P. S. I just read another thread where Liana you commented "Patience grasshopper". I love that, it made me smile really big, and it was perfect for me to hear today.

So, I'm going to vent a little with you ladies...

Lots of fluctuations the last few weeks, after my "whoosh" on Thursday to 151, then Friday 153, on Friday started kind of a intense 3 day seminar that I help staff from time to time, long hours and emotionally and physically taxing. I decided this time to eat what they had, as it's healthy and from a health food store. I tracked it all and it was actually less calories than usual, so though I didn't weigh myself I felt good that I would be fine. On Monday I got on the scale and saw 161. Ack. The most I've seen since last year.

I didn't manage to get a P1 day together so just did a P3 day but I was pissed and ate about 300 calories more than usual (good strategy right... not then saw 164.5 on Tuesday morning.... double ack - over 10 lbs in 5 days. So of course I didn't do P1 again because I was just wiped out and weak, did another higher calorie P3, and then that evening promptly started vomiting and had diarrhea all night then most of the next day. Blahhhhh

So now back down to 159 and couldn't eat much the last two days so did two 1000 calorie P1 days but no more down lbs. ....

I have no idea what's going on - if I actually was sick so my body retained, if the stress of it all caused it, if there has been some weird hormone fluctuation playing in, if the food I ate there that was made elsewhere either just really bothered my body or had preservatives/salt/maybe even sugars that my body wasn't used to....

I also have been exercising MUCH less then I'm used to the last two to three weeks and my whole daily routine has been whacky, trying to finish my house move, relationship stuff... And, as I wrote last week, my body just hit exhaustion and total wipe out last week and I'm sure I'm still catching up from that.

And I also know that unexpected stress is part of life and will happen from time to time over the course of a year, and I think "my part" is to not let it go on longer than it needs to, and know that when the cycle completes I need some time to regenerate and replenish.

So what I can intuitively land on right now is:
1. "Patience Grasshopper" - as Liana said elsewhere...not too much stress or worry, am only 4lbs over goal.
2. Let my body get back into it's normal routine, exercise, etc. - I'm going to hot yoga tonight and this weekend and will also go for a hike.
3. Eat normally, not major changes of much less or much more - let my body get back to knowing what to expect.
4. Settle back into less busy-ness. This weekend I turned down several people and cancelled the few plans that I have, I need a lazy weekend with nothing scheduled but yoga and mani/pedi.
5. I have my monthly P4 WI in about a week and also have my annual with my doctor (my coach is a NP in the doctor's office ) so I'll also go over all this with them and see what they think. I also get bloodwork at that appt. so that will help me feel at ease.

OK thank you all for listening
Grrrrrr.....

The nice thing was last night I was in a meditation (which was nourishing in and of itself) where there were several people I hadn't seen for a while, and a few came to me after and commented how incredible it was the work I had done on my health and what an inspirational transformation it was. So it helped this grasshopper remember that the battle has been long and successful and if I just keep stressing about these few up pounds for the rest of my life it will be a huge win (or even better - learning not to stress....)

HELLOOOOOOOOO MAINTAINERS!!!!!!!!!!

I have missed you all so much!!!!

Please forgive my absence here, my life has been in fast-forward for the past few months. I see some familiar faces here (Jenny....still my running hero!, Andrea....read about your surgery, hope you are finally starting to feel like yourself again, Liana.....My IP maintenance GURU!) and some new faces as well!

So, we have been working day and night to get my house ready to sell (we were house procrastinators). We found our dream property a few weeks ago and put ourselves into hyperdrive. So, two weeks ago, we put an offer on the new house and then listed our house. Then CRAZINESS: we had 4 showings the first day, NINE showings then second - and bam, had an offer on the house! Our heads are spinning.

Then a bad run of luck, we discovered we have water in one of our walls and now are waiting for a mold person today - ugh, fingers crossed this doesn't affect our sale (we disclosed we had an issue that just got repaired but didn't know about the extent of the problem yet).

Hopefully things go through, our new house (hopefully our new house) is on 2 acres with a in-ground swimming pool, lots of room for fruit trees, gardening and general outdoor life. It also has a guest house which needs LOTS of work, but may serve as an office for me in the future.

I haven't weight myself this week, but I have been maintaining my weight all through this craziness. NOT to say that my eating has been stellar, but I think my increased activity level has been helping me out a lot. Doing heavy housework daily sure burns the calories!

I haven't tracked in MFP the past two weeks because it has been CRAZY, but I intend to go back to tracking because it really helps me stay accountable to myself. Still kicked my soda habit and only drink coffee sweetened with skim milk and splenda. I think cutting out the high calorie drinks has been my key to maintenance.

I continue to find that my weight is really quite stable since I started keeping my carbs at a higher level. If I find 5 pounds creeps back on during this crazy time of transition, I plan to go back to my early maintenance and ratios until I get into check. I don't know that I plan to go back to P1 again unless I really start feeling out of control with my feelings/eating.

This is such a great time of year to be a maintainer: fresh veggies AND fruit! I remember pining for fruit last year when I was still finishing P1 this during the summer.

Take care all and forgive my long-windedness!

Hi evemomma nice to meet you virtually

When you mention keeping your carbs at a higher level, can you tell me a few sentences about what that means on a day to day basis and how you came to that decision?
What do you consider carbs - fruits and grains, or also bread/pasta etc.... and how much did you up your overall carbs?

I'm working with this myself so curious about your experience, if you have a moment to spare in the next week or two with so much going on! Good luck with all the house stuff!!!

I will be curious to hear your experience after you return to your routine. I don't find the 3:1 to be easy to follow and really don't want all the carbs. But, I think my downfall is probably portion control and fats. And I've been yo-yoing. Not really on the days that I cheat but more during he course of normal days.

OK so note to self I just went through the perfect storm of things that don’t work for me…. and, I’m OK. Finally got back to higher intensity exercise today after not having much for two weeks and wow did it change everything - I feel so much better. I had to postpone an important evening meeting that involved 5 other people in order to do it, but they all agreed, and I was so grateful. These things just have to become a priority even when it’s not easy. I was so much happier and more present at the meeting at it wasn’t a big deal at all to start it 30 minutes later. I have figured out now when I want to get the longer workouts in and if I really have to do an evening thing, I won’t schedule things until after 7:30 on those nights…. must, must, must take care of self before can care for anything else….

I have heard others here mention it but I am learning that exercise is just a really critical part of maintenance for me. Because of what it provides for calming and well being, not that exercise makes you lose weight and all of that, because we all know that’s not really true, at least for me it’s not. But I definitely have much more tone and strength and am just happier and more at peace.

Grateful4Health...

I just wrote a long response that got deleted (ugh!). Basically, I just decided I was going to push the limits with how my body handled calories and macros. I started maintenance at a very low calorie level and gradually pushed myself upwards as I still experienced weight loss (started around 1500 and am around 1750 usually now on low activity level days). I also started changing my macro percentages in MFP, slowly bumping up my carbs and slowly bumping down my protein. I found that I can eat as much as 30-35% carbs (I don't factor net carbs, but I do try to aim for 15-20g fiber). I still try to stay below my MFP set sugar limit (don't know what that is, just see it when I enter in my food) also.

I'm not sure when I stopped following the carb/fat ratios strictly - but I found that I just wasn't experiecing weight gain when I stopped being so careful about separation.

The biggest habits I've changed after P1 that stuck was to stop eating so much fast food (that I didn't like anyway), stop eating for emotional reasons, start eating more healthy fats and fresh veggies (and fruits and nuts now, too), keep up my protein, and to avoid DRINKING my calories in the form of soda or sugary/fatty coffee drinks. I only drink water, unsweet tea, and coffee with splenda/skim milk.

I think that we all need to find the approach that works best for us for long-term success. There is no one-size-fits-all approach as there are just too many factors in play for people. As I continue to age, I'm sure I will have to continue to revisit my calories and ratios again.

The things that I have learned about my own metabolism since starting maintenance in late August:

1) Calories in/out mean more to my weight maintenance than carb/fat ratios.
2) My weight does not fluctuate wildy any longer once I bumped my carbs up above 30% and stopped doing P1 days.

My best advice is to NOT PANIC or make kneejerk decisions about exercise and WOE with changes in the scale. Especially when I was keeping my carbs really low, my weight would fluctuate up to 5 lbs in the course of a day or two. Now that my glycogen stores are fully "Fluffed out" I just don't go up and down like that anymore.

Good luck!

evemomma!!! So good to hear from you. I mentioned you in a post the other day. I am about 4 weeks post op and feeling really good. I am anxious to get back to my exercise routine. I work for such a great company. In addition to the hydrostatic body testing we did, they have given any employee who wants it a one year gym membership! I signed up for it. There are lots of things I won't be able to do, but I can totally take the yoga, pilates and strength training classes once I am released by my doctor. I'm very excited about it.

2) My weight does not fluctuate wildy any longer once I bumped my carbs up above 30% and stopped doing P1 days.

My best advice is to NOT PANIC or make kneejerk decisions about exercise and WOE with changes in the scale. Especially when I was keeping my carbs really low, my weight would fluctuate up to 5 lbs in the course of a day or two. Now that my glycogen stores are fully "Fluffed out" I just don't go up and down like that anymore.


I am experiencing the same thing that you just mentioned. This was a complete surprise. So happy you found your dream house. It sounds lovely.

Grateful: Sorry you got sick. That sucks. We always feel that we need to apologize for putting ourselves first. I have learned that being selfish is a sort of self love. If I don't take care of myself, I have nothing to give to others. Being selfish can be a good thing. I have been seeing this in MFP ( I have been tracking all my meals still and not worrying too much about fat carb separation) and I am coming in around 100 - 120 net grams of carbs a day, some days more, some less, fat grams around 60-80, sugars at 25, and fiber 20-25. Total calories are between 1600-1800 and % are Carb 35%(net) Fat 40%, Protein 25%. These are guidelines really. I'm not super strict about it. I haven't done a P1 day in several months even though I have had restaurant meals, donuts, and frozen custard for the past few weeks, only because my daughter was here, this isn't normal. NO fast food, I only drink coffee black with Splenda, water(80+ oz per day) and occasionally a La Croix mineral water. HTH.

Shasta: I found the weight flip/flop thing very stressful. It's a big bummer getting on the scale and being 3 lbs heavier than you were the day before. We know that it's probably water retention, or fluffiness from carbs or whatever you want to call it but it's stressful. And then the tendency is to over compensate by eating less carbs/calories/fat that day and I think in the long run that is going to be harmful and set us up for the a binge/restrict type of WOE. Right now it's very satisfying to get on the scale each morning and see the same number. As Liana said, Patience Grasshopper. I LOVED that show.

We all need to figure out what works best for us. And if we do start drifting towards our scream weight, then we do have the tools to get back where we want to be.

I drove my daughter to the airport this morning in yet another massive thunderstorm. I'm thinking of trading in my car for a canoe. Just kidding. But we Texans are very weary of all this rain and the devastation it has brought to so many. We have a rain free forecast for the next 6 days and I for one will be very grateful to see the sun.

Evemomma and Andrea thank you so much, both of your answers were so helpful to me.
I think I really do need to just let things even out, and be careful of the “kneejerk” responses, as those seem to be causing much more harm than good.
I think for me right now doing a P1 or even just VLCal day, esp. as a “kneejerk” response, is really not working for my body. I think it wants more consistency. I never do a “fun day” and rarely even do a “fun meal” so I don’t think the P1 is needed, just because I have water retention or something one day.

I think I will focus these next months on just staying steady in my lifestyle and weight. I notice there is a background thing of “hoping” I will go down 5 lbs, and I decided today that I’m not going to think about that again until October, and if after maintaining for a while, I really feel like I’m a little over, I’ll consider a short reboot at that time, but not until then. That just helps my mind and gets me out of this “constant dieting” mentality. I really want to let my body just even out and see the same number on the scale for the most part every day.

I think for me also that focusing on healthy choices within a certain daily calorie range is the key, keeping up protein, and also being careful that I don’t use food as a calming device and then eat more than my body needs at any given time of day.

Again, thank you so much.
I know I’ve written quite a bit the last day and appreciate being able to write things out here.

I hope you are all well, Shasta good luck with everything. Liana and Andrea glad to hear things are getting a little more relaxed for you, you both went through a lot of life stress for a while there. DD hope your trip to town was nice.

I rebooted in January after gaining back 50lbs and have been back on maintenance for about a month. I have been following you ladies that post most frequently and it is nice to see what is working and what doesn't for you. I know we are all different,but last time around I spent more time stressing about the fat/carb/protein combination and what I could and couldn't eat that I think I finally started sliding and eventually let it all go. I was able to maintain for almost 2 years but felt like it was a constant struggle.

I did it on my own without a coach this time and did great losing. I am now trying to figure out what works to stay at one weight. I have continued to lose until the last couple of weeks. I have gradually upped my calories and have done some research as to what a general amount works for people as far as carb, fat, protein %'s. On days that I exercise I am allowing myself a little more leeway but still trying to avoid most carbs unless they are in the form of fruits, veggies and if I have bread it's usually as toast in the morning. Sugar has not been a temptation for me(yet), but that is one thing I am extremely afraid of going back to at all because it's like crack for me. Once I start, I can't stop so I am going to try and avoid it entirely for awhile, at least until I feel more stable and feel like I have some of the emotional eating issues that have caused me to be a yo-yo dieter under control.

This really is a great place to come and see that although we are all different, we often have some of the very same things we are dealing with as far as our food issues go. I don't post often, but love that I can come here and get some great ideas and some reassurance that I am on the right track and can do this for the long haul! Thanks ladies!

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A week of really hard work paid off, I fit into the dress! This is DH and me at my sister's wedding. We had a great time. Did well with the food but drank a bit more than I planned. A fun night for all.

Jenny you look fantastic and congrats on that dress!

Lori great to hear your story and congrats on the reboot.

I’m having an extremely restful weekend, lots of sleep and naps and TV and curling up. A little online shopping for needed smaller summer tops, shorts, swimsuit, and undies. Time to check in on the boards here also, which has been really nice for me. In other words, absolutely nothing going on - yay.

Eve, great to hear from you and your new home sounds lovely. Your doing a great job maintaining your weight. I hope the final sale goes thru without issue.

Grateful, thanks. My weight was like yours last week, I think stress and hormones were my issue. You are doing so well maintaining your weight. Like you, I need to work on being consistent.

Lori - you've done great, keep it up

Andrea - I hope the rain stops soon. Your visit with your daughter sounded good.

Liana, the breathing worked along with the p1 shakes from cosco.

This monitoring of eeight drives me crazy. I felt so big all week but was 1/2 up at weigh in Friday and dropped again the next day. I know I'll be up after the extra drinks so won't freak out but stay the course this week

Hi to everyone

Jenny: You look great in your dress, lots of shapely muscle showing off your hard work!!
Sounds like you had a good time!

Dh & I cracked open a lovely bottle of Gold Medal winning Gewertz 2012 from our local vineyard/winery last night (stored in our combination mudroom/wine cellar - we are so upper class whitetrash, lol), which likely led to me eating strangely today... I ended up with Rainforest nut butter (brazil/cashew/coconut) and homemade Saskatoon berry jam by the teaspoonful. Crazy, I know... back to plan. I think I indulge when I have dropped that near to my goal again. Time to smarten up. The wine was heavenly, though. An amazing floral nectar. Only two bottles left... and sold out two years ago.

Helloooooo, evemomma! Hope your house sale/purchase goes your way! glad to hear you are doing well!
Hi Lori. A great restful weekend for you Amber!
Liana

Good morning, ladies --

Have been away and am just catching up on all the news. Jenny, you look amazing in that dress! All that running and now triathlon training really works, I see! Liana, the PB-on-a-spoon, and other vices, have gotten me into trouble (more below), so I am officially NOT doing that anymore this week to test things out. Thank you for your wise words. My PB2 has arrived, so I will experiment with that for a while. And our "wine cellar" is our basement storage/utility room, so probably even "trashier" than yours The gewurtztraminer sounds yummy, and would have gone nicely with the Indian food we had last night.

evemomma, thank you for posting in the midst of such a hectic time. Like others, I feel that I am a disciple of yours, Liana and so many other maintainers Good luck with the house(s)!

Andrea -- so, so reassuring to hear you talk about the stabilization. Thank you for that. And so glad you were able to have such a lovely visit with your girl. Sounds like you work at a terrific company; employers who value their employees' wellness are just plain smart.

Lori -- nice to see your update and really helpful to read about the different approaches you have tried/are trying.

And Amber and Shasta -- We seem to be on the same roller coaster ride these days I am so "grateful" that you've been posting -- I have just caught up on my reading and already feel better knowing that it's not just ME. It has been a busy couple of weeks, with strange family schedules, final exams, travel, not tracking properly, and too much eating out. These last three nights in a row of high sodium and not-at-all-"ideal" dinners out has really put me over the edge (Mexican one night, Indian another and then tapas -- all with accompanying beverages -- bad, bad, bad!). All this while, of course tom.... This morning shows me at 126, highest number I've seen since phasing off 2 months ago. I had a freak-out, then came here to read, and now am just hoping it's mostly the water retention.

SO... I'm reading back on all the different approaches to "where do I go from here." Do I do a P1 day today (since that's what IP would say to do after a weekend of "fun" dinners)? Or just go back to my typical weekday plan, which is naturally pretty low-carb and involves eating clean, homemade foods and trying to keep fats and carbs separated for the most part? I've been so confused about this that I haven't even eaten breakfast this morning (been stuck between just having an IP shake instead of my regular P3 type breakfast). And of course, I am now starving. Talk about spiraling.... I should stop typing and go pick a breakfast! Ciao for now.