I'm maintaining now and in many ways it's no different than when I was losing, but in other ways, it's worlds different. Now, if I have a couple bad days, I just figure that's life - it happens, we just fix it ASAP. That's what all the thin people I know do. When I was losing, I hated to think about set-backs and did my best to avoid behavior that led to them. Here's what I did. It might not work for others, but I guess it's worth the time to post it.
Losing a large amount of weight, for me, seemed perfectly possible to do - but only if I had a real plan with lots of short term goals. I like numbers. I like to see numbers prove that what I'm doing is working. I started "dieting" in January of '11. I wanted to be at my goal by Christmas of '11. I wasn't sure how that would work out, but I thought 8 - 10 pounds a month was possible. I made a chart on Excel.
I set up a column for the Wednesday as my weigh-in day of each week from mid-Jan to the end of the year. I set up the next column with the "minus number" of pounds I hoped to lose. I hoped to lose 3 pounds a week for the start, so I put that in. After a while I figured it would slow down, so I put in "minus 1%". I put my starting weight of 252 pounds in the next column. After I put in all the formulas. I could scroll down and see my goal for any given point in time. Goals were week to week. My idea was that anyone could stay on a "diet" for one week, so my immediate goal was to lose about 1% of my body weight per week. When I extended everything out, lo and behold, I would be at goal by the end of the year! I posted to the chart every single Wednesday. Sometimes I was ahead of the week's goal, sometimes I was behind, but having such a specific short term goal kept me focused.
I think having a specific one week goal worked really well for me, but I have to add the following:
* I am WAY past menopause, so TOM didn't figure in
* I live alone, so if I didn't want it in the house, it wasn't in the house
* I told EVERYONE who would listen what my goal was - the idea of having to explain it if I dropped back kept me in line
* I am a creature of habit and love salads, so that was my supper many nights - with left over roasted chicken or other meat thrown in for protein, some whole grain home made croutons for carbs
* I love everything, so finding good things to eat was never a problem
I know this approach won't work for everyone, but I really do feel that we sell ourselves short much of the time. We really are capable of doing what we know is best for us most of the time. No one is perfectly on plan every single minute. But we can stay on a healthy plan 90% of the time without too much difficulty. I really believe this to be true. It isn't quite as easy as the Nike slogan - "Just Do It" isn't always possible. BUT - most of the time it works just that easily. We can talk and argue all day long about what method to use - that doesn't matter. What does matter is staying with some plan of healthy eating and exercise for the rest of our lives. It's so easy for me to say some of this because I'm through it - but I NEVER want to be heavy again. I don't want my knees to creek or to wake up stiff because I rolled onto my back and my butt was so big I slept funny. I don't want to be short of breath after following my DD around a mall for the afternoon. And I thought I was in pretty decent shape before (actually, I was) but it's all SO much easier now. I wish there was a way to put that feeling into every person's psyche. It's wonderful.
Oh, yeah - one last bit of advice - get rid of every bit of fat clothes as soon as you are in a smaller size. Seriously. I have a friend who has everything from size 12 to size 24 in tubs in her basement. guess what sizes she is in most of the time? Yep - the 24s. Get rid of them. Immediately. It's better to be in snug pants on the way down than on the way up, don't you think? LOL. Unless you're terribly rich, you will think again about what you're doing if you have to buy bigger clothes. And on that same train of thought - don't rely on sweat suits and yoga pants. They will be your downfall.
Lin
Last edited by linJber; 10-18-2012 at 07:26 PM.
|