OK so I am at my goal NOW WHAT?

I've spent 3 days now chatting with others about feeling depressed or let down after reaching our weight loss goal. OH for sure there was cheering and elation, but then there was a general consensus of some sort of melancholy.

Oh boy so many people felt the same way. We related it to everything from climbing a mountain to graduating from University to what happens after the Wedding. You work so hard at something, you achieve it... then what?

In many case the biggest fear was regaining all the weight. The data supports that most people will regain the pounds and the worse part is that all of us are on anywhere from our 2nd to 5th time losing a large amount of excess pounds.

Some people who were overweight all their life were having an identity crisis. Feeling like the same person but being treated differently by people they've known forever is really messing with them. Also having people romantically interested in them is also very confusing.

To be continued.....


JUNE 18th 2010!!!

How amazing to be here 6 weeks later and say I AM DOING IT.
What I am loving the best about this "Maintenance" stuff is that so much understanding is constantly rolling into my mind. Every day I seem to understand something new.
I should have written a lot of it down but seeing I am far from being a writer I will do my best to share my enlightened thoughts with you when I can and hope they make sense. Maybe you are like me and they will ring a bell loud enough to help.

You know those days when you think -"you will never lose it", that "it's too hard"....by the time you have thought - "it will take too long too lose" you've already made the decision to just eat whatever whenever.

I know without any doubt that the problem is that YOU are DIETING! How many successful weight losers have to tell you that DIETING DOESN'T WORK! You have to make a real change in your life. You have to look at your excuses to NOT make those changes square in the eye. AND YOU MUST NOT CHOOSE ANYONE OUTSIDE YOURSELF AS THE CHANGES YOU NEED TO MAKE. For example, get a divorce, leave a job...stuff like that.
The change you have to make is to stop eating the wrong food and too much food! You have to learn how to eat so that you can tell the difference between Emotional Eating, Addictive Eating and Habitual Eating.

What does this have to do with Maintenance? IT WORKS WHEN YOU HAVE REACHED YOUR GOAL.

If you really and truly have retrained your eating habits, retrained your taste buds, retrained yourself to eat proper portions at proper times it will not reverse after you have reached your goal.

Maybe you are thinking that you are happy for me, but that you are different, well maybe you are, but if you think that giving up your cupcake is going to make you feel deprived you need to GROW UP. Help yourself understand that wanting to eat all those processed foods and sugar so you won't be DEPRIVED is nonsense, childish and just plain ridiculous. How can you want sugar, fat and flour more than your health and to attain the one thing you really want more than anything in the world - to get rid of that bulk of excess pounds??? How can you want to deprive yourself of sanity more than deprive yourself of biscuits and bacon gravy???

Note* If your food plan includes a diet of sugary, fried foods and you are able to lose, feel good and can manage it...then you are not like me and I AM HAPPY FOR YOU.

In conclusion:
What I am finding from talking to 100's of people on another chat board about Maintenance is the people who are LOVING their new way of eating (like I am) who have also become acutely aware of the predicament we are in with food are indeed keeping it off.

I am only 90% processed food free, at best 95%, but I can handle that little bit compared to eating over 50% processed food in the past.

I spent over 20 years being fashionably slim just by not eating sugar & flour. When I started to eat it again it was like a dam burst, didn't binge...just ate a bit here and there with extra helpings to gain 60lbs in about 8 years at less than 1 pound a month! Spent the next 5 years trying to lose it the WRONG way:- I could lose 10-15 pounds and gain it all back in 2-3 weeks. Finally went into a true healthy diet and lost the 60 in 2 years painlessly by comparison to (UGH) DIETING.

Going to try to post here more often. Have so many thoughts to share.

Stop struggling, relearn how to eat, learn how to love and enjoy healthy food.

CHECK OUT MY DETOX LIST:
http://caloriegirl.blogspot.com/2009/06/special-foods-for-detox-diet.html

It's a scientific compilation that also rids the body of the most common food allergies.

Retrain - reprogram yourself, get your priorities straight. With all your heart, mind and soul you want to lose weight...learn how to change.

For those that are sure their eating habits are a result of abuse and extreme emotional illness, please find help! You deserve to be helped, you were not born to suffer and carry the burden of injustice for your whole life. Step one: You have to believe that.