The Maintenance Club

There aren't many people who're active on the maintenance forum, but i'm convinced that maintenance is the affirmation that the project of weight loss/gain that we have gone through is not just a phase, but a commitment to a lifestyle.

some dietary habits of people who have lost weight and stayed slim:

1. Drink water before/during meals
2. Don't skip meals
3. Keep a food diary
   
4. Eat lots of vegetables and whole grain food
5. Exercise moderately and regularly
6. Weigh themselves consistently
   

we might not practice all of them... but we do at least have some things that keep us on the ball/on track! I'm hoping that this thread will help to keep those of us on this forum accountable and motivated. We could post our profile, and edit our post every week on friday to update one another as to how we've been doing, and to get motivated if we've been slipping off the wagon!

I'll start the ball rolling!

Name: doedoebird

Age: 21

Height: 5'6"

Starting Weight: 130lbs

Current Weight: 112lbs

Maintenance Range: 112~115lbs

*Now vs. Then: I'm definitely less sluggish, less easily fatigued, fitter (i can jog 6 miles at a shot!). Oh! and I've got better skin (and hair) too. :3
*i thought that this will help us remain motivated to stay on track subsequently whenever we feel tempted to slide off!

Aims: Regular and moderate exercise (3-5x a week of 30~60min moderate exercise), relatively clean and balanced (vegetarian) eating. Listening to my body (get better at eating when hungry and stopping when full).

Weaknesses: Boredom/emotional eating, a propensity to laziness and procrastination, a bottomless pit when it comes to certain foods (chocolates, cookies , ice cream and pastries....)

Strengths: I try to be self-aware. I am (or at least i try to be) kind to my body (in terms of both diet and exercise). I actually do like exercise (its after-effects especially). I'm a fidgety person. :3

**How I did this week, goals for next week: Last week was great, but a sleepover during which i didn't get any sleep has been leaving me dead tired for the past couple of days, exacerbated by the fact that i'm having my ToTM now (been feeling extremely weak and achy), and i'm also pretty stressed because i'll be going away from home for exchange in about a week. This week I'm just hoping to be able to hold on, stay calm, eat more (i've been having a terrible appetite) and do very light and relaxing exercises!

**I'm thinking that we should check in and update once a week, and the next week, we'll check in and when we do, clear away what we wrote down for the previous week. For me, this is symbolic. It's a pledge to move on, and refuse to be bogged down (or caught up) by what we did wrong in the past.

anyone with me?

I am taking a week off of counting calories.  I spent 8 days on a weight-loss, weight-gain experiment, and I am finding that I am really paying the price weight-wise for that.  I figured I had a pretty good idea as to what some of the results were going to be, but a few of the results have defiitely staggered me!  I just keep refusing to believe just how fast a person can gain weight back that took so long to lose.  I know that two factors like  1) RR and 2) water weight are significant, but, just the same, the "yo-yoing" effect of my weight is still a shock to me.

Now, I will have to spend several days trying to get back to a weight that I had been basically maintaining for well over a month.

176 pounds  (earlier today I weighed the most Ihave weighed since back in June)

Exercises today:

1. 90 minutes - steady but not fast walk in the town
2. 12 minutes - punched the heavy bag
3. 9 minutes - abs/crunchers
4. 30 minutes weights - biceps, triceps, handgrips
5. 15 minutes stationary bike (crap!  broke off the left pedal of my Airdyne Ergometer--now am trying to figure out how to get it fixed--I bought it back in the early 80's, I think.--It wasn't used that much until the last few years, though.)

Meals today:

1. 1/2 cup (dry) of steel-cut oats. skim milk and maple syrup for flavoring
2. 6 egg whites, gran. garlic, ketchup
3. 16 oz. shredded cabbage, 2 tbs. ground flax seed, 4 tbs. Mrs. Ott's fat free dressing
4. 1/4th cup of Emerald dk choc. dusted almonds
5. 6 egg whites. gran. garlic, ketcup (yep, again--and I made myself eat another meal--every since I conducted that 8 day weight loss-weight gain experiment, I have seemed to lose my apptetite)

Are you kidding me?!   177.8 this morning!  Dang, was my 8 day experiment a success!  I had set out to throw off my metabolism on purpose, and I succeeded way too well!

1. meal 1 :  16 oz. shredded cabbage, 6 tbs. Mrs. Ott's Nonfat dressing
2. meal 2 :   1 glass of water, strong coffee, 6 egg whites, 2 tbs. real bacon bits, EVOO, 1/4th cup of nonfat Kraft shredded cheddar.

1. exercise 1:     32 minutes  speed walking   5.26 mph.  kept my Polar heart-rate monitor on average 145 or so
2. exercise 2: 14 minutes heavy bag

Well, we are off on our trip to Lincoln (90 miles away) to take the Airdyne in for repairs.

       3.  meal 3:  Pizza Hut buffet.  Well, it's my wife's fault.  I made her drive us up to Lincoln, so I could drop the bike off; she blackmailed me into making us stop at PH buffet!  (Ok, so it was good!)

       3. exercise 3:     34 minutes speed walking  4.84 mph kept heart-rate monitor on average 142 or so (gosh, I would have sworn I could taste pizza toward the end of my walk)

      4. meal 4:  2 braeburn apples

      4.  exercise 4:  10 minutes abs/crunchers

      5.  exercise 5:  30 minutes weights: biceps, triceps, handgrips

      5. meal 5:  pound baby carrots with Mrs. Ott's nonfat dressing

Have a great day Everyone!

176.6

Ugggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg!  Oh, well, on the plus side:  I had fallen into complacency; and now I can slowly and intelligently work to get some pounds off steadily.  It sort of invigorates me--although, it depresses me, too.

Please don't kick me out of maintenance!  LOL

1.  Meal 1:  2 cups of black beans-3 tbs. bq sauce-2 tbs. bacon bits-1/4th cup nonfat shredded cheddar cheese

2. Meal 2:  2 braeburn apples

3. Meal 3:  4 slices of Bruschetta with EVOO, blk. olives, tomatoes, fetta cheese, shallots, french bread

4. Meal 4:  4 cups of homemade veggie soup

5. Meal 5:  1/2 cup of chocolate-dusted roasted almonds

1. 65 minutes "speed" walk, kept heart rate on average around 138.
2. 15 minutes heavy bag
3. 15 minutes abs/crunchers
4. 30 minutes weights--biceps, triceps, handgrips

No stationary bike exercise--it's getting fixed.

170 morning weigh-in  4:35 a.m. 

Now, I plan on keeping my weight in the 168-173 weight-window that I had all of July, before I became Dr. Experimentation.  However, tonight my wife and I go out for our anniversary supper, so I shall try to mildly  not overdo it.

 Meal 1:  This meal is low in calories (280) and high in protein (75 g.)

• 6 egg whites
• EVOO cooking spray (I'm not sure about the calorie content--canister says "0" for 1/4th second of spray--but I am going to say 50 calories since 1 tb of EVOO is 120 calories.)
• 2 tablespoons of lean bacon bits
• 1/4th cup of nonfat Kraft shredded cheddar cheese
• black pepper and granulated garlic to taste
• 1 tb. ketchup

Meal 2:  620 calories and 38g. protein

• egg white french toast with egg whites, skim milk, EVOO spray, D'Italiano lowcalorie bread, and maple syrup

Meal 3:  660 calories

• Lindt 85% cocoa dk. choc. and Orville Redenbacher 94% lt. popcorn

Exercises for the day:

1. 30 minutes leisurely walk in town
2. 90+ minutes, mowing--weeding--watering--working in the yard (not too strenuous)

That's my exercise for today; the rest of the day will pretty much be watching the golf tournament on TV.

Meal 4:  Golly knows how many calories!!!!!!!!     Anniversary dinner:  I went insane.

• large (and I do mean large) chicken fried steak (battered beef steak deep fat fried)
• mashed potatoes
• country gravy covering the steak and potatoes
• mixed vegetables.
• 2 frosty mugs of wheat beer
• 1 and 1/2 rolls with whipped butter
• 1 slice of hot fudge sundae cheese cake

174.6  Not a problem.  We had our anniversary supper last night. 

Meal 1:  steel-cut oats with skim milk and syrup

Meal 2:  4 squares of Lindt dk. choc. 85% cocoa candy bar

Meal 3: 6 egg whites, bacon bits, nonfat cheddar cheese

Meal 4: homemade vegetable soup

Meal 5: peanut butter mix sandwiches

Meal 6: tuna salad sandwiches

Meal 7: chocolate chip cookies

-----------------------

Exercise 1: 92 minutes walk (steady but not particularly assertive)  (Morning)

Exercise 2: 91 minutes leisurely walk about the HS track (several hours later)

Exercise 3: 30 minutes weights:  triceps, biceps, handgrips

Exercise 4: 20 minutes heavy bag

Exercise 5: 7 minutes abs

Didn't exercise today.  Also, felt a bit the results of drinking too many frosty mugs last night.  I haven't been daily logging my calories, but I plan to start again tomorrow.  I am sort of dreading the Monday weigh-in on Bobo's Monday weigh-in thread, but at least it will serve as a good incentive for me to get back to my maintenance weight.

The last few weeks have been a bit difficult on my diet--wife's BD, family reunion, anniversary, breaking exercise bike, etc.  Well,in a week or less, I have been able to lose the 3-5 pounds I always seem to gain; so that will be my goal again.  My permanent goal for maintenance is to weight under 170 first thing in the morning.  I keep stating this, but I need to remind myself of this fact. 

Anyone going to join me on this thread?

I am daily going to add the following:

1. daily weigh-in and/or evening weigh-ins
   
2. exercises I did or report that I didn't do any
3. calories/meals I ate
4. anything else about my diet/exercise regimen

Anyone else interested in adding any of those things about your diet/exercise, please post away.

meal 1: 3 cups of simmered beans-ground beef-veggies -- 705 calories

meal 2: 6 egg whites with lean bacon bits cooked in EVOO -- 200 calories

meal 3: 16 oz shredded cabbage, 2 tbs. ground flax seed, 2 tbs. sunflower seeds, 4 tbs. lowfat dressing -- 350 calories

meal 4: 2 cups of beans-beef-veggies with 1 tb. brown sugar -- 515 calories

exercise 1: 40 minute speed walk, keeping heart rate above 135

exercise 2: 20 minutes heavy bag

exercise 3: 30 minutes weights biceps, triceps, handgrips

exercise 4: 7 minutes abs/crunchers

weight 175

weight 172.5

meal 1:  steel-cut oats (1/4th cup dry), w/skim milk and syrup  370 calories   1 can chunk tuna 100 calories  total  = 470 calories