Hello all! I have been lurking in the maintainers forum for a while now. Ever since I was approaching 130 pounds, the weight has been coming off slowly, and the inches too, and I have started to feel more like a maintainer, and so I have been here reading posts, gathering inspirtion, and reading for advice.
So here I am: I am pretty close to maintaining, so I should start thinking that way. I find myself resisting it to some degree, since I still want to lose pounds/inches and see where my goal eds up (120, or 125? Size 4, or 6?). But most everything will be the same: I'll eat the same way, and exercise the same way. Why is this concept such a mental block for me? As much as I enjoy my workouts, I think the idea of idea of exercising like this, or close to it, FOREVER is what is freaking me out. But the thing is--I love it. I love biking to work, I love the jelly-muscles I get after yoga class, I love the it-hurts-so-good 'high' that I get after HIIT on cardio or after a class at the gym. I even love waking up a little sore in the morning, because it means I know I pushed myself the day before.
So why is it freaking me out? I think we start to lose weight by convincing ourselves that it's not forever, as a way to 'trick' ourselves into doing it at all, and then at some point we have to switch over to realizing that it IS forever. ...Seriously, if I went back to half-hearted only-when-I-fell-like-it exercising, and eating like I did before--well of course I would gain weight. And besides the fact that I truly do enjoy exercising, and enjoy challenging myself, there's also the fact that I really like looking the way I do now. I can try on clothes and like most of what I try on, and look good in it. I am making it a 2009 goal to really kick up the dating, since being overweight is no longer an excuse, and I really like that I can confidently put myself out there. So this is where I want to stay. Like it or not, this means I am going to keep doing this forever, and that makes me a maintainer.
So here I am, a maintainer!! Thanks for letting me letting me join you all, fellow Maintainers, and thanks for being an inspiration!
--Kyla