, for that matter) there is no reason you can't have it.

    If you're gaining it means your eating beyond your allowance.

    :flowerforyou:
  • nagaisgich
    nagaisgich Posts: 20
    yes, exactly. I am subconsciously trying to convince myself my portions are small enough... sigh. But will work on this
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