Hi Everybody,

I agree with the comment made that the diversity in maintence plans means that we are often left with little guidance.

Re Breads: I buy a low GI bread, whole grain. For me, bread selection has been a got reflection of how my maintence has evolved. I used to buy the lowest carb variety on the market here. However, my bread is now 13g a slice, but lower GI and higher in protein and fibre.

By not chosing the absolute lowest in carbs product on the market, as I did during weight loss, I have been able to consider other health/lifestyle factors. For example, I ate yougurt during weight loss and bought the type based purely on carb count. Now, I've gone up a couple of carbs a serve in preference for higher calcium content and taste.

Re Low-carb Products: The comment often made in the general forums here is 'these products may be great for maintence but are way to stalling/high in carbs for now'. The image people seem to have is that once they have lost the weight,then they can feel free to eat (in moderation?) cookies and ice-cream low carb. For me, I think that low-carb products really only have a place when you are so carb-restricted that you need variety! E.g. Why would I buy low-carb desserts, when I can now eat sweet fruit every night?

The higher-carb option is often healthier. I think using lots of low-carb products during maintence can mean making poor use of your enlarged carb allowance, or not extending your carb allowance for natural, healthy, foods!

Luckily it only takes an egg 30 days to hatch and the poulet starts laying eggs daily about 5-6 months after that. Meat birds are ready to harvest in 6-12 weeks after hatching. Even such a huge slaughter will be nothing more than a blip in the industry's production.

Ok, I've been pouring through LC for Dummies. My first glance through wasn't very impressive but I had some time with a sick child this afternoon and gave it a better look. I'm impressed! I copied down the food lists and rules and think I'll switch over in a few weeks. Technically the name is "Whole Foods Eating Plan." That's just what it is.

Basically there are lists of foods that are "free" to the point that you're not hungry. They include lots of fruits & veggies, lean meats, & low fat cheeses. (yes, it's hard to type "low fat"). Each meal should include 1 meat and at least 1 serving each of fruit and veggies. The free foods are deemed low glycemic load. These are also called the "green light foods."

The yellow light foods are your starchy carbs. You can have 3-5 of these a day. Cereals, breads, potatoes, etc fall into this category -- oh yes, the much missed banana is there too. A starchy carb serving is approximately 15g net carbs so you're in a range of 45-75 net carbs PLUS your free carbs.

You then hit the treats section. They give you a chart to show where carb levels count. A treat less than 5 net gms does not count against your 3-5 carbs unless you're having too many in a day. Otherwise you can evaluate your food and decide if you're going to trade a cookie vs a banana or whatever.

2-3 low fat dairy servings a day are encouraged. Fats are 8 servings a day (serving being 5gms) and fiber is preached.

Admittedly, it's not Atkins! But it seems like an easy way to live long term and maintain without counting every carb. At $22 list price, it's kind of pricey since most of it explains (yet again) the science behind blood sugar/insulin/refined carbs etc. But definately worth getting at the library and giving a good look through.

Still not sure when I'll start converting, but at least I see my plan is there. I had 1-2#/month loss from Mar-June and then 4 & 3# months in June & July. Aug is dragging, but I started free weights this month so I'm expecting some is new muscle since my clothes fit the same or better. Anyway, if Aug continues at this pace, I may be ready for a change up after Labor Day.

Brenda

Hey Packergal, I like that the book breaks down the GI index for you. Anyone know of a site or a post that has a comprehensive list of GI's for foods (similar to the atkins list on carbs for food).

I want to know the GI's for my workouts as well.

Mike

Mike --

I think there's a www.glycemicindex.com site that I saw somewhere.

Brenda

Hi Mike -

This is my maint plan: http://forum.lowcarber.org/showpost...96&postcount=87

It is working great so far.

Lynda

Brenda, thanks for the index! Just what the doctor ordered.

Lynda, thanks for sharing your plan!! I haven't read through it in detail yet, but I will!! It looks a LOT more organized than what I've got so far!

Did you start with ALL those items or have you been adding to them over time?

Mike

Well, I've been Maintaining since the first of the year, and this summer I hit my upper carb limit...gained five pounds.

Since I really haven't been eating so differently from before, I might've figured out where I've been going wrong and seeing if I'm right. If so, these five pounds will go away.

*Ice cream! There's a local ice cream shop that is only open for three months in the summer and I've been Indulging. Too much, obviously. So this will take care of itself by Labor Day...portion control will work for me here the rest of the year.

*Wrapping too much! There's a couple of sandwich places where I've been grabbing regular wraps for lunch. Easy solution: I have put a package of Toufaya wraps in the fridge here at work. I will roll one up into a paper towel before I go to the place, and have them make it with my low carb (7 net) wrap instead of their (27 carb) wrap.

*Cashews! Note to self: take the can off the little table near my chair and put it back in the cupboard.

So in my case it isn't that I'm grabbing everything around now that I'm in "maintenance" it's that I've been grabbing too much of certain things. Well, I wanted to see what sort of limits there are..and I found out.

Oh, and I'll try to exercise more. We've had a very rainy summer, and that's been interfering, for certain.

Hi Mike -

The list of things to do to keep the weight off are either the same or slight variations of what it took to lose it in the first place. For example, the 10,000 steps per day. Part way throguh my weight loss I had to up exercise to a minimum of 10,000 steps per day to keep losing, and actually was running 15,000 - 17,000 to keep my weight loss rate moving through the last several pounds. Now I just make sure I always have at least 10,000. (BTW, the last day under 10,000 was Feb 2.)

Same with Fitday PC - I needed to use it to lose the weight, but shoose to continue it to help me keep the weight off. Same with weighing every day, etc.

The big thing was to realize that if I stop doing the things that made me successful in losing, I'm going to have a much harder time being successful in maintenance. And I know that if I stop making weight a priority, I can easily gain 5 lbs a month. I just don't ever need to go through needing to lose a ton of weight again.

I need to add one more thing to the list. "Tuck in my shirt every day." I've got a couple of hundred people at work who know that if they ever see my shirt untucked, they should ask why. The weight chart on the file cabinet is also a good one for creating motivation to maintain.

Lynda

I am in the position as you in newly exploring OWL/premaintentance. I just wanted to suggest a book that I read back when I started this WOE called Living the Low Carb Lifestyle by Jonny Bowden.

It had alot of good info and covered more long term eating on this WOL.

Great suggestions!
Good luck to all!!
Kristen

I'm getting a lot of great suggestions from y'all. It's helping me and I hope it helps others that are beginning maintenance also!!

More ideas are VERY welcome!!!!!

Mike

I have been on Maintenance for almost 9 months. I have never counted carbs on Maintenance. I, too, was terrified to increase my carb intake as I so much didn't want to gain the weight back.
I eat 1 or 1 1/2 slices of Oroweat carb counting bread each day, a low carb bar, usually Atkins and now, Genisoy. I eat a Skinny Cow fudgesicle every day, almost. Very often, 2-3 times a week, I eat a big bowl of strawberries and cool whip. We now put nectarine in our salads.
But mostly, we eat chicken or meat with a salad/and or vegetable dish for dinner. We once in a while, share a bag of microwave popcorn or have a half ear of corn.
What I have learned about Atkins:
-wine is fine, once or twice a week
-caffeine is fine for me, daily
-if I stick to the diet closely, it doesn't hurt to have a cookie occasionally. Actually, I have lost a pound or two after cheating, if I only cheated rarely.
-pizza and pasta taste so pasty and gummy after not eating white flour for so long. I no longer love this stuff and have no trouble doing without.
-I exercise more if I eat too many carbs. As a result of walking my buns off, I only gained 1 pound on two different cruises, without "suffering" too much and eating limitted carbs.

Just to say maintenance isn't THAT scarey.
Katy