Maintainers ~ How do you measure success?

I lost a boatload of weight, and it was exciting to see every pound drop. I would jump for joy, and I was working to achieve a goal.

Now that I am maintaining, I hop in the scale and the only thing that goes through my head is "okay..." and then I go on about my day. It's almost depressing I don't get that feeling of success anymore.

So I was wondering how you all measure success, or if you continue to have milestones and reward yourselves.

You could always move onto fitness goals.
Like being able to run a certain distance, or bike even.
To try new challenging sports, things like that.
Focus on being fit and trying new activities that you didn't want to try when overweight.
:) You just have to find different goals, thats all.

Yea I was planning to start Fitness tomorrow actually (that's when my cable gets installed and I can't ride my exercise bike without something going on - i don't own a stereo), so that will be fun. I'm just not sure how success is going to be measured from it...

But nothing with weight in itself? I was thinking about buying a charm bracelet and adding a charm for every 6 months maintained. It's just so diluted. I lose 170 pounds and now I don't feel like much of a success because I'm no longer trying to hit a #.

I'm not in maintaince yet, but how often are you weighing yourself? I imagine that when I get to that point my goal will be stretching out how frequently I weigh myself and how close I'm counting calories. For example, can you go a week without counting calories and without daily weighing and still be within 3 pounds of where you are at right now?

No idea. I'm not sure I'm able to let go of that much control just yet. When I work exercise back into my diet, I'm sure it will be fine.

I weigh in daily. It's just so routine. And counting is routine as well. :) It's going to take some getting used to.

I think the charm bracelet is an excellent idea.  Maintaining takes work and commitment too!

I reckon maintaining is almost harder then losing because you're more likely to fall off the wagon.
So it is a huge accomplishment for someone who used to be over weight, to maintain a new healthy lifestyle.

Every day you make healthy decisions, you are making little accomplishments!

You could try doing couch-to-5k.
Every time i complete a run it is really satisfying :)

You've done so GREAT, you could measure success every time you dress in something cute and look amazing, every morning.  You could measure success every time you climb stairs and aren't winded.  You could measure success every time you eat a balanced healthy moderate meal and feel good afterwards :)  Do you feel like you have a brand new life, or was it so gradual (the loss) that you didn't really notice a change?  Nancy

I just eat 3 meals a day and exercise. I eat the healthy stuff.

I think maintaining is all about making it a lifestyle.

 

Original Post by nancy1967:

You've done so GREAT, you could measure success every time you dress in something cute and look amazing, every morning. You could measure success every time you climb stairs and aren't winded. You could measure success every time you eat a balanced healthy moderate meal and feel good afterwards :) Do you feel like you have a brand new life, or was it so gradual (the loss) that you didn't really notice a change? Nancy

I completely feel like a brand new me. I just feel less inspirational because i'm no longer shouting to the roof tops that I lost another pound.

I'm def going to do the charm bracelet. I've been meaning to for so many months, but I've yet to do it.

Celebrating 5 months maintenance :) 

I relate to you completely x17star17x.....maybe this is why maintaining is not as much fun....for me though my next step would b to tone myself...and bring my body fat % to a better level...it is 25% at a healthy weight...which could use some lowering....but seeing this number go down would have a limit as with weight loss....yet I will be more than happy with myself if I can do it.

does this help?

also I have moved on from regular weight loss exercise to strength building exercises like yoga....and how well I can do the positions is an indicator of my fitness...

My body fat % is 16.4 when I was tested at the doctors. They said it's a good thing.

I do need to do some serious toning. I NEED a new dvd player so I can start back up my slim in 6 dvd, and once I get my dvr today, I'll have something to watch while exercising on my bike.

Exercise is more time consuming than dieting. Dieting, it's food and you have always eaten it. Exercise, you gotta get home from work, make yourself do it, get cleaned up.  I have other things in life I need to do too. :)

i'm not quite there yet (or i'm there and not ready to admit it yet - i've been stuck in the 140-142 range for months), but my plan is to find a range of +/- 2 pounds from my "goal" that i can maintain.  as long as i'm within that range (yet to be determined, but say 133-137), i'll be happy, but if i find that i'm consistently at the top of the range, i'll step up the exercise or cut back on the cheese/beer.

I have to chuckle, because you reminded me the feeling of panic I had moving to maintenance. I was lost for about three weeks and then it just went away. I got used to the fact that I am where I wanted to be. I did change some things in the fitness part of my life: I started to go to group classes and I had a blast till I got the flu last week. But once I get my energy back I will be back for more. I'd love to get stronger now. What is cool during the classes is to look in the mirror and not feeling bad about how I look.

Bottom line: What helped me was new fitness goal. Survive group classes, get stronger, have fun with it. 

I'm not up to maintaining yet, but fitness goals, all the way! If you haven't been exercising much, then you can make an amazing amount of progress in so many dimensions. You can get stronger.  You can go further and faster. You can learn new sports and skills.  The key is to find things you enjoy - whether it's hiking, dancing,  weight lifting, swimming, martial arts -- and then focus on that activity.  The first few sessions of exercise can feel pretty crummy when your body isn't used to it, but then it starts to feel really good to have a challenge and acheive it.

Yeah, I'm having a hard time accepting being done with losing-- a huge part of me just wants to lose one more pound, just one more... but then where does it stop? I don't know how to assess visually if I'm thin or not, and the scale isn't a truly reliable source, right?

Anyway, any advice on when and where you draw the line?

You can make yourself little challenges every week if you want.

You could have a food related challenge, a physical activity challenge and a self esteem challenge.

eg By next Monday I want to have

eaten 5 serves of vegetables per day

gone for a walk for 40 mins on at least three days

taken time out for an indulgent bubble bath two times

Those ones sound really boring, but they are examples. 

You could even start a thread in maintenance about challenges and goals.

Original Post by x17star17x:

My body fat % is 16.4 when I was tested at the doctors. They said it's a good thing.

That's actually REALLY low for a woman.

Yea I know it's pretty low for a woman. I'm mostly skin, but I'd def LOVE to tighten it back up to my body.

I have set up a few goals for myself for the next 2 weeks:

Exercise 5 times a week for 45 minutes to the point sweat drips from my shoulders. Not stopping until the sweat drips.

No counting for the next 2 weeks, just eating right.

No weighing for the next 2 weeks. Tape measures are fine.

No mid afternoon caffeine. I can't completely cut out everything just yet tho.

Drink 1 gallon of water a day. 

This is kinda fun actually :) 

I had no luck with the scale. No matter what I did I couldn't stay away from it, so I just accepted I'm nuts and moved on. I still do it even there is no point to it, the new small clothes fit.

You success is amazing, you must be proud of yourself. You look fantastic!