how much mental effort...?

[razzle]

How much energy and time do you think it takes to successfully maintain a LC weight loss?

I've been musing about this lately. Since getting back on track in November, I've been spending a good 30 hours a week on line, thinking about LC, reading, etc. As I read tales of successful maintainers, they also seem to continue to stay committed to the LC community, focus on their food a lot, preach the LC WOE out there in the real world, even change careers so that their daily life is all about LCing. They create websites, they write on-line articles, they open LC businesses....

I realize that anyone who hit goal, left the board, and is successfully maintaining won't be here to answer this questions :) but what do you present maintainers think?

How much time do you spend focused on this WOL? How much time do you think you would need as a minimum to maintain your loss? Do you know of anyone who has maintained LC weight loss for over 5 years without staying involved in the LC world? Can LCing become truly automatic without putting any hours at all into it?

Thanks in advance for answering.

[Karen]

If there are addiction issues and you're in recovery, I don't think you ever or can ever stop thinking about it.

Does it ever get easier? Probably not, but I think it becomes more comfortable as you learn to think in new ways. There is always some interesting tid-bit, squirreled away in some part of your head.

LC is now automatic for me, but recovery practices are not. I have to make an effort to work with them every day.

Karen

[razzle]

thanks, Karen. actually I find the addiction & body image work kinda fun in a sometimes tender/owie way but sometimes energizing way. And you're right, the food issues become more and more automatic--like shopping the perimeter of stores, walking by the tons-o-baddies table at work without even considering stopping there, ordering steak and salad neither the fries nor bread thank you. I think I'm trying to work out a fuzzy view of my own future...what's the perfect balance of attention and just letting it be? The closer I get to my goal, the less I think about loss and more about "lifestyle," the curiouser I become about what that lifestyle is. Possibly just another control issue raising its insistent little head, but I thought I'd take a peek into the maintainers' lives and see what they did. Never hurts to model oneself upon the pros! :D

[gwilson38]

I couldnt be specific about the amount of time I spend thinking and reading about low-carbing but in my case I know it is actually far more now than it was when I was losing weight. In the 1st place I spend I would say 15 hrs a week in this forum alone. I research things on the net and I take books out of the library all the time. For me its because I want to become really well informed about low-carbing and nutrition in general because I hope to make a career out of my knowledge. I have already gotten into heated debates with health professionals who dont agree with my WOL. And to me knowledge is "power"

[starlite]

I think when you've done it a long time as I have, it becomes a way of life - if you allow it to that is..lol. I pretty much don't think about it anymore and know the carb content of the things I eat most frequently. It seemed daunting at first, but it gets easier and you start to know what you should and shouldn't eat. I suppose though, as dieters, we fixate on it no matter how much time goes, more than those who don't have to diet fixate on their food!

[lisaf]

Hi raz -

What I'm finding is that I have to continue to be vigilant...persistently consistent about the way I eat.

Certainly the meal planning is easier, and the uncertainty about what's okay and what isn't is gone. This makes it much smoother and more natural.

I still spend a LOT of time on this WOE and my workouts. I think its because I still need to establish goals and meet them. Its about more than the numbers onthe scale now.

Lisa