Hello Everyone,

Well, I stepped on the scale today, and four days of fun eating and drinking translated into 6 pounds of water weight.

I did not go hog wild--just didn't stay on any plan and had treats four days in a row. My most extreme day was probably close to 200g net carbs and the others were closer to 100. I keep telling myself this was an experiment to see where my boundaries are, and I would say I found out!

It is important to me that I feel like I'm taking care of myself, and not feeling "punished" as I push my net carbs down and work on getting rid of the water weight. I hit less than 60 yesterday and today, and will likely stick to that until I'm closer to my typical weight. I'm not doing the P1 day so far, because I think that might push calories too low for me.

Slipfree, glad you had a fun stay-cation, and it helps me to know others experience this as well!! Glad to read you jumped right back in to your plan.

Thank you Liana for the post--the information is always changing....I am skeptical too of the various lobbying entities.

Catlady and Shasta, I hope you are both feeling better.

Good morning all!

Slip: PT was a little different this time. When I have gone in the past it was a long visit with lots of different exercises. This time it was 30 minutes long and mostly stretching exercises with a little bit of strength thrown in. I have to do the exercises three times a day(that will be interesting at work on the floor of my office!).

Murrcat: Good to see you here! I'm glad you had a good time and are being calm about your up lbs. My knee is feeling better and I'm sure it will get even better once I start doing the PT exercises.

When I came out of PT yesterday the idiot light for tire pressure was on. I ignored it and figured I would put air in the tires after work today. Wrong decision. Walked out this morning to drive to work and I have a flat tire. So, at home, waiting for the service to come and change my tire. Ugh!

Yikes it is cold everywhere.

Andrea - sounds like you are working hard with your PT

For my kids - welcome to maintence I found exercise helped with the stomachs inches and I notice when I go up a few lbs it seems to go on the stomach

Murrcat - I love your attitude and will remember it when I weigh myself when I get home.

Pish - how is the alternative plan going? I think makes a lot of sense and sounds like something you can work with.

Eve - great work shovelling.

Slip - how was your stay cation? Did you read any good books? I have been reading a lot in Florida but nothing special. DH and I tried to watch Sons of Anarchy together but I keep falling asleep.

Chip - smart dog you have, I wouldn't leave the couch eitther. How are exercise going?

We are packing up and heading home tomorrow morning. I hope to bring the warm weather and sun with me. Back to eating on plan and doing one day at a time.

Hi All! Sorry, school/work/etc. can be so busy during the week it's hard for me to check in some days. Just catching up now!

Valentine's was good, but a little rough on my system. I had a ton of sashimi (no rice) while on this diet last year, but decided I'd go for my favorite roll for dinner. Can't believe last time I ate rice was May 2014. Anyways - I didn't go crazy or anything, but after dinner had the spins REAL bad. Dizzy, lightheaded, had to lay down. It was weird.

Life in P2/P3 is SO much better. I basically live between the two during the week - some mornings I have to run out the door so I grab a bar and it's more of a P2 day, but when I have the time a bigger breakfast is nice. I'm going to start exercising tomorrow (just got a new elliptical) so I will have a nice big P3 brekkie for sure. Been making a sriarcha tuna salad on a bed of kale for lunch lately, yum! I do NOT miss lunch packets, that's for sure. I'm going to slowly add in small amounts of cheese and nuts as well. I can't tolerate a lot of "real" cheese (I use veggie cheese), so I'm going to watch my portions and see how it goes.

It's snowing again here today. Le Sigh. I don't think I know a single person without ice dams and water damage. Worried about what happens when this all melts!

Hope you are all staying warm and having a good week - going back a few pages to see what I've missed!

Oh! Almost forgot - I picked up a new cookbook recently (I think I may have a cookbook hoarding problem... I've bought 6 or 7 in the past few months, yikes...). I was wondering if you ladies had heard of it? It's called Diabetes Meals By The Plate. I saw it at Costco, but ordered it on amazon (gotta love prime). So far almost all of the meals fit nicely in the 3:1 ratio for a carb dinner. I love how it divvies up the plate and gives you proper portion control and a complete nutritional breakdown as well.

Hello Maintainers!

Well, its been a good week. I am back into my exercise schedule and having good eating days. I'm in mid range. I am still struggling with the weekends but if I don't go crazy then I continue to maintain so I need to just relax, live life and not get too worried if I enjoy a treat here or there or a glass of wine. And if the lbs start to creep up, then I need to do something about it. I enjoy reading all of your posts. I usually read every day. Hi to Ruth Ann, Slip,Liana,Pishposh, Chipndip, Murrcat, Eve, Jenny, Catlady,Darthkitten,ecdcslim and everyone that I've forgot! There's a lot of maintainers and its great to read how you are all doing. And welcome to all of the new maintainers,I enjoy reading about your journey as well. Have a great day!

Hello Maintainer Friends!!!!!

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Below zero (in F) this am with 20- w indchills....meant my kids were off school (they're pretty wimpy rounds parts IMO). Had to scramble with my schedule and am now working until 9pm tonight. Blah.

Sorry i haven't had a chance to catch up better with everyone! I am cheering each one of youon and enjoy eveveryone's honesty. Maintenance is no piece of cake!

Speaking of bloating and expanded tummies....I was pretty annoyed that my favorite pants felt tight in my waist today. Grrrrr. I am still at 125 (+/- 1 lb)....and it's my Tom. Still...i don't like that feeling. I haven't been great with my water with the extra cold temps and have had a little extra carbs than normal (still same level of calories ) because i have been trying to finish up some chili i made on Mon. I think i may do a p3 day tomorrow and see if that helps. I may be finding that my body is reaching it's max carbs. We'll see....

Refuse to panic but taking note for sure!

eve - I'm with you, except I don't get TOM. I'm at my goal weight and I'm all flubby. I felt so svelte when I first transitioned into maintenance and looked super thin. And now I have to figure out how to hide muffin tops in all the cute new tailored stuff I bought in my new size (why did I give away all my blousey tops? WHY?!). I'm still in my size 4 pants, and they're even falling down (over the muffins). But those weren't there a month ago. I look... thicker. Is it the glycogen coming back? I'm getting on the elliptical tomorrow - because while I'm not "technically" overweight/fat/whatever anymore, I have to look at myself in my underwear, and I can tell you I look like a side of mashed potatoes. When I went back on P1 I saw my body slimming down again, but I can't live in P1 forever.

I wish I took pictures so I could explain what's happening better. It's just... bizarre to see the same number on the scale but to have all this excess flub in places I didn't have it a month ago.

Hi all - Thanks for asking about my dizziness. I was able to fix it by eating more protein and splitting up my veggies to have some earlier. So, in the end I was grazing all day. The good news is I was down a pound at weigh in this week. So, I have 7 pounds to go and then I'm officially joining you all in maintenance.

Still working on the water weight...it will come off.

Shasta, glad to hear you figured out the dizziness.

Jenny, hope getting back to the regularly scheduled program goes smoothly.

Darth, when the glycogen came back I was able to see a change. I don't think anyone else would notice.

Catlady, thank you for the tire tip and glad pt is okay.

Hope everyone feeling puffy feels less so soon.

Eve, we're in the single digits today too, my car said 3 degrees when I left to go to work, yikes!

Darth, I definitely noticed the feeling of flubbieness after I was in maintenence for a while, and since I've added in more carbs on the alt plan, I think my face looks fuller than it did when I was in P1. I wonder if some of it has to do with the time of year too. I know I've been having a lot of trouble getting in all of my water because it's so cold. Have been trying to make up for it with herbal teas, but my mouth is sore from all of the burns I've given myself.

Still sitting around 167. I'm ok with it but have a feeling that once spring comes around I'll have a better time with being able to make smarter choices as more variety of veggies and fruits will be in season. I'll also be more motivated to exercise in warmer weather. For right now, all I want to do is hide in a blanket!

It's snowing here again. -13 felt like -17 this morning on the 17km run. Got frozen eye lashes and icicles off the back of my hair and eye brows. Getting a little tired of running in the snow. I looked at the scale and I need to lose 5lbs to be in the middle of my maintence weight so back on the plan today. Hoping to P1 for the week or 3 days and then P2 and see what comes off. Won't look at the scale again till Wednesday.

I think in the cold weather many of us go to extra carbs. Like you both Pishposh and Darthkitten, I notice the up lbs on my stomach. I think the exercise and core strengthening may help. The diabetic cookbook looks good. Probably a smart way of eating.

Hawaii - sounds like you have found your rhythm.

Eve - are the kids off because of the weather?

Hi to Ruth Ann, murrcat, Shasta, Andrea, Debbie, Liana, Slip and everyone else.
Stay warm.

Hi all! It's been so long since I've posted. I've been away too long. Life has gotten busy and I've struggled with fitting in life and still finding ways to focus on my health. I'd like to say I've had complete success - but it's definitely been up and down.

I will spend some time reading to catch up but wanted to say I've missed 'seeing' you and gaining wisdom and inspiration.

One thing I'm learning - that I 'knew' but didn't really 'know' - is that it takes a level of constant vigilance...vigilance to make the time for me and understand that the me-time at the gym, cooking, and planning are all as important as other life issues. It's when I forget to have some 'me' focus that things go off the rails. It is sometimes hard to have the 'me' focus...feels selfish, the opposite of what I grew up seeing and it's certainly not always easy to do.

But, I know it's important and I'll keep working on it. Still a little above scream weight but chugging along and doing the best I can. Oddly I think phase 1 was 'easier' than maintenance.

Happy Oscars night. Hope you're all doing well and surviving the snowy winter.

Hi all -

It seems like since I started P3 almost a month ago things have gotten crazy at home and work. I'm feeling a lot of pressure, so much so that I have not fully transitioned to P4 as I haven't really had a chance to wrap my head around it. My weight has remained stable and I know what I need to do - put myself first - very hard to do right now for some reason!

I definitely agree with you vachinyc!

Hi everyone,

Not sure how many of you read the Daily chat, but I posted this response to Oneuh2. It seems to fit right in with the conversation:

I am not going to lie to you, maintenance does require that type of commitment. And... It does get old and sometimes messy. I do find myself resenting the hyper focus and sometimes having to decline fun invitations that will not fit into my plan for the week. Getting rid of my all or nothing mentality is a struggle too. The whole thing can be exhausting, so I can understand the regain. But if I stop now, I would have to start again because living my life at 237 pounds was not acceptable to me.

I remind myself that I am healthier (normal blood pressure without medication now), have more energy and clothes shopping is easy. The outside world treats me differently based on their perception of my physical appearance, I haven't really changed but they have. Life is better without the weight.

Plus- when I went off plan last week for my stay-cation, food did not make me feel any better. I just felt puffy! I think that most of us have used food for comfort, entertainment and distraction. Changing behaviors that are entrenched is hard work. I think that we fall into a slide when we do not work the program and use the strategies daily. But all of us- are worth it. The big picture (a lifetime) can be overwhelming, just take it one bite at a time. Maybe make a list of what has changed in your life since you have been losing the weight. Try to focus on the present, you are doing great today and that is wonderful.