stats for maintenance mishaps

[Pudding]

I struggle with maintenance. I found it easy to follow the program, I never deviated and the weight melted off. I loved being slim and wearing size 8 clothes for the first time ever in my adult life. I felt so good about myself and enjoyed knowing I could fit into every item in my wardrobe. I finished re-feed and moved into maintenance and the weight crept back on. I watched 2 down and 3 up on the scales. I hit 59kg and stayed at that weight while holidaying overseas for 2 months. I'm back on my original plan now as I don't want the old me back. My body feels uncomfortable with this extra weight and I don't fit into my lovely size 8 clothes. In fact I'm running out of the clothes that I can fit into. A 7kg gain is really obvious as I am only 5'1".

[Alibaba]

Oh Pudding, I'm in the same boat, I know exactly what you are going through. I just CAN NOT get myself to get 100% back onto my old programme.

What I have managed to find out over the past few weeks is how much and what I need to stay at the same weight, which is hopefully a good beginning. I cannot eat carbs 3 times a day, and I need to exercise at least 5 times a week. 99% of the time my breakfast is the old Cohen's breakfast, I drink half my coffee/tea in a given day black, limit Lattés to 1, perhaps 2 a week. I cannot eat more than one fruit a day and I make an effort if I snack to include protein. The odd bit of chocolate or extra hot cross bun then don't add extra weight. My size 10's are too tight as well, I'm back into my size 12's, and I will NOT balloon back to my size 16's. I see and feel fat on places on my body which I don't like.

This whole weight thing is really annoying and controls me and my thoughts for the most part of each day.

[Kohinoor]

Hi Alibaba, (and Pudding),

I just CAN NOT get myself to get 100% back onto my old programme.

If that is because of hunger, I wouldn't be at all surprised. That Plan was for a completely different girl. I'd guess your journey, and subsequent refeed, would have altered your "bloods" such that the Plan may not now be "right" for you today.

Why not try some of your earlier refeed day's amounts (so that there is enough food to prevent you feeling hungry, yet not enough to actually GAIN weight)? As a maintainer, whatever you try is valid. It's all about learning to maintain this new shape for you, and to keep it on track over time.

And, using rough refeed amounts and foods, perhaps "mix 'em up" - so that the body doesn't know which day it'll get a bit more (or a bit less). At least, you are LESS likely to be in "starvation mode" than you might be on the old Plan. e.g. Try Day 3-ish amounts, then Day 6-ish, then Day 2 -ish, then Day 5-ish, etc. I recall Shell doing similar, and I'm pretty sure it helped her to "settle in" to Maintenance in her earlier "learning to maintain" days.

You might even find that rough Day 8 - 10 amounts/food might have you feeling very content, and yet still allow you to "creep back down the Kgs over a few more weeks" - unless you have something "special" coming up, there really isn't any need to race, is there?


If the Plan meals ARE enough, then is it a mental thing? Perhaps check out some of the books/CD's that Vee and others suggest?

Good luck with it, to both of you,

Koh

[carrieanne_c]

Hi everyone! still plodding along. Still fitting into my thin clothes although there is evidence of muffin top and fuller boobs and thighs. I think the closest i have been to my goal weight was a few days at 66.7 and 66.9. It has been an unusually long winter. I had a sore throat for almost 3 weeks. I am glad to know that "as a maintainer anything you try is valid" I am doing a 2 week Paul Mckenna approach, I am not weighing but I am wearing the most tightest items of clothes to measure my progress. I will weigh in two weeks. I am assuming that I am between 68-70k ouch that hurts to write.

I have been coheny for the past 3 days. I am using some techniques from the book, trying to eat when i am hungry, eating what I want which is Coheny food, concentrating on food when i am eating and doing the tapping when i find my mind thinking about food when it is not in front of me. Also talking nice to myself and realizing even though I have put on a few killergrammas, I am not the worst person in the world-that they will come back off-that early spring has always been a yucky weight time for me due to pollen allergies and the waiting for spring and the lack of inbetween season clothes. I will keep ya'll posted.

[louise41]

Good luck I am interested to see how you go. I had forgotten about the tapping until you mentioned it, has that worked for you?

[Pommiegal]

What is "the tapping?"

[thenewvee]

I think we all need to get this realisation.....

and realizing even though I have put on a few killergrammas, I am not the worst person in the world

Glad you are getting there, and also glad to hear tapping is working for you!

Sue, have a look at this thread for info on tapping
http://newyouforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5046

Victorious Vee

[louise41]

Pommiegal, Tapping is a strategy that is mentioned in Paul Mckennas book which you can use when you want to divert yourself from eating

[carrieanne_c]

I just saw my little thread from many moons ago.

Most people know that I blimped out to probably 75-77k (I didnt weigh until being on original program for 5 weeks)by the time I got back from USA in July.Clothes were almost unwearable thank goodness it was summer and I didn't have a job so I could run around in a bikini most of the time. When I finally did weigh I thought I was going to be weighing less than I did I weighed 72.5k I am finally back with in 3.1 kilos of my start refeed weight. I am 4.7kilos away from my start maintenance weight. I weigh 68.5 today. I am 3.5 kilos away from my goal weight.

Observations:
It seems like graduates fall back into the bad habits about 4-6 months into maintenance.

YOU don't have to have a new program if you do your old one and follow the rules you can lose the weight (again).

It is a little more difficult to stay 100% coheny.

It is best not to try to maintain back down, I found it best to bite the bullet do original program until the hormones were under control, and get the fat burner burning.

[Never Give Up]

Hi Carrieanne, I agree with not needing a new plan - I got a new one in 2008, bec. I had tried the 1st one, but I was not confident it would work. This time I started with my 2008, and then found the forum, and now I"m refeeding. It is alot harder to stay 100% - and that's where the forum helped me heaps. I do wonder if the bad habits come back because we don't follow the maintenance rules? i think that is the reason. I read sunday staples post - and he maintains, so he's doing something right! It is in our head - we have to accept that if we want to be slim, we can't eat how we used to. end of story. And focus on the good things about it - eat healthy, feel good, energy, and your clothes fit! This is the 3rd time for me, and I plan to do it right, or as right as I can. And yair, if I have to go back on plan, so be it. Just don't want to wait until i've put 10kg on though...
great to see you're getting back to goal again - I enjoy your posts all the best, Lesley

[Volte]

I must say that I struggle on a daily basis, not so much with maintenance, but rather with old bad habits. I am trying to instil new habits for my new life but I have to be really on guard all the time. My biggest problem is snacking - boredom snacking, stress snacking etc. I'm on reset at the moment because of illness & stress leading to just the one blow out (that in my previous life as HeavyMe would not have been a blow out but would rather have been a normal desert after a meal!). I've put on maybe 1.5-2kg but I can feel the 'fat factory' - I'm starting to feel hungry - so I have to stop it all now!

Also like one poster has said, I don't seem to do well with combining protein - cheese as a snack between meals adds weight. Dunno why but even during the program I tended to have the same meat meal for two meals of the day and so never had the possibility of protein combining....even into maintenance I was still loosing and it wasn't until I started having the occasional cheese between meals that I started gaining.

[carrieanne_c]

hi volte- as you know i went through that bingey fruit phase and for the past four days i have been doing,celery or cukecumber in between-it seems to have budged the scales - - iam going to continue with the veggie snacks and stay off of fruit for a while. cheese seems like it shoul be an on its own thing for me too.

[louise41]

Chocolate cheese and nuts were definitely my downfall, I should probably follow Carrianne leads and keep things like cucumber for snacks, though at the moment I am trying to go 100% cohens to lose the excess weight that has creeped up. I stayed loosely on cohens with most of my meals still being very similiar but it was the after work snack period that was my downfall. I feel so good to have eliminated the other foods that I have asked myself why I succumbed. Mind you I am still having my moments like last night when my partner and I were at dinner and I was having a beef salad and he was having a pizza. The funny thing was we were both eyeing off the others dinner thinking it looked good - but the following morning when the scales show a drop it always makes you feel so happy to have stuck to your guns!

[carrieanne_c]

A year and a half ago I started this thread. In that time, I was up and down and up and down.Finally getting to goal weight again and seeing a few others graduates do the same! Any second,third,fourth timers out there don't be shy to come back because just like you did it the first time it can be done again!

[FlaMie]

I'm a second timer on 100% or at least I try. Day 6 now and Carrieanne, this is a fantastic thread.

What's my downfall? I think must be the carbo feed after my surgery. I was pretty careful not to have carbo for the longest ever but I felt faint and almost fainted twice for not consuming carbo after surgery. I guess I needed the sugar to keep my body to repair the wounds. But now I'm back.

I don't really snack and I guess that's a good thing. 5 days of no carb has already seen me moving 2kg+ down so that's good. If I must really pinpoint then I guess is my love for tea with evaporated milk - I just so need it - at least a cup or 2 every day but without sugar. I've no more desire for sugary stuffs which is really good. I just can't swallow too much sweetened food any more and the return to the programme would certainly tune my taste buds tighter to it.

Oh yes I almost forgot that one big DEVIATION for me in maintenance land was the lack of sleep - keeping late nights due to work and being back on programme has reminded me that a good sleep is essential for weight loss and general well being. So far, I'm slowly adjusting to sleep a little earlier... right now I go to bed at around 11am but really it is a luxury... I normally clock 1am. I shall try to do it a little earlier still but I know it is tough with tons of assignments to mark and with the exams in sight.