Hi there! I was so excited to stumble upon this maintainer's forum! I've participated in a weight loss community before but once I hit goal, my issues and focus changed quite a bit. I hit goal 2 years ago (and have maintained within a 5 lb range) and have sort of felt alone in my struggle.

It's funny how tricky it is to talk to people about weight management. It has been my experience that people who are trying to lose weight look at me and assume that it's now easy street for me. Since I fit in a 6 instead of my old 16, my life must be perfect and I must not have any negative feelings about my body anymore. If I express frustration regarding my struggle to maintain, I get the "rolled eye" response. I have learned not to talk about it much anymore (except to my ever-patient hubby and my best friend who is also into health and fitness).

Anyway! I'm looking forward to reading more from this forum and getting to know some fellow maintainers!

Karyn Lee

Hi Karyn and welcome! We're glad you found us here too! We'd love to hear more about your story if you'd like to share -- we have a "sticky" at the top of the forum called Introductions. And we have one for photos if you have any before and afters you'd like to post.

Feel free to jump into any thread that catches your interest or start a new thread on any topic that you want to throw out for discussion. I think you'll find this to be a wonderful and supportive group of amazing women who are dedicated to keeping the weight off for life.

Thanks for the welcome, Meg! I'm gradually reading through everyone's intros (what inspiration!!!) and will soon add mine. I've also wanted to put together a before and after collage of photos so I'm going to work on that, too.

Again, thanks! Karyn Lee

Welcome, Karyn Lee! I look forward to hearing your story! This group provides so much wisdom, support, and humor. From the sounds of it, it seems you'll find here the shared experience and sense of community you've needed.

Hi Karen and welcome

I think you'll find that this is EXACTLY the group who understand what you mean about still having issues with your body and weight management even though you wear a size 6 instead of 16. Instead of rolling eyes, you'll probably get lots of agreement and hopefully some suggestions and insights through reading what the rest of us are going through and thinking. It's amazing to me that it doesn't seem to matter where, when or how we started this journey, all our experiences are eerily similar.

Lots of good threads to read through

Mel

Thanks, Mel. I have already come across so many things written here that I can totally relate to. The similarities ARE eerie. Wonderfully so!

KL

Many of you know that I'm trying to learn how to maintain. It's some harder than I thought. I'm actually having trouble getting my calories up. Until today ... at work we had danish and pizza and apples ... but now I have the first real headache I've had in a couple of years. I thought I was going to get my calories up to snuff for a day or so and see what happened but now I'm kinda nauseated. Don't suppose that would have happened if I'd gone up cals of food that were good for me

SusanB -- Yep, I do think if you would've stuck to clean calorie food you would have been ok... I guess we all have to live and learn...

Thanks Ilene, that might be lesson #2. I enjoy clean food.

I wish sometimes I would listen to my own preachings!! I ate very badly at school this morning and now feel lethargic and sleepy... I'm such a looser! The rest of the day WILL be better I promise...

Hi--I need some clarification. When you refer to clean food, do you mean whole grains/minimally processed foods/heavy on the fruit/veg/light on the fat/healthy fats like olive oil and walnuts?

Thanks the info--
Elana

Elana -- exactly! The only things I'd add to your list are "lean protein" and "no sugar". I had never heard the term "clean food" until I joined a gym and heard all the body builders talking about "eating clean" and I was like ... duh?

Another clean food question--
no added sugar, or really cutting out all sugar? For example, eating plain cooked oatmeal instead of a breakfast cereal (Kashi GoLean) with added sugar? Blackstrap molasses OK? What about baking?

Elana

Elana, natural sugars are always best, like those found in fruit. Plain oatmeal beats Kashi. I used to live on Kashi, until I saw a naturopathic doctor. It seems I cut so much sat. fats out of my diet that I wasn't eating real healthy in one sense. So at her suggestion, I cut out the Kashi and cut back in eggs. I have eggs with oatmeal or eggs with tomato slices or with a whole wheat muffin each morning. I've tried drinking tea without sugar but can't seem to come to terms with that, so I will add lots of lemon and just a dab of artificial sweetner...something like maybe 20 grains of the stuff. LOL No, I don't count them. But if you can cut out sugars and just do naturals, that's best. I have Dr. Schwarzbein's (sp?) book around here somewhere and she suggests a sweetner that starts with an E...can't recall the name. Anyone? She said they sell it at our local organic co-op here. I haven't brought myself to go out and get it yet...I have an economy sized bag of Splenda. Aye aye aye. But I may end up throwing that out, because I never use it. I normally just drink water at home, and I don't bake. But I have experimented in baking, and substituted things like unsweatened applesauce in place of sugar.

Could it be erythritol? I've never tried but have read about it: http://www9.netrition.com/lowcarbsuc...itol_page.html I'd be interested to hear from anyone who's tried it. I don't do much baking for myself, but if I do, I use Splenda.

I think the degree to which someone cuts down/out sugar is personal. Some people avoid added sugars; some go further and avoid natural sugars such as fructose and lactose (that's pretty extreme, IMO). The idea is to keep blood sugar levels stable by avoiding simple carbs and sugars that tend to spike insulin levels.

Molasses, white sugar, brown sugar, and honey etc are all basically the same thing chemically. And our bodies break them down the same way. So if you're trying to avoid added sugar, it's not going to be very different to substitute molasses for sugar. But it's an individual thing -- for some people, a little bit of sugar is fine. For me, it causes cravings and also acts like a sleeping pill since I'm not used to it, so I try to stay away.