[ccrose]

Posted this under Take 30 yesterday and not sure if I should have -- perhaps it is only for a certain group? So trying to put it out front so someone will see it. I wanted to say hi, thanks and ask a few questions. Congrats to you all for your hard work and success!!!

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Hi Everyone,

Thank you so much for this great forum! I spent the last 2 hours lurking through the threads and learned so much.

I did MRC a few years ago and lost 35 lbs. BUT it took me 3 re-enrollments and probably over $3,000. It was worth it because I learned that I could do it.

I gained back most of the 35 due to regular eatin. Have avoided re-joining MRC for 2 reasons -- cost (obvious), but also I want to learn to lose and maintain using real food (not artificial sweetners, etc.). So have been doing the green page (yes, I saved my stuff except blue menu -- I have cookbook and some of the printed recipes they give you in a binder) have already lost 8 lbs in perhaps 4 weeks just by following the green plan without supplements. And exercising like a mad dog, which I didn't do the first time around. This time hunger situation is much better, maybe because I'm not doing any artificial sweetners? You have to go cold turkey, I've found.

I've actually been taking Hydroxycut and some Trader Joe protein powder (which I'm stopping as of today and resuming with MRC type vitamins), but it does have a bit of fat in it. Burning that 300 cals per day exercising is helping for sure. I'm eating about 1000 cals per day on average.

Now I'm on a plateau and want to lose faster (for Xmas vacation of course). Want to get into that size 10 before leaving, try not to gain too much on our 4 week vacation, and then pick it back up seriously in January.

I look forward to talking with you folks very much. Congratulations to you all!

LOVE the eggwhite crystal lite suggestion, thanks SO MUCH. That was the answer to my prayer Will try 3-4 times per day, should break plateau.

But I am and always have been concerned about maintenance. THey would NEVER answer my detailed quesitons about maintenance and that really bugged me.

Haven't seen much on these boards about what maintenance is like. How you have to eat? Does it in any way/shape/form resemble normal eatin?

How many calories do you estimate maintenance is? Is it low fat, low carb, high protein, or what? Can you do it without frankenfoods or will you go hungry. I see on here that people consider it harder than green menu. That's pretty tough.

I'm thinking about seeing a nutritionist/dietitian for the long term, but I know MRC gets the weight off fast.

Any input/stories would be really great, thanks so much!

THANKS AGAIN FOR THIS WONDERFUL GROUP AND RESOURCE!!!

[ccrose]

Me again,

Sorry, I got too enthusiastic last night and made a long post. What I really hope is if there are folks on maintenance that might make contact to let me know what it is like, or if they would address it on-list perhaps others might be interested too. I'll be glad to summarize any contacts on-list. Thanks!

[Meemo]

Originally Posted by ccrose

Me again,

Sorry, I got too enthusiastic last night and made a long post. What I really hope is if there are folks on maintenance that might make contact to let me know what it is like, or if they would address it on-list perhaps others might be interested too. I'll be glad to summarize any contacts on-list. Thanks!

Before maintenance you go through stabilization, where they gradually reintroduce foods to your basic green menu over a 6-week span (which can take longer than 6 weeks - the goal is to get through each addition without gaining weight). Once you get through that phase you're on maintenance - you have a menu much like the green menu, but with some additional options in each food group and the foods you've added during stabilization, including more dairy than just the cheese and cottage cheese you have during the weight loss phase.
You can tweak the plan to suit your needs - for instance I found there was just too much natural sugar & starch in the maintenance breakfast guidelines, so I cut back on that.
Somewhere here there's a maintenance thread, there aren't a whole lot of posts there but there are a few.
One thing I'll say - people do seem to do a LOT better at maintaining their loss if they go through the entire stabilization process - I did end up re-enrolling this summer after regaining about half of what I'd lost a couple of years ago. Of all the re-enrollers at my re-enrollers class, and there were 8-10 of us, I was the ONLY one who had completed stabilization the first time around. And I'd done really well for about a year and a half until I hit a buttload of stress (and I'd probably still not have re-enrolled if they hadn't had a special in August for prior clients). So stick with it - go through stabilization, use your year of maintenance. You paid for it - use it!!!