I felt large and gained some weight last week, which was in part due to me having my period and in part due to me continuing to push boundaries and apparently having found them. Nevertheless, I was upset at the weight gain, although I know how to rectify it and have lost part of it already.
I have however come up with two things to inspire me and wonder whether any of you do anything like this:
1.Hubby has bought me all this sexy underwear for Christmas, and although I wear it, on a day to day basis, I still wear the old stuff. I have decided to wear sexy underwear only and always when I am at my lowest weight of 60.6kg, which is a weight which I accept and have no desire to go under.
2.My large jeans will have to go. I still wear many of them and it`s not good to me. There is a lot of space in them, and the subconscious message to my brain is that there is space for food in my belly. They have to go, even though they were new and expensive and blabla. I won`t put them away for good, but I can put them away with my winter clothes, in the loft.
I didin't lose as large an amount of weight as most people on this forum but I do similar things with underwear and jeans.
I have "toy underwear" (my DH's term for it) that I wear when I'm at my skinniest (130-133 lbs.) and when we go out for an event or dinner. "Special occasion underwear" if you will. The rest of the time (and at work walking dogs) I wear my trusty cotton Calvins.
I also have jeans in size 10, 8, and 6. Usually I wear the size 8 and am quite happy with them. If they start getting too snug I know it's time to move back into diet mode.
I keep the size 10's (one pair only) for reference to how much progress I've made.
The one pair of size 6 is for the future and to remind me to keep plugging away at my goal of reaching and staying at 130 lbs. I have fit into them on two occasions and am determined to wear them in Chicago on vacation this Sept.
I find concrete motivators to be really good for my journey, and keep the size 6 jeans hanging on a full length mirror in my home gym . I try them on about once a month or so and sometimes I can even zip them!
Stella, I say ditch the big girl pants! Unless you want to keep one for a snazzy big pants/skinny girl photo. I try hard to only keep clothes that fit me. Clothes that fit, at any size, will make you look smaller. Regarding the underwear, I like my cotton undies plain. But I don't like ones that are too big because they ride up no matter how big my jeans are. I don't think I'm making much sense here. I believe I'm rambling. Sorry.
One of the greatest maintenance tools - get rid of clothing that's too big. Without a doubt. Just knowing that I'll have nothing to wear should the scale *somehow* creep too far upwards, helps to keep me on the straight and narrow and help shake me back to reality if I should again, *somehow* venture upwards.
I too say get rid of those large pants. I don't see how any good could come from hanging on to them. Really.
I have ditched the pants I wore when I started out dieting, but I have now gone three dress sizes down and was shopping in between. So what I bought 10 lbs ago is again too big for me, but I only bought them in August and up until now it seemed a waste to give them away after having had so little wear out of them.
I`m glad I`m not the only girl who likes to walk about in lacy undies all the time - as much as my husband would like the thought I like to keep them for the bedroom and for going out, too! Or for days when I want to feel extra special (job interview, etc), for a confidence boost.
Anyway, I`m looking forward to shopping for the summer (as I did not replace my summer clothes yet, so everything I got is my old size) , so my whole summer wardrobe will be my present size when I`m done with that, which is the size I wanted to be when I started losing weight! :-)
I'm only working with maintaining a small weight loss. And as little as it is, it's really too easy to just get careless and let it come back again
Getting rid of things that subconciously sabotage us is a good idea. Goodbye unsexy panties and saggy-butt pants!
My strategy for maintenance is to make it be *easier* to be on-plan than off plan. Pre-cut veggies and pre-washed lettuce in the fridge makes it much easier to pack a healthy lunch. This kind of thing has helped me a LOT and made me make some real lifestyle changes.
Instead of throwing away "expensive" jeans can you have them taken in? I'm actually wondering this for myself cause I'm broke right now and I have two pairs of jeans I LOVE but they're just getting too big. I'm just not sure how well it works to take in jeans.
It's quite expensive to take pants in. Just the waist band isn't, but to have the legs tapered and the seat downsized, it's a big job. I can't recall the exact price when I went to have it done myself, but I think it may have been about 40 bucks.
I gave away some barely worn clothing when I got down to goal. Though it seems wasteful to give away clothing, I look at any money spent on this journey as an investment in my future.
I bought a bunch of size six pants when I reached goal that soon became too big. I got a couple of 4 here and there that became my daily pants. In the last couple of month I've found the 4 to be a little snug sometimes and have worn the 6s - they have to go. It let me get too comfortable! Back to the 4s now and the 6s are in a box, to be replaced with my Christmas gift card money.
Seriously - I feel like keeping the larger things givesme an out. I don't want that out any more. I still have one pair of 18 to compare by, those are the only big pants I need to maintain!
I have had a couple of skirts taken in, they were really expensive, and I love them very much. The jeans were not dear, admittedly, it`s just that I planned to wear them a wee bit longer.
I think you are all right about getting rid of big clothes. I have yoyoed so much in the past, but this was mainly because I had starved for losing the weight. I`m now confident that I can maintain it.
What I`ll do is the following: try to wear everything in my wardrobe over the next months or so and whatever does not feel good gets washed and then, I`ll give it away. If it was expensive I can try to sell it on ebay, if it was not, I will give it to charity.
I expect to have to change my full summer wardrobe, so there is a whole suitcase full to give away. Beautiful things (I always loved clothes), but not on me.
You know Stella, I think you should do whatever it takes to keep the weight off. If you need to wear sexy undies every day, or rid yourself of every item of clothing that doesn't fit perfectly, than do it. If that is what it takes! For me, keeping larger clothes around doesn't phase me a bit, but keeping trigger FOOD around will cause me to fail 9 times out of ten. To insure maintaince, I need to continually watch my food intake. I am much more likely to fall hard with cookies and ice cream in the house than if I keep a size 8 pant in my attic. KWIM? To ensure *my* maintaince I must keep crap/junk food out of my house...whatever keeps you on track, than do it.
I purged clothes as I lost so that I would have nothing to go back to. Consignment stores were my best friend. Actually, I still like shopping there, even though I have maintained my size. I have 1 pair of pants that I kept, the 24W to remind myself of where I never want to be.
Ensuring maintenance
if you will. The rest of the time (and at work walking dogs) I wear my trusty cotton Calvins.
I know it's time to move back into diet mode. 
of reaching and staying at 130 lbs. I have fit into them on two occasions and am determined to wear them in Chicago on vacation this Sept.
. I try them on about once a month or so and sometimes I can even zip them!
