evemomma How is your sick kiddo? Better I hope. I had a small .2 gain this morning, but yesterday was very high in sodium. So I'll watching that a bit more closely now.

Hawaii Yay for being down a lb. I envy your running and zumba. Bad, terrible, awful knees keep me from doing anything like that. But I am looking forward to some yoga/pilates type exercise, bike riding, and strength training. I got on the bike last night for only 10 minutes and my legs were like Jello after I got done. Major work to be done here. But I'm up for it.

Westwillow So glad your family party went well. Spending time with family at the holidays can be a double edged sword. It sounds like yours was the better kind of gathering.

ecd I come to these boards every single day. While I'm eating lunch at work at my desk and usually after I get home. It's my lifeline.

slip Crashing into chocolate. I love that! Not that you did, but how you described it. And yay for a size 8. You rock that dress, girl!

Liana Fuzzy jammies. The very best.

RuthAnn I sure hope you get some down time soon. You have been so busy. Enjoy your party tonight and then relax.

Jenny A cottage in the snow sounds lovely. I'm picturing a Thomas Kinkaide painting in my head. Enjoy your down time.

My daughter has been taking my car in the evenings to go visit friends. So far she hasn't made it back to my place before midnight. What is it about kids (even adult children) being home that triggers that need for them to be home safe before you can go to sleep? She's halfway across the country most of the year and I can sleep just fine. Last night I was so tired from not sleeping I was in bed by 8:45. I didn't wake up til she got home at 2. Ah, youth. I can't remember the last time I stayed up until 2 voluntarily. But I am so happy she is here, a little lost sleep I can deal with.

Hi everyone;

Catlady; I always enjoy your posts! Yes, love to exercise and your regimen sounds great for you!

Jenny; I know how it feels to go past that scream weight but it'll come back down.

Slip: I'd love to be a size 8! Good for you!

Ruth Ann; Enjoy the down time cause you deserve it!

ecd; This is my support group. I find it just as important as trying to eat healthy and exercise. Its apart of my day to help motivate me.

Eve; I had a good zumba class. Its always fun. I hope your son is feeling better. No fun to have sick kids.

Hi Westwillow and Liana! And all you maintainers out there!

I have started the week out well and hope to continue with a trip to the gym today! I need to get my water in today though as the last couple days have been challenging in doing that for some reason. Have a great day all!

Hey all!!!!

Hang in there friends....we can do this!!!!!!!

Bad news: my son tested positive for influenza A...boo! He had a fever of 103F at the clinic. He fevered and chilled all night, so we're a little bleary-eyed today. Good news is the rest of us will take Tamiflu to prevent MORE sickness at the house. Bad news is our trip to Memphis is off. Hoping we can regroup and get down there next week.

I did some replanning and food shopping today. We just watched Muppets Christmas Carol....trying to come up with festive activities that are home bound. Reminds me of our Thanksgiving!

Still thankful to be with my own little family at Christmas. ..wishing everyone blessings!

Sad about the flubug, evemomma!! Hope everyone there keeps well and your son recovers soon.

post copied from my comments on Maintainer menu thread...
Today was a blur... I fell hard and ate GF crackers AND light old cheddar at 2 AM.... My DH phones me at 11 and wakes me out of a sound sleep to tell me he is bringing over a few of our friends for coffee in 10 minutes!!!!! THANKS, HONEY!! I had to throw on a bra and some clothes and neaten up the bathroom, then rush into the kitchen & practice my hospitality smile .
The sink was full of dishes, house in an uproar.
I am still thinking of a way to kill him slowly and painfully.....
The postie rings during our visit and delivers a box of Avon which had to go out to all the waiting customers this afternoon. WHEW! Bags packed, invoices done, bags delivered, money picked up. Not done til 6:30 tonight. I know I ate food today... a protein bar, cucumber & celery were involved, but so unfortunately was more cheese, rice cakes, a banana, leftover bits of curry pork & cauliflower with brown rice, and very possibly other things I can't even remember???? Didn't even go near MFP or the computer til tonight. I haven't taken any vitamins today and only half my water. SIGH!
Time for a re-do as Andrea said the other day.

Liana

Liana, hope you recover from your crazy busy day. Did you have fun visiting with your friends at least? Stress eating is hard to resist at this time of year. Hope your day goes better today.

As for me, I get a Christmas miracle! The scale is back down in the lower part of my range. Do not ask me how! But I will take it. Off to my parent's tonight for a large Christmas gathering and to my brother's tomorrow. Beef is on both menus, which will be okay protocol wise. But, I am having a cup of egg nog for sure.

Eve, hope your son improves quickly and that the rest of your family avoids it completely.

Merry Christmas dear friends (and a belated Happy Hanukkah!)!!!!

My daughter just fell asleep...now waiting for my son to sleep before I starting wrapping like mad! Tamiflu is a wonder-drug, and my son is feeling a lot better already. I stayed within my xalories today, though my fat was WAY high. Still feel good about feeling in control.

We made iced Christmas cookies, which are HUGELY addictive to me. But I made a commitment to myself to record every bite of food today...and boy did that help me stay honest! Tomorrow, I'm choosing to have a free day but still going to closely track things so I don't go off the rails!

Blessings to all and to all a good night!

So glad your son is feeling peppier evemomma!
Thanks for the kind thoughts Slip, without being too harsh about it, the friends DH invited over aren't the sort I feel çomfortable with in jammies and a messy house, lol. To be honest, I was a bit embarrassed but resolved to try to put that out of my mind and just be a good hostess. I've always stressed about hosting parties, get togethers, and even close friends at my place although I love visits to other's places and am very non-judgemental about their homes and party àrrangements. I think I am a perfectionist when it comes to myself although very forgiving when it comes to others.

Liana

So did your dh get coal for Christmas for that stunt Liana?

Evemomma - glad your son is feeling better, no fun for kids to be sick at Christmas! I agree, logging is really important for me too to keep myself from going overboard. I really try to log before I eat something - helps me decide if it's worth it or not.

Hooray for you Slipfree! And you know how you got there - paying attention, getting your water in, etc., etc.! You are a superstar!

Survived the family party with not much damage - stuck to one glass of wine with dinner and tried to make good choices but relaxed and didn't log the majority of it. It felt good to take a break, I just kind of estimated. Besides, I only get homemade latkes once a year!

Merry Christmas to all my maintaining friends - thank you for your support over the last year. I wish I could tell each of you just how much of a difference you have made in my life with your suggestions, humor and caring.

Merry Christmas Maintainers!

Liana we all need a do over day now and then. I'm a perfectionist too much hen it comes to company in my house. Glad you survived. Not too sure about your hubby though. He definitely deserves that lump of coal!

Eve: So sorry your trip got cancelled but glad your son is feeling better.

Ruthann: You are relaxing! Yay! Im looking forward to my first glass of wine.

Slip: Hooray for lost lbs. Enjoy your eggnog!

I had both my son and daughter here last night. I made crockpot beef stew for dinner and then we opened presents and played Jenga and cards. Of course we had to watch A Christmas Story. Love that movie. It was a lovely evening.

Merry Christmas and happy holiday maintainer friends!

Wishing all of you a healthy, happy, and successful maintenance for 2015!

Thank you all so much for your support, wisdom, encouragement and when needed a kick in the pants or calming breath. I look forward to another year with you all.

Eve - I'm glad your son is feeling better. That must have been scary.

Slip - that is awesome you are in the lower end of your range

Catlady - sounds like a great night with your family. I love the Griswalds and the sound of music movies.

Liana - I hope your re-do day is going well, I have a few of those starting tomorrow. In would srtuggle as well with DH bringing guests unexpectedly.

Hope everyone is enjoying a cozy day with family and friends

Hello Friends!

Hope that everyone had an amazing Christmas! My kids are feeling better, and so things were a little louder and rowdier than the past few days here, despite still being cooped up at home. I think my son's fever has broken, so hoping we might get out and about a little tomorrow!

I'm wearing some AMAZING wool-line sheepskin slippers my hubby got me for Christmas. Perfect for my cold toes! I don't usually get a lot of presents for Christmas, so I was HAPPILY surprised that my Brother-in-law sent me a FitBit Flex for my present. Charging it tonight and excited to get a little motivation to get myself moving. I really enjoying the micro-managing part of weight-loss (IE: MFP and weight tracking), so I think I will enjoy this also and love how it syncs with MFP.

Had a fun day eating today, so off to a better choices tomorrow! Luckily, the sugar cookies we made for Santa aren't very good (used an old mix...teehee), so I'm doing quite well keeping away from them at least!

Take care all!

Happy Christmas & Seasonal good wishes to all of you Maintainers. You also feel like friends.

Evemomma - so glad to hear that both your kiddos are perking up today. Hooray for you to just swing into action with Plan B, no fuss! Not sure I could be that flexible. Congrats. And I hear you that your new toy will help you micro-manage - good description. Good gift! And sheepskin-lined slippers - Woohoo!!

Liana - I hope your do-over day has been just that & you feel a tad less frazzled. Sounds like your world can get pretty hairy at times. Downtime needed??

Andrea - how sweet an evening that sounds - good on you all. Yes, my family time was definitely the good side of the double-edged sword, although not without some undercurrents. Still - a wonderfully memorable experience.

Jenny - I am seeing you quietly regrouping in your parents' sweet cottage. I hope it is so.

Ruth Ann - You are relaxing! Sounds grand! I love the idea of seeing the world slightly askew

I have had a lazy jammies day, except for a long walk through some trails & roadways nearby, in crispy but not super-cold weather - & sunshine!!! Not the liquid variety. Phone time with my daughter before I was even out of bed. Great start to my day - I do love that girl!

I am lugging around some up pounds, but some of that is water - woke up feeling quite puffy. Trying to drink lots today & tomorrow will be even better. With intentional retreat-refresh-renew time now, I expect to be able to attend better to my food. Although today started with a splash of homemade Bailey's in my coffee & a 'crashing' into some chocolate-dipped apricots. Thanks for the apt terminology, Slipfree Enjoyed both, am not MFP'ing today & will return to being accountable tomorrow.

I think it was Ruth Ann who said (perhaps on another thread?) that Maintaining is all about gaining & losing the same 5 pounds - sounds about right.

Blessings to all of you who have (often unknowingly) provided comfort & courage to myself & others on this journey.

JAMMIE TIME!!!!

Good morning my friends,

Hoping that all of you had a festive holiday! Mine was delightful.

West willow, your breakfast sounds delicious. I am going to join you in your your jammies day today.

Eve, so glad that your family is feeling better. The gifts sound just right. I will be interested to see if you like the fitbit.

Jenny, I was in my lower range for about a half second, lol! But at least today, I am only one pound over my scream weight. Nice clean couple of days will take care of the up pounds, no worries. Hope you are relaxing and enjoying the cabin.

Ruth Ann, the latkes sound delish too! Happy that you were able to enjoy some family time.

Andrea, glad that you enjoyed your time with your kids. Love the game Jenga.

Hello Maintainers!

evemomma: So glad your kiddos are feeling better and you can get out and about. Those slippers sound heavenly. My feet are always cold. I've been thinking about getting a FitBit as well. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts about it.

Jenny: Those Griswold Vacation movies are such a hoot. Strapping Grandma to the roof is one of my favorite scenes!

Westwillow: I had some Jammie time yesterday morning while my daughter slept in. I got some knitting done and am almost finished with The Book Thief. Then I also went for a hike at a Nature Preserve about a half hour's drive from home. The trails weren't too difficult and it felt so good to get out and move around. I walked for about 45 minutes. It was 60 degrees F here yesterday, sunny and windy. Typical Texas winter weather. I don't know if it is related or not but I was down 1.4 lbs this morning. I'll take it.

My daughter posed an interesting question to me yesterday about the diet. What is the reasoning for the carb/fat separation in P4? Why can't you go to a "balanced" diet? I didn't really have a good answer for her as I haven't even considered straying from the IP protocol since this has worked so well. Is it because the so-called "balanced" diet is anything but. Some much of what we thought was the right way to eat has been debunked. I had been obese for almost 20 years. I got that way by taking anti-depressants as well as eating SAD. But I lost 50 lbs by going vegetarian in 2008 and doing lots of cardio, But then I got stuck. So I tried eating Paleo and cutting carbs and that didn't work for me even though there are tons of testimonials on Mark's Daily Apple from people who lost a lot of weight following this type of diet and keeping carb in the sweet spot of 50-100 g/day(which I did). I suspect in my case I was insulin resistant and had metabolic syndrome so I had to "fix" myself as Dr. Wilkinson explains with the teeter totter analogy in his videos to get back to a normal weight.

Any long time maintainers have insight into this question? Did some of you try something different and find that it worked for you or did you absolutely have to follow the carb/fat separation in order to maintain? Is that why it's so easy for the weight to come back if you don't follow this rule? Because our bodies were out of whack before IP and it's super easy for them to revert as opposed to someone who has never had that problem?

I will be starting P4 on Monday so I am pulling out Chef Verati's book and putting together some menus so I will be ready. I'm looking forward to this next phase and I'm sure I will stumble some along the way but I know that I can come here for help and support. You are all so knowledgeable and helpful and I am very grateful for all of you.

The fat-carb separation plan is really just a very easy way to keep your calories and daily carb intake under control. High fat foods and high carb foods are both high in calories....so if you mix them it's VERY easy to overdo it on your calorie intake. By having ONE meal with higher fat content, and ONE meal with higher carb content, it's much easier to keep your fat/carb/calorie intake within a reasonable range.

You can ABSOLUTELY go on a different plan for maintenance if that's what works for you - there are some who do a paleo-style diet, some who just count their macros......but it's worth mentioning that the fat-carb separation idea IS still a balanced diet - you are eating a VERY balanced diet across your entire day, even if you are exercising a restriction for one meal or another. At the end of the day you have to figure out what works for you and what will be easiest for you to maintain in the long run