I KNEW I couldn't be the ONLY one out there...

You know I keep telling y'all that over time, as you get further out from your Fat Life, maintaining your weight loss gets EASIER. I was just at the National Weight Control Registry website, browsing through their study abstracts and found this one - CHECK THIS OUT!!!

Now THAT should be good news!!!

We've often discussed the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) here on Maintainers as Mel, Meg and I are all members. The NWCR isn't a weight loss treatment program or support group - its sole mission (and it's an IMPORTANT one!) is to gather information from people who have successfully lost at least 30 pounds and kept off that weight for a year or more. Every so often, the registry members receive a questionnaire to complete and return to the Registry - this data is used in research studies.

Meg has posted a sticky at the top of the forum regarding the NWCR and the book Thin For Life by Anne Fletcher (ESSENTIAL reading!). If you qualify for the NWCR study, I STRONGLY urge you to join - it costs nothing and you'll be helping to explode what I call the "95% myth".

Happy Halloween!

I joined the NWCR after it was suggested by an editor at Prevention Magazine. I sent them my story, which they never published but she told me I should sign up for this.

We should take a head count of NWCR members here at the Maintainers Forum: Mel, Karen, Beverly (boiaby), almostheaven and me. Anyone signed up with the NWCR?

For more information on the NWCR, check our 'sticky' thread here in Maintainers or go to their web site: www.nwcr.ws .

Thinking back on the last two and a half years of maintenance, it HAS gotten easier for me. I'm not ready to say it's easy yet - some days can still be quite 'challenging' - but it's a lot easier than it was the day after I hit goal. I think the big difference is that now I have confidence that I possess all the tools, skills, and knowledge necessary to keep the weight off for life. There aren't any secrets that I need to discover - I know what works (and of course, I've also learned what doesn't work so well). I feel like I'm calling the shots and I'm in control. No one and nothing can make me fat again except for ME - and I'm just not going to do that.

I expect that maintenance will continue to get easier over the years. I think that every day that I practice new habits and abandon old, bad ones is one step further down the road to easier, more effortless maintenance. Karen, I'm guessing that exercising and making good food choices are just about second nature to you after 15 years of maintenance? Looking back, was there a time when you really felt like you had crossed that bridge and you were never going back?

I haven't quite met goal yet, but it's much easier than when I first started for sure. I've actually developed a taste for things never liked before, like water and yogurt for instance. I kept trying brands of yogurt to find one I could stomach and somewhere along the way, I discovered I had eaten, and liked, a brand I had tried and hated before. All those trials eventually paid off. LOL I also find that I spend less time trying to talk myself out of exercising as I used to. I don't have as many of the internal battles with it.

But I'm still measuring food and keeping count of my calories.

I'd say that for the most part, 95% - 99% of the time, maintenance is totally effortless at this point. I'm a person who thrives on routine, KWIM? So for me, getting up in the wee wee hours of the morning to work out isn't a chore - it's a VITAL part of my day that I look forward to when I go to bed every evening. I love crankin' up the tunes on my MP3 and kicking my own butt on the elliptical while watching the closed captioned morning news!

As far as eating - a CLEAN home environment has been an ESSENTIAL part of maintenance for me. I don't really count calories very often - maybe once in awhile, if I feel it necessary, I'll use Fitday for a couple days just to track stuff - but generally when shopping for groceries, I stick to my STAPLES - the foods I trust and enjoy eating on a regular basis. Michael Fumento said in his excellent book Fat of the Land that "Variety is the Spice of Overeating". I buy the same things, and I eat the same things all the time. Now I know that most people would say B-O-R-I-N-G - but think about it - it wasn't until recently, history-of-man-wise, that people HAD so many foods to choose from. Both my mom and dad - raised in rural/farm areas - growing up, the bulk of their diet consisted of whatever food they raised, gathered, or hunted. My dad often says the only foods they bought at the store were sugar and salt - both were used very sparingly. And I'm sure most of y'all have read one of more of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books - the Ingalls family (and most of their acquaintances) lived on very few foods most of the time - in the winters it was generally salt pork, sourdough bread, cornbread (and keep in mind that their usual 'cornbread' wasn't the sweet product we're accustomed to today - it was basically cornmeal, water, and some fat - if they were lucky, maybe an egg was thrown in there) whatever root vegetables they were able to grow and store, and any game that Pa was fortunate enough to kill...clearly IMO, homo sapiens was not really meant to be feasting every single day on cakes and rich foods, especially since we're not getting anywhere NEAR the amount of physical exercise that those folks did back then (not to mention the fact that they burnt off a great many calories just trying to keep warm - dwellings built with little or no insulation, no central heating - just a stove - you can well imagine...)

Jeez. Another tangent.

Anyway...when I felt I crossed the bridge? that's an interesting question! I can't pinpoint ONE particular moment in time - it was a gradual transition. I did realize fifteen or so years ago (thanks to a great counselor I had in the Stanford study I participated in back then) that if I wanted to REALLY keep off the weight for GOOD AND ALL, I was NOT going to be able to sit on my *** in front of the teevee 24 hours a day eating pizzas and bags of McDonald's and Dreyer's ice cream. I do eat sweets - but instead of eating a WHOLE FREAKING BAG of Fun Size Snickers or Baby Ruths, I can limit myself to oh, maybe 2 or 3. (however that DOESN'T mean I'm going to keep that crap around the house - why ASK for trouble?) I knew I was going to have to exercise regularly - so I found exercise that I really enjoyed doing - walking and low-impact aerobic classes, then Jazzercise, then joining a 24 hour gym and now I've added horseback riding, Yoga and Pilates to the mix. So life is good!

Mrs. Jim,
How I agree with you! I lived in Soviet Union and lived thru times when even though we had money, we could not buy anything for this money. I still remember staying in long line with other mothers of babies to get 1 kg of buckwheat, and last kilogram ended in the bag of person in front of me - I still remember how I cried right there! I lived on 25% cream with tea the whole day and one warm meal/day, usually vegetarian. But I never had weight problems! My fist one started when I moved to Europe - 10kg in 3 months!!!

Now, even though I maintain since beginning of this year (I lost 2 pounds till my goal of 128 and gained them back in two month, so I decided that 130 is going to be) - I find that as long as I eat the same foods I am doing fine. Like maintaining on routine is working. My last 2-4 pounds gain started with 100 km bike ride - we got meals there and I returned 2 pounds over my goal and just stuck there. Analyzing later I realized that for 2 days I was provided all meals, and obviously it was enough to forget the routine and start eating little extras.

Lesson learned - my next vacation, which was supposed to be all inclusive - is changed to include kitchen instead... And I hope to take my routines with me

I have to agree...I find so much comfort and ease in my routines and variety does tend to lead me astray. I really don't mind eating basically the same thing every day. Then, when I do have that rare treat, it really feels special (like my occasional Thai food outing!).

I do so much better if I eat my own thing rather than have what hubby and the boys are eating. Sometimes, I feel guilty for that, which really doesn't make much sense. I'm still eating WITH them. So, when the guilt kicks in, I try to make healthy and tasty meals for all four of us. The problem is that it may be good for me, but it's also yummy and I end up eating too much. I need to shoo the guilt away and just do what works.

Meg, I agree with you. I've maintained for two years now and the confidence that has given me is essential to my ongoing efforts. I was so scared at first when I met goal because the statistics were dismal and I'd never maintained weight before. It was such a mystery to me and I was nervous about not having all the answers. Now, maintaining for the long term seems so doable and yes, much easier than before. I'm still discovering tools to help me on my journey (like this forum - yippee!!) and I'm comfortable with the fact that I will never be truly "done."

Karyn Lee

KarynLee ~~ That pic is just too cute of you!! Ok get back on subject here... I too Karyn feel guilty about my cooking but in a different way... I cook very plain, no sauces, no gravies, everything steamed or broiled, salads with minimal dressing, nothing very fancy at all. I've been doing that for eons and everyone is used to it. When the kids go to my mom's and she makes something with sauces etc..., the kids just rave about it and say: "Why don't you cook like Ma? It's always better over there..." Ok, so I try to cook like Ma, the dang stuff goes bad in the fridge and I end up throwing it away, cause *I* certainly won't eat it...Go figure with kids, you're danged if you do, danged if you don't!! Thank goodness DH eats whatever I put in front of him, some meals he'll enjoy more than others, but he'll eat it the so-so meals just the same...without complaint!

I tend to agree with everyone,that I like my boring foods and my routine...

Although I am currently auditioning new recipes to find lower cal foods to become staples, I tend to be what I call a 'serial eater'. I can eat the same thing day after day after day without complaint till I tire of it and move on to the next food of choice. During the course of a year I will rotate mainly about 6-7? different basic meals. I am currently serially eating broth-based soups, and veg. lasagne with homemade thin noodles. I have eaten the same breakfast almost each day for about a year -- egg on one slice toast with just abit (1/2 oz) of good cheddar, and some fruit.

I also read someplace in the 'library' section of this site that great variety of available foods causes an increase in amounts consumed.

Jan

I eat by routine somewhat too. I've been eating the same breakfast--oatmeal, berries, yogurt, coffee with milk--for months now. Maybe once a week I'll replace the oatmeal with red river cereal. If I don't have my usual breakfast, I feel like something's "off" all day. I can deal with replacing the berries with another fruit for a few days if we've run out, but cold cereal or toast or anything like that throws my eating habits off for the day. Starting to eat breakfast regularly, and getting into a breakfast routine, seems to have been a big part of finally losing weight without feeling deprived the whole time. I hope keeping it up helps with maintaining.

I'm another that tends to make the same meals over and over, with some seasonal variability. I tend to buy what's cheap. In the summer, eggplant and zuchinni are often featured veggies. Right now, it's more fall/winter veg. Legumes don't seem to have seasonal variability, I just buy them when I can find them on sale. Veggie chili and hearty soups get featured more often fall/winter than spring/summer. Cold salads as a meal more often spring/summer.

I've been eating spring salad mix and cottage cheese (with various other things) most days for lunch for a while. I'm going to try and make a big pot of veggie soup instead this week since it's been colder and see how that affects how I feel/eat the rest of the day. We get cold winters, so shifting to warming soups to get my midday veggie servings would make sense, but I reserve the right not to be sensible that way.

I also exercise by routine in a way--I take my ds to school and then pack my dds in the double stroller and walk/shop/run errands at least 4/5 weekdays either morning or afternoon. I feel off tonight since it was cold, rainy and we all have colds, so I decided to drive to some shops I can't walk to this morning. Running is 3-4 times a week, always first thing in the am, then home to eat breakfast and get the kids ready for the day. If I don't run every second day, I really miss it. I'm sitting here tonight really wanting to run or walk or something since I didn't all day; my legs are restless.