Maintenance works - if YOU work it!!!!!!!!!!

[ConnieK..]

I felt some things needed to be put in writing here for those wondering if maintenance is beyond the realm of mere mortals.

There has been so much conjecture about how hard maintenance is and how much trouble people have maintaining. So I felt it important to post here from the ones who don't find it unmanageable. I know there are a few of us, we stayed after reaching goal in order to help out. We don't stay for support from the forum but rather to maybe help someone with what we have learned.

I personally went into this program knowing it was my last resort before lap band surgery ( which I considered the absolute end). I had done exactly as every doctor, dietician, weight loss expert had told me for a very long time and not got to goal. When I got to goal on this program the happiness I felt cannot even be expressed in words!

I also knew that the diet is only 20% of the solution, getting the head space right is 80% ... I have said it a thousand times and I will say it again ... get the head right or you will fail - end of story. You will be on a merry go round of guilt and remorse, binge and purge that will see you circling the drain on a spiral into eating disorders or gaining back what you lost.

I have copped a lot of flack here for my hard line stance on deviations and my tough love views on getting your head right, but I ask you to look at the evidence. I stuck to the program 100% ... I stick to the maintenance guidelines .... Not complicated really. There is NOTHING special about me, I just knew I wanted this more than anything else in my life, I knew I had to change my LIFESTYLE ... not just go on a diet for six months, change what I ate for ever! And I knew I needed to get my head right in order to maintain the loss.

I do not binge, I do not purge, I don't do guilt and remorse, I eat to my new lifestyle 80% of the time and indulge only within the guidelines ...and suprise suprise ...... I am 13 months after goal and I weigh less than last year! There is absolutely NOTHING I could be offered that would represent a better deal than finally having the body I want .... NOTHING!!

I don't need food to celebrate, I don't use food as a reward. I don't consider I am missing out on anything, I don't envy others who eat the foods I know I can't. I do what I have to do to stay where I want to be.

It is really that simple! Maintenance does work ... If you work it. If you go through the plan thinking you will be able to go back to eating everything that made you fat in the first place ... you will pretty soon be back on plan trying to get off what you will gain. I guarantee it.

The guidelines are really simple, but they work. It's only when you try and convince yourself you know better and that you are different and you can eat chocolate every day, or have carbs for breakfast every day or eat sweets between meals that you start to unwind.

Instead of thinking about food you can't have, think about the food for thought raised by so many here ... and get the headspace right!!!!!!

Connie

[sundaymorningstaple]

As you all know, I'm am the other hardliner here. I also have a number of disciples who I think/hope will be following in our footsteps (you know who you are). I think Connie & I are identical in both our beliefs and our practice and devotion to having our heads right.

We both went into the programme with our eyes wide open in so much as we both realized that this is forever. The diet was, as Dr. C says, only the vehicle/prescription to getting our body back to a healthy state in order to facilitate the next phase of the programme.

The next phase? Life with the new you. It cannot be anything like the old you and the old habits as you will go right back there again. You must have your mind made up that there is no room for doubts and no room for yo-yoing as that only whacks out your hormonal balances leading to back and forth on the diet and off the diet again and again. This just makes life a living hell when it would be sooo much easier to accept that there are certain things in your life that are now history and should always remain so. It's simple really. Like Connie, I'm almost 14 months finished and I stay within 2kg of my target weight.

Remember my famous catch phrase here,

Nothing tastes as good as thin feels!

SMS
The New Stallion

[FlaMie]

Bravo Connie and sms! I hope I can be as determined and disciplined as you guys when I get onto maintenance myself. Very well put indeed. Love the way you guys view the need to adapt to the new lifestyle. Indeed, I guess certain past practices just had to remain in history for me. One thing for sure, gorging on rice is better long forgotten. I will continue to discover myself and get onto refeed when I think I'm absolutely ready

[nicole]

I have to agree with what your all saying as well! I was hearing and reading other people's experience of maintainence thinking geee, what the?!? Am I going to be able to do this or is it fantasy land? People who say there eating "healthy" and then gaining back the weight really freaked me out, but now I realise they are not going to fool me anymore as it is obvious there not telling the 100% truth.

I have changed my thoughts and feeling's towards food and am going to maintain the new me when I finally get to her. I WANT to be healthy from now on and have realised carbs are just not what works with me. I think we must all accept our lot in life and not be angry that we cant eat what we may want 100% of the time.

Thanks so much for this post Connie and SMS I think it is very important that you did it!
xx

[Hayley23]

Nicole darling I agree!

Connie & SMS, your straight talking, no BS attitudes to this program should be appreciated by this forum. Why? Because your both successful maintainers which is what, at the end of the day, we all aspire to be - once we are done and dusted with the program. I too was scared and aprehensive about beginning maintenance after reading many of the diaries, but then I chose to focus on the success's of some of the maintainers, rather then other's struggles.

I too went in to this program feeling like it was a last resort. I remember a couple of years ago crying on the phone to my doctor begging for diet pills (which are essentially just speed anyway) because I could not control my weight gain despite my best efforts. I knew it was my hormones but I just didn't know what else to do! Well, now I do know. I thank god everyday for where I have gotten to. I feel empowered knowing that I have the tools that enable me to help myself, to nourish myself, and to live my healthiest life from here on out.

I certainly do not feel like I am depriving myself of anything eating this way. I went into this program whole-heartedly and was willing to do whatever what required to ensure this program would work to it's full potential. At face value, my diet has always appeared heathy. But now I have made the appropriate changes my body was obviously crying out for. I intend to eat this way for the rest of my life as long as it continues to serve me well. Prior to Cohen's, I was over doing the exercise, taking insulin-sensitizing medication and was suffering from intense thirst and dizzy spells (common warning signs that type 2 diabetes is around the corner). Now I am free of all of this.

I have only been on maintenance 2 weeks, but I have done just that - maintained. So why would I ever want to eat any other way? I haven't touched a dessert yet, or even anything with any sugar. I do not feel like there is any hurry at all. I have experimented with new and healthy foods - plenty of time for the rest of the proccessed muck.

Just thought I would add my 2 cents.

Hayley.

xx

[nicole]

Well said Hayley Good on you girl your an inspiration!
xx

[lilime]

Hi Guys,

I'm a newbie on this forum but heading towards week twelve on my program. I'm still a long way from maintenance but at this stage I'm starting to get nervous about it. I've been having fantasies about all the worst possible foods and I know I need to get it into my head that these are not a regular option for me, they are going to have to become several times a year (if that) foods. These posts have been really helpful in starting to get my head in the right space.

Since being on the program I've paid more attention to other people's diets and realised that my Slim Sister is slim because she'll have the occasional sweets and fast food but mostly eats a really healthy diet heavy in veg. Despite what we might like to think most slim people are not just 'the lucky ones' who can eat whatever, whenever.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Originally Posted by lilime

Since being on the program I've paid more attention to other people's diets and realised that my Slim Sister is slim because she'll have the occasional sweets and fast food but mostly eats a really healthy diet heavy in veg. Despite what we might like to think most slim people are not just 'the lucky ones' who can eat whatever, whenever.

I've said this several times over the past year and a half. "Most" slim people are slim because they work at it. "Most" slim people learned early on how to say "NO". Interestingly enough, how many of the people you see out jogging/running all hours of the day and night would stay that way if they quit. Most are fighting to just maintain. They are not, as you say, 'the lucky ones' or those who can 'eat anything'. They just learned proper eating habit a long, long time ago so it's just second nature for them.

For us, it's a little different but if the head is right it can be done. There are lots of examples like Connie & I around. The problem is, most of them get on with their lives and leave the board as they have entered a new phase in their lives. They used the board as a tool, which is exactly what it is, and once finished with the tool, put it away to go do something else. Only a few of us will 'give back' some of which we got. Like Connie, I like to help people help themselves. And also like her, I believe on laying it on the line. We know that that is the only way it can be done. We catch flack for it, but for those who take what we say to heart, they will be winners in the end. But, at the end of the day, all must remember that most who are on this board are because they need to be. And that includes the maintainers who did not listen during the programme to what the successful ones are saying, believing that somehow they could just forget about the 'lifestyle' change part of the programme.

I'm glad to see the positive response in this thread. It means there are a lot of you, who, if not entirely in the right headspace, are determined to get there. And that's a good positive sign!

SMS
The New Stallion

[FlaMie]

Actually what sms and Connie said over here applies to 90% of the people in the world. However, really, there is a small group of people who really can eat fatty stuffs and not put on weight at all!

I've got a colleague who is already in her 50s simply loves chocoloates! She eats all the heavy carbo laden food - bread / rice / noodles and NEVER ever puts on weight. She's at her "heaviest" when she hits 50kg! OMG I'm like...this is so totally mad to see. However, I only can say that I'm in the 90% lot and am NOT going to fret that I can't eat like her... it is a FACT and I'm going to live with it!

[thenewvee]

I agree so totally with what Connie and SMS have to say on this matter.

However, I do have to say that for myself, the intentions to change my lifestyle FOREVER was taken on board and fully intended to be carried forthwith for the rest of my life. I saw my programme through to the very end, did my refeed and landed in maintenance land, only to find that STILL my intellect and my emotions have two very different agendas and I still need to do a lot of work on reconciling them, as it is the emotional mind that is STILL running the show! As a result, I have struggled with weight gain and I am doing everything in my power to come to terms with whatever is driving my emotional side that keeps me stuck in the old eating habits, and turn it around to remain the wonderful slim person that my intellectual mind has wanted so badly and has achieved!

This struggle is not so black and white for very many people and we need to keep that in mind

Maintenance is a continuation of the learning journey, learning about ourselves and what to do to look after ourselves in the very best possible way!

Vee

[cmc]

Originally Posted by thenewvee

I agree so totally with what Connie and SMS have to say on this matter.

However, I do have to say that for myself, the intentions to change my lifestyle FOREVER was taken on board and fully intended to be carried forthwith for the rest of my life. I saw my programme through to the very end, did my refeed and landed in maintenance land, only to find that STILL my intellect and my emotions have two very different agendas and I still need to do a lot of work on reconciling them, as it is the emotional mind that is STILL running the show! As a result, I have struggled with weight gain and I am doing everything in my power to come to terms with whatever is driving my emotional side that keeps me stuck in the old eating habits, and turn it around to remain the wonderful slim person that my intellectual mind has wanted so badly and has achieved!

This struggle is not so black and white for very many people and we need to keep that in mind

Maintenance is a continuation of the learning journey, learning about ourselves and what to do to look after ourselves in the very best possible way!

Vee

All that Vee has said is something I can relate to and agree with whole heartedly.

Carla.

[Hayley23]

Bump! In case some of the newbie maintainers neglected to see this.....

[Never Give Up]

Thanks Hayley for bumping this - 3rd time round for me, and I've been thinking about life after refeed, and how to do it so I don't end up going for round 4! saving the page to my desk top...


lesley

[Winkiedo]

Thanks for this post. The more I read through the posts in this forum, the more I learn that there is no other way to maintain but to follow the maintenance rules to the letter. I am still a long way off, but I hope I can follow the lead of Connie and SMS.I don't ever want to go on a diet again even if it is Cohen.

[louise41]

When I used to see slim people I used to think they were lucky.
Now I look at them and think they are probably healthy and disciplined

[Embee]

Originally Posted by Winkiedo

Thanks for this post. The more I read through the posts in this forum, the more I learn that there is no other way to maintain but to follow the maintenance rules to the letter. I am still a long way off, but I hope I can follow the lead of Connie and SMS.I don't ever want to go on a diet again even if it is Cohen.

I sure wish I had learnt that lesson first time around

[jlou]

I agree with Connie as SMS. I have maintained for 7 months and am within my goal of staying within 3kg of my maintenance start weight. I eat things that are not good choices sometimes but do so in the knowledge that I must get straight back onto good choices the next day or it will run away from me.
During the floods I ate badly - generally not enough and quick fixes. That has required discipline to get back down to my 3kg buffer but I have done it without going back on my program because I caught it early and followed the guidelines.


Maintenance weight gain is like an infection - if you catch it early enough you may be able to treat it and reverse it. Leave it and it will fester and worsen and then you have a huge job on your hands trying to get well again...

[battler]

Maintenance isn't as easy as it sounds is it!!??? I am still learning too. Something that I have taken aboard is that we need to keep PLANNING TO SUCCEED. If we aren't planning to succeed then we are PLANNING TO FAIL!! Thats the tough one to digest. Its just like that for some of us. We have to keep planning or we will be right back there doing the same things that got us fat in the first place. Hard lesson to learn. We got to our goal because we PLANNED to SUCCEED. We are WINNERS and GRINNERS and will continue to be so as long as we keep planning to be. We will NEVER be able to think and behave like those that are naturally slim. Sorry..........thats just the darn truth and we just have to toughen up and do what we have to do.

[goodlucktummy]

BUMP.

Will have to start making smart food decisions when I hit maintenance. Going on Cohen's was the first good choice... here's to a million more good choices post refeed.

[Never Give Up]

Thanks for the bump GLT! Great to see you are planning to succeed! have a great week,
Lesley