What foods are you finding you can eat on Maintenance?

[Missmakeover]

Hi all,

I'm a newbie but i've been wondering what sorts of things people can eat once on maintenance without gaining weight. I know everyone is different and the general seems to be not too many carbs but what have you found you can eat? My consultant said that she can maintain her weight eating dark chocolate and cocktails but can't have wine.

What has everyone else found?

[Alibaba]

Been on maintenance only a week. So far, so good. I am finding the last 3 days to feel very bloated, but I still need to figure out what is causing it. I previously had no problems with adding bread, and I am wondering if it can be the extra carbs (potatoes, rice, etc). I also found "fatty" foods like hamburger pattis and sausages to make my stomach upset. However, I have NO problem with ice cream.

[angelbum]

Hi Missmakeover!

I'm only on day 3 in maintenance land so I'm still testing the waters I guess. But I'm really interested in what you said your consultant has found re wine - my weight seemed to go up on last few days of refeed as I reintroduced wine - wheras I hadn't had any real increases before that.... anyone know why wine could be particularly bad - more so than other alcohol?

[Tantravaya]

My list of what I need to avoid seems to be getting longer that what I can eat. I need to avoid olives, red capsicum, garlic (I discovered this on the program), carrots, potato, soy in any shape or form (beetroot is ok very occasionally). I also need to keep my proteins 5 hours apart and can't mix them. So effectively I cannot have protein snacks between meals and need to just stick to the one protein at a meal, no protein combining. I still pretty much stick with Cohen's eating. I have 2 or 3 serves of fruit a day between my meals.

I don't eat bread, crispbreads, pasta or any wheat or grain products or rice. I found out that these were a problem for me years ago and I am happy to ditch them all and actually haven't eaten them for years.

I am vegetarian. I was vegan (no animal foods at all) before the program however it doesn't cater for vegans so I took up fish, eggs and dairy to do Cohens. Since refeed when I moved back to vegan eating I found that my mainstay of tofu and soy was actually causing my subtle respiratory problems so I am now happily vegetarian. This means I eat eggs and cheese as well as yoghurt.

I can have an occasional single glass of wine and I can eat a small piece of dark (85% cocoa) chocolate without problem. I am used to being very disciplined with my food over a lot of years and Cohens style eating is actually less disciplined than I am used to.

It seems the reason I couldn't budge my excess weight before Cohens is protein digestion and protein mixing. As a vegan I was always educated to mix proteins to get adequate intake of the essential amino acids. I now find this principle is what is what was causing my weight problems.

I started refeed at 59kg and I am now at 54kg where I am really happy. My Cohens range was 56-59kg. I find that my diet is perfect.

[Alibaba]

I am on maintenance for about 2 weeks now. I find bread is fine, but pasta (which I absolutely love!!) isn't. Besides the fact that I have no self control when eating pasta (it is easier to avoid it all together than trying to eat only a small portion, I just can't do it) it makes me really bloated and feeling very sluggish. I think I'll avoid it all togehether. The same goes fos salty biscuits/crackers. I am also finding that meat like hamburger pattis and sausages are just too fatty for me now.

I've gained about 2 kgs, but I am not too worried about it. I was just too happy to be able to eat more normal, so I overdid it a little with the sweets and biscuits, I also had 4 (!!!) social events over this weekend, so I will have more self control in the week in excercise every day and it should stabilise a bit. Can feel I have some water retention as my wedding ring is really tight, like my fingers are swollen.

As time goes on, I'm sure I'll figure out more and more what I can eat and what not.