High fellow maintainers. It's been a while since I posted here (although I've kept track) but I've just been so busy at work. Things have calmed down here somewhat.

I've been doing well at maintaining thus far. My weight seems to have stabilized and I fluctuate between 111 and 113 which is okay by me. If I can keep that up for the next 30 years, I'll be happy as a lark.

Meg - sorry to hear about your coffee machine. I too have a variety of machines as "back-up" but if necessary I think I'd put some coffee grounds in an old sock, hold it over the cup and pour hot water through it just to get my morning java.

DH and I went on a trip all by ourselves this weekend. It's been years since we did that. Funny thing - without any outside stressors or other people around, we managed to enjoy the entire weekend without once getting annoyed at each other. I think that couples sometimes just need to get away from the kids, the in laws and friends to just rediscover each other.

DH is on the JC diet too and is about 6 lbs away from his goal weight. So, we pretty much stuck to the diet for the weekend although I went a little off base yesterday. We stopped at a hole-in-the wall restaurant on the way home. DH ordered a bowl of chili and I ordered a chicken sandwich (thinking that would be nice and healthy). Well, his chili was so good I wound up eating about 4-5 bites of that, half my chicken sandiwich (which was huge and loaded with B-B-Q sauce) and a "handful" of french fries. Once I started on those fries, I just couldn't stop. It seems like its been years since I had hot starchy grease drenched sticks (aka fries). Finally, DH swooped in for the rescue and forced me to leave the restaurant before I had consumed all of them. Doesn't seem to have affected the scale (yet). And in days past, I would have eaten 1/2 his chili, all my sandwich, all the fries and probably ordered dessert.

But, it's back to being a good girl today and I did extra exercise last night to make up for the transgression.

Hoping you all have a great week.

Hello again gals.

Tuesday and it's quiet here at work right now so I thought I'd spend some time here. Today Sweden will devour many more calories than usual, since you traditionally eat these cinnamon buns filled with sugar-almond-paste and cream (I don't know what they're called in English, these 500 calories a piece-creations). Think it has to do with lent and all that. Luckily I really dislike these buns, they're boring and bland, I'd rather have something else.

Valentine's Day is around the corner too of course, as Meg pointed out earlier, but it's not celebrated that much over here (most people feel it's too American and imported ) so no risk there either when it comes to food..

-8°C and sunny here today but I didn't get any walking done during lunch, there just wasn't time really.. Oh well. I'll get some exercise this evening at the gym though and I plan to revamp my routine there and have less reps and more weights instead (posted about this in the Ladies Who Lift-forum to get some opinions about it). It gets tedious to lift the same thing like 40 times or whatever the total is.

Have a good day everyone and may the force of the scales be with you. :

/Ann-Charlotte

Hey ladies –

Sorry I’ve been somewhat MIA lately except for an occasional drive-by posting. Work’s been a real bear lately.

Julie, I’ve had the same problem and still struggle with it. I finally figured out that one of my triggers is that Mr. Donna is a veeerrrrry slow eater and he’s still eating long after I’m done. I’ve done a few things to deal with that.
A. I take the remote away from him so he eats a little faster (yes, [hangs head] we eat in front of the TV – anyway, he doesn’t multi-task very well and so he can’t channel surf and eat at the same time)
B. I take the dog for a walk around the yard outside – no leash required, just goofing around for a few minutes outside. There’s no food outside unless I want to try to reach the peanuts and raisins on the bird feeders.
C. I read. I can watch TV and eat but I can’t read and eat. I don’t know why that is but there it is.

Another of my triggers was that I just got in the habit of desert after dinner. Some nights I can “afford” desert; some nights I can’t. I’ve become more willing as time goes on to face the fact that some nights I can’t afford desert. And that I probably don’t need it because I’ve had plenty of food that day if I am out of calories/points after dinner.

All right, time for a little celebration. I had my body composition measured last Monday and I was quite tickled with the results. We play so many psychological head games with numbers that I won’t reveal the result – just that the body lean to body fat ratio and the body fat percentage was beyond my “acceptable” range and into the “thrilled out of my mind” range! They measured my resting heart rate at 58 beats per minute, a number I really liked. I was so thrilled (and starving – the test required a fast and I missed breakfast) that my first thought on leaving the testing center was that I would run down to the fast food place down the street and get a big greasy biscuit to celebrate. That thought lasted a nanosecond. Then I went to Walmart and bought myself a new gym bag and some fat-free Fig Newtons instead.

While the results of the body composition test are motivation to “keep on keepin’ on” in and of themselves, I did want to say a great big “THANKS!” to y’all. Some days, when I don’t want to face that treadmill, I think of you ladies, posting kilometers run and finishing marathons. Some days, when I sigh trying to psyche myself up to go do my tiny little bit of lifting, I think of you ladies and I hear a tiny voice in my head saying “Yay, muscles!” I am a “lone wolf” kind of personality but it’s really nice to have a “pack” to belong to, even if only virtually and temporarily.

So THANKS again, y’all. Carry on.

Donna -- I am so happy to hear your good news, your post really reflected how thrilled you are I felt it right through the screen... I for one certainly don't know what I would do on some days without these virtual friends that I KNOW I will meet some day, eh Meg!

TTFN....

Oh hello! Everyone! I'm a bit embarassed that so many of you remembered my newest endeavour. I'm doin' OK. But it's time to step out in faith. I'm still having the odd wee puff here and there AND I'm not watching my food AND I'm not exercising like I should. It's time to get on with life. I don't need to hang around in a phase with all the other phases on hold. Dumb, dorkey, makes no sense.
Onward we go!

Hi all:
Any input you guys can give me would be appreciated. Here's my stat's and problem.
Height 5'3 weight 148. Goal weight 138. Right now I have been at 1200 calories a day and 45 mins of low iintensity cardio (walking, bike, treadmill, eliptical)6 days a week. I do light weight 3 times a week about 15 mins a session. The scale has not budge in 3 weeks except for slight blip up a pound or two. I need to avoid the this isn't working so I'll collapse stage. Any advice?

Gina- It sounds like you just need to change SOMETHING. You could try

It sounds like you just need a plateau buster! Change is good

SusanB- Glad to hear you are hanging in there and MOVING ON Yup, time to get on with forward motion!

Donna- Wow! That's fantastic that you are in the "thrilled" zone

Anne-Charlotte- Have a good time revamping your gym routine. I agree, those endless rep sets are boring. I'm not sure what those cinnamon buns are called here, but it's a good thing we don't have them since I love anything with almond paste. Yum!

Lawshark- Your getaway sounds wonderful. We haven't done that in ages.

Time for me to head to bed. Early gym morning, I'm yawning already.

Mel

hi maintainers,

Ilene, Anne and Gina: thanks a lot for your supporting words !!

Gina: DON'T give up !!! IMO most of this game is focussed on just showing up and going through the moves even if you don't feel like it.

Donna: CONGRATULATIONS !!!

Well the good news is that the scales are DOWN today. I hope this is not a fluke, maybe it was water weight because I really had sore muscles.
The bad news is that I had a bad fallback in the depression thing on monday eveneing, which continued most of yesterday. Today seems a bit better. So I am at a regroup action plan, taking it easy on myself. I seem to be moving in a fog though.

Still, I perceive this all has to do with just showing up and going through the motions even when the going gets tough. Its an inspiration to me to know that there are more people outthere slugging away at cardio or lifting weights towards the same common goal of having a better body.

excercise reporting:
monday LBW, 20 mins row, 15 mins jog, 15 mins bike
tuesday: 20 mins row, 20 mins jog, 20 mins bike
wednesday: 10 mins row, UBW, 15 mins jog, 15 mins bike

Last remark for Gina: I also thought I had stuck a plateau. Went through my logs of the last 12 weeks last monday morning and checked through of weight loss for a week with amount of excercise, lifting weight and number of rest days. For me it turns out to be that weight loss in a week correllates with 2 rest days, do weightlifting and have 5 hours of excercise a week. So I am now back on 1 hour excercise, 5 days a week and a weightlifting split into lower body and upper body.

have a nice day all,
rabbit

Thanks for the wakeup call. I do need to change something, and see it on paper helps. I tend to feel angry and rebellious when these things happen. I need to refocus and move forward.
Mel your suggestions are right on target. Step 1 is to increase the intensity of the cardio. This is an on going issue for me, so out comes the heart monitor. Step two is to work on the whole weight training issue. I think I need to visit the weight lifting forum for some ideas.
Rabbit hope your feeling better today. I'll go through the motions, some days thats the best I can do.

everyone! Ilene, I would absolutely kill for 24-hour drive through coffee! But isn’t Tim Horton’s the place with the donuts? That could be a baaaaad place for me. Not like Starbucks makes my life easy with their seductive case of yummy goodies in the AM. Thankfully, I looked up the calorie counts on-line and just keep repeating them over and over to myself (scone 510 calories, cinnamon roll 780 calories etc). That's pretty sobering.

So - for all those who've been struggling a bit lately – is this week going any better? I swear that February is the worst and longest month of the year! Here, at least, it’s nothing but gray and damp and cold, with piles of dirty snow around. Ha – but get this! DS is at college in Orlando and he likes nothing better than to call me up and tell me the weather forecast – today it’s 85 and sunny. He said that the A/C in his car was barely able to keep up. Poor baby!

How’s our new little mom feeling these days? I so remember that tiredness … but it DOES get better!

I had a vision of a Christmas stocking stuffed with French fries when I read that …

Ann-Charlotte – I think it makes a LOT of sense to set your goal weight a little higher. The whole idea of maintenance is to make this a comfortable way to live the rest of our lives – like you said, why make this any tougher than necessary? You always can go lower later if you want to, but it’s a good idea to pick a reasonable place to stop and practice your maintenance skills for now.

Sasha – cinnamon buns! Ann-Charlotte – cinnamon buns with almond filling! You guys are killing me!

Julie – welcome again and we’re glad you’re posting with us! My way of avoiding night eating is to stay out of the kitchen (even if it means leaving the dishes for morning), brush my teeth, and read in bed (which puts me out like a light), but I hit the sack a whole lot earlier than you do.

isn't it? Just like how it takes SO long to clean the house and then - poof! - it only takes an hour to look like a hurricane blew through.

Hey Lawshark! Great to see you back again and bwah ha ha ha on the coffee in the dirty sock. Yep, that’s me! Congrats on doing such a great job with maintenance so far. In my opinion, the first few months are the toughest … the 'OMG what do I do now?' stage. Then it all kind of settles down into just being part of our lives. And you’ll see that stuff like the FFs happen and we just pick up right where we left off and all is still good. Like we talked about over in the Thin For Life thread – we’re all going to have lapses; the trick is to keep them from becoming relapses.

thinking of you, Susan! And Rabbit, you’re right – a lot of it is just showing up. Woody Allen said that 80% of success is showing up - and the rest is timing. Hope you’re feeling a little better.

Donna - way to go on the good numbers! I’m with you on the group support here because I don’t know ANYONE in Real Life who’s managed to do what we've done and who's LIVING maintenance every day the way we are. Without this group, I wouldn’t even believe that long-term maintenance is possible. We’re constantly bombarded with media messages that diets don’t work and 95% of people regain their lost weight … . People, we’re doing it and we’re proving them wrong every day! I love it as our group grows bigger and bigger because it’s like we're thumbing our noses at all the so-called 'experts' - nyah nyah nyah! As far as I know, we’re the only group on the Internet dedicated to weight loss MAINTENANCE and I just couldn’t be any prouder of the Maintainers Forum! It’s an honor to be rewriting the statistics about weight loss and maintenance with all of you and I know that the group support here is a big part of my success. You betcha, Ilene, we’ll all meet one day!

Got to go make dinner – life is good here and I’m having an absolute blast studying my personal training materials!

Just running through for now. Dinner is almost on the table.

Was back down to 119.5 this morning and I'm doing the happy dance. Just a few more to go before I'll be dancing the jig!

Will check in later. Hang on people, they never said this would be easy! Maintaining is the toughest but Meg, you're right, we can do it!

Julie, congrats on the progress! Getting back on track always feels so good.

Well, I've finally got my eating under control this last week. My 0-deficit calorie allowance is pretty generous, with the exercise I'm still doing, but at least the 3000+ days seem to be gone. I'm still feeling good, just a little tired, but the running etc seems to help with that. One odd thing is that my weight is very very stable this week--I figure I'm saturated at maximum bloat and so there is no room for variability!

Next week I'm on business travel again. I'll try to check in before I go, but if you miss me, that's why. I also keep meaning to collect my thoughts and post to some of the other great threads going on now, Robin's Sustainable Goal Weight thread and of course the TfL series that Meg is working so hard on, but I find myself spacing out. I'm told it's normal, but I feel like I'm losing my mind.

Everybody have a good week, and for those of us struggling this week, keep hanging in.

Anne

Hi all,

Steadily losing the weight, I have started weight training again and my cardio's great so I am happy. I might try a body balance class soon (a mix of tai chi, pilates and yoga). I am also quitting my second job soon due to the fact it looks like my BF has found a good job and my raise and equals more to my part time job and my old salary, so there really is no need for me to stress myself out.

I am working on getting 8 hours of sleep a night, it's tough though.

Cheers!

Ali

Good Morning!
Just got home from Las Vegas after 6 days in the city. I was ready to return. We saw some great shows and had fun, but I wouldn't go back. Vegas is a little much for me, it's a fun place to visit once.

Food wise I'm still on track! Exercise was OK, I worked out twice on vacation. I'm going this afternoon. I'm so happy that I didn't gain anything on vacation, the scale was at 117 this morning and I feel great. I've finally recovered from the struggle I was having at the beginning of the year, I hope it keeps up.

Anne - glad to hear you're feeling well. I never really experienced morning sickness, I had a few sick-feeling moments, but nothing terrible. Just tired, and even that got better til the very end. Keep us posted! It's so exciting.

Hello to all Maintainers! I must go break up my son & his friend, they are wrestling (no school today).

Anne - Lessismore

Wndranne: Congratulations on the little angel. You have a lot of new changes facing you - not just in the next 9 months, but in the next 20 years. It will be an adventure but well worth it. If you think you're losing your mind now - just wait.

Golden Girl: Great job on getting down. I'll dance a jig for you.

Meg: I agree. February is not a great month. There's just something about February that's depressing. It's cold, gray and dreary. We know Spring is around the corner, but it seems like it will never get here. Even though my coffee machine is in fine working order, this has been a pretty crazy week for me. Seems it's just not my week. I've fought with coworkers over stupid stuff, had a root canal yesterday and just got the news this morning that a favorite aunt had a heart attack and is being rushed to Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta for open heart surgery. It can't get worse so it has to get better.

Sweater Girl: Two jobs. My gosh. How do you do it? Glad to hear that you can quit one of them - you need that extra sleep. Great job on starting weight training.

Lessismore: DH and I used to go to Vegas quite frequently. It's just a 4 hour drive from here (So. California). We usually go for the weekend. I think 6 days would be toooooooo much. How'd you resist all the buffets? They're my downfall. The best thing about Vegas is all the great places to eat. I haven't been there since I started on Jenny Craig. Too much temptation. But you seem to have done a wonderful job to have come back with no weight gain - especially after 6 days. Good for you.

Well, guess I better go back to doing what they pay me for. I'm off tomorrow and probably won't log in again until next week. Everybody have a great weekend.