Pizza is one of my "only in a restaurant" foods, ice cream too. Too many negative food patterns with both of those foods. Breaking the pattern is a vital part to our maintaining.
I laughed at this one, Slipfree, because for me, Pizza is my 'Never in a Restaurant' food. I make myself go to the trouble of preparing it at home so that I don't get carried away topping wise. I don't have half the crap in my fridge & cupboards that a restaurant has for you to add to a pizza, so I can't go too overboard. Even so, except for breakfast pizza, I try not to make it too often.
Ice cream is meh, for me. I prefer the intense flavour of sorbet and that fits OK once in a while for my carb meal since it is fat free.
Liana, before IP, I was in a committed relationship with Ben & Jerry. IP brought on our separation. We have since divorced with no hope of ever reconciling, lol. It used to be my go to for stress release during the school year, so much has changed in a year.
As for eating pizza, I have always tended to eat a lot less in front of other people. If I ordered a small pizza, I could eat 3/4 of it at home, with other people-2 pieces.
The amazing thing about this year is how much my relationship with food has changed. Food no longer speaks to me, it is as though it has lost it's power. Food is just food. I just do not see it as my comfort any more. I realize that if I am hungry I need to eat. If I am really hungry, a healthy snack will do the trick. I also learned on IP that just because my tummy rumbles, does not mean I am going to die from hunger. The role food played in my life has completely changed and I am grateful.
Newbies- how has your relationship with food changed?
Phase 1 for me today. Had a deck day yesterday, it was so much fun. Today I must pay the piper.
Liana, before IP, I was in a committed relationship with Ben & Jerry. IP brought on our separation. We have since divorced with no hope of ever reconciling, lol. It used to be my go to for stress release during the school year, so much has changed in a year.
As for eating pizza, I have always tended to eat a lot less in front of other people. If I ordered a small pizza, I could eat 3/4 of it at home, with other people-2 pieces.
The amazing thing about this year is how much my relationship with food has changed. Food no longer speaks to me, it is as though it has lost it's power. Food is just food. I just do not see it as my comfort any more. I realize that if I am hungry I need to eat. If I am really hungry, a healthy snack will do the trick. I also learned on IP that just because my tummy rumbles, does not mean I am going to die from hunger. The role food played in my life has completely changed and I am grateful.
Newbies- how has your relationship with food changed?
Phase 1 for me today. Had a deck day yesterday, it was so much fun. Today I must pay the piper.
I am a recovering pizza and Ben and Jerry's addict too and have had relapses during IP. I think it's a good idea to stick to eating trigger foods in restaurants and/or in social settings only and not bring that stuff in the house.
To answer your question about how my relationship with food has changed is that for the most part, I willingly and peacefully make healthy decisions for myself about what I will and will not put in my body instead of constantly being conflicted about my desire to be thin/healthier and my cravings got junk.
My emotional eating is gone for the most part, but when PMS/TOM, REALLY stressful situations at work, and my tendency toward depression/anxiety collude, I occasionally binge or eat off plan. The crazy thing is that binging no longer comforts me. I feel gross and even more anxious and depress when I do overeat or binge. I no longer get the relaxing, full feeling....I feel emotionally worse and physically sick.
I'm optimistic that as I make more positive changes in my life, both food and non-food related, that the emotional eating will stop. I quit smoking cold turkey and made it through IP without giving up, so I know I have the strength to put the disordered eating to rest forever. When that will be, I don't know because it's a process. Fortunately now, I have lots of motivation and tools to maintain my weight and I'm actively trying to change some things that make me unhappy.
Long winded response...I'm glad you had fun at the deck party! I think it feels good to do P1 after the fun day/meal whereas before I'd just sit around feeling bloated without a solution.
Sorry I am delayed getting back to you. Thanks for the tips about Trader Joes and WFoods. I have both near by and go into them a lot. I am plugging along. Trying very hard to stick to IP. I am just pretty busy at this point with the house stuff. Soon I think it might die down a little.
Having a good OP Day, hope that everyone else is... Guess what?? I lost another pound, so I now have a BMI putting me no longer in the "morbidly obese category", now I'm just "severe obesity".. considering I started out off the charts of where these things were recorded (they now call it "super obesity", not something you want to be super at), I'm stupendously proud of where I'm at now.
Life is good.. as both Slip and Kooky have also said, my relationship with food is totally different. I eat less, and most times I have to prompt myself to eat since I don't usually feel hunger per se.
Today.. July 14th was a banner day for me. It was my biggest NSV thus far. I went into a store that had a plus section as well as a "misses/jr" section. I saw this dress on the misses section that I adored.. it was sooo lovely! They had it in sizes up to a 16, but I was like there's no way.. it's in the normal people sizes.. my girlfriend convinced me to try it on, and begrudgingly I did. IT FIT... now granted, it was the largest size they carry, but it was in the NORMAL people clothes.. the stuff that actually looks NICE!!! after I got out of it, I put my clothes back on in the dressing room and needed a few minutes. I teared up. I never thought that I'd get to this point.. ever. When you're as big as I was, you just never think that normal is something you could ever be.
Having a good OP Day, hope that everyone else is... Guess what?? I lost another pound, so I now have a BMI putting me no longer in the "morbidly obese category", now I'm just "severe obesity".. considering I started out off the charts of where these things were recorded (they now call it "super obesity", not something you want to be super at), I'm stupendously proud of where I'm at now.
Life is good.. as both Slip and Kooky have also said, my relationship with food is totally different. I eat less, and most times I have to prompt myself to eat since I don't usually feel hunger per se.
Today.. July 14th was a banner day for me. It was my biggest NSV thus far. I went into a store that had a plus section as well as a "misses/jr" section. I saw this dress on the misses section that I adored.. it was sooo lovely! They had it in sizes up to a 16, but I was like there's no way.. it's in the normal people sizes.. my girlfriend convinced me to try it on, and begrudgingly I did. IT FIT... now granted, it was the largest size they carry, but it was in the NORMAL people clothes.. the stuff that actually looks NICE!!! after I got out of it, I put my clothes back on in the dressing room and needed a few minutes. I teared up. I never thought that I'd get to this point.. ever. When you're as big as I was, you just never think that normal is something you could ever be.
Wow. I just cried reading your post (and it's not TOM). Kawaii, you are totally amazing and inspiring to not only this group but all the people doing IP. I'm so happy for you.
Sorry I am delayed getting back to you. Thanks for the tips about Trader Joes and WFoods. I have both near by and go into them a lot. I am plugging along. Trying very hard to stick to IP. I am just pretty busy at this point with the house stuff. Soon I think it might die down a little.
That's ok. . I just threw in some of my go to foods that don't require a lot of prep, time, or dishes. Hope you get some rest soon and that you're not dying in the heat.
Kawaii- Congratulations on the progress on your BMI and the size 16 dress! All of your hard work is paying off.
Want2B- I'm sorry to hear that you couldn't pick up your puppy. That must have been such a disappointment to everyone in the family. How was your daughter's bday and how is vacation going?
Slip: I didn't realize you were a polygamist, lol. I think for me the pizza thing is just better at home because I have to be gluten free anyhow and I can't just do takeout/delivery or buy some frozen thing at the grocery store so no temptations there. There are several places locally that make good GF pizzas but I can get carried away with the goat cheese, and pepperoni, and marinated artichoke hearts, etc. I don't generally have a lot of those things in my fridge at once, so that limits my bad toppings overload.
Kawaii, stupendously proud is a great way to describe your feeling of achievement! I had a tear (but yeah it's TOM and I am crying at cute kitten gifs on MFP) - this tear was deeply felt though! Wonderful job!
Liana
Maile posted this gentleman's blog about maintenance. I copied it here because I thought some of you might find it interesting.
If weight-loss is a sexy red Ferrari, then maintenance is a frumpy old green minivan. The longer I maintain, and the further I travel from the version of me that lost all of that weight, perspective begins to settle in like dust on the floor - slowly and all-encompassing. There's no higher confidence building experience I've ever had than when I was shedding weight and proficiently controlling my food temptations. The significance was such that even at 225 pounds I was beginning to feel thrilled with my reflection in the mirror. With every pound I lost, I felt more attractive and more confident than I'd felt in forever. In short, the high of being so successful was incredible, whereas the tranquility of maintenance is much more sedate.
Maintenance provides a far different perspective on your body and your health related goals - or at least it has in my experience. For example, my ritual weekly weigh-ins and body measuring has become a bi-monthly check-up, with far less glitter and gold flying through the air. It's more of a "oh hey, I lost a pound here, or gained one back there... cool" - mostly insignificant in light of continued exercise and watching portions with limited snacking throughout the week. It's just a different mind-frame altogether. The weirdest thing is that the old voices have begun to creep up more and more as I sail gently through the waters of maintenance. They begin to pick away, searching for cracks in my armor of self-confidence. Hands down, without a doubt, despite very minor (surprisingly practically non-existent) extra skin, and some areas where my body fat seems to still be clinging on for dear life, I know deep down that I've never looked this good in my life. This knowledge is what I allow to prevail over the voices in the darkness, but the voices grow stronger all the time it seems. It's at the point where I'll linger on parts of my body and think "why don't I look as good as I thought I did or used to a month ago"... only to see clearly, with a quick picture taken and compared to a few months past, that nothing has changed at all. Maintenance, for me, has supplied a new challenge in the world of my mental strength, and it's in regard to reminding myself that I do in fact look perfectly fine, and that my eyes are clearly delivering misinformation as to how I should feel about my appearance. We're a fickle people, really. Bigger and better is always on our horizons, and once we reach one plateau, we're constantly eyeing a better place to be when in fact the place where we are right now is perfect. It's wonderful. It's incredible. It's not that I need a six-pack or pecs that could crush walnuts to suddenly make me look good, I know I look good now, and I've shown over the past six months that I can maintain - an impressive feat despite not being able to run the past few months. So for now the voices stay controlled, but I can easily understand now how people I've always thought of as beautiful and perfect can sit back and say they look awful or need to work on many parts of their bodies... it's too easy to beat ourselves up and see our self-perceived imperfections it seems.
Running long distance afforded me the option to eat and drink whatever I wanted while in maintenance mode, so the only real change during my maintenance has been to moderate that stuff the past three months. At first it was tough reeling it in after having let my eating habits relax, but the months of weight-loss habits I formed picked back up relatively quickly, and my daily calories were shaved back down by about 200 without much fuss. Really, 200 calories isn't a difficult thing to cut out in my life. It's a cup of fruit juice, or that extra glass of wine, or that scoop of ice cream that I really don't need. Mind you... I'm 6'1" and am able to eat about 2100 calories to maintain. When I plan my meals right, I'm easily left needing to eat more to meet that quota. I generally fill it with cups of coffee with milk and sugar most days, or those random vanilla dip donuts I couldn't resist a few weeks back, lol, but I figure when I kick back into gear, I'll replace those carbs with protein of some sort. For now I'm not stressing, and just enjoying the minor spoils of maintenance.
Despite the somberness of what I've written so far, maintenance is very much one of those plateaus I mentioned above - and when I stop to breathe in the air and take in the view from here, it's an incredible place to be for sure. This summer, for the first time in almost a decade, I'm walking around shirtless at the beach, at pool parties - heck even in my backyard - and I don't even flinch or stop to ponder if I should be embarrassed about how I look. Am I ripped? no. Am I going to win the most attractive man on earth award? no. But, do I feel thrilled to not have to carry the emotional baggage of wishing I was a healthy weight anymore? So thrilled. Over the moon. This past week I spent camping with my wife and kiddos, and going to the beach each day was such an incredible joy. I've got color (and the good kind of color at that!) on parts of my body that I refused to expose to the world and the sun for too long, and that's a huge non-scale victory for me. My chest and back are no longer blindingly white, lol, and it's only the middle of July!
Final thoughts? For those in maintenance, don't let those self-criticizing voices gain any ground in your heart and in your life. You've done too much, come too far, and look WAY too good to give any power to those voices. The perfect body is an illusion, as even those whom we see and think look perfect are in fact constantly struggling with the same desires to look better. You're already perfect... you just haven't realized it yet. Love yourself today, and keep journeying toward whatever future you fancy - don't waste a second feeling like you're not good enough or not attractive enough. You're already perfectly imperfect in the most perfect ways possible!
Damn it Slip, you made me cry!!! This is exactly what you were trying to say to me today, wasn't it? Perfectly imperfect. Digging for that next best thing, only to discount the here and now...
I've been plateaued for awhile now... Lose a pound, go up by two... Lose three, up one... I know that every body goes through this.. But it's not happened to me before since starting IP. Add in all the wacky changes my dr keeps throwing at me, and I feel like I'm going through the motions, but not having that focused determination I had 6 months ago. I've been hiding from the group, and it's hard for me to admit that. I felt like I would be letting you guys down if you knew that I've been wishy washy. I'm doing what the dr says, but that's not strict phase one, and psychologically, that meant to me that I was a failure at doing this "the right way" or "100% OP". I had to look at myself and reassess where I am.
I promise, I'll reach out... Especially when I need it, because what happened before wasn't fair to you as a group. You've all been nothing but supportive and for my head to think that you'd judge me differently because I'm not losing 6 lbs a week anymore...
Slip said it best, I'm at the point now where most of you started out... 87lbs to go... So what I'm feeling is how you all felt... Damn... I'm just glad ya'll didn't slap me during those weeks where I was whining about only losing 6lbs!!!!
Slipfree- Thank you For sharing this. I think I'm going to screenshot this with my iPad to save because a lot of it really resonated with me and it's really well written to boot. I keep having these thoughts that I should have pushed myself harder and stayed on P1 longer just to be skinnier than I've ever been. I think I just want to know what it's like to be considered skinny or thin since I've usually been average or overweight. I like how this article reminds us to see the beauty in what we've already accomplished instead of missing the weight loss phase. Great find....thanks again for sharing.
I have my first maintenance weigh in tomorrow. I was at the same weight as last WI yesterday. It's almost TOM again, so I wouldn't be surprised if my WI is a lb or 2 higher, but as the previous post points out...this is normal. My stomach and face feel/look a little bit puffier than when I was in P3. Did this happen to anyone else?
I put together a gift bag and card for my coach. I almost cured when I was filling out the card. I'm excited to give it to her. I'm really going to miss my weekly weigh ins and chats with her. I've had the same coach for the whole nine months of IP, so I've gotten attached to her. She's been a huge supporter the whole time and it's hard to let go. I'm sure we'll stay in touch, but I'll miss our weekly appointments.
Good morning October peeps (and those just reading along too)! Hope everyone has a great OP Day. I've got a challenge for everyone. What types of things are you all cooking for the hot sticky summer days? I find between working out, being in ketosis, and the heat that I'm hardly ever hungry. Food has officially become a chore... It's NOT the comfort/friend that it used to be... I'd rather just not eat.. Sooo any ideas?
Another humid day in CT . TOM has arrived so at least the crabbiness is gone. My job today is to tackle my walk in closet. Need to shed some of this stuff so I can feel lighter, but I really hate doing it!!!
Hiker- where are you? I have been thinking about you. Hope all is well.
I don't have half the crap in my fridge & cupboards that a restaurant has for you to add to a pizza, so I can't go too overboard. Even so, except for breakfast pizza, I try not to make it too often.
. I just threw in some of my go to foods that don't require a lot of prep, time, or dishes. Hope you get some rest soon and that you're not dying in the heat.
