Maille, yes I'm loving the yogourt and fruit... apple slices with ricotta smeared on.... and blackberries - yum!

Lizzie, all along this dieting process this forum has been such a major source of support for me. I don't think I'd have made it this far without it. And now these folks in Maintenance are here for us too. It really is a wonderful place. I'm just so grateful for everyone's help here.

LizRR, yes - I'm being very careful and following all the Phase 3 breakfast rules as well as the rest, etc. I plan out my day's worth of eating on fatsecret.com so that I can eyeball all the nutritional values ahead of time and see whether everything fits within the allowances. That is another invaluable tool. I see that you use it too. I made the custard part of your pumpkin pie this morning for breakfast. While it was baking, I ate an appropriate sized portion of a gluten-free cereal I have with 1/4 cup of unsweetened almond milk + large tbsp of non-fat Oikos yogourt + 1/4 cup blackberries. Everything fitted into the breakfast nutritional values, and I had a terrific breakfast.

BTW - my scale shows that I'm down -1 lbs this morning! Seems this strategy is working.

Hi everybody. I've been in maintenance for a couple of weeks now and am still struggling with getting the hang of this. All I can keep in my mind is that I am supposed to separate Fats and Carbs. Then my mind gets blown. How do you keep these apart? Most foods have both in them. I've been basically doing Phase 3 but want to move on.

Any suggestions?

I've been in maintenance for a little over a week and having the same problem trying to get it. My days have been mostly Phase 3ish except I add cheese to my main dish salads. I can't figure out what a carb heavy meal looks like. A sandwich without mayo? So many things with carbs do seem high in fat too.

Thanks for the welcome back everyone! I've been in Cal. for a week and have done alright food wise. Probably had the most carbs today, but my weigh in was at 134, no losses and no gains. I'll take that for today and did put in a Nashua order that has already been delivered to my apt in NYC, so I'll be prepared for Ph1,2 when I get back tuesday evening.
So that's the plan. I'm looking forward to it.
Can someone tell me the cauliflower pancake recipe again??? Thanks :0)

Hey Hey Everyone,

Water park at West Ed was a BLAST!! I totally did some of the ones that I considered 'scarey' but by no means the scariest ones (a few of them you are put in a coffin like contraption and dropped onto the slide! - NO WAY!). So I was quite proud of myself in any case, it had been over 20 years that I was on a water slide. A few times on the slides I had to give myself a pep talk "it's ok, you're ok, just breathe" LOL

Told the VIP we have to go back next year. The mall wasn't 'that bad' for shopping...considering, but we were on a mission so there was no browsing, it was in and out.

As for what I do in maintenance with fat and carbs...my lunch has cheese and full fat dressing. My supper may be a potato with plain greek yogurt or some rice (very rare to have rice now but I'll have it) or a granola bar. I do use a bit of oil for stir frying veggies when needed. Don't forget that fruit is a carb so I'll have extra fruit if I'm not having potato/rice/granola bar etc. And then I have fruit with yogurt before bed.

I don't snack, but if I did. I would have the fat snack in the morning and keep the carb snacks until at 3 or after 3. Fat snack, to me that's cheese and a turkey stick. Carb snack? A 100 calorie snack to tide me over until supper. For one of my granola bars (Kashi dark chocolate is my fav right now) After discussion off line with a 3FC buddy we kinda thought that if it was high in carbs and high in fat it was probably something we should keep to fun day. SO, that's what I do.

As for calorie counts, when I'm running I range between 1400-1700 and when I'm not I'm between 1400-1550 for calorie counts. My carb counts are 108-144 (that one was high - but I have seen higher), they are usually around 120's. The run only allows me a little bit more and most of the time I don't see the need for a little bit more unless my weight drops below my lower range...which sometimes happens. The extra calories help with hunger too.

Hope this helps? I'm still a newbie when it comes to maintenance though, perhaps someone else can chime in??

Good morning maintainers! I've been lurking here for a few weeks, and just want to say Hello. I will be joining this thread before the end of December if all goes according to plan. Your posts & pics have been really motivating for me. My original goal weight was 135 - 140, but I am very comfortable where I am now. Will try to maintain around 140, give or take a couple of lbs. Also hoping that once I begin exercising in earnest I will lose a couple more and tighten everything up.

I'm currently on P2, and will probably move to P3 next week. Am concerned about P4 - seems like a lot of you have trouble really figuring out how to make it work. Sure hope my coach/clinic have some great tips for it.

Until later....

Hey Maintainers, I've finally joined you! I finished up my phase 3 on Saturday and I started my maintenance yesterday with a fun day. I had buttered popcorn and then chocolate pie. OMG did I feel terrible. I literally felt like throwing up. All night long my heart was racing and this morning I still felt sick and jittery. I was so happy to do a phase 1 day today! I am happy staying at phase 3 with a fun day thrown in once a week and not overthinking the whole thing. I totally got this!

janniegoingdown - Congrats and welcome to Phase 4!

So...this scares me a little and maybe it shouldn't? I've been in maintenance a little over a week. I had a cheat meal last Saturday (11/17), again on Thanksgiving and AGAIN on Friday (11/23). A little scary that I allowed myself 3 cheat meals in my first week in Phase 4. I generally did Phase 3 for the rest of my meals last week. But the really crazy thing is...I got on the scale this morning and I'm DOWN another pound! I'm afraid of telling myself it's OK to cheat because it won't show up on the scale. But I know it will eventually.
What do all you maintainers think?

You can probably have a few crazy days without too much problem.
The real issue is not having every day be off plan. If you can keep weekdays strict you can have more lenient weekend.

Welcome to all of the new maintainers. That is exciting.

I think Lizr had a detailed list of the Phase 3 and 4 requirements.

I generally have the fats and carbs at breakfast, then use an oil based dressing for lunch..no cheese..then use oil stir fried or roasted veges with dinner and meat. Sometimes I have one half cup of beans or squash with dinner. I have nuts for a snack.

It seems that a small amount of fat does not hurt when you have a small amt of carb like black beans.

Cbl70: I agree with Momto2cs..if you have fun days too often, you could return to old habits and have them everyday. I am glad about your pound down.

Hi maintainers!! I join the ranks this weekend. I've been trying to read the threads to get a handle on how most people approach maintenance. Seems like most follow P3 for 5 days, then fun day, then P1 day. Is that the best recipe for long term success?

Also, do you use any IP products during maintenance? If so, do you use IP brand or alternatives? If alternatives, which ones?

Also, what are some good breakfast cereal choices? I've heard Kashi a lot, but there are lots of Kashi cereals out there now. Are any of them IP friendly?

Okay, that's all for now. sorry for the rapid fire questions, but I thought I would post them to this thread rather than post a new question on the "big" board. Won't 3FC admin be proud of me? LOL
Have a great Tuesday, IP peeps. You guys are the best!!!
Ken

Kashi Go Lean cereal is the one I use. It's relatively high in protein and low in sugar. Kashi also makes Go Lean "Crunch" versions but those are higher in sugar.

I can't eat Kashi. It makes me carb crazy!

Hi maintainers! I've been in phase 4 for 2 weeks now. I'm absolutely shocked how much my cravings have decreased! I just wanted to know when you gained back your 2-3lbs of glycogen? I didn't notice a weight gain in phase 2&3 (actually lost 2lbs) and I'm trying to figure our my maintenance weight. Thanks so much!