Hello everyone!

I'm irritated with myself, because I had some ice cream on the weekend... Drat. So today I've been strict with myself again, and back to my *perfect* P1/P2 eating. So far so good today... breakfast & lunch were on track, and I've got my dinner & evening snack all planned and waiting.

Not quite sure why I ate that ice cream! I wasn't craving it - wasn't having any cravings at all for a few days, for that matter - after having been strictly P1/P2 for seven days straight... I think it might have been having others at the BBQ chastising me that I look so slim now that I don't *need* to be so strict with myself....?

I'm currently sitting at 153lbs...I'm sure the weight I lost last week was pretty much water weight, because I know I was really retaining water for some reason. I want to keep eating P1/P2 until I get back down to 147 again, and stick with my former intention of treating 150 as my 'ceiling' for maintenance.

Looking back at these past 3 months of my maintenance, it seems rather odd... I kept fairly easily under 150 for the first two months... then when I got sick in early June I succumbed to the temptation of using ready-made soups, and a few frozen entrees, etc. as I didn't feel like cooking from scratch... I felt pretty lousy for close to two weeks... and during that time ice cream also crept back in to the picture. It was from that point forward that things quickly got worse. I started allowing more 'fun items' into my meal plan on more than just one day/week... and not always sticking to a strict P1 day after a Fun Day. So - the regain started... I saw the scale move up to 153 or so over a 2 week period or so... then in the space of 2-3 days I suddenly zipped up 4-5 more lbs!!! Yikes! As you can all well imagine, that number really SCARED me!!

Anyway... I'm back on P1 today, and things are moving in the right direction. And I'm still feeling strong, despite this weekend's ice cream lapse.

Chloe222 - Welcome back! Definitely the place to be for ongoing support and encouragement. I have a feeling I'm going to be hanging out here a LONG time!!! LOL.

Maille - Yogourt & strawberries on the waffles sounds yummy. I just bet that would taste good on their chocolate chocolate muffin/waffle too!!! Do you ever use any of their other low carb muffin flavors? I like most of them. And I love that I can enjoy them and still keep those carbs down.

GreatLakes86 - Welcome! Much as we all appreciate P1 & P2, when we finally get to experience those P3 breakfasts, they taste so wonderful!!! I remember it well... and I'm looking forward to them again, once I get back to goal weight. I can't encourage you enough to hang here frequently, and take full advantage of everyone's support and encouragement.

Guess that's it for today.... cheers everyone - Hope your day is going well.

Here I go........ after a 52 pound weight loss today is my first day in maintenance. I'm a little nervous we head out camping this weekend.

Hello All. I am feeling like I'm in between two worlds now. While I've hit goal and did P3 (had some difficulty there - granola is a trigger as well as nuts-almond butter). It sort of figures - peanut butter flavored anything has always been a draw in P1 but I had control over bars etc in P1. I'm not sure where to post as I feel so in limbo still. I know I'll get the hang of this, but right now I'm sort of stumbling along here. I've retreated to P1 yesterday and today to get my feet back under me. Anyway, I thought I'd jump in over here since you all went thru the transition. I've been lurking a while.

Maile congrats on your 1 yr 8 mos of maintenance. I hope to follow in your footsteps. You seem to have mastered maintenance.

Greatlakes & BEEGEE welcome! I just starting maintenance mid June so it is all very new to me.

evepet be kind to yourself. We all stumble, but what is important is that we learn from our mistakes. It may take a few stumbles along the way, but I'm sure you will figure everything out.

Halfagain I'm going through something similiar. Every time I try to add any grains back into my diet I lose control. It takes 2 days to really reign it back in, then I do a phase 1 day. I've decided for now to completely eliminate the grains and also peanut butter which is also a trigger for me. I'll try experimenting with some gluten free or paleo bread when I feel like I have a better handle on things.

Physically I feel better without the grains. I've noticed whenever I do have bread, almost immediately I feel tired and kind of foggy brained & the next morning it feels like a hangover.

Halfagain,
You池e posting in the right place.
For months and months my maintenance looked pretty much like Phase 3 with only 2 or 3 cheat meals per week. I maintained this way for close to six months...even lost about 1 lb per month. Then I added a few more snacks, more wine with dinner and a few more cheat meals. Now I知 up an average of 5 to 7 lbs in less than a month! Even though I知 still under my goal weight, I don稚 like the way these extra lbs feel. So I知 back to Phase 1 until I get these extra lbs off!

I guess what I知 saying is that it will take some time to adjust to maintenance. You sound like you understand your triggers and are adjusting as necessary. I still have a bar everyday. That's how I control my chocolate cravings . Maybe you can find a bar that will satisfy your peanut butter "tooth". So keep testing the maintenance waters and you値l figure out what works for you. We are all different.

Hi everyone. Hope everyone is having a good day.

Halfagain - You absolutely belong here! Maintenance is sort of 'trial and error' as we are all different. When we stumble it's great to be able to come here and share, knowing that everyone here understands and supports us.

cbl70 - Your experience sounds very much like mind. What's good is that we are monitoring ourselves, and doing our best to get things back under control again.

Ragdoll - Thanks for the support!

Beegee - Welcome!

Things are going well... I'm back on P1, although I added in an extra 'allowed' packet yesterday. Thankfully I'm not experiencing cravings, so thankfully my weekend ice cream splurge doesn't seem to have retriggered them.

Not much to report really - just wanted to pop in and say 'Hi!'.

Evepet,
Your experience is so similar to mine, it's great you are back in control again. I need to do the same. I went to get on the scale yesterday but the batteries in it were dead, I knew I had a party later in the day, I didn't exercise discipline...

HalfAgain,
You look tremendous! Congrats on making goal!! Re peanut butter cravings, I use Nashua Nutrition's HealthSmart peanut butter bars as my go to snack. They have regular and a double peanut butter, I like both. Maybe you would enjoy them.

Does anyone know how the lady from Alaska who underwent a tummy tuck is now doing? I wonder about her and wish her the best. She and I started the same month and had about the same amount to lose.

Maile,
Thank you for your inspiration. I always enjoy reading your posts, they are filled with wisdom and good advice overall.

Halfagain, have you ever tried the Oh Yeah! bars? There are several that are P1 compliant (depending on how you feel about calories and fat content) and they have a few flavors that didn't jive with P1, but sounded tasty. And they have peanuts in them! And they are little if you get the "Good Grab" size. Might be the perfect treat since it is pre-portioned.

Evepet, I think I know exactly what your going through and I have too started back at Phase 1. Since reaching goal and starting maintenance I can feel myself getting weak on the carbs (for me) which has always been my source of weight gain. I have gained back the dreaded 3-4 pounds which my coach warned me of, but I'm sure it has all hit my bely area, which is the one place I don't want to gain. I see my coach tomorrow, but I'm thinking that maybe I need a quick re-training, get myself back in order and lose maybe 10 more to become comfortable with having the odd "treat"

Maile, Congrats from me too! great job! Ragdoll, I agree with you so much on the eliminating grains. I've made gluten free bread for DH and it turned out very spongy texture but I think it may be the way for me to eat bread without craving bread. Perhaps make more like flat bread if I don't let it raise as long.

Thank you for the insight and idea on bars. I had some favorites from Nashua but I ate the last of them and haven't reordered since I hit P3. I thought my new carby breakfasts would be all I needed, but at night (when I usually had my bar for the day) I missed it. I will put in another order - with the hot summer though they will probably come melted, but I can lick the wrapper

Hi Evepet It's so nice to come out of lurking. Thank you for the support. I'm glad you are doing well on P1. Sounds like you are doing great, keep it up!
Hi Chloe, Thank you. I appreciate the input, and I think you are right on the bars, they really did help in P1 to have a treat each day that was planned out. I'll have to order some of those along with my usual ones from them. Double peanut butter has to be better than the single peanut butter ones I was ordering - has to be! I'll try them out!

Hi GreatLakes! No I haven't tried those, but sounds like I may need to... real peanuts? Sounds good. Sounds like I may find them locally? I'll keep an eye out for them.

Another thought that came up was during P1 I logged my food after I ate it. It didn't matter what I chose because I knew there was so little planning, a packet was a packet. However I believe I need to log my food before I eat it for a while. It's amazing how logging it afterwards you discover you really should not have eaten that much or added something to it etc. I'm going to give that a go when I get off my few days of P1 here.

Have a great day! Thanks for all the support and welcome.

Barb

Hi, just like many of you I am struggling with the balance of eating and gaining a few lbs. I am up 1.5 lbs right now but my eating is starting to get out of control. Amazing how trigger foods just throw me off. The carbs have such a hold on me once I start.

I have noticed this contributing to my issues: I am off my daily routine with work, I have some emotional things going on that I tend to mindlessly snack and I ran out of Quest bars which tend to work well for me to satisfy that hunger/craving for things.

I also realized that if I don't get enough protein in my meals, I am just HUNGRY. I went out to lunch the other day, had a decent meal (salad and such) but it did not have as much protein as I have become accustomed to eating. I was hungry for hours and struggled with food thoughts. I was out of town and went to In and Out and got a hamburger protein style which took care of the need.

Interesting to watch myself learn how to eat again and make good choices.

Just a quick post to say 'Hi!' to everyone....

Nothing new to report - same stuff. Hanging in there, and staying P1/P2 - so far so good.

Halfagain - I can second that the Oh Yeah bars are yummy. I'm able to buy them at my local big chain drugstore (in my case Shopper's Drug Mart here in Canada)... I expect they are pretty easy to find. Only problem with them (for me at least) is that they taste just like a regular chocolate bar... make me want another.) When I'm buying boxes of protein bars, I have to find one I *like* but don't *love* so much that I just want more. The Oh Yeah! bars are in the category where I'll buy 1 or 2... but not the whole box.

Canadiandieter For sure, complete diligence is required in order to navigate maintenance successfully. Those sugars and carbs are deadly triggers for most of us.... I'm hoping that as we experiment and & add things back in to our maintenance eating, we learn what works (and doesn't work) for us and benefit from our mistakes. I HOPE this is what happens!.... I don't want to just repeat the same pattern as last time around once I return to maintenance again. And I totally hear you on the lbs returning to the stomach - for me they were the last to go - and the first to come back - definitely a bit 'doughier' there than I was when I originally phased out and went to maintenance. (Sigh)... Oh well... at least I'm persevering....

Workingit50 I can relate to all that you said... my sugar and carb triggers definitely got me off track, and made it necessary for me to come back to P1. And, I've definitely noticed that same thing about protein - not enough, and I'm hungry much faster.

Chloe222 I think you're thinking of 'MooseLover' from Alaska? I don't recall seeing her here for quite some time now. There's also a woman from Montreal who had a tummy tuck who reported in not long ago. Things seemed to be well with her.

Cheers everyone - have a great day!

Good morning! I am officially a "Maintainer" as of 6/20/13!! Though I still have a goal to lose until I am comfortable, I'm doing it at a much slower pace. I'm getting to the point where I'm going to add an additional 200 or so calories to my day with planned exercise.....but I'm terrified! LOL, I don't wanna gain! I have had 2 cheat days since my phase off and I have still managed to lose 2 more lbs, so I guess this is the kind of experimentation so many have talked about. "Find what works for you". I feel really in control of myself for the first time in a very long time and my outlook on life is just super bright. Can some of you share your plans? Are you still losing? What's your eating plan? Forgive me, I'm still finding my groove!

I maintained for almost 2 years doing phase 1 week days and eating and drink more liberally on the weekends. I stayed fairly low carb, but would occasionally have pizza, etc. I exercise 6 days a week, very intensely.

Eventually I got tired of drinking so many meals.

In January I joined an online group called precision nutrition. Since then I have slowly worked myself off shakes and bars an noe eat normal food. I'm still very low carb, but I do have fruit and some starcher vegetables on a regular basis.

A normal day includes
A 2 egg and veggie omelette with cheese

Approx 3 oz protein, a cup or 2 of veggies and a mixed green salad with 1/4 avocado and vinaigrette

A snack that is usually 1/2 cottage cheese. Sometimes with fruit.

Dinner-about 6 oz protein and a couple of cups of veggies.

If I am eating out, etc i try to just order something i know I like but don't worry overly about fat, oil, etc.

The precision nutrition diet would allow for significantly more carbs than what I eat, but I am usually too full to want them.

The focus of pn is to eat slowly and stop at 80% full. If I am out somewhere and there is a real treat, like cake, or bbq ribs or chips, I will eat it and try really hard to stop at 80%. I still drink wine on the weekends!

It is working well for me.

Lots and lots of trial and error.

Thanks for sharing! Right now if I'm going to have a fun meal, I'll have a P1 day the following day. Then the rest of the week my menu looks basically like this:
0% FF Greek Yogurt
Raspberries (1/2 C- 1 cup)
Almond butter (1 TBS)

Zucchini Noodles (2 small)
Sauteed Mushrooms (1 cup- 2 cups)
Chicken ( 2 oz)
Sauce of Coconut oil, curry and garlic

Egg White Omelet
Daiya Mozz (1/4 c)
Zucchini (1 small)
Tempeh Bacon (1/2 serving)

I'll usually have a Quest bar for a snack. I'm really surprised that my calories are staying at around 850-1000. I think I'll need to up it a bit though.