Welcome to October, Maintainers! It's a chilly, damp morning here and is starting to really feel like fall, with leaves coming down and cool mornings.

I'm feeling guilty about not being able to post more often, but at least have been reading while I'm shoveling in food between trips to the gym for client appointments. I'm hoping to have a chance after work today to post on Kate's and Gina's threads - great topics, both of you.

As for me, life's been but lots of fun. I'm much busier than I ever planned to be at the gym, but it's hard to turn people down (however, I DID block off tomorrow as a day off in my schedule, which is a major accomplishment!) On Wednesday, I'm going to New York for a big personal trainers convention, with all sorts of seminars and workshops. It should be exciting and educational and there will be a convention center full of new gym toys to play with. But I'm trying to see all my clients two more times before I leave and then give them workouts to do while I'm gone, so things are a tad hectic this weekend.

Eating's going OK - never perfect (of course) but no binges or slips lately, still journaling and counting calories - and I've been scheduling exercise into my appointment book every day, but the scale refuses to budge. Sheesh! But what can you do but keep on keeping on??

Got to get ready for a day of appointments ... I'm reading and thinking about all of you even though I'm not posting as much as I'd like.

Check in, everyone, and let us know how you're doing -- good, bad, struggling -- sometimes just writing about what's going can be helpful.

October already? Yeesh...September was a blur. And not a real good one. It was probably my hardest time maintenance-wise in the 4 years that I've been at this. I'm not sure why, but I found myself on a constant 4 day roller-coaster of doing well, then binging. The result is a 3 pound gain over the month Workouts are constant, as always...ahhh if only I could make up for my food in the gym! But we all know it doesn't work that way!

So, I'm doing a 1 month "Halloween Challenge" on another board and am going to really buckle down. Instead of trying to cut calories even lower, I'm going to raise them a tad to try to avoid the binges (although I'm not so sure they have anything to do with actual hunger) and allow one free meal a week. Too bad October started on Saturday...I started my challenge with my free meal day We went to Carrabbas for dinner, and there is NO way to even limit the damage there. Portions are massive (we brought home half the food we ordered and were stuffed anyway), everything was greasy and salty even if the description said grilled or steamed....It tasted good but I didn't feel very well last night.

Why are these suburban chain restaurants so seductive? They aren't all that good. They're not inexpensive, the wait (at least where I live) is usually 45 minutes to an hour even if you call ahead. We eat at them about 3 times a year and usually leave annoyed, stuffed, and swear we'll never go back. Yet every night the parking lots are overflowing.

Enough rambling. Off for my usual Sunday relay between the washing machine, grocery store and vacuum cleaner!

Mel

Meg -- I wish I was going to that PT convention with you!!

Mel -- I'll have to find that Halloween Challenge thread. I haven't lost any weight since January! I'd really like to fit in a size 6 now, I think I've given my body a good rest at a size 8, time to move on down! It will be a challenge and a half , trying to lose weight at this time of year with, ThanksGiving, Halloween, the Christmas office parties and the Christimas Family parties!! BUT try I WILL!!

What an interesting week it’s been, what with interrelated threads on trigger foods, “silly” (not) questions about the difficulty of maintenance, and that perennial stumper, “Why does this happen?” I’ve been chewing and chewing and chewing on it all, and this morning a thought occurred to me that I wanted to share.

I started with “Why does this happen,” and I was thinking about several of you who said that after X number days/weeks/months of remaining solidly on whatever program you’re following, all of a sudden something “snapped,” and you were plunged into the abyss. Having taken that plunge myself any number of times, I, too, wanted to figure out why this happens. Here’s what I came up with:

I don’t think that something snaps all of a sudden, although that’s what it feels like. Rather, I think lots of somethings build inexorably. There’s pressure at work (both inside and outside the house); there’s kids; there’s parents; their’s siblings; there’s not enough money/time/energy/expertise to do whatever needs to be done right now; there’s our difficulty in saying no; there’s … well, you get the picture.

At first, we all cope. We deal with our lives and manage to eat clean, work out and muddle on. But one day, there’s a chink in the armor, when we’re just too tired, too stressed, too whatever to go on. But we have to go on, because that’s life. So what do we do? We seek solace, and many of us find our solace in the refrigerator. And when the pressure doesn’t east, we keep right on eating in an attempt to find a moment of respite; an inkling of relief; an escape hatch.

I think this is somewhat different from a binge set off by a trigger food. You put me in front of bowls of carmel corn or some kinds of cookies, and you’re going to wind up with empty bowls, and then empty shelves, etc. But for me … and perhaps it’s just for me – a trigger binge doesn’t always lead to a month-long extravaganza, whereas a stress-induced binge does.

Although I would be guilty as charged if you said I tend to over-intellectualize everything, I go nuts if I can’t figure out *why*I’m doing something. And that led me to the unsilly question about the difficulty of maintaining. As several of you said, the psychological can be far more difficult than the physical. In a word, it’s the head games (oops, that’s two words, but one big concept). The only way I can fight my head games is to know why I’m doing something. At the same time, I totally agree with Pat when she said, “It just has to be like showering and brushing your teeth - something you do without rationalizing why you're doing it all the time.”

So chickies, that’s the best of my walking-the-dog thoughts. I don’t know if they’ll provide any insights for anyone else, but I do know this: we’re headed into the most action-packed quarter of the year, and we all need to figure out coping strategies NOW so that we can all enjoy the holidays and embrace a wonderful new year.

Hugs to all.

Hi everyone,

Well, with DD's arrival, it's soon to be back down to weight loss for me. I gained more than I "should" have during the pregnancy, and I want to get back somewhere in the vicinity of my maintenance weight. But I'm putting that on hold for at least another couple of weeks for two reasons: I'm still healing from the surgery, and breastfeeding has been a little (OK a lot) challenging for DD & I and I don't want to do anything mess with my milk supply until we get better established. So I have a couple of weeks to start to prepare psychologically, not that I have a lot of spare time now to ponder things, but I find some psyching up helps these things.

Couple things are going for me right now. I have dropped a lot of weight pretty much immediately with the birth. I'm not restricting food, but I seem to want to eat 500-1000 calories less than when I was pregnant (I didn't track anything for almost a week for obvious reasons, but back at it now). And I'm starting to be active again, walking only for the first 6 weeks on Dr's orders, but she wanted me going ASAP. I did a mile this morning, very easy of course, but it was just heaven. Even with the pain of the surgery and the fatigue from the all night feedings, I just feel so much better than when I was pregnant--I knew I felt bad, but with it coming on a bit at a time, it is really hard to know just how bad it got.

Robin, great insights as always. I'm sure I'll need them through the coming months as things get ever more busy and stressful. Meg, good for you for taking a day off--sounds like you've been needing to do that for a while now. Mel, I know what you mean about the chain restaurants--they are so not worth the calories, but it still just calls to me. Good luck on that Halloween challenge.

Anne

Airegrrrl, I'm reading a book that is right in line with your post. It is called Runaway Eating and so far it basically is pin pointing the stresses that are on Woman's shoulders and the impact it has on binging. They feel that women get to a point where they feel like they would like to just runaway from all the demands on them and since they can't then they turn to food and emotionally "runaway" by over indulging on comfort foods. I guess I'm finding it pretty interesting because I relate to so much of what they are covering.


Ilene, I second your wish to go with Meg, that sounds like a lot of fun.

Meg, can we come too, can we, can we, can we?

Mel, I t h i n k I'm on track again but I'm not going to say that out loud, I don't want to jinks myself.

Anne, that baby is just darling, what a pretty little girl.

TTFN,

Hi all:
Nice start to the month of October.
Saturday was a hugh family wedding for me, glad it went well, happy for couple, super glad the STRESS is over. As from my previous post you guys know I'm on the maintence roller coaster. The dips and curves are having there way with me, but thats okay because I am always learning new ways to deal with them.

hi maintainers,

It is october so fast !! Mel, I am in for your halloween challenge.

All in all september was a successfull month for me. I started on a new cardio routine ( 7 hours a week target) and the scales actually went down for the fist time in months!! So... I am so encouraged by the results that for the past week and this week I am not doing formal cardio (only biked to & from work today, 80 minutes) but I am cleaning out my attic so I can use it as a gym. I have hauled out tons of junk and now I am putting I laminate flooring.

So my target for october is to finish the "gym" in the attic and continue to get the 7 hour a week cardio target.

Have a great day,
rabbit

Hi everyone! What an active October start!

Meg, ooh, new workout toys! Sounds like a lot of fun.

Mel, in my perfect world suburban restaurant chains like Carrabbas would not exist, and all restaurants would have the tastiest low-cal, low-fat, high protein, etc. dishes that have complete nutrition information on the menu, that are exactly what we make at home when we have the time. No boring steamed veggies and meat with no spices in tiny portions as the only "healthy" options. Ahh I lead a rich fantasy life.

Anne, your daughter is beautiful! I'm glad to hear you're feeling better.

Robin, as usual you have great insight. Connecting the psychological to the physical is the maintenance component I can't grasp. I can figure out why I'm doing something until I'm blue in the face, but I'm still lacking the connection between figuring out why I do something and how to change it. So I'm currently stuck on a roller coaster instead of a flat ride with a few dips.

I've already started my own October challenge that is basically the first half of my Thanksgiving challenge. I probably would have lost more this week if I hadn't overeaten on a sugary cereal last night instead of eating dinner. I didn't blow my calories, but turned a deficit day into a maintenance day. So after 7 days I temporarily lost control...but the cereal was dumped in the trash this morning (really - dumped out of its bag so I couldn't retrieve it), and I'm going to keep on trucking.

Has anyone seem that commercial for Quaker weight control oatmeal? It shows people walking around with scales chained to their ankles. No matter what they do their weight is always dragging behind them, slowing them down, tripping them up. It captures my feelings EXACTLY, especially lately. I lost this weight to enjoy life more, but it's still hindering me.

Glad to hear everyone is doing well.

Hi maintainers

I can usually be found hanging out over at Alternachicks, but since I'm shifting over into maintenance mode I thought I'd pop in and say hi here.

I'm so happy 3FC has this community. It's scary how rare it is to find a place like this. I keep a fitness blog over on Live Journal, and when I posted to various communities there looking for other people like me who are either maintaining their weight loss or starting the transition to maintenance, I got zero response. Dieters as far as the eye can see, but very few people talking maintenance. (not an earthshattering revelation for the people here I know)

This is the second time I've lost a significant amount of weight, so I've really given a lot of thought to what it's going to take to keep on track for the long haul. I know that I will always have to be vigilant where food choices and exercise are concerned.

One thing that has really decreased my background anxiety has been replacing one bus leg of my daily commute with a bike ride. (Instead of Bus-Ferry-Bus to get to work I now keep a bike downtown so I can Bus-Ferry-Bike to work) It gives me a sense of calm to know that whatever else pops up to interfere with my schedule, I can at least count on getting in a 1 hour bike ride and 1/2 hour lunch walk each day during the work week. I also go to an aquacize class three times a week with my Mom.

I hit my original goal of 150 last month, but I'm still slowly dropping down a little further. I guess I've reached the fine tuning stage.

Anyway, I look forward to chatting with you all and hanging out here more. Thanks to Ilene for suggesting that I pop in (It only took me a month, heh)

Robin,

As always, I love reading your posts. They are so "right-on-target" for me. I had to stop and look at why I've been acting a food fool the past two months and finally realized that I don't enjoy my work life, don't enjoy my house (it has structural issues) don't enjoy coaching (the parents are nuts), the crew is driving me nuts due to teenagey moody issues and my long distance family is also stressing me out. The one thing in life that I know I can enjoy is food. However, I don't enjoy the end results so ultimately, I am not a happy camper. So, I'm trying to find ways to better enjoy my life, so I can stop seeking happiness in eating. We will see....

Tiki.

Hi maintainers,

Tiki - I can so relate to the feeling of being overwhelmed with issues you do not seem to be able to influence, and then seek solace in food. What really helped me was reading a book calles "the full cathastrophe living" of Kabat - Zin. Maybe you can get it from the library? Basically what the book is about is to take some time everyday for "not-doing" and meditating. I cannot manage the amount that they advocate in the book, I can only get in like 5 minutes a day, but it works for me! Just being able to lift the perceived pressure for sometime everyday works for me, especially on these days that you think "I don't have time for that".

Keep on hanging in there,

rabbit

Hey ladies, New maintainer here...not quite new to maintaining, but new to this forum. It is right up my alley! I have many goals for myself this month with excercising. I joined my gym in january and it took me until august to even brave one of the classes there....everyone else looked like they knew what they were doing! So I was being a big scaredy cat. I finally took a spinning class and loved it! (I go every Wednesday now) and this past Saturday I tried my first Pilates class....it kicked my BUTT! I decided in order to do Pilates I have to take up Yoga too so I can STRETCH my aching body too! I would have to say the maintaining my wieght is the most difficult thing I have ever had to deal with. I remember the days when I could eat anything and not worry about extra pounds, so sacrificing things I've loved in the past is almost heart wrenching. Dont get me wrong, I know everything is fine in moderation and I am one of those who "treats themselves" probably more than I should, but I have given up some of the Terrible things that contribute to clogged arteries and patches of cellulite.
I have a newfound love of vegetables and actually look forward to cooking them and including them in dishes I havent in the past. It's my fathers bday tomorrow so I am trying one of the cakes listed under lowfat recipes on this site and modifying it just a tad... I will let you know how it is.

Have a great october ladies!

http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJ...r=tampagirlcmb

Welcome to our new friends & congratulations.
My road is definetely bumpy right now but at least I'm not in a ditch(LOL).
Struggling along but moving forward so I am thankful.
Rabbit I am planning to get that book, seems like thats my life.
I did get the Thin Commandments, by Steven Gullo.. well all I can say is I will never let it leave my side. Some powerful stuff. You know my continued moderate or avoid problem. His answer avoid your triggers foods that you have a history of problems with, and moderate things you have a history of not having a problem with.
Easy and works for me..
He also addresses maintence issues. We know how rare that is.
Okay off to work..

Hi maintainers,

A very sad post from me. Friday, my husband has told me that he is ending our relationship. He has formed a new one. This is a shattering blow to me and our two children. I can hardly take it in.
If I am not posting in the next time, you know that it is because I have to set my life in order.

rabbit