Maintenance
 

Ok, I have officially surpassed my goal weight of 135 lb (5'5") :D. I am down to 133 and am ok to lose a few more pounds. Right now I seem to be in a habit of keeping my calories 300 to 500 below my calories burned, and I can't seem to get into the mindset of maintaining my weight instead of losing. I stopped tracking what I eat for a while, but I gained a bit when I did that.

Does anyone have any tips that helped you?

I usually have the same types of things to eat every day, and I tend to keep my meals to 400 or 500 calories each with 3 snacks around 100 calories or less. I'm scared to branch out for fear of getting back into my old habits. I workout 4 or 5 times a week and on my workout days, I will burn up to 2200 calories a day, otherwise I'm around 1850 calories a day burned.

Have you considered changing 1-2 of your snacks to protein bars? That way your eating habits wouldn't have to change, but you'll up your calories with something your body can certainly use with all those workouts your doing.

That is a great idea, almeeker, I will certainly look for some good protien bars, or another protein source that's tasty and a little bit higher in calories (mmmm, almonds).

Thanks!

I tried one yesterday called "Pure Protein Chocolate deluxe", it tasted basically like a tootsie roll coated in chocolate, 180 calories maybe? Yummmmm..... I'll be going back for more of those. It was the perfect way to fix that candy bar craving. I love almonds too, I have to measure them out and then put the bag back before I eat any, because I have trouble stopping... Today I had a whole avocado, that was way yummy too and packed up with good fat. Deviled eggs are soooo yummy too and would bring your cals up without derailing the whole works.

Wylie7 - I’m in the same situation. I need to find my maintenance levels too. I don’t want to switch to a protein bar though, because I don’t like the stuff that’s in them. Instead, I am switching out one of my fruit servings for nuts, and one of my veggie servings for an extra protein (fish, for me because I’m a pescatarian). Trying to get an extra 300 calories in my diet, each day, in a natural way. With the higher calorie-dense stuff, I need measure-out the servings more carefully. (Its too easy for a little extra to become too much.) Even though I'm maintaining for 8 weeks now, I still track everything on Fitday, every day.

I am also in this situation. I have been working on maintaining but my calories are still a little low. There's a mental hurdle for me of not wanting to go back up, so I tend to be conservative with them, resulting in a really sloooow loss over a couple months (like two or three pounds). I really feel comfortable at this weight and in five more pounds I will be "underweight," so I really need to steady myself out.

Adding more nuts is good, perhaps also raisins or some other dried fruit, mixed into something you're already eating, like yogurt or a salad. I like eating pistachios and sunflower seeds because the work in getting them open makes me pay attention to what I'm eating, instead of mindlessly popping them in. I agree about wanting to avoid all those ingredients in many protein bars, but what about Larabars? They're made with all natural ingredients. I like the Kashi bars, too, and try to catch them on sale and stock up. One of the stores near me has grind-your-own peanut, almond, and cashew butter, too. I'm really hooked on it; it's very fresh, nothing but the nuts, and not so sweet that you end up wanting to eat a lot of it, like peanut butter from a jar.

Oh, and I am still tracking, too...mostly now to keep track of the ratios as opposed to the calories, just to make sure I'm at a good balance for me. One day I might be brave and experiment with not logging...but after summer and definitely after the trip to the beach!

That's the same hurdle for me. The only thing I'm doing is tracking calories and weight even more closely and adjusting my diet a little each week (each few weeks) until I find the right balance.

This isn't really maintenance as far as staying at my current weight, but maintenance in the sense of not slipping back into old habits. Next month we have a 2 week vacation planned, camping up north, so that means no gym, no scale, no Internet, no food log, no FitDay. I'm psyching myself up to deal with that. I'm not ready. I know it's not really possible to gain back 35 lbs in 2 weeks, but I'm afraid of slipping back into bad habits. The new lifestyle still seems fragile, if that makes sense. There is lots of swimming and hiking to replace work and the gym, and one of the trails is a mile long "fit trail" with 10 exercise stations along the way. I'll probably log my food in a notebook style, I've done that before I found FitDay. It's a real PITA, which is why I didn't stick with it, but I can handle two weeks. As for the scale, well I'll just have to take a deep breath and let that one go.

I used to feel that way about them too, but lately I've been looking over the ones at the health food store rather closely. The owner of the store is very particular about what she carries, so if it's available there, generally speaking it's pretty spectacular health-wise. I've found that my kids will gladly accept a protein or health bar of some sort over candy bars, and so for our family they have been a really good way to get off the junk food. Our youngest DD tried one the other day that tasted downright delicious, it was all dried fruits and nuts. It was so good the rest of us went back in to get our own.

Slipping back into old habits is really what it's about, because that's why we're here, right?

And I hear you about the protein bars. Our local organic market has some good ones, but I've steered clear because they are a few extra calories, but that might not be so bad. I also eat the Kashi granola bars, but they are getting kind of boring since they've been a staple.

I would really like to enjoy (within reason, of course) some of the things I enjoyed before I lost weight. Chips, soda, burgers and fries. I ate them all the time before, but I really don't want to start that. I had a burger on Friday (all beef sirloin - delicious) but was only able to eat half of it. 8 months ago I would have wolfed it down and had an entire dessert to myself.

I would also like to get to the point where I don't have to track or think about the way I eat. I want it to be automatic, then I know I can maintain with very little effort. It's supposed to be work to lose weight, but to maintain should be automatic.

Any other suggestions for maintenance?