Anyone on Greysheet maintenance?
 

I was wondering if anyone is maintaining their weight being part of the Greysheet Community? They have phone bridge meetings and a sponsor who takes your food everyday and you weigh and measure 3 meals a day. I was actually on that for 3 weeks! That is amazing for me, who has never ever stayed on any diet for longer than 2 weeks. The plan is that you eat 4 ounces of protein and a fruit for breakfast, and lunch is another 4 ounces of protein with 2 cups of non starch vegetables and a Tablespoon of oil and supper is 4 ounces of protein with 3 cups of vegetables and 3 Tablespoons of oil. You have to weigh or measure all the food and you cannot eat any sugar or breads or starchy veggies or grains.

That doesn't sound much like maintenance to me - it just doesn't sound very sustainable as a lifetime journey - sure I still measure a lot of what I eat, but I don't think I could depend on someone else to bring me my food everyday for the rest of my life. I think there is a lot of health benefits to whole grains and vegetables like beans, corn, carrots, squash and sweet potatoes (if those are starchy vegetables?).

I did give up a lot of food forever (fast food, sugary soda, most fried foods, most cream-based foods, packaged baked goods), but it wouldn't be a realistic goal for me to give up all sugar and bread for the rest of my life. I love toast, I love sandwiches, I love quesadillas and pasta!

I would much rather substitute the calories of 3 of those 4 daily tablespoons of oil for more foods that are high in volume, that would help me stay satisfied and provide a broader range of nutrition (maybe almonds or low fat yogurt or avocado or more fruit!).

I'm glad the plan is working for you to lose weight, but it sounds (to me) to be really restrictive for the rest of your life. As a 20 year failed weight loss maintainer (could always lose, could never keep the weight off), I was only successful when I actually made changes I could stick to for life. My maintenance looks exactly like my weight loss - except I added 200 more healthy calories a day and one "treat" meal a week (a treat meal where I stick to my forever "no's").

Good luck!

Inky, I thought I was reasonably familiar with just about every diet plan out there, but I've never heard of the Greysheet Community. I don't think anyone in our group is following that plan because we all talk about what we're eating and that certainly doesn't sound like a plan any of the maintainers are following.

When we've surveyed our maintainers about which plans worked for them, the hands down winners were calorie counting and "my own plan". Not many of our members lost the weight and keep it off on a name brand diet. Like Glory said, in order to make it a lifestyle and not gain the weight back, your eating plan needs to be something that you can stick with for the rest of your life. And that means it will probably look different than anyone else's eating plan. :)

If the Greysheet Community is something that you can picture yourself following for the rest of your life, then it may be the right plan for you. Best of luck for continued success!

I can't address any of Inky's questions but thought I'd mention this web site for GreySheeters Anonymous for anyone else interested:

http://www.greysheet.org/