Halfagain - I'm so sorry, I meant absolutely no offense to restarters. Even though I'm not an IP restarter - I'm definitely a diet restarter, so I recognize what a daily struggle losing weight can be. I think it takes a heck of a lot of commitment and dedication to yourself to be on IP, and even MORE to restart the process. I love reading the advice here and take it to heart, it also makes me feel less alone.

oneuh - I love that quote! I think I should print it out. I'm mentally preparing myself for maintenance, yet since I'm on P1 and still have a few weeks to go, I haven't started looking into P2, P3 and P4 yet. Perhaps I should do that so I can start to get a sense of the daily dilemmas I will face. It may help calm my anxiety a bit, too. I also LOVE the alt foods I've found and would be happy incorporating them into my lifestyle permanently.

There are lots! And those are the superheroes :) I'm a lowly mortal, I know IP works and I really did put my heart into maintaining...but after a while life got in the way and I started making the "easy" choices. Ishbel was always great for boiling down the important points....we are not naturally thin people, food will always be conspiring against us. If the eating isn't hard, the weight gain will be. Choose your hard :)

For me, it was more about time constraints, and dealing with the whirlwind of stresses that hit me all at the same time. I didn't make time on the boards because up until my job change/move I was maintaining fantastically and felt like my "usefulness" here had reached its end. By the time life threw me a curveball I was out of the habit of checking in here. Not a mistake I will make again, even if I'm just stopping in daily to say Hi :)

Weighing in...on the regain.
 

Hello all!! Happy labor day for all the the US ladies.(gents). Hope you are having a wonderful long weekend. Family, friends or just chilling (important!!) and getting in the groove for fall. Learning to be happy with non-food facets of life is a major step for all who dare to journey and journal here.

This summer I celebrated a year of maintenance...and also celebrated my 66th B-day. IP was a way for me to get my ducks in a row as I was approaching my 65th birthday. My 7.5+ months on IP was amazing... I lost the weight but JUST as amazing and most important during that time was the opportunity to be able to evaluate what I needed to do to stay on track...(at my age) deviation and a reboot thoughts were a scarey thing. I still do a lot of reading. Do not post much...honestly, at my age my time is extremely precious.....and is limited. And I say that with no apologies. Now, I need to be doing all the things that did not happen for many years prior. On 7/22/2014 in the daily chat (post # 45 and cross posted in the over 50 thread I think )...I posted a few pretty bare facts that related to my own experience. It is a no nonsense approach..which for the "long-timers" here who know me, recognize it is an approach. And there are many approaches to this journey. The short list is what worked for me in maintenance. Keep it simple. Sometimes I think a dose of reality is the only sure way to get on track, and one can only kid themselves for so long before the truth is obvious. At my age I see younger people esp. here finding reasons to go off their game..or allowing life to happen...(I do understand...but ...there is a price for making any decision we make regarding every choice we have. ) I have also seen a lot of people pass on long before and at a much younger age than I am now. Many had health issues made worse by obesity. Diabetes and heart disease for sure. Many started having mobility issues .... way young. Quality of life??? And many have had their own type of misery every day living sleeping and breathing...plus the mental anguish of wishing there was a way to effectively lose the weight...and get a life or get their life back.

It is a personal decision... for some the day will never come. For others the switch will flip and doing what has to happen will not be so hard. And I am acknowledging it is not easy to maintain...but after a year I find it is an easier battle fighting the demons to stay thin, than dealing with the mental abyss of not having something that was effective...and worked quickly. IP was the first (only) thing that worked for me in 15 years of a painful struggle. If you are young...you may have to hit the wall before you reckon with yourself. If you are older...I say as I did in the 7/22 post....How long do you think you have?

Wishing all health and success...but be honest with yourself every day. That honesty is the only thing that must be part of your maintenance. Enjoy your family...your life and the days you have left.

If you can't count on yourself though...you will never achieve permanent success, no matter how much you post here...or work with a professional. And this is not saying support is not helpful...and sharing how one gets back on track. But, it really comes down to you.

That's who matters. And you are worth it...don't EVER forget it.

kg

The way I see it maintenance is going to be a lifelong battle. I know that I will have to be careful in my choices daily. I know I cannot go back to my old eating habits.

I really see similarities as any other addiction. My 10 year just offered me something that is not on plan. He said it's really small mom you can have some. I thought in my mind no I can't. That one small thing can set me off wanting more.

I agree with many of the posters that said if we didn't have a problem with food in the first place we wouldn't be here.

So true and good for you for resisting! The one small bite leads to another. Not always in the same day, maybe a little later in the week or the following week if it didn't appear to effect weigh in, but it adds up and it goes against what you are trying to learn for maintenance. One fun day will turn to two or more if you find no weight gain and next thing you know, old eating habits will be back. I started that one bite thing the first week of August and it continued all month? Starting my home stretch in September and I am back OP.

No worries, no offense taken!:hug: I would not be a restarter if I didn't believe in IP and that this time I will keep the weight in my goal range. I would think this would apply to all the restarters.

Slipfree,
I know I felt really out of water when I got to goal. I the scale feedback and losing a lb or two each week went away. I needed to get involved and make the maintenance thread more of a home for myself. That was my bad, as of course the maintainers are very welcoming and helpful. That feeling like when you shop in ladies size sections of the store and feel like someone may come tell you to leave as you are in the wrong department - even though you now wear those sizes, was present. I know it takes the mind a while to catch up with the loss, and I believe I needed to come to acceptance of maintenance and make a home here in my heart, head, and with the maintainers group.

You really struck home for me 65X65! As I lost and regained the same 20 lbs for the 3rd time in 2013, I could feel my body aging, faster and faster everyday. I was drowning in sugar addiction and the fear that I really could not master this demon in this lifetime - but I finally refused to give in to the idea of spending the rest of my life in such a miserable state. I just turned 63 - I cannot believe I am that old, but I don't have to accelerate the aging process by eating poorly and not taking care of myself.

Congrats on your one year maintenance anniversary. Your success inspires me!

This has been the story of my life for the last five months! I promised myself I would never be in the 200s again, and here I sit at 202.4. I hid away from this forum and stuffed my face, even though I knew I needed to come here for daily motivation. Today marks three weeks of my restart, and I am feeling super motivated. It was so hard to get back on, I did two weeks in May then that was it, besides a day or two here and there.

ShrinkingSusie- welcome back!

Scorbett and Halfagain, very insightful reflections. I appreciate your honesty. I am going to work hard at keeping the forum on my priority list as I move forward. For me, it helps maintain my focus even when I haven't had the best maintenance day.

When I hit goal I bought myself a necklace with this quote: "Learn from yesterday,live for today, hope for tomorrow" on one side and "live the life you love" on the other side. It reminds me that every day is a new day for me to make good choices.

Oneuh- thx..you can do it!! And you will with this attitude. It's a wake-up call ...eh?? Been there.

Not at all diss-ing the forum and it's effectiveness...but no one should concede success is not proportionately skewed in the direction of their own doing. What EVER it takes to get there. It is what it is. I love the forum..the inspirational tales..funny "along the ways"..heart felt "lessons learned and shared"... and the info...so on target. But when the day is done...it is a one woman show. We go to bed with ourselves.

Thanx for the congrats...It was a quiet celebration... I wore a slinky long knit dress...glittery sandals...and we went to dinner on the waterfront where I ordered seafood and veggies....!! (and yes...had a little wine.) What a year...Loving life. You will get there....LOL... I think you maybe hit the wall! As mentioned!! ?? Yep..a good thing!!


Hugs to you and others.......it will be a good next year!!! And you are almost all younger than I...

So nice to see you posting again, 65X65.

I think your point that " no one should concede success is not proportionately skewed in the direction of their own doing" is so right for me.

The reason I slid backwards is because I began to make exceptions and rationalizations. What I discovered and what I know is that there are no places for that now, and maybe not much in the future.

The slips have led to declines. Weight goes up and morale goes down. Morale goes down and eating goes up. It often brings me back to the same mind set in which I found myself over 100 pounds ago.

The weight gain is no one's fault except mine. I got cocky when my body looked "normal" and decided I could free lance the food. WRONG, first trip down the slippery slope.

So, I have gotten back on and lost 14 of the pounds I gained with 5 more to go. I journal my food and my emotions. I am back into all my smaller clothes and I have the next two pairs of jeans hanging in my bathroom. I tried them on this morning and will continue to until they fit.

I have just learned I am nowhere near as smart as I thought I was. I NEED to follow the program, be it in Phase 1 or Maintenance because the wise people of IP know better than I!

Everyone has to find that sweet spot .....It happens when they finally understand them-self...how they work...what to do about it...FAST...

Then get jiggy with it!!! It's actually a liberating and wonderful thing. And then you know..you can do it.:dancer::dancer:

65X65 - you are right in that I need to work on understanding myself better, specifically why I sabotage my progress. I have lots of thoughts about it but no real 'ah-ha' moments yet. I do know that I was so in love with people telling m how great I looked that I got real cocky, thinking "I must be there already".

Well fine and dandy, if I am indeed there, why was I not transitioning to Phase 2 and 3 and 4 the way I should? I know that doing that will be key to my success towards the end. For now, one foot in front of the other, back on the 100% path to total health.

65X65: Thanks so much for the thoughtful conversation on this topic -- I have until Spring before I face maintenance head on, so I hope to continue to explore these issues in the coming months.

Schenectady: It's only in the past couple of years that I have thought of my repeated return to poor eating habits as self sabotage - clearly that IS what it is. Learning to believe that I deserve to reach and maintain my goal is part of the challenge- if I can adopt that view I think I can keep my eating behaviors in balance.

Hi All! It's good to see some familiar names and "faces." Hi to Dana, Scorbett, 65, Schnectedy, Halfagain, whom I lost with the first time around.

I started in June 2012, reached goal in April and began maintenance in May 2013. I was pretty good for about a year, with brief reboots. Since Christmas 2013, I've been up and down 10-15 pounds from my lowest weight, which was 7 pounds under my stated goal. I've done 2 week reboots in Jan and in March, and in June I did a 5-week stint on P1 and got back down a little under my goal. Well, that came back and now I'm in another short P1 stint and it's almost gone again.

I guess what I'm saying is that the struggle has not really gone away for me either. When I was not on IP during the summer I "allowed" myself lots of the foods that I used to love and watched myself doing the very behaviors with food that I thought I had left behind.

If I look back at this year, I've eaten basically P3 and maintenance with a P1 1-2 week reboot every 3 months. I wonder if that is what my life will be like now. I guess I'm thankful to have this tool and thankful that I like the food. I'm mostly eating alternatives with a little IP foods that I love thrown in. I always feel better on this diet, and I enjoy the foods.

I know life can get in the way, especially with illness and travel. For me, I've been overweight for such a long part of my life and my body grabs pounds when it can. I'm determined not to let it hold on to them. We just need to do the best that we can.

I know that reading the forums and posting really helps. We are not alone in this journey. We CAN lick this together, one day at a time.

Good Luck with all of your Restarts. I know you can do it! The time will pass and before you know it, you'll be where you want to be. :hug: