[Meg]

Welcome to the toughest month of the year for maintenance. It seems like the world is out to sabotage us this month, all in the name of festivity and friendship.

I weighed myself first thing this morning, wrote it down, and taped it above my computer monitor. My goal is to weigh the same on January 1, 2007 as I do today (though lower would certainly be OK too! ) Wouldn't it be great if we all can make it through the holidays without any gain? Let's do it!

Check in and let us know what's going on in your world.

[joyofsix]

That's a great idea. I'll take today's weight and post it. The end of Nov was getting difficult so I have a feeling Dec will be tough for me. I can't believe how many 'special' functions I have on the calendar already. I'm going to need to be focused.

[AnneWonders]

I have doctor visit after doctor visit this month as we attempt to "use up" our insurance benefits. That always helps keep me in line as well.

Anne

[karynlee]

Wow, December already. Isn't that amazing? I'm always floored by how fast a year goes by.

It may be too early to tell, but I think I've had a realization that may help me through the remainder of the holidays. (I've gone through 4 years of holidays after my big loss without successfully maintaining.) This year, instead of focusing on good food choices and exercise (like I do every other year without success), I'm focusing on getting my December stuff done early. What happens is that December fills up with all the things on my huge todo list and it clicks in my brain at some point that I don't have TIME to exercise. And, without my workouts, I'm less focused on my eating so it's so much easier to slip into mindless eating (which triggers my bingeing). So, this year, I'm vowing not to let the holiday stress come before my maintenance goals.

I'm already more than halfway done with my list so things are looking up. I've survived Halloween and Turkey Day with no gain so I'm feeling more confident than I ever have when faced with December's arrival. I feel so empowered! I've always told myself that I wasn't strong enough to conquer the challenges that come with this time of year.

Checking in here every day and going to my weekly weigh-ins will help me keep my commitment to maintain at the forefront. The minute I stop thinking about it, I go right into automatic pilot, eat everything in sight and use the ol' "I'll get back to it in January" excuse. Not this year!! I love Meg's idea of taping your current weight on your monitor - gonna do that right now.

Have a great day, everyone.

[MileHighMama]

Karynlee: I really think you're onto something about making sure your maintenance goals come before everything else this month. I've been thinking about this too and how harried life gets this time of year and I really don't want to start backsliding. I have cute clothes to wear to our holiday parties and get togethers and I want to feel good in them! Let's get as much as possible checked off those to-do lists and try to stay ahead of the game. The holidays will be a lot more fun that way too. I'm sure we can do it!
Pam

[WaterRat]

Well, I didn't weigh this morning, but I will first thing tomorrow and make that number - or lower - my target date for 1/1/07! Karynlee, I'm trying to do the same. I have at least 1/2 my shopping done as it all has to be mailed to the east coast. DH set up a wrapping table last night so we can do it when we have time and not have to pick up in between. Just need to keep the ribbon under lock and key as the cats love it! I have a few gifts for here, but I know what I'm getting. DH is my biggest problem. We decided to take a mid-winter long weekend trip to a hot springs near Fairbanks for our "big" gift, but I still need a few small things for him to unwrap.

Our parties are spread out over the rest of the month, so I don't have overload except for 2 back-to-back parties on the 15th and 16th. I'm definitely practicing the one-plate rule! That in conjunction with the "limited alcohol" rule should keep me on track.

It's winter here. We had 6-8" of snow overnight. Only the second time this year, which is unusal. It's in the 20's, so no melting going on. Oh well, it still looks pretty anyway. Not enough to close school.

[lilybelle]

Hi everyone. I wish I had got on here and read this thread before eating my breakfast. I'll weigh tomorrow morning. My goal also is to maintain the same weight by 1/1/07.
We have snow and ice and the schools are closed.
After a week of horrible stress and barely eating (plus diarrhea, TMI) I had lost 4 lbs. Down to 136 as of Wednesday. I know that I'll see 140's again soon. I feel better, stronger and am actually hungry again now. My jeans are all baggy, but not for long. I have renewed my exercise commitment because lately I hadn't had the energy or mental focus to exercise.
My Christmas shopping is all done and I now have everything wrapped. I'm off to the grocery store to restock my healthy foods.

[SlimLindy]

I found 3FC in September and began posting on here in October. At the time I had finally lost most of the weight I wanted to lose and wanted to learn how to maintain. I found out how emotionally unprepared I was for maintenance. Over two months I've regained about 15-20 pounds by doing a lot of bingeing. During this time, I've been wanting and trying to reclaim my healthy lifestyle, but I have a hard time with emotional eating and life has been quite stressful (parents moved from across the country to the house next door , DH as been struggling with major stress issues, and my childrens schedules have gotten manic busy ).

Anyway, my (and my DH and DDs) health, fitness, and size are all really important to me. So I am re-committing and refocusing myself for this month... it will give me a running head start on the New Year! I am working on changing my mindset from 'dieting' to 'healthy lifestyle for life'. I have been exercising all along (run 4 miles daily, lift weights 3X weekly, various step classes and elliptical workouts), so I will maintain that. I will continue to eat healthy, mostly whole foods and track in Fitday. I will WORK on NOT eating for emotional reasons.

Here's to finishing off 2006 feeling GREAT!

Lindy

[MileHighMama]

Hi Lindy. I really think maintenance is going to be harder for me than losing the weight in the first place. I've lost and regained my weight twice and I think a big part of the reason was because the whole time I was dieting I was looking forward to the time when it would end and I could start living again. This time, I've taken the weight off fairly slowly (47 pounds since Feb) and I'm looking at this as my new lifestyle. I think I will be able to increase my calorie intake a little, but not a lot. I'm going to have to stay focused on my weight, continue weight once a day (so I don't start eating and go into denial) and just not let up on it. So sorry to hear about your weight gain but good thing you are addressing it now. I think learnign to maintain is going to include some gains, and getting on top of them before they get out of control is what will make you a success for life.
Pam

[joyofsix]

Wow, what great posts so far this month. I'm almost fearing maintenance and it's nice to know I'm not alone in that. People seem to think that I lost the weight so everything is 'back to normal', not understanding this is normal now.

Karynlee-I think you're right about stress. I'm going to make an effort to keep myself on track with planning and get enough rest. I really find being tired leads to overeating for me.

I posted my weight on a sticky on my computer. Of course, now everyone knows my weight, LOL.

I exercised yesterday. I added a three mile walk to my usual yoga. I think it made me hungrier though, which defeats the purpose of exercise, lol. Today I've got time so I'm going to read all the stickies in the exercise thread.

[SlimLindy]

Yesterday went well... healthy foods in moderate portions and plenty of exercise. I had the best night of sleep I've had in a long time. I forgot how much better I sleep when I don't overeat.

I am focusing on retraining my thinking and that is revealing to me how wrong my thinking has been. I am working on not thinking about myself as dieting, but thinking of this as a long-term healthy lifestyle. This means: not doing all the little calculations in my head of when I could get down to goal weight and not trying to get too excessive with exercise or too restrictive with food intake (that's not lifestyle--that's diet). I also have to work at feeling thankful for where I am today and live in the moment. This is nearly impossible for me!

Yesterday I read an article that talked about the 'myth' of emotional eating. It basically said that people don't overeat for emotional reasons so much as because they are in an endless cycle of dieting and bingeing. I think there can be some truth to this in some instances; I also think that the EMOTIONS that surface when you overeat can lead to more overeating. Is this sounding convoluted?! Anyway, what I walked away from that article with is a resolve to do what is right for my body because of what I KNOW, not because of what I FEEL. From one day to the next (one hour to the next) my emotions and even my body can tell me a lot of mixed messages, so I need to choose a lifestyle based on clear, logical, healthy choices, not emotions.

Finding 3FC was hugely eye-opening for me because I finally found other people on the planet who eat the way I HAVE to eat if I am not going to be enormous. I don't know anyone else outside of 3FC who has to contintually weigh/measure their food, count their calories, exercise regularly, eat minimally, choose healthy/whole foods, etc. It is incredibly supportive to know that there are many people who choose these things for themselves ALL the time! I think this is a BIG part of why I didn't 'get' maintenance at first...I never met anyone for whom these choices were part of daily healthy living and not 'dieting'.

Thanks for being here!

Lindy

[lilybelle]

Lindy, thanks for the post. I needed it. It helps me to know that I'm not in this alone. I choose to eat lighter and healthier and am glad to know that others do the same. In the non "weight-conscious" world it's easy to forget that. I exercise because my body needs it to maintain a healthy weight. I don't always like it, but I do it anyway. No one else in my family is trying to lose weight and I'm amazed sometimes at the junk they put in their mouth. Esp. DH and 20 yr. old son. My 14 yr. old DD usually eats the same as I do, as I'm the cook. LOL. I also need to take pride and be thankful for where I am today.

[paperclippy]

Hi everyone! I can't believe it's December already . . . I've been working at my new job (and living in Indiana) for just about six whole months! Wow.

This morning I weighed 130 on the dot. Phew! I guess that 1 lb that was stressing me out was just TOM gain after all. Now I need to work on getting back to my comfort zone of 126-129 on my scale, and on getting the scale at the gym to read me at 133 again. I guess maybe my scale isn't totally wrong because I realized that when I weight at the gym, it is at around 7pm, but I weigh on my scale first thing in the morning. So maybe 133 at the gym scale corresponds to 127 on my scale. Last time I weighed at the gym it said 138. I just about died. Anyway I was happy to see 130 this morning and if I see 130 again on January 5 I will be happy. I picked January 5 because I am going out of town (to visit my parents) for xmas/new year's and I know I will have a lot of water gain, so I'll leave a little leeway for that to clear up before weighing!

I forgot who it was, but thanks to whoever posted the advice for me about finding a gym! My fiance thinks we should wait until we get back from our vacation, because then they will be having new year's specials. Maybe I can get him to call them -- we are looking at joining the gym he used to go to when he was in high school. I have a phobia of making phone calls to people I don't know (I make my fiance order pizza for us!) so sometimes it is hard to convince myself to do stuff like this.

[AnneWonders]

Well, I've had two solid days of way, way off plan eating, and instead of feeling guilty about it, I've just been enjoying it immensely. Great food, great company. One more day of this though, and I'm going to have to have a cookie intervention. Oddly, I'm getting pretty sick of it. I guess that is a good sign and my love of junk food now has limits.

I've had an extremely nice weekend. My 7 mile long run went flawlessly on Saturday, on Sunday I took my new mountain bike out and got it dirty. I only fell once and no major damage, and it was a much needed break from the road bike. Got to play with the chicklet, who is now starting to talk--very interesting. Ball, doll, shoes, hat, banana, cookie, dog, cat, mommy, daddy, knee, nose, belly button. She can also sign for milk, more, and please. She understands more than she can say right now. The floodgates are opening.

I have a cold starting to come on now, and I'm just exhausted. I switched to half decaf this morning and it shows. I think I'm going write down this giant mess o' food I ate today, have a big glass of OJ, and go to bed at 7 p.m. The checkbook can wait until tomorrow for balancing, and perhaps DH can walk the dogs.

Anne

[lilybelle]

Anne, your baby sounds so cute. My 6 month old grandson was here today. He is up on all fours and lunging himself all over the place. It's so cute to watch.

I'm back on track with my exercise again and it does make me feel better.

paperclippy, WTG on getting the scale back down. My scale is being extra kind right now. I have lost a little more weight and having been telling myself everyday that it's NO excuse to eat extra. For some reason I sometimes feel that if I'm below my goal of 140-145 that it's OK to overindulge. I have no idea where this mentality comes from, but it's a habit I'm trying to overcome. I wanted Mexican food today with my DD after her medical tests, but chose to eat a reasonable lunch of baked chicken, cabbage and cottage cheese instead. I need to use my willpower and tell myself "NO" more often.