What do you think you'll do for life to maintain?

[RupertineRupert]

For those of you currently losing weight, I was wondering what changes you've made (in eating, tracking, exercising, beliefs, whatever) that you think of as permanent changes--changes you'll keep for the rest of your life (or at least long term) once you are in maintenance.

For those of you who are in maintenance, I'm very curious both what changes you originally thought would be lifelong, back when you were losing weight, and what changes you now view, as a maintainer, as lifelong changes.

I'll share mine. Note: I'm not at all saying that I think everyone should do all these things--I'm only identifying the things I've accepted as necessary permanent changes for me.

For me, I believe exercise (no surprise) must be lifelong--I need to exercise regularly for the rest of my life. I've chosen the target of averaging an hour a day--it's what many of the maintainers on the National Weight Control Registry use as their target, and I also saw Margaret used that target in her Advent Challenge thread. So, I think an hour a day of exercise is a lifelong behavior.

I also think healthy eating must be a lifelong habit--for me, that comes down to several specifics. Eat mostly real food (that is, not processed crap), eat sufficient protein, get plenty of fruits and vegetables, use healthy fats (olive oil, omega-3s), use whole grains and flour instead of processed grains and flour, and minimize sugar and white flour.

I know I'll need regular feedback if I'm going over--so weighing myself regularly will need to be a habit I keep for life.

I also know I can't binge. That is not to say I will never binge. Of course I will at some point, and when I do, I just need to record what I've eaten, get over it, and the next meal I have go back to eating healthy. What I mean is, I don't think there's any place for binging in the healthy lifestyle I want. There's a place for eating socially, going out to nice restaurants, having sweets and treats, having high calorie days, etc. I can plan in free meals or days--but I won't ever plan in binges. When they happen, I'll deal with it. But they're not part of the life I want for myself.

Finally, for me, I believe journaling food and tracking calories will be a lifelong change. It's not something I can leave to habit or unconscious or whatever. So, for me, a food journal and counting calories is a behavior I've accepted I will do every day for the rest of my life.

Anyway, those are the habits I currently believe I will need to maintain for life to maintain my goal weight once I reach it.

How about your lifelong changes?

[SeeShannonRun]

The weight maintenance process for me is very similar to my weight loss process.

1) I still plan my meals in advance, and I weigh or measure and log everything.
2) I'm working on eating cleaner.
3) I've cut out Splenda, and have seen a dramatic reduction in headaches and stomach problems.
4) I exercise regularly. I target 1800 minutes per month. I focus on strength training and running now, with some yoga for flexibility.
5) I still indulge sometimes. I have larger meals, I occasionally have too much ice cream. I log every bite of it. I know I'm human and I can't cut a food out entirely, I just have to keep the discipline to not overdo every day.
6) I set a 6 pound maintenance range, and don't panic until I'm over or under a few days in a row.
7) I weigh every day and log it on a chart. I know have a much better understanding of my natural fluctuations from diet or exercise. I know that I'll pop on 5 'pounds' of water after a bowl of soup from Chick Fil-A or a new exercise routine.
8) I remain dilligent every day. Without that I'm lost. I can't take on 'off' day and not track, I don't have enough control for that yet. Maybe one day.

I've been successfully maintaining for 15 months now. I'm at my highest weight in that time right now, but I know what caused it and am working to correct it. I'll do what I hve to do because I won't gain the weight back. Period.

Not an expert by any means, every day is a new challenge.

[Margaret]

Kara and I posted plans a month ago.

http://anotherdietforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=109

I believe that her maintenance plan does not differ too dramatically from her losing plan (apart from the existence of a deficit currently)... She was in maintenance for a while before resuming her loss.

LOL - I kind of was too because I made a very soft landing...

I must admit that I dont log food every day but stick to a very clean very repetitive diet and regularly tune it by logging for a few days. It normally comes out spot on.

I weigh every day and if I see my weight drift up I use fitday immediately and check things through.

I hope to reduce my exercise down to 1 hour a day - but do not plan on doing less.

I will continue my cocktail of vitamins and supplements.

[RupertineRupert]

Thanks, Shannon!

For me, I'm with you on the logging every bite. I can handle going over my calorie target now and then--either by plan or because I slipped up and ate more than I had originally intended on a given day. But I feel really lost if I don't keep track of what I've eaten. As long as I log, though, I find it much easier to get right back on track.

Margaret - Thanks for the link to the other thread--I had forgotten about that post when I just did this one.

It seems the daily logging is one of those things that some of us need to keep, but others can do without. I know I eat radically different things from day to day--when we were dating my wife commented that she had been staying with me in New York for over three months and I hadn't cooked the same lunch or dinner for her twice. Given I tend to buy whatever looks freshest or most fun, and then later throw together whatever is in the house depending on what I feel like eating that day, I really would have no sense of calorie levels for many meals I eat if I didn't measure and track as I made them. That lets me know what serving size I have to take when I do dish it up.

[Margaret]

I think that the thing is that I fought against counting calories on the way down for a very long time. I did it from time to time - but rarely compared to many people who were keen to get their nutrients right.

I didnt want to count calories because I had abandoned too many diets in the past when my calories went over the magic number that I was imposing on myself. I tend towards being a perfectionist and I therefore am inclined to see things in black and white - success or failure. Much of life lies in shades of grey...

Being particularly hormonal - much of my life has been spent on an emotional roller coaster. When things are good they are very good - when they are bad they are the depths of despair... I am actually better with that than I have been in a very long time - and consider my walking to be part of that. When I compare notes with Janice (Abbagirl on WLF) - she is just the same and the walking is the same too. We both love our treadmills...

I got around the calories thing by sticking to a very repetitive diet. If ever you get bored with nothing better to do - feel free to leaf your way through Omega's journey on WLF and you will see what I mean. I logged all my food for over a year there while not counting calories... I stuck to a handful of main meals and very similar breakfasts, snacks etc. Every so often I would mess things about and rework my food plan - and then I sat and worked it all out and made sure that it all worked out fine.

I also was addicted to party games challenges... We used to have them a lot in the old days... My pal Kimberly (BikiniBound) used to set the most brilliant challenges before she had her baby May. She has joined us here but not started posting yet. I am sure that you will have deduced that the challenges of this type tend to mean that you have to keep a bit of a firm eye on your nutrition if you want the points. Back on my main way down - I used to play to win. Kimberly, Dawn (Bellaryna) and I were the rather formidable Omega-3 team......

I am actually less concerned about the abandonment aspect since my weight got down to a reasonable level. That worry tended to disappear around the time that I hit half my start weight. Abandoning the diet became less of an issue for me - and building in a strategy for maintenance became more of an issue.

Maybe I should add in case I missed it off the linked thread that my strategy involved joining both Weight Watchers and their main competitor in the UK in order to gain free life membership. I only did this after halving my start weight...

[Cord the Seeker]

On the whole, I don't plan an doing anything long-term that I'm not doing now - just keep going on as I am. I don't see any reason to change anything.

With one exception.
Before going into permanent maintenance, but after getting my body fat down to about where I want it (whatever that is going to be), I will definitely embark on a programme of muscle-building and athletic training, which will involve a whole different set of techniques.

Who knows? I may never be completely satisfied, and may always be tweaking something.

[Kara]

Yeah, the plan I posted in the other thread is definitely long-term for me ... but I will say that the two things that I will do for the rest of my life that are drastically different are:

1 - Work out or exercise in some way at least 3x a week. I never forsee a time when I won't belong to a gym or have access to one

2 - Avoid processed food. I really have no stomach for fatty, rich, or processed food much any more. In fact nowadays, eating too much fat or rich food actually makes me feel sick.

I think those are two things that will remain with me for the rest of my life.

[Kirsty]

I've only exercised on and off as I've lost weight. And its never been very vigorous. More like yoga etc.
So the best way for me to maintain is going to be to up the exercise as I up my calories.
I've started doing strength training and I'll be getting an exercise bike for christmas so in a month I'll start using it 5 days a week for at least 30 minutes. And carry on with my strength training.
Apparently to maintain I should be eating roughly 1600 calories. So I'm slowly upping them by 100 a week and seeing if I gain or not.

2 - Avoid processed food. I really have no stomach for fatty, rich, or processed food much any more. In fact nowadays, eating too much fat or rich food actually makes me feel sick.

I'm the same. I had a burger king the other day as a treat and my stomach felt horrible for the rest of the day! I used to be able to eat anything and not feel the effects. I'm glad though because it puts me off eating rubbish

[dilynnlew]

I also can't do the rich and fatty foods anymore. I had too many sweets and rich things yesterday, and by last night my stomach revolted and I spent much of the night in the bathroom! My irritable bowel has been so much better since I have started eating healthily...until I resort back to my old diet ways! I do know better...but since it was Thanksgiving, thought I would eat those things and get away with it...well I learned my lesson.

SInce I have been maintaining, I guess the one thing I do very consistently is getting the daily exercise. I firmly believe it has been a large component of my weight loss, and now my maintenance of my weight. I do not count calories as carefully as when I was trying to lose. If my weight starts going back up, that is the first thing I will adjust. Bacically, I eat mostly the same each day, and it seems to work out so far. Again...if it quits working for me, I will monitor and count more carefully at that point. That may happen sooner than later, with the holidays coming up now!

[Chillen]

I live in this on-going living premise: You have to learn to MASTER yourself, to become the MASTER of Weight Loss, Weight Maintenance, or Weight Gain, for YOURSELF. With the understanding, that this is a life-long process.

And, this is completed with what I know about myself presently, know about myself in my dieting/training past, and applying what I have learned and what I am about to learn about diet and fitness, ---and the ability to blend it within my changing living environment with present personal goals.

For example, if I had to name just two (of the many) things I had learned that were the most important, I would list these two first:

1. Manipulating DIET within my personal environment
2. Manipulating TRAINING within my personal environment

This isn't as obvious as some may think.

For example ONLY: Since the topic is maintenance, and assuming a personal calorie level to assume steady weight balance (or close), let me give you what I did last year, around the holidays, to show the "power of macro nutrient" manipulation, so I could eat more (above maintenance) without........worry of gaining any bad tissue as a result.

My personal goal at the time, was weight maintenance, and wanting to eat over maintenance some of the good food that was going to be cooked. So, a week out from the targeted food days, I set up a diet and modified training routine with this in mind.

I set calories at MT-Line. I set Carbohydrates sub 60 grams (20-60), and the rest of the calories when to fat and protein (with emphasis) on the protein calories. I modified a "glucose-depletion targeted workout". In short, its a high volume (in reps), of all body parts (modified Lyle protocol). The first few days on the diet, I did not train. About 3 days in, I would train on days 4 and 5, and on days 6 and 7 rest (keeping same diet). Day 8 was the target date of completion. During this week (since carboHYDRATES are low), I will lose a little water-weight. Not a big deal, this is what I want, and a side-effect of low-carbohydrates (some dehydration)

And, on day 8, we have "viola!", a day in which the body is primed to be more tolerant to excess calories from carbohydrate sources and calories above maintenance (think: "super compensation") due to extremely lowered or depleted glucose storage in (liver, and other parts of the body). I could have snacked on pies, cakes, and ice cream.....in reasonable excess (which would be used "first" to replenish glucose stores (which is why calories can go above maintenance)......even to maintain. Water comes back (in about 24 hours or so, dependent). I didn't snack on pies, cakes, though. I chose other carbohydrate sources instead. Instead of the "sweets" being my weakness, its the fresh baked wheat bread. Well, I can be a toilet-mouth under these conditions, since they carry a good amount of carbohydrates.

Thus the power of macro-nutrient manipulation. Will this work for all? No. But, it does show the power of learning dietary manipulation, if you "read into" what you read. There are "many" things one can do, if they do MORE than just read material.

I have logged my approximated personal calories (and macros), and approximated calories burned from exercise for the past three years. This logged history (during the ups and downs) has tough me many lessons about my self. Armed with a "good" "idea" of servings sizes and calories from food observation, and a very good idea of calories to maintain, can just eat healthy and observe (now), though I still log them....in the event a problem surfaces, I can have data to support any additional changes (if necessary), and I like that, because memory can fail us at times.


Best wishes

Chillen

[Margaret]

It sounds like quite a few of us are saved by our tummies being no longer able to cope with fatty things...

Mine certainly helps to keep me on the straight and narrow...

I have gallstones and I have been told that if I wasnt eating really healthily I would have problems. I have also been advised to keep my diet fairly low-fat...

I obviously have some fats in my diet - it would be unhealthy not to.

Knowing that I really did not like the pain that the gallstones have caused does help me to resist eating some things.