I found upping the fat intake a little made a difference with exercise, although I did continue to exercise vigorously throughout all phases.

I usually add 1/4 avocado to my lunch salad and made sure to use olive oil on it and usually on some of my dinner veggies (roasting asparagus, broccoli, etc).

How's the precision nutrition thing going?
They have lots of free stuff on the website that I have been enjoying since I found it from your mention. Are you only having carb meals/snacks after you "earn" them with exercise?


Does anyone consistently have the fat meal at dinner instead of lunch?

Anyone seen the maintenance series from Ideal Protein of Groton, CT/Incredible Weight Loss Center has been running on facebook? Interesting little factoids. They are picture/posters, so would I be able to post them here?

The precision nutrition program is going well. I like the work outs and they are still slowly adding habits to our nutrition plan. Things like eating slowly, eating protein and veggies at every meal, not eating if you aren't hungry, etc.

I am seeing physical changes in muscle development, which is great.

Survived my first fun day!

I didn't go totally off the plantation - big breakfast (but had them put hollandaise sauce on the side, got fruit and cottage cheese - I did sneak a bite or two of DS's choco chip pancake!). Salad and grapes/cheese for lunch. Regular maintenance dinner, with frozen yogurt topped with walnuts for dessert. Yogurt for snack. Birthday cake and a glass of wine when I got home from work.

My scale showed a half pound up today, but my body has a weird delayed-reaction thing going on - some of the stuff new moms go through a week post-partum were showing up in my life 2 or 3 weeks later. So I'm doing a regular Phase 1 day today, and will see how the scale goes the next few days. But I feel like it was a successful fun day! This weekend will be MUCH more extravagant, with St Patty's Day dinner at my in laws (they are so Irish they pee green). Just have to remember to STAY IN CONTROL!

Hi infoplease,

I consistently have my fat meal at dinner. That's the main meal DH and I have together and we have stuck with what I was doing for P1, 8oz of protein and some roasted veggies in oil (either EVOO or grapeseed). Since he doesn't have a weight problem, we usually go our own separate ways for lunch so I have flip flopped my meals. Unfortunately, since maintenance is new to me, I cannot say whether it will affect me being stable.

Rainbow had been posting on here Groton's information, but not sure she is still doing that. They have a great Facebook page. If you want to take the time, I would go ahead and collect up their tips for us Maintainers here. That would be really nice.

scorbett. I was somewhat surprised your fun day seemed conservative. Maybe St. Patty's day celebration will be wilder. I also had my fun day from about Sat evening through last night and am on P1 today. My cals, fat and carbs were all what I've eating so far, but my carbs and fats got pretty mixed up . I was up 1.4# from my last WI last Thursday, but that day I was also down 2#, which I don't really know why, but I'm still a few ounces below my goal weight. Just wanted to throw in a P1 today for good measure. Boy, am I spoiled by those P3 breakfasts. Sure missed them today. We'll see if the P1 day stabilizes my system.

Molly

The fat meal seems to be the one that I struggle the most with, whether it was lunch or dinner! I've tried a few things (adding cheese to my salad, avocado, full fat salad dressing) but haven't really found my rhythm with it. I found a recipe for a tuna or chicken salad stuffed tomato that I will probably try, and I am going to take my Phase 1 chili recipe and pre-make some stuffed peppers that I can reheat with some mozzarella cheese.

I have to say, it felt better to be in control of my "fun" day than just going crazy with it. My "big breakfast" was definitely out of the norm - eggs benedict style breakfast but on the english muffins they put ham steak, sauteed mushrooms, swiss cheese and the poached eggs. I got the hollandaise sauce on the side and just dipped my fork in - my tastes have changed enough that the small taste was perfect! I tried to use Phase 3 breakfast guidelines to just make sure I was getting balanced nutrition (dairy, grains, fruit and protein).

Next week I know I will have at least 1 Guinness, and the corned beef with all the trimmings. My sister in law is making some desserts that I will be sampling, and there will be lots of carby foods so it will probably be a more "fun" fun day :)

Yes, I agree with struggling with the fat meal. I'm not sure I've figured this maintenance thing out. I just try to add a little bit here and there to the way I ate for P1, except I do the P3 breakfasts. I felt pretty good about staying OP this weekend until the spring rolls I ordered at PFChangs came fried instead of what I thought it would be with the raw veggies and uncooked egg roll skin. I didn't want to throw them away, so I decided it was turning into a fun day even though my meal was lettuce wraps. That's about as non-conservative I can get, I guess.

Molly

Molly, I don't think that having the fat meal at night and the carb meal at lunch will impact maintenance. I thought what I read in IP stuff was that the fat can cause indigestion and there was something about the carbs at night that Dr Tran thinks is beneficial (other sources are say heavy carbs after workouts only, but that might be specific to fat loss). Dinner has started to digress into carbfest, so I'm trying to nip that in the bud this week.

The Groton stuff is emphasizing the separation so it has caught my attention. Plus, I am desperate for maintenance advise (I read here all the time.) I'll try to catch some of Rainbows posts.

My lunches are fairly boring -- vegetarian protein source, GIANT salad, dressing, the "dessert" hemp hearts or nuts/coconut.

Fun day isn't fun day unless it ends in cake and ice cream. After nearly 8 months of experimenting, I'm fairly happy keeping the rest of the day mostly like a normal day. When there is a social event driving fun day, it's always disappointing not to be in control of the food choices.

That said, sugar (sucrose) is definitely the enemy. Gave up sucralose and I can physically see the results of the sugar from too much Arctic Zero and Protein Bars, even though the weight is at my original goal. Everything is moving to the old familiar places, even with 5x/wk weight training.

Just randomly, I would have made just the egg rolls a slip unless there was more to it than just them. I actually kept my weight pretty good (below goal) going to restaurants once or twice a week and following the rules, plus wine. I'm going to look up my diaries and see if I can repeat those days.

I weigh every day under similar conditions and track on Libra, an Android ap that calculates trends and graphs things like a stock market candlestick chart. So I can visually see the trends and it actually says how many calories I overate the last week, 15 days, month, six month and year. I actually started eating more and the ups and downs leveled off, but I am at the high end of my range (which is goal). I know I need to eat 100 calories less a day (or 700 calories less on fun day!) to get things to level off a couple pounds lower. I find it very helpful. Of course, if it actually stopped me from eating those calories...

Maile wrote a piece (in Vol 7?) on the stages of maintenance. Still ringing true.

Since I'm just blathering on, I meant to comment on that weird scale trend.
When first starting p4 the scale would go up after the fun day and might go up more or stay the same after the P1 day (and they were very strict P1 days at that time). Then, from Monday to Saturday, the scale would go down.
Now, sometimes the fun day will be a little too much fun for the scale or it will just bump up and bounce around the same 1 or 2 pounds. I'm sure this has to do with too much sugar on normal days (oh, and calories perhaps?).

I really do wish there was P3.1 thru P3.9 to let us experiment with very specific things when we still have that focus.

Infoplease: Was this the one with the phases?

Phases of Maintenance

1) Honeymoon Phase
“Woo hoo! I’m smaller! I can wear normal-sized clothes! Who IS that person in the mirror, anyway?!”
“Wait a minute, what should I be eating, now? How much should I be eating now?”

2) Is this it?
“Is this all there is?”
“How come my life isn’t magically better in all aspects?”
“Sure I look better and can move better, but this sure feels like a lot of work. Can I stop tracking, now?”

3) Regain. Ouch.
“Maybe It’s just water gain. Maybe this is just normal fluctuation. Maybe the goal weight I’d picked isn’t sustainable.”
“OMG, it’s starting all over again. I’m going back to square one, I can feel it. I’m going to gain it all back again! .”
“Do I have enough courage to admit there’s a problem and I need to track more carefully and increase my exercise?”

4) Re-loss. Sigh.
“Well, this situation isn’t pretty, but it’s reality. At least I know how to get the weight back off. Ugh.”
“I can’t believe I let this get away from me. Never again.”

5) Yay, I’m finally back in my “Happy Range.”
“This isn’t as exciting as it was the first time I was here, but it’s nice in a homey sort of way. I like wearing my favorite jeans.”
“Yeah, tracking is a pain, but I like my life at this size, so I’m gonna do it.”

6) Body Recomposition and new goals.
“I wonder if I could benefit from skin removal?”
“What about body fat and muscle? How can I manipulate them?”
“I wonder if I would prefer to be more (or fewer) pounds?”
“What would it be like to run a marathon? Squat more than my body weight? Kayak cleanly down a class IV-V river?”


There is humor in this,

Thanks, infoplease and Maile. Every scrap of information for us maintenance newbies is appreciated. I think I want to stay super cautious. In 55 weeks of P1, I've learned food isn't that important now. Especially the "bad" stuff. In the past I tended to gain by looking at food, so I'm going to be extra careful.

Molly

Maile - I love that!

infoplease - I think the reasoning behind putting the carb meal at dinner was twofold:
- most social meals occur at dinner, so putting the carb meal at supper allows for more "regular" meals in social situations.
- by having your carb meal at dinner, it puts at least 8 hours between your big breakfast (insulin release) and the next BIG insulin-producing meal. That may have some benefits for people who experience insulin resistance or are prone to Type 2 diabetes.

Granted, that's not a perfect assessment - your body will release insulin if you eat carbs/fruits for a snack, but not in as large quanitities.

Well I have to say, I feel confident in the Fun Day-Phase 1 day method. Yesterday morning I was up to 158.6 after my controlled fun day. Did a Phase 1 day yesterday, this morning I was back down to 156.8. And I REALLY enjoyed my breakfast today!!! :)

et al

Fat meal: For my fat meal, I generally just have full fat dressing and some cheese. I'll monitor my fat intake for that meal, ie 'lower' fat burgers with a full cheese slices (not light) and low carb ketchup (keeping the sugar out of that meal). This week I'm planning on chorizo sausage 2 1/2 links and I'll probably not have cheese with that meal because the sausage is already higher in fat. We'll see, depends on the morning weigh in sometimes. Mainly though it's just I love cheese so much that it becomes my 'fat' for the meal. My protein is anything that's not got carbs. I rely heavily on rubs for chicken/beef/turkey etc.

Carbs for lunch: I don't see anything wrong with it, it's still following the rules. I was told that when you eat your carbs for lunch you are digesting in the afternoon (potential carb crash) and when you are suppose to be burning them off you're actually going to bed. Where when you eat them at night, you digest them while your sleeping (carb crash is good) and then you're waking up and using them for fuel for the next day. Is this right? I dunno...if it's working for you and following the rules, keep on keeping on. Personally I keep my fat meal for lunch but I'm in a bit of a groove now.

infoplease I did take the simple sugar out of my fun day even and I notice that the scale isn't bouncing around near as much now. I know I'll probably have a little here and there but it won't be as consistently in my fun day as it used to be. I've opened the cupboard on fun day and looked at the Belgium chocolates (from Belgium yet!) and closed the cupboard.

scorbett1103 Well done handling the fun day! The one day always 'sucks' for Phase 1 but it's only one day and well as Maile has posted "crumble or conquer"...what's one day in lieu of a day of not thinking about the rules. :)

maile thanks for reposting that, I can see myself in all areas now and mulitple times! hahaha

Lizz :wave: Hope all is well with you.

Trying out a snack recipe this afternoon - Cauliflower Pizza Bites! I'll report back if it works out!

Maile - thank you for re-posting that! I'm saving it, for sure.

Ishbel - what you say about having the carb meal at night makes sense to me, but we're all different. I too add cheese &/or nuts to my fat meal.

I had a lot of trouble sleeping last night, so am exhausted today. Did not go to the gym this morning, but will do my toning exercises at home tonight (if I stay awake long enough). Have decided to back off the intensity of my workouts for a bit to see if it makes a difference. And I keep forgetting to add the evoo to my meals; need to get better about that.

Have a good afternoon!