Hello everyone! Im so glad I've found this site. Been lookin for some help and you guys have lots of info & support to offer. It will be nice to get to know you all.

I've now read all 6 pages of Maintainer stories and I have to say, you people are all such sources of inspiration to me and probably to LOADS of others. All your stories are different, yet have so much in common. I'm not a maintainer myself yet (roughly 40 pounds before that phase begins) but reading all your posts here on 3FC has motivated me to no end and I think that's because I've realised that maintenance is the most important - and the most difficult - part about this whole body and weight business, and reading about other people who fight these battles every day is very interesting and inspiring. Like several people pointed out, it's difficult to findthings to read about maintaining while there's a neverending supply of how-to-lose-weight articles/stories/boards. I'm glad I found this excellent place already, it makes me feel more prepared!

All the best in managing to stay the way you want to be. I hope that I can post my own story on here in the not too distant future.

Hugs,
Ann-Charlotte in Sweden

Just found these boards the other day and man am i so happy! I totally need help and I know it will be good for me to talk to you guys on these boards! As you can see my from title, i'm a chocolate lover and i can't stop eating it!! Looking forward to talking to all of you guys. Thanks!

OMG! I can't believe I have stumbled across this wonderful forum. I don't even know where to begin. I'm not from Vermont, but did go to a wonderful school there in S. Woodstock (no longer there). I dont' ever remember being anything but a fat, chub kid. Teased mercilessly, I felt extremely isolated at school until 9-12 grades, when I starved myself, like some of you, to gain acceptance. (At that school in Vermont, I got down to my lowest - 145 lbs. @ 5'7". After marriage and a child, we moved west, first to Salt Lake City for half year, then Eugene, OR for two years and finally, San Francisco, where we've been since 1974. My weight skyrocketed from that nice 145# to 190. In 1978, I got back down to 145 through WW, but gained it back plus more within a year. In 1983 (I'd become a musician and singer), I was auditioning for a big band, and was told that I "could lose some weight." There was guffawing. I was horrified, but shouldn't have been surprised. I'd made lots of friends in the Bay Area and it had been a while since I'd heard the insults. From shame, I lost (fast, this time)67 pounds in about three and a half months. I gained it back again when I decided to return to and finish college in my 40s'. By the time I graduated, I weighed 210 lbs. and found I had Graves Disease. In January of 1997, with the really bad case of hyperthyroidism I experienced as catalyst, I joined Health Resources Management (diet) - actually a fast - at a top weight of 236.5 #. My doctor had called me "morbidly obese" and I was scared and horrified. Throughout the following ten months, much like Meg, I joined the YMCA here, to fulfill my diet centers' requirement that I aerobically exercise off 2000+ kcals per week. Argh! I almost quit with that edict. But I began, slowly, to learn how to use that treadmill every single day, until I got better and better at it. I also fasted for 13 weeks, then got 1200 kcals of food back. Three months into my "Last Journey Down," as I dubbed it, a trainer told me I was looking better. That was all I needed to keep going. I never cheated on the diet, and hired this trainer for the duration to help me learn my newest fave thing. Pumping iron! I've never stopped lifting, and suffer the same dread of cardio, but do it 4-6X week anyway. Good listening music and dancing on the stairmaster! And.......I became a trainer in 1998. I'm still a trainer! I still can't believe it that I actually have clients - at my age! (56). All either have lost or are losing or trying to lose weight and most are women about my age. It's the finest job I've ever had. And, my job really forces me to maintain, if the truth be told. My goal weight was 150#, but I can be found anywhere between 145 - 155#. Quik story and then I'll stop. A bit over a year ago, I broke my r. ankle, tibia and fibula. This put a dent in my program. I gained 23 lbs. I had three operations last year, and trying to work, as well as work out has been a bear. I'm at 158.5# and very scared, which is a good thing. I just entered Lee Labrada's Lean Body Challenge and finally am "zoned" in on it. A little competition never hurts in my case - when I was working with that first trainer, he was always greeting me with the "let's see if you can lift this" game. I was always ready to pick up the gauntlet. I still am and am in the mode where I'm excited now. My "before" pix are in place (on mirror in bath -worst!) and body fat taken, goals written etc. Then I came across this particular forum and saw all your stories. I'm simply blown away by the barriers you all have crossed or climbed over and around. Congrats to you all and thank you so much for sharing your (sometimes painful - sometimes sheer delight) wonderful stories. My spine tingles - you are all amazing! I know you all know how much better it feels to fit into the clothes you want, and to do the things you all desire to do. A lot better than a few days of dieting and intense exercise! I even rock climb, ice climb and go boxing! I love this life. I will get those pounds off by April 4 dagnab it! Thanks again so much for being here- for starting this thread. I'll be checking in each day. Happy New Year. N2L.

N2L! Wow! Your story just blew me away! Welcome home - you are definitely in the right place! Hey Mel, we have another crazed middle-age lifter with us. (you'll meet Mel, who's 50 - am I allowed to say that? - is a trainer and sounds a lot like you )

Please poke around the Maintainers Forum and join in any place that interests you - we've got a wonderful group of people all looking to keep the weight off for life. It sounds like you have a lot of wisdom to share.

A warm welcome to all. This site is a wealth on information and a pleasure to be involve in. The best part is knowing we are not alone and others know what our struggles are like.
Good luck to all

I'm waaaaay behind on my "hellos"! Welcome, all you new lovely ladies to the Maintainers forum!

N2L- Yup, another crazy middle-aged, iron pumping ex-fatty turned trainer here

Thanks so for your responses. I'll tell you what really got to me. I was up way too late last night reading through a lot of posts, but the info from the Columbia U. lecture just slayed me. (and very intelligent responses too!) I slogged into the gym this AM, shoulders a bit slumped, let me tell you. But when I hit the treadmill, I ran harder and more than I had since I broke that D____ ankle, staring red-faced through all the hard-bodied young women in front of me on other cardio equip. And that was after an hour+ of legs. I became so motivated, after having such difficulty getting to sleep. I felt like the Prof's info was just weighing me down like a big old backpack full of rocks. Shoot. But I guess I've known that something like that was going on, because my maintenance program has always looked pretty much like a diet at least most of the time. But seeing it written on paper (and you summarized soooooooo eloquently - great writing) somehow makes the maintainer's future seem a little bleak, if not downright unfair! But I guess you've all already hashed through these issues. It was a superb piece of info. What to tell my clients, most of whom are having trouble just losing the weight? Don't know...............Hmmmmmmmmmmm . So good to be here and feel so welcome already. I love this board! C ya later!

Hi, wow, I came across this web site a few days ago and have spent at least a few hours a DAY going through posts.

Although if you see my stats at the bottom, it might seem odd for me to be posting an intro here, I feel more 'at home' reading the posts in this section than I do with the others. Weight LOSS, as you'll read, has never been an issue for me. Maintenance is another story!

I'm currently 37 and am 5-2 1/2.

It's been a 6 year 7 mo WL journey for me where I've been trying to 'find my groove'. You might consider me to be a yo yo dieter, but the scale has continually been going down. I've always heard that most dieters will gain back the weight they lost PLUS more. Fortunately I've always been able to nip things in the bud before I regained everything.

I went from 208 to 153 year 1 and maintained for about 6 months. My mom died and I had a lot of outside stress.

Weight went back to 191 and joined WW. Over 7-8 months went down to 143 and plateaued for 3 months.

Quit WW and went down to 138 where I stayed about 6 months. Had been running and decided to train for half marathon. Weight started to 'fall off' - couldn't seem to eat enough clean food. Went down to 104 over 6 months of training. Stayed there a DAY and got panicked. Was way too low. Anyhow, got back to 125-130 and stayed there for 5 months. Then hurt my knee. Started to pile on weight after having it hard to find any exercise to replace the running and cutting back on the number of times I was eating a day rather than the calories.

I started back with WW 2 weeks ago and weighed in at 185 and am back down 7 lbs. I've been waiting for knee surgery for 16 months (Canada's wonderful health care system SIGH). Set a more realistic goal of 145 since I was able to get to and maintain 143 without running.

As I wrote at the start, I feel more like I am dealing with maintenance issues rather than WL issues. Even though I have gone back to 191 and 185 at various stages, losing is not a problem. Keeping it off IS.

It's weird but in the 120's I still saw myself as a fat person. Now at 178, I see myself as a thin person with a temporary weight gain.

I'm one of those people many of you would hate to have around as you are losing/ trying to maintain. I think because of being active my entire life other than 2 separate one year periods, my metabolism might be different. I don't have kids either which might make things easier for me too. When I GAIN weight, I do it at 1000-1500 cals of junk at one or two late meals in the day. When I LOSE, its by eating every 90 minutes to 3 hrs from the time I get up. I don't lose by cutting back calories. I have to increase them and eat more frequently. I had mentioned breaking a plateau post-WW. I actually did that by eating 2500+ cals a day. When I kept losing past where I wanted to, I was having sometimes as much as 3000. But I was really active.

I had many reasons for tackling the remaining weight once and for all this time. First off was that I had to go and buy new clothing for the holidays. I had gotten rid of all of my fat clothes as I lost last time. You can imagine that size 0's-4's don't fit very well on a 180+ lb body! I was shocked to discover I had gone back to 12's and 14's. I have way too much $ in clothing I can't fit into.

Second, I own my own business. (Which at one time had over 50 employees.) Marketing work. But I've been unhappy for a couple of years. Gradually started to make changes in the company to allow me to find something I WANT to do. That turns out to be real estate (part of a long-term plan - I want to buy and renovate houses, so this will be a few year learning period for him). I'm doing the coursework now and will be starting in late August. I'm going to need more energy to manage this new career and my business (and the clothing issue comes up again).

My 20th high school reunion is coming up. Need I say more?

I hate the feeling of basing what I do in any given day, week or month on my weight and that's what I've been doing for the past year. Even at my heaviest, I never let weight interfere with me doing things, but I have since I stopped running.

I don't have kids. (I DO have 7 furry friends i.e. cats) I've been married for 9 1/2 years and with hubby for almost 14. My father moved in with us after my mom died. He's battled a slew of health problems and has been having a good year after a rough ride. As my own weight crept back up over the past year, meal planning went out the window. So making sure HE gets healthy meals is also an incentive for me.

I'm trying to get in daily walks (my knee is okay with walking as long as I don't go fast, but I'm doing inclines to increase energy expended) and am going to be joining a curves-like fitness club which uses hydraulic systems on their equipment (supposed to be better for my knee than traditional weights).

Looking forward to learning more from all the amazing people who have managed to succeed where I've failed in the past.

Sharon

Weird.... I set up a profile pic but it doesn't seem to be working

Hi Sharon! Yep, you're definitely in the right place here at Maintainers and we'll try and help you keep it off for good this time.

I have to disagree with one thing you said in your terrific introduction: I don't think you've failed at all. Think of it this way - everything that's happened up till now has been the groundwork for the last diet. Each time you fell down, you learned something important, right? Look at all the lessons you've learned about yourself that you talk about in your post! And so you got up, bruised but smarter, and tried again. It sounds to me like now you're ready to go down and STAY down this time!

We're so glad you're here and look forward to hearing lots more from you!

Thanks for the welcome, Meg. Your story and so many others here have certainly been inspiring.

Yes, you are right and I do know it. It's just frustrating having to lose the same pounds all over again. But I know two things that hit a lot of people that lose - periods of heavy stress and dealing with an injury - are problems I've had to deal with already. Now I'm trying to get back down while having an injury and dealing with moderate levels of stress. I feel more confident. I also know that at 37, my idea of a realistic weight to maintain permanently has changed because of experience and understanding my own body a bit better.

Sharon

Hi Sharon Welcome to Maintainers I think you're definitely in the right place and in the right state of mind. You said it right here:

I think that's the key to the whole process of maintenance: confidence and understanding yourself.

Wow, SEVEN cats???

Mel

Love your story too, Mel. Thanks for the welcome.

Yes, 7 cats. It was a running joke -everytime DH and I talked about having kids, we'd get another cat. Fortunately, we stopped 6 years ago at 7. Interestingly enough I don't LIKE cats other than mine which are my kids. (Grew up with dogs!)

Hey

I'm 20 years old and live in Stockholm, Sweden. I've been lurking around here for some time now and thought it was time to introduce myself.

I was always the chubby girl and that was only because I ate the wrong things and was lazy. I ate a lot of pasta and drank pepsi everyday. My highest weight was 155 pounds at the age of 17 (no muscles at all). I lost it by starting exercising for the first time in my life and found myself really enjoying aerobics and other classes. I went down to about 118-120 (depending on time of month) and I maintened that weight with not much problem. One year ago I hurt my knee and had to stop exercising for a couple of months. Due to medicial reasons I had to start take a medicine which made me gain almost all the lost weight. I also moved to a new city where it took some time before I found a gym I liked (I'm picky when it comes to gyms).

Right now I'm slowly quitting my medication and I feel much better. I'm right now at a plateau (sp?) of 137-139 pounds. It have lasted a month

I don't follow a diet like ww och jc. Instead I try to eat healthy, nutritious food. I don't drink coffee or pepsi. I eat a lot of chicken, cottage cheese, fruits, vegetables and brown rice. I go to my gym 4-6 times a week. I get easily bored so I do a mix of classes including: pilates, aerobics, water exercise and ashtanga yoga. I also use the treadmill and lift some weights.

When I don't am at the gym I love shopping and decorating. I live with my long-time boyfriend and a dog - Candy. I love reading and hate the cold Swedish winter.

Take care and hope seeing more of you here.