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Originally Posted by daizy hotrocks
There is a lot of wondering going on in the November thread about what happens during stabilization and maintance... Is there anyone who can help us get a better picture of what happens during these times? I know my center was pretty vague when I asked about it. Thanks for the help!!!
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Ok, I'll share their secrets and how I'm dealing with maintenance (so I don't become a repeat offender!) Each week's new food is in addition to previous week's new food - HNSs are decreased gradually.
Stabilization Week 1 - add a new starch to lunch 3 days this week.
Stabilization Week 2 - add a new fruit to breakfast 3 days this week.
Stabilization Week 3 - add one dairy serving every day this week.
Stabilization Week 4 - add the new starch at lunch every day this week AND add new vegetable (different from previous veggies) serving 2 times at this week.
Stabilization Week 5 - Add the fruit at breakfast every day this week AND add a 2nd dairy and a fat serving every day this week.
Stabilization Week 6 is same as week 5 - HNSs are down to 1 per day and used as a snack. It is very important to keep a food diary during this time because of how our individual bodies react to certain foods.
Maintenance is a Smart Selection page recommending how many servings and the sizes of servings for the different food groups for either 1200 or 1500 calories per day.
With Stabilization I had a hard time remembering when I was supposed to eat something new and then I kept forgetting to eat something I had been eating all along. I tried repeating Week 5 and 6 hoping to be more On Program but didn't really do any better 2nd time around. I really felt ready for Maintenance even though I had not quite gotten to my weight goal. Maybe my goal weight was really too low. I posted the Before and After pictures MRC took of me on my profile. They are from 19 May 2009 and 19 October 2009 when I started Stabilization.
I am going to keep doing my food diary. I have added headers to the maintenance spreadsheet to indicate how many servings per day of each of the food groups I should strive for, then I total how many I actually ate each day. I occasionally have an HNS but I often have a Protein shake with the Whey Isolate Powder my husband buys. I use powdered skim milk in that and in my coffee (and puddings or anything I can put it in - adds more protein as well as calcium). I am trying to eat as similar to the Green Menu as possible with the additional servings Stabilization added in. I will keep as far away from High Fructose Corn Syrup as possible (reading labels as I buy things - catsup, cocktail sauce, crackers - they are putting it in everything and it causes me to lose my "will power") and I will decrease my use of sugar as well (as compared to before MRC - I was very good at cutting out all sugar while I was on the program and was so surprised at how little I was tempted or had cravings - only when I had something that had hidden sugar in it did I have problems. That was how I found out that cocktail sauce and kielbasa had HFCS in them).
I do weigh myself each morning after I wake up and pee, and last thing before I go to bed each night. I got my scale at BJ's warehouse for $27 - it is a Taylor 5568 that tells % body fat, % body water, % muscle, BMI and calories needed to sustain that weight. I'm not really concerned about minor fluctuations but it is keeping me honest at least right now.
What I really need to do now is exercise to tone my muscles and help my loose skin firm up. I do aerobic/stretching in a warm water pool twice a week, go to yoga at my center once or twice a week and do yoga at home 3 more times a week. I purchased running shoes for good foot support and am trying to walk more often especially now that the weather has cooled off. I go to a medical massage therapist twice a month to help keep my muscles, ligament and joints in proper shape. I am trying to get more sleep (so I really should log off and go to bed). It really is a whole process - I'm not sure I could have done this when I had 2 kids at home and a full time job, but I'm really glad I found MRC and 3FCs when I did. Feel free to ask any questions - I'm very willing to share what I can. jeanette