I'm not at goal, but I'm finding myself relating to maintainers more and more.
I have stayed at about 160lbs now since the beginning of November - actually lost from 163 to 158 so maybe it's just really slow weight loss. I have kept my good eating habits and go to the gym about twice a week. I live a pretty healthy lifestyle and enjoy a lot of the benefits of my weight loss.
Quite honestly, I'm happy where I'm at. In fact, I'm kind of afraid of trying to lose weight for the sake of losing weight because I'm afraid it will start the yo-yo again. Instead, I am focusing on getting to the gym more often (I signed up for a 10K so I need to run 4x/wk to train for that!) and keeping my eating habits clean. Where my weight falls doing that, is where it falls.
This is kind of why I feel like I can relate to the maintainers because I think this is what living maintenance is - focusing on the habits that keep us healthy rather than making the goal a particular weight on the scale. Not to say that I'm not hoping to drop at least another 20lbs, but if I don't - okay. I certainly won't let myself gain weight but I feel comfortable enough that at my calorie level and gym routine that I won't gain. If it takes me another year to lose the last bit of weight, that's fine.
Maybe I'm delusional in thinking that by not calorie counting and focusing on it like I was still losing that I won't regain? But, so far I haven't. Every once in a while I will get on my fitday and keep track for a few days just to make sure I'm not creeping up - ironically it tells me I should be losing.
I'm also afraid like a previous poster said, that if I push myself to this goal that I made up when I started, I will be subject to regain and then get frustrated at "failing" and really backslide.
On one hand, someone could say that I am complacent and am losing sight of the goal. On a BMI chart, I am juuusssttt under the obese marker (28.9). But, I am a size 10 and have an hourglass, proportionate shape. I have healthy blood pressure, I can run a 5k, I am happy. So where should maintenance be? It's all relative.
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