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  #1   ^
Old Wed, Mar-20-02, 14:19
lisaf's Avatar
lisaf lisaf is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,270
 
Plan: My own
Stats: -/-/- Female 5'6"
BF:
Progress: 68%
Location: Ontario
Default Maintenance is...scary?

Yup - I confess. The thought of being on maintenance now is pretty frightening. Probably why I kept revising my goal weight lower and lower -- so I'd never have to deal with this part. But now I'm here and I'm finding it an interesting place to be in.

For one thing...I'm finding it hard not to get into a mindset where certain foods are okay because, gee, I'm not trying to lose anymore! I'm trying to catch this kind of disordered thinking before hand but its a tough one to combat.

I suddenly find myself hungrier than ever. But I can't seem to distinguish anatomical hunger from psychological hunger. Suddenly I'm feeling like I'm losing control of food again. This is odd because I'm keeping a pretty detailed food diary and following it pretty closely. Except for today when I ate 3 of my 6 meals within a 2 hour period

Taking stock of why I feel out of control:
1. 6 meticulously planned meals a day leaves me with issues around the anticipation of the next meal i.e. I begin to crave it before I'm due to eat it.
2. 6 meals also means I never get truly hungry during the day -- maybe I'm losing touch with what hungry feels like?
3. Not only am I at goal weight, I'm also coming to the end of my 12 week BFL program and I just ran my 5k. Meeting 3 goals at the same time is leaving me feeling a bit empty. I'm certainly planning to set a new bunch for the next "cycle" (and have already registered for my next race) but I think there may be a bit of mourning the old goals?

So what's next? I think I need to go "back" to 3 squares a day. While I understand the logic behind small, evenly spaced meals, its not worth it if its going to drive me crazy -- plus I think I eat more. Its wierd that most people get heavy when they don't monitor their intake properly...I get stalled due to over-monitoring!

Second, time to get those new goals in place. I want to run my next 5k (mother's day) faster than 32 minutes and will need to train accordingly. Also, will sit down and establish a weight-training goal for upper body for 12 weeks.

Thanks for listening! Its funny how I already knew all this stuff, but writing it out makes it more real and now I feel like I can cope again.

Lisa
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  #2   ^
Old Wed, Mar-20-02, 16:23
razzle razzle is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 2,193
 
Plan: mostly paleo
Stats: //
BF:also don't care
Progress: 100%
Location: West Coast, USA
Default

great post lisa--it's so helpful to us pre-maintenance people, too, to see what life looks like on the 'other side of goal.'

Your comments remind me of the Lunson articles at carbsmart that your post (via Nat) led me to. She talks about the "needing new goals"/"losing the excitement of weight loss success" issues in her past columns.

I think your insight into over-monitoring is a good one. Finding a mental balance so that long-term weight maintenance isn't just another overly-fixated face of eating disorders but focused enough so that the weight stays off and the dangerous carbs are under control: that's going to be quite a trick for many of us! Please keep us informed on how your strategies work.
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  #3   ^
Old Wed, Mar-20-02, 19:28
lisaf's Avatar
lisaf lisaf is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,270
 
Plan: My own
Stats: -/-/- Female 5'6"
BF:
Progress: 68%
Location: Ontario
Default

I certainly will! You are so right about achieving a balance. I had balance and then I allowed it to slip into obsessiveness...

Still struggling away this evening...evil low-carb pancake monster is up in my kitchen but he will NOT prevail!!!!

Its funny because I KNOW I'm not hungry...but my brain gets so obsessed with food! This is a relatively new development...or I should say its an old habit that hasn't been by for a visit in a while. This is food for thought (no pun intended...honest!) but if I can label it a habit, then it becomes something controllable. At least in theory.

Away, away darned pancake demon!!!

Lisa
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  #4   ^
Old Sun, Apr-07-02, 21:37
Sabazel Sabazel is offline
New Member
Posts: 11
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 140/115/120
BF:
Progress: 125%
Location: Richmond, VA
Default

Hello all!

I'm finding that I'm having this problem too, of finding the right balance of LC eating with not losing any more weight. I'm already a little under my "goal weight", and while I'm not underweight for my height, it's a little scary to not have the right balance yet.

Changing the mindset of "not losing weight" is harder than it sounds! Because you start to feel like if you're not losing weight, you're eating wrong, even if the goal IS not to lose weight.

Finding which carbs are ok to add back in is another problem. And now that I've got more carbs, it means lowering the fat, so that's another thing to get used to. I can't eat bacon cheeseburgers anymore, buns or no buns.

I know its a strange problem, but anyone with advice on how to correctly do the maintanance stage of the diet would be greatly appreciated. Because lets face it, eventually that's the stage we're going to stay at for the long run!

-Sophie
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  #5   ^
Old Mon, Apr-08-02, 08:35
Karen's Avatar
Karen Karen is offline
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Posts: 12,775
 
Plan: Ketogenic
Stats: -/-/- Female 5 feet 4 inches
BF:
Progress: 100%
Location: Vancouver
Default

LOL! I've on so many long plateaus (self-induced and otherwise) that I know exactly what maintenance is like: It's a never ending plateau.

With that in mind, plateaus should be embraced as a learning process. One that entirely prepares you for maintenance.

Karen
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  #6   ^
Old Tue, Apr-09-02, 09:42
BostonLou's Avatar
BostonLou BostonLou is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 29
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 265/210/205
BF:
Progress: 92%
Location: Boston area
Default

i've just recently reached my goal and am having the same issues. can someone please let me know the location of those articles??

thanks
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  #7   ^
Old Tue, Apr-09-02, 09:59
razzle razzle is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 2,193
 
Plan: mostly paleo
Stats: //
BF:also don't care
Progress: 100%
Location: West Coast, USA
Default

Lou, you can find her stuff at Lunson Carbsmart articles
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