Originally Posted by joyinSF:
julie, i second that too..i wont miss calorie counting or counting how long i have to stay on the d*** elliptical machine..lol

Sadly, I found that not calorie counting contributed to a 30 pound weight gain. You might be one who doesn't have to count in maintenance, but I still have to count. Ditto for keeping track of exercise minutes.

Sorry to burst any bubbles, but I think sometimes that if we had a more realistic idea of maintenance while losing that more of us would be successful keeping the weight off.

Originally Posted by rockinrobin:
I LOVE fresh tuna. But at $20.00 a pound, it's just not feasible. Fresh tuna is a once in a while thing for me. Canned tuna is waaaaay less money and very convenient. But don't get me wrong, if I didn't like it - I wouldn't eat it.

Wow, where do you get your fresh tuna! A little goes a long way for us, I usually get about 10oz for the both of us, and never spend more than $10 on that... and there's usually left overs too that I make into a tuna salad sandwich for me the next day. Either way I was just suggesting it as a perk-me-up to get out of the canned tuna rut every once in a while.

Fish can be quite expensive in general. I find delicious frozen filets of salmon and flounder at Costco, but you can't beat the real fresh thing once in a while. Our major splurge is wild salmon at $20/lb every couple of months or a beautiful chilean sea bass steak. But most of our seafood consumption comes from small fish like red mullets, mackerel, and fresh sardines which don't cost very much (usually because Americans don't like to fuss around with these small bony fish and we get them at great prices).

Ugh, I was never one to like egg whites. I just eat whole boiled eggs -- 75 calories. Cutting those calories never seemed worth it to me.

Re: doing the same things, I will be fine to eat like I'm eating forever (and I am into repetition, also). I will always have room for my weights and body exercises. I do worry about the cardio. I won't always have this kind of time to dedicate to it. Hopefully that will be okay and as much won't be needed to maintain.

Meg, thanks for the insight and your experience!

I think I may have mis-communicated a little. I used to like tuna. Now I don't like it at all (and why I kept buying it and making myself eat it? I don't have a clue, LOL)

I will admit over and over again that maintenance scares me the most because I know it's not over. If I want to keep the body I have worked on these last several months (and a few more to go) maintenance will HAVE to be part of my life. I have totally accepted that.

I am not depriving myself of anything that I DO like, but I did find better choices. If the kids and husband are having brownies, I have a 100 calorie chocolate snack cake (now that I found those, I will NEVER stop buying them, haha). If they eat a hamburger, I eat a Boca burger. And these changes were not at all difficult so I don't believe they will be difficult to maintain.

The only thing I religiously do now that I can't see myself continuing on the same scale is the exercise. I will have to cut that back to every other day due to the school season starting back up and I am homeschooling one of my children. There is no way I can work around that, but I will work out with just as much oomph as before.

I am glad I asked this question. The consensus w/ the successful maintainers seems to be that not all that much changes. I NEVER plan to go back to eating all those horrible choices of food again, so maybe that is a good sign. I hope!

I don't think I'm going to miss stuff as I'm opting for a lifestyle change, not a "diet." I mean I have to live my life like this for the rest of my life for a variety of reasons, not just weight loss. I have problems that will only be manageable with a good and healthy diet. I don't want to get into the habit of thinking that once I loose my weight I go back to eating crap. I can't afford that personally as the result would be a weight gain and would also mean other problems popping up for me.

Things I gave up, or dislike now, I won't miss though. Like cheese. *shudders* I hate cheese now...I used to eat gobs of it...but the sight of it makes me go EW now. Sugary treats...I dunno...I just don't enjoy them anymore. I think of the types of cake I used to eat...ew. Really disgusting to me now. Most of the food I've given up, I choose not to eat now for a variety of reasons, but mostly it disgusts me hahahah. So, yeah I won't miss that!

Things I still struggle with, fries...love those things. Onion rings...spring rolls. What is it about fried foods that make me go "hmmmmm that sounds good!" lol

Originally Posted by Meg:
We had a member (a dedicated member of the weightlifting forum) many years ago who once posted about how much she would miss lifting weights once she reached goal. And I just about fell out of my chair! How on earth did she miss the message that we maintainers are screaming from the rooftops:

Nothing changes!!

Nothing changes once you reach goal. You get up the next morning and do exactly the same things that you did the day before. You eat the same foods in the same amounts, do the same exercise in the same amounts, and use the same tools and strategies got you to goal in the first place. And experiment to see if you can add back a few calories or a treat meal occasionally. All while constantly monitoring, with a scale or tape measure or pants, to be sure that the weight doesn't sneak back on. Which it oh-so-easily does.

A day in my life today, more than seven years after reaching goal, is indistinguishable from a day in my life when I was actively losing weight. Same number of meals, same foods, still using Fitday, still weighing problem foods, in the gym at 5:30 every morning, planning meals in advance, packing food for when I'm away from home ... the list goes on. I'm the living, breathing example of whatever you do to lose weight is what you will do to keep it off. Forever. Or as long as you want to stay healthy and fit.

The time you're losing weight is the time to assemble your tool box of skills, strategies, tips, and coping mechanisms for the rest of your life. Weight loss is practice for keeping the weight off for the rest of your life. When you reach goal, you're at the end of Chapter One. There's a whole journey left to finish.

It took me a little less than a year to lose the weight. I've been at this maintenance stuff for more than seven years now, so it's been seven times as much maintenance as weight loss. For all of us, maintenance is going to be the longest part of the journey. And it requires just as much thought and attention as weight loss did. The good news is that we become really, really good at it and as the years go by, it tends to just become part of the background of our lives. :)

The point to all this is -- like everyone said, what you do now to lose weight is exactly what you will do to keep the weight off. Spend the time now finding foods you like and exercise you enjoy because they will be part of your new life forever. Don't do anything you don't like and think it's a temporary fix that you can let go once you reach goal. Nothing changes.

I absolutely adore this post and think there is just so much truth in it. I especially like the part stating that the time we are losing weight is when we are gathering the tools for our toolboxes.

They are my thoughts exactly but you wrote them so eloquently!

Originally Posted by Wannabeskinny:
Wow, where do you get your fresh tuna! A little goes a long way for us, I usually get about 10oz for the both of us, and never spend more than $10 on that... and there's usually left overs too that I make into a tuna salad sandwich for me the next day. Either way I was just suggesting it as a perk-me-up to get out of the canned tuna rut every once in a while.

Fish can be quite expensive in general. I find delicious frozen filets of salmon and flounder at Costco, but you can't beat the real fresh thing once in a while. Our major splurge is wild salmon at $20/lb every couple of months or a beautiful chilean sea bass steak. But most of our seafood consumption comes from small fish like red mullets, mackerel, and fresh sardines which don't cost very much (usually because Americans don't like to fuss around with these small bony fish and we get them at great prices).

I am a huge fish lover too--several times weekly. I do love fresh fish and find it for less than $5 a pound at the chinese market near me. I got striped bass last week--and it was very fresh--I picked him out of the tank and they gutted him on the spot!

Another thing too is that I stock my freezer when fish is on sale. (Hardly a novel idea I realize). Back in Spring I found Sockeye Salmon for $4 a pound. I bought an entire case. I also have Ahi Tuna steaks--They were $5 a pound.

Sure, I do prefer fresh but my upright freezer is worth it's weight in gold in my book. Tell me what you do with your mullets, mackerel and sardines.

By the way, last night I put my salmon into foil packets with some salt, pepper, lemon and a drizzle of olive oil. Typically I put these on the grill. With it being 104 yesterday, I decided I didn't want to cookout. Instead I dropped them into boiling water (yes, in foil packets) for ten minutes. They were super moist and good--and minimal smell in my house.

This is exactly why I subscribe to Cooking Light. For some reason I can eat the same breakfast daily and never tire of it, but lunch and dinner get old fast for me.

So I love skimming my latest CL and trying new recipes. Some are duds but many turn into recipes I permanently add to my book.

Recently I tried a CL recipe for a pasta salad that had garbanzo beans, feta, and garlic (along with a few other ingredients) and it was delicious. It was so easy to make and also a dish that I can easily take to work for lunch!

I don't care for the traditional low calorie sandwiches for lunch, so this is an easy way to try and find new things and keep lunch/dinner fresh and exciting.

Originally Posted by WhitePicketFences:
Re: doing the same things, I will be fine to eat like I'm eating forever (and I am into repetition, also). I will always have room for my weights and body exercises. I do worry about the cardio. I won't always have this kind of time to dedicate to it. Hopefully that will be okay and as much won't be needed to maintain.

Honestly, my overall belief is if you are doing more than 30 minutes/cardio (including warm up/cool down) it is because you like it :) I'd look into HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) as it can definitely shorten the amount of time spent on cardio.

I also agree with the rest of the maintainers. Whatever you did to lose weight is what you need to keep doing in order to maintain.

Originally Posted by Tomato:
I just wish there was some room in it for MickeyD's french fries, LOL!

Watch the movie 'Supersize Me' and you will never want McDonald's french fries again. It worked for me.

As to the original topic, I think I can do without green beans forever.

I just got SICK of egg white omelets. Can't stomach the things. :barf: SERIOUSLY.

I've been a bit proactive, acting ahead of the maintenance thing, and am not and won't miss the "diet mentality" -- you know, gotta eat x to lose weight. This is what happened with egg white omelets. Gotta EAT them to lose weight. Blech...

So these are the 2 things I won't miss -- egg white omelets and the "diet mentality"...

:D

Kira

Weight loss turtle and PROUD of it!

Originally Posted by WhitePicketFences:
Ugh, I was never one to like egg whites. I just eat whole boiled eggs -- 75 calories. Cutting those calories never seemed worth it to me.

I am in TOTAL agreement. Heck, the yolk is LOADED with essential vitamins, omega 3 fatty acids, protein, iron, zinc, calcium and minerals, (to name a few). One egg yolk meets 100% of the RDA of several nutrients, but the white doesn't meet 100% of any essential nutrients. To me it is a massive waste to toss it out. I have a friend who insists on saving the calories from the yolks in trade for a 100 pack of cookies. :dunno: I guess to each his own, but I'm a penny pincher and always in search of nutritious calories. :D