Unfortunately we lost most of our new Maintainers Forum in the crash . I hope that everyone who had posted here comes back and posts an Introduction and starts the ball rolling again. I think we have a really good thing going here, so let's keep it up.
I'm going to go through my files and see if I saved anything that I've posted, but I don't think there's much. I've got to run some errands now but will be back later.
Anyone, feel free to jump in and start some new threads!
If we can maintain our healthy lifestyle and our fitness, surely we can overcome a little server disaster.
I had lots and lots of thoughts about the 5% question and goals and resolutions, so I'll be back later to begin posting those pearls of wisdom. Hope you all have a great day!
Well "freaking out" is too strong of a way to put it, but I am surprised at how much I am "taken aback" by seeing a picture of myself mid-weight loss yesterday.
I have lost 106 pounds in the past year. My sil gave me some pictures from the summer yesterday...so I would have been about 1/2 way through my weight loss. I thought I was SO slim and trim then...I remember the feeling...putting THOSE clothes on (that I had on in the picture) and being so proud that they fit and how I looked in them.
Well, I look HUGE! I gasped when I saw myself! This has bothered me a bit because we are not talking about a "BEFORE" picture, we are talking about a picture that was taken when I thought I was looking so slim.
I can take seeing true Before pics of myself even though those ones should be the scariest. But there is something scarier about these 1/2-way pics!
It may have something to do with the fact that I am closer to weighing THAT 1/2-way weight than I would be gaining it all back. I think it's also the fact that my PERCEPTION of myself was that I looked great but I really didn't....so, what about now? I think that I look great now, but maybe I don't. Maybe I just think I look so thin now but it's really only because I am THINNER than I was 6 months or a year ago.
It didn't help, too, that yesterday was a major eat-fest for me. I went all out which is something I haven't done in a very long time. We had mil's 60th birthday party here and had SO MUCH food...bad food. I let myself enjoy. Then I saw those pics! Eeeeks!!!!
Thanks for letting me vent. I knew that I had to come here to get this out.
mary beth.. contrary to what we think... we CANNOT regain 100 pounds overnight!!!!
[don't get me wrong, i have to remind myself of this fact just about every single week!!! in fact, i woke up one morning this past week and had to argue with myself because i was convinced on some level that i had gained 50 pounds and that my pants wouldn't fit!!! i compromised. i started off with the 2-sizes-too big jeans that i wear for hiking, and then set off on an hour long hike. i guess being in my body for a little while knocked some sense into me]
please try to realize that you were TERRIFIC when those interim pictures were taken. and you are terrific now. after losing a whole lot of weight, coming to terms with our bodies is a challenge, but it's well worth the effort [at least i hope it is... i'm still struggling, too!!!!]
after i'd lost 100 pounds, i had some friends who barely recognized me. and i still weighed more than 400 pounds at that point!!!! it's all a matter of scale and perception.
get back into your food and exercise groove, and you'll be fine...
Yay! We're back again! Hi MaryBeth -- so glad you found your way back here after the Crash.
DBI — distorted body image — wow, I’m sure we all had it when we were at our heaviest and I’d bet that most of us still have it now, one way or another. I’ve had the same experiences myself that you describe when you looked at those old pictures. At the time mine were taken, I couldn’t acknowledge to myself how big I was. I thought I looked fine, "carried it well", was "big-boned", no one would ever guess how heavy I really was, etc. It was only after I lost the weight that I looked again and said oh my God, I was enormous — why couldn’t I see it at the time? I guess it’s some sort of denial or protective device. Same thing with the scale — I either wouldn’t weigh myself or if I did, I say “the scale must be broken; I couldn’t possibly weigh that much.” How crazy is that???
And now you’re questioning your perception of yourself again — if you were wrong before, could you be wrong now? I think a lot of us still have trouble seeing ourselves accurately now —- for me, I think that I still look fat. I’ll catch myself trying on pants and thinking that my hips look huge in them and then realize — reality check — I wear a 4 and my hips are 35”. Probably not fat by most standards.
Or it sounds like you’re questioning whether you really look slim now that you’ve lost all the weight. Well, you’re 146 pounds, my dear — it’s safe to assume you’re not fat anymore! ! If you can’t trust your eyes (and I think you can), then you have to rely on what people around you tell you and the objective evidence, like what size you wear and what the tape measure says and the scale. And I'm sure they're all good.
Jif raises a really good point -- we're not going to regain 100 pounds overnight, though I really was worried about doing precisely that in the first few months after I reached goal. I'd go to bed and worry that I'd wake up a lot heavier and it would keep piling on regardless of what I did. Very scary. Now that I've lived here for 18+ months, I'm convinced that I'd have to change what I'm doing in order to regain the weight. If I keep doing what I know works, the weight will stay off. If I ever go back to my old habits, I'd regain in a heartbeat.
And on the pants! Have you ever pulled a pair of jeans out of the dryer and held them up and said: these will NEVER fit! They look WAY too small. And then they fit!
If I recall, we were having a nice little chat abut ironing (Karen doesn’t own an iron! ) and the Discovery Health program “Heavyweights.” I think you were talking about the hormones that the doctors and researchers were citing for putting weight back on (leptin, I believe). Another I’ve read about is ghrelin. There’s still a lot of research going on about hunger and weight loss/regain, especially with regard to the “reduced obese” (that’s us — our bodies apparently are biologically different than those of people who have never been overweight). See if you can find the book The Hungry Gene (Ellen Ruppel Shell) for a good discussion of these questions.
We also were discussing the notion that only 5% of people who lose weight keep it off. I know we were all questioning where those numbers come from, though you hear them cited all the time. I remember that I was saying, though, that even if only 5% keep it off for the long-term, we can be part of that 5% with thought and planning. Let’s see, I think I said that exercise is something that I know I need in order to stay in the 5% club and others agreed (gee, I wish we still had the old posts!).
Kind of on the same topic, I sat down this morning and started making a list of Things That Work (dumb title but I couldn’t think of anything better ). I felt like I was in a rut of focusing on what I shouldn’t do — don’t eat this, don’t do that — all negatives. So I was brainstorming and trying to get down on paper the positive new behaviors and habits that I’ve developed that got the weight off and will keep it off. My (perhaps lame) idea is that if I focus on doing what I know works for me, I can maintain (or lose a little more weight) with less thought about what I shouldn't do. More "yes's"; fewer "no's". For example, I know it works if I do cardio every day. I know it works if I drink a gallon of water a day. Etc. It’s starting to look kind of like a checklist for the ideal day! Anyway, maybe when I finish the list, I’ll post it and others can add in what works for them and we can share some ideas.
I'm really so sad that we lost most of the Introductions and other posts that so many of you put time and effort into. I hope you can take a few minutes sometime and repost anything you'd like to. This forum can be anything you want it to be, in any way that will help all of us stay slim for life.
meg... can't wait to see your list [and believe me, i'd love to write a longer post, but i'm at work and they're banging on the door!!!!].
years ago, when i was a successful WW at at goal, i had gone to a major family party. a huge italian event with all kinds of wonderful food all day long. and i caved into a couple of things [can't remember from this distance!!!!] and felt bad. and then at one point i got angry... i had NOT EATEN so many of the wonderful things. so, for my food journal that week [those were the days when we had to hand them in every week], i flipped it over and wrote every single thing i had avoided.
the WW leader got up iin front of the room and congratulated me!!! that was an eye opener.
positive things seem to work better for me than the 'though shall nots' even down to chocolate. as in: i can have a couple of GOOD PIECES of chocolate every couple of days.
... but I just had to say that I think Meg has put her finger exactly on an extremely crucial point. Rather than focus on what we shouldn't be doing/eating/thinking etc, let's focus on the positive. Just before the crash, I was about to write some thoughts on passions vs. obsessions. I didn't do it then, which may be just as well, because it would have vanished. But now's the time. I'll be back. For now, I must join Jiffy and beat back the throngs at the door.
But this is one of the most promising threads yet, and there have been some fab keepers.
and I don't want one so please, girls, do not send me irons.
Awesome post Meg. As far as the 5% number that you hear - well, you know what I think about that - it's total rubbish. There MUST be more than 5% who keep the weight off. Has to be...there oughta be a law about saying that kind of thing "95% of dieters regain their weight" because I think that discourages a lot of folks with that "I can't" type of thinking. Like they're licked before they even start. I mean...what if they were saying the same thing about, say, quitting smoking? I've never smoked before but from what I've read/heard, many smokers trying to quit have to make SEVERAL attempts before they 'get it'.
And Robin - excellent point. For me, I think what has really worked for me, ultimately, is keeping a good attitude in general. Kind of like that old Bing Crosby song (or was it Perry Como?) goes: "You've got to Accentuate the Positive..." Or Dr. Phil might call it "Right Thinking". Don't dwell on the chocolate you CAN'T have. Shoot, don't say you CAN'T have it - rather you choose NOT to have it at this time. And I do think for most folk, working in a treat once or twice a week (not a full blown pig out Free Day...) is a good thing, unless they can't stop at just a little bit of whatever it is they're treating themselves with.
My sister and her family are in the process of moving to another house a few blocks away from their old place, and she very nicely gave me a mirror I have been coveting - it's one she bought at Pottery Barn about 8 or 10 years ago, a full-length floor mirror with a beautiful walnut frame. She couldn't find a place for it in the new house (actually I think she just wanted an excuse to buy new stuff!) and gave it to us. I haven't had a full-length mirror in God knows how long...and it's come at the perfect time - just a month after my TT. It's set up in our bedroom and every time I enter the room, I can see myself - my WHOLE self. (I remember watching the "Make The Connection" videotape where Oprah quotes a poem about looking at herself in a full-length mirror - I wish I could recall the exact phrasing but that's what comes to mind...) It's either one of those "skinny mirrors" I hear about or HEY, I really look good...
My thoughts about weight regain - speaking for myself as lab rat - I believe that as time goes on...and you keep up those healthy habits where it's just natural to wake up and exercise every day...it feels better to eat the right foods...etc....that it becomes EASIER to maintain the weight loss. It might have something to do with setpoint - I'm convinced that if the setpoint theory is true, then the longer I stay at my not-overweight/obese weight, the better chance I have of staying that way permanently.
Arrgh...back to work - just wanted to put down my *disjointed* thoughts...
...because so many are running through my head that I can't lasso them all up at the same time!
Great thought/point, Meg, (and everyone else) about the POSITIVE side of things. What we can/have done instead of what we can't do or have anymore. That reminds me of a discussion I had with my sister a few years back when we were in the throws of taking care of our babies. We seemed to ALWAYS be harping on what we could NOT do anymore....eat in peace, pee in peace, do ANYTHING in peace, etc....that we were turning into such negative people. We'd also transpose that on others by almost hating THEM if they didn't have kids or the same "entrapments". "Oh, look at HER, she gets to go shopping whenever she wants! Of course that's why SHE can look so good! We can't do that anymore."
My sister was worse at this than I was. It was REALLY bringing her down...depression levels. I slowly tried to incorporate less negative and more positive and that helped BOTH of us.
After all, where can we really go with so much negative talk? Only lower, I think.
Listing out the positives...and what works...is a great idea. Gives us a confidence boost because after all, we did those things to a successful end/result, didn't we?
I can definitely give my BIG Daily 3 Goals. There were sort of my "bible" during my weight loss. If I did everything bad for a day, I would at least make sure these 3 goals were tackled:
(1) Exercise in some form (even if it had to be small spurts of stairs/leg lifts/sit ups due to schedule restraints)
(2) Drink lots of water (eventually I got up to 1 ounce per pound of body weight)
(3) No eating after dinner or 7:00
I created those for myself and stuck the them extremely well. They were definitely positives that worked for me.
On the 5% thing...that can really depress me or worry me. I agree, MrsJim, that they really have some nerve proclaiming that! I wonder how the stats were gathered for that. It does scream DISCOURAGEMENT, doesn't it? And I remember Meg pointing out the the whole program seemed to have the theme that surgery was pretty much THE ONLY answer. More DIScouragement!
I hope to add more. Just have to reach up in the recesses of my brain and round up some more loose thoughts that got away.
Great discussion! MaryBeth
252/146
PS OH! Just caught one....the other thing was that I am NEW to the maintenance "dance" and could very well be going through some of the things that you mentioned, Meg, that you went through in the beginning of maintenance. It's rather scary/daunting, isn't it? I'm glad to hear that it gets easier (is "easier" the word???) as time goes on. Thanks!!
Maintainers -- New Start 2004!
. I hope that everyone who had posted here comes back and posts an Introduction and starts the ball rolling again. I think we have a really good thing going here, so let's keep it up. 
I'm Still Here!
MaryBeth
It was only after I lost the weight that I looked again and said oh my God, I was enormous — why couldn’t I see it at the time? 
I guess it’s some sort of denial or protective device. Same thing with the scale — I either wouldn’t weigh myself or if I did, I say “the scale must be broken; I couldn’t possibly weigh that much.” How crazy is that???
) and the Discovery Health program “Heavyweights.” I think you were talking about the hormones that the doctors and researchers were citing for putting weight back on (leptin, I believe). Another I’ve read about is ghrelin. There’s still a lot of research going on about hunger and weight loss/regain, especially with regard to the “reduced obese” (that’s us — our bodies apparently are biologically different than those of people who have never been overweight). See if you can find the book The Hungry Gene (Ellen Ruppel Shell) for a good discussion of these questions.
Nope - I DON'T own an iron!!!
