Thank you all for all of your advice and words of wisdom! I am going to settle in to maintenance here and try to stay within my range of weight. I just need to get better at the ratios and limit myself to a fun meal instead of a fun day. I am an all or nothing person and I have a tendency to be obsessive....so, I am sorry for pushing the panic button, I am going to try to relax and do maintenance the right way! This is right where I belong with all of you maintainers who are a wealth of knowledge! I appreciate every single one of you!

Pishposh - you are rockin' this girl! Congrats on a great WI!

Pishposh; Good job! You got this!

Ruth Ann; I'm happy to hear that you are doing so well! And you will love being able to exercise. Its great with toning but I also call it my therapy! hee hee

SallyE: I have no doubt that you will do well in maintenance. And yes, this is a great thread with support people to help us along on our journey. One point in the Beck Diet Solution book that I took away was that we have to stop that 'all or nothing' attitude as most overweight people think this way instead of balancing things out. This is what I tend to do. So, I am working at being more balanced, and not going off the deep end because the scale went up a couple lbs. Now I have the skills to get those up lbs off but in a healthy and realistic way for me.

I'm having another good day speaking of up lbs. hee hee And I'm getting my exercise in this week. My hubby and I plan to go to the gym tonight. I'm looking forward to it. Just getting my water in right now as didn't get as much today so making sure I keep up with it. Hope you are all well maintainers!!

Pishposh way to go! Sounds like you've got a great coach. I think Ruth Anne's point is so true, we get so used to seeing the scale go down it is a shift to see it move around within a range. I watched it move down fairly regularly for a year.

Hawaii - sounds like you are doing a great job finding the balance. It is always a bit of a dance. Enjoy the gym.

Ruth Ann - happy to hear that the last problem with your surgery got taken care of. Hopefully that will be the end of it. I'm sure you'll be back to your regular routine in no time.

I'm having a better day, did add a few more snacks 1 tbs. of almond butter and 15 almonds that weren't in MFP but I think it should all work out. Walked away from chocolate in the chart room today and told my self that it wasn't worth it.

Maintainers, can you do a juicing diet after done with IP? My sister is a juicer and so is my friend. They both work out, and they drink their green juices every day, and I was wondering if that's an option because I would like to juice when I reach my goal, the green juices are very healthy and taste delicious!

SallyE - You can push the panic button any time and we'll talk you down! The transition to maintenance can be mind bending and I think we've all gone through the "oh no I'm going to gain it all back, I can't do this" panic. It was hard for me to convince myself that I wasn't going to regain 125 pounds eating a piece of bread or a cookie. Be easy on yourself, you'll get it figured out.

Hawaii69 - Gym time with dh sounds good! I have been tracking with my fitbit trying to get my steps in and have found that dancing at my desk (early before anyone else is there!), running up the stairs then down the hall and down the stairs on the other end on the way to the bathroom, and marching in place all add up!

Jenny38 - Sounds like you are making good choices. I work on getting my healthy fats in, I really do better if I keep it up. I'm with you on chocolates - if I'm going to use my calories for those they better be the good ones! Speaking of which, the snack monster I live with ate all the Harry & David truffles - I knew I should have put them in the freezer!

Ariel13 - I don't know a thing about juicing but you can follow any diet/meal plan that works for you and lets you keep the weight off. As long as you're getting all your nutrients, etc. you should be fine. I found following IPs general maintenance guidelines works well for me and is easy to make fit my life.

Is it Friday yet? (whine, whine) Seems like yesterday was the 2nd Monday of the week - came home and wanted to just sit down and rest my brain. Oh well, at least I didn't want to come home and eat - yeah for learning new stress management techniques!

Hi Maintainers!

Whew....busy times here for me! I think EVERYONE is having busy times, huh? I am looking forward to the two weeks I took off the week of Christmas and New Years.

I have had two days in a row of not getting breakfast in before having to get my kiddos off to school. Two days in a row of Panera oatmeal (however delish it is) is ENOUgh! I don't want to get back in the habit of going through a drive through every day. Tomorrow, should be better since I won't be seeing clients until the afternoon. Worse comes to worse, I will grab a protein shake/bar so I break that drive-through habit right away!!!

I will be traveling to my sister's for Christmas, so I need to spend some time talking with her about our eating while we're there so I can set myself up for success.

Hang in there and big hugs to everyone who is having a tough time right now on maintenance!!!!! I think you've gotten some wise advice from some successful maintainers here to make sure not to make a knee-jerk reaction to up pounds. I am now a daily weigher (since P4), and my weight changes daily. Today, I am up over a pound which I know was from too high of sodium yesterday.

Like Scorbett mentioned, I really did quite a bit of reading on metabolism and weight loss. Like the article she posted (good read!), it points out that the best way to rev up a sluggish metabolism to keep pushing your calorie limits to the highest level without weight gain and then keep adding them slowly back in. Knee jerk reactions will only serve to confuse your "data collection" (ie: scale read outs)....lol, that's what I try to think of my scale readings as: data collection for long-term trends. Even my fun days range about 300-400 calories higher than my regular days, which is then accounted for by my P1 days. That means that I can easily say: This is my average daily caloric intake, and this is what I need to do about it...".

I know that this is not everyone's approach to successful maintenance....I'm a little crazy with the data/numbers. But I find that planning my menus and sticking to them is what keeps me on track. When the late night-snackies hit, I grab my phone and plan a delicious day for the next day. This feeds my brain without feeding my belly with extra calories I don't need.

Where I am falling WAY short is in exercising. I have very little free time right now, and it is between blocks of clients, so I don't have access to go to the gym or the time to get all sweaty and quickly cleaned up. I will still be working on this piece of the puzzle....I wish I wasn't so tired in the morning, since I think very early morning work outs are probably my only option. Hmmm...sound like a New Years resolution!

evemomma - I'm with you on looking at the scale as a "data point" rather than the be all and end all. Good for tracking trends, but not so much for immediate information. I use my "ring test" to gauge if I need to change things up - if my rings are tight I know I'm not getting in enough water or doing too much sodium (or both!) and it's time to pay attention.

I usually take the week between Christmas and New Years off too but we'll see if that happens this year. Things have just been crazy.

Ready for the weekend to be here. This will be the 4th Monday this week.

Good day!
i've only posted once before when i first started. I lost 45lbs in 3 months on ip and am completing my last few days of phase 3. Starting Saturday I am officially a maintainer. I can not believe how far i've come.
Its been a rough couple weeks for me personally and thanks to all you wonderful women keeping each other in check and supporting each other i have been able to stay 100% OP.
(my boyfriend broke up with me after almost 2 yrs and i didn't turn to food or alcohol to cope)
What i am trying to say is that you ladies are supporting more people then you know. I just wanted to say thank you!

On a side note i think it would be really exciting if people shared more of what they look forward to plan to eat on their fun days, and how much their taste for indulgences have changed.

-Mags

I am officially in phase 4 now!!

I was away for the last two weekends which I stressed about gaining weight. The first one went well no losses but no gains either. This helped me feel better going into the next weekend which was in Las Vegas and that was my biggest worry!!
Good news is I weighed in yesterday and I maintained mt weight even though I was drinking!!! I realize I cannot do this all the time but was happy to see if I could carefully choose my meals and still have a drink without gaining a ton of weight. I did do a P1 day when I got home. I did pack protein bars for my trip and would usually add one to my lunch as there was never enough protein and then had one later in the evening for a snack. I also enjoyed a latte with skim milk as part of my breakfast and added chocolate protein powder to make me feel like I was having a Mocha.

When I went to P3 I struggled with breakfast and now I love my huge breakfast! Not sure I really understand the carb/fat separation for meals in P4. I have seen posts where it was mentioned that it should be a 3 to 1 ratio. I guess my question is for each meal (lunch or dinner) do you set limits for calories, fat, carbs, and protein? And how many snacks per day do you usually have?

I have worked out what my calories per day should be and that is between 1700 and 1800 per day. I plan to increase to that number gradually to allow my body time to adjust.

Magzz - Congrats on getting to maintenance! Pretty amazing how we learn to cope with bad times without turning to food or alcohol, isn't it? I find exercise, cleaning, pretty much anything where I'm moving to be much better for me!

Everyone has a different approach to "fun days" - some people plan them, some plan fun meals, etc. I personally just try to work everything I want into my daily plan. I'd rather have one piece of really good chocolate than a bunch of everyday stuff, I'm an ice cream fiend and have found I can work it in on some days. It's working for me and works for my lifestyle. I have days (usually weekends) where I don't get enough veggies in or go over my calories, carbs, etc. but I also pay attention to my weekly intake and most the time it averages out fine.

AllMe - Congrats to you too! Exciting to find out you aren't going to instantly gain all the weight back when you loosen things up a little isn't it?

The fat/carb separation of 3:1 is actually easy - your meals should have 3 times as many carbs (or fat) than fat (or carbs). I use net carbs when I figure it - not always perfect but I usually get pretty close.

How many calories per meal, how many snacks, etc. really depends on your personal preference and lifestyle. I found following basic guidelines (get protein & fruit/veggies in for each meal, separate the fats & carbs) made my meals pretty much fall into my calorie goals.

You have to play around a little bit to find out how to best go about maintenance. Just remember, unless you really overindulge most scale fluctuations are water weight so don't panic. Totally normal!

RuthAnn...here's hoping tomorrow is a FRIDAY for you and not a MONDAY again, lol! I really hope you get a little time off to rest and refresh around the holidays!

I skipped breakfast again this AM (tsk tsk tsk).....well, I just delayed it. I could not get it in before I had to get kids off to school, so I ate my planned breakfast when I got home. So at least I bucked the trend of eating out again. Looking forward to getting through this week and next week since it's crunch time for me! I love what I do, but my balance is off right now - will be happy to get a little more time to fill up myself emotionally so I can do that for my clients!

Magzz....Welcome to maintenance and congrats! I'm so sorry you've had a difficult break-up. That is awesome that you could find healthy ways to cope - and I'm sure it was empowering to tame that nasty beast!

AllMe.....P4 is such a mystery to start with since there really are no clear guidelines. I strongly recommend using MyFitnessPal if you haven't already to help you determine your macros and percentages. I'll write a little more below on how I manage the food part for now (as I'm still learning).

Thought this might be helpful for transitioning folks. I preplan my menus using MyFitnessPal. As someone who likes a lot of guidelines and control over food choices, this has been my process. It takes me about 5-10 minutes every evening once I got the hang of it:

I have my caloric intake set on MFP to 1700. I currently have my macros set at 35% carbs (that's ALL carbs not net), 35% fat, and 30% protein (I used to do 30% carbs and 35% protein but found it was TOO MUCH protein for me!).

First step for me is to fill out breakfast, which is easy since I still use the P3 guidelines (roughly anyway): under 15g fat total, around 25g carbs from grains/starch, less than 25g carbs from fruit/sugar, around 20g protein.

I think of building my lunch and dinner with the concept that I will be eating a lean meat (usually 6 oz) and two cups of veggies. I will record all my meat and one protein snack to see where my totals are. Then I know if I need to supplement more protein with eggs/cheese/nuts/legumes. When I build my lunch, I just add in additional fats to my meat/veggies to make a salad, stir fry, etc. I tend to use shredded cheese/feta cheese/guacamole/avocado/evoo/and nuts to add extra fats. I don't really like real salad dressing anymore, so I don't waste my fat calories on that.

For dinner, I just do the opposite and add additional carbs to my lean meat and two cups of veggies. This might be where I would add a tortilla for tacos or a wrap for a sub, whole grain crackers, hummus, beans, higher carb or starchy veggies like corn/carrots/sweet peas, soup and crackers, etc. I just keep things lowfat. I find the carb meal ratios to be a little easier naturally as it's more similar to how we ate in P1. I usually build in a small "treat" to my carb meal as a little dessert. If I keep it low enough in fat (a small cookie, a piece of fruit, yogurt) then it goes well with my ratios).

Once I have the general structure of my day, then I add in extra snacks or foods where I need to up my ratios. Sometimes I add a little babybel cheese as a dessert to my fat meal - or extra pecans....mmm! If I'm still low in carbs for the day, I might add in a popcorn snack or an extra protein snack if I just happen to be low on protein that day, or I might add raisins into my salad at dinner. I just play around and have FUN thinking about what I'm going to eat!

I have found that I rarely eat bread anymore....it tends to give me a stomachache. Making my fat meal a salad is the easiest way for me to keep my ratios correct....I gave up trying to make things like a tortilla wrap or crackers work. One thing Ruth Ann mentioned, is that I do my ratios with WHOLE carbs and not net carbs. Which, maybe is why my fat meals are always so tricky! I have found that I do well even if my ratios are more like 2fat :1 carb (maybe this is because I've never done net carbs for this meal).

Eek....I hope this does't make things seem HARDER for new maintainers! I just thought I would share my process - although I know every maintainer has to find their own! Good luck to all!!!!!!

Hello Maintainers!

evemomma: I worry about the exercise part as well. I haven't done anything for the entire time I a have been on IP. I told myself that I would start slow. Maybe the 2nd week of P3 I'll do some light cardio and strength training. Go for a long walk on the weekend. Once I get to Maintenance (Beg. of Jan.) then I will follow your example and up my calories by 100 every couple of weeks to allow my metabolism to adjust to food again. It seems that worked really well for you. I've been logging P2 in MFP and averaging about 1100 a day. Once I add in P3 breakfast that could bump me up to around 1600 to start in Maint. Does that sound about right? I looked back at some of your posts when you began and you were around 1300-1400.

RuthAnn: I think I like your approach of fitting things in rather than a fun day. I look at all the food/sweets that are around this time of year and I just can't imagine eating the way I used to eat for an entire day. It just doesn't appeal to me anymore. Maybe a meal. Maybe I'll try that. As you all have said, it takes playing around a little with it to see what will work. What works for you may not work for me. But I am very excited about P3 breakfasts next week. I am so looking forward to an apple and some cashew butter! And BOO for 4 Mondays in one week. That's just not right. Hope it gets better for you.

Magzz: So sorry for your breakup. But kudos to you for not turning to food or alcohol to cope. IP teaches us such a good skill set when it comes to that. You go girl.

I am really looking forward to my company Christmas party tomorrow night. Last night I tried my dress with the panty hose and walked across the living room and my thighs didn't rub together. I was so thrilled. My dining choices are not the best so I am taking my two cups of veg with me and having beef tenderloin. There will be plenty of alcohol and sweets I'm sure, but I'm sticking with some tonic water with a lemon. I have stayed steady at 141.7 this week. Hoping to drop a little more so those 3 up lbs that come with P3 won't be so noticeable. Not seeing a downward trend on the scale is odd, but my clothes fit just the same, so I'm happy about that.

Hello to all the other fantastic Maintainers!

Catlady...

You are almost to P4!!!!!! Woohoo....you've done amazing! I can't wait to see a pic of you for your Christmas party...better post one (wagging finger at you!).

I did start my calories off pretty low, since I knew my metabolism had taken a hit with P1. My "aim" of calories is always my ceiling, so I rarely hit the aim. Even now with my goal being 1700, I am uusally in the high 1600's (yesterday only made it to 1500 for some reason?), so I think my initial aim in P4 was 1350 or 1400 even? My weight was interesting, sometimes it would stay steady and then WHOOSH! Whenever I hit a whoosh, I upped my calories. I didn't mind losing in P4, but I was at the upper end of my healthy weight, so I think my body was ready for that. I think you're going to do great. There is a HUGE unknown getting into P4, and everyone's body adjust differently. I think the important thing is to keep a long term perspective and not get to panicky about those water weight up pounds.

A question for all of you lovely Maintainers:

Right now, I am thinking I will shift to P2 on jan 1, and will probably end up weighing 130-132 instead of my original goal of 125. I'm feeling like I'm ready for P1 to end Dec 31 and to move on. I'm also liking how I look/ feel. I have not been my current weight for 30 years, IE when I was a teenager. It's pretty cool!!!

Did any of you make a comparable decision to this? Were you happy with the decision? Did you regret it? Other insights?

Thank you for your help and inspiration.

I'm almost there. I start P3 on Monday. My original goal weight was 150. Then I lowered it to 136(to get to the uppermost limit for my height and have the right BMI). I was planning on phasing off Jan. 1, but it made sense to spend the last month of this year doing P2 & P3 and starting the new year in Maintenance as I was having major diet fatigue and the whole hair loss issue. I don't regret anything, at least not yet. Will I get down to 136? Maybe. But right now I'm at 141.7, so 6 lbs higher on the scale than I originally planned. But it's just a number. I am fitting comfortably into 8/10's bottoms and S/M tops and am happy with the way I look. It's an individual choice really, but I am satisfied I made the right decision for me.

evemomma: Thanks! I'm so pumped that this all worked out so well. I appreciate your insights and read all your posts with great interest.