No one is immune to the potential for holiday weight gain. I still have to be very diligent in watching my food portions and choices because if I don’t keep my goal of “never going back” in front of me, then I could easily begin to regain weight. When I bake cookies or dip pretzels in chocolate, I decide before I begin if I will have any, and then how many I’m going to eat. This often helps me because I know I can have one if I want it, and I understand in advance how many I’m going to allow myself.

Another way I avoid just eating whatever I want for a few days in a row is to remember that those cookies or cakes not only have the potential to add unwanted pounds, but they also contain ingredients that are not very healthy for me. Butter, chocolate and salty pretzels are okay every once in a while, but certainly not day after day after day.

It isn’t always easy to keep your goals in front of you when cookies and candies are beckoning you to indulge, give in and forget what you’ve been working for all these months or even years. Although I don’t think that losing weight needs to be your goal during this coming week, I do think that continued diligence is important.

As you get closer to, and eventually reach your goal weight, you will have years and years ahead of you to practice maintenance. What better time to begin preparing than right now for the hundreds of holidays that will occur throughout your life?

Focusing on your health, fitness and scale goals during these next few days can really help you make wise decisions when faced with the abundance of food.

How will you keep your focus over the next few days?  Diane

I don’t ever think about the fact that I’m unusual in keeping my weight off this long, but sometimes people make me feel as though I do something “magic” that they cannot do. I wanted to share today some truths about my life in maintenance to encourage you in the fact that you can maintain your weight once you reach your goal.

There is no magic formula to maintaining my weight. I balance calories and exercise just like I did when I was in the weight loss phase. I do not count calories officially, but I do pay attention to the calorie content of foods I eat. If I know I’m going to eat a brownie for dessert, I eat a very light lunch and skip the bread at dinner. If I eat more than I normally do due to hormonal or stressful days, then I cut back on my food intake for the next day or two.

I weigh everyday. I know this isn’t for everyone, but it works for me. In maintenance, weighing everyday helps me see that I’m within that 3-5 pound range I allow myself to float in. If I hit the top number, I take action immediately and cut out the extra food I’ve been eating. The scale jogs back down and I just continue on with life

I am satisfied with my weight. This is a big one for me. Could I be thinner? Yes, I could probably lose another 10 pounds. But for me, this weight where I have stayed all these years is fairly easy to maintain, whereas if I lost another 10 pounds, I think it would be a struggle to easily maintain. Again, this is a personal choice.

I rarely eat junky foods. You notice I said rarely! I do eat dessert and chips on occasion, but it’s not an everyday thing. Most of the time I make pretty good choices.

I continue to exercise six days a week. Exercise is like the “get out of weight problem jail” card for me. The calories I burn give me the flexibility to eat a little more without worrying about my weight. I also love feeling strong and fit.

I developed my personal mantra of “Never Go Back.” I never want to struggle to walk through the mall because of my weight, get stuck in chairs or avoid social situations solely because of my weight.

I wanted to encourage you that there is no magic in maintenance. The same things you are doing right now to get to a healthy weight are exactly the same things you can do to maintain your weight for years. That’s why picking a weight-loss plan that is sustainable and practical is so important. Can you do it for the rest of your life?

What are your thoughts on maintaining your weight? Diane

I was wondering how you answer the question: Who Are You?

What defines you and makes you unique?

Let’s make it fun and define ourselves in just a few words.

I’ll start:

I am a:

Wife

Mom

Independent

Thinker

Christian

That took me a few minutes to decide on just a few words to describe myself. Some of those adjectives and titles helped me on my weight loss journey. I wanted to be around for my husband and my children and they were primary motivators for me. I am independent, so I did my own thing to lose weight. I like to think about things, and I certainly thought a lot about weight loss. And my faith helped me get through really tough times.

Want to join in? Who are you?  Diane

As careful as I try to be I mess up all the time. Here’s a perfect example. I was planning our meals for the week and decided that we would have black beans and rice, homemade tortilla chips, green beans and fruit. Then I thought to myself, “We haven’t had yellow rice in a long time. I’ll get some at the store.”

I was grocery shopping later that day and walked down the aisle with the Mexican foods. I grabbed two boxes of yellow rice and put them in my cart. I finished shopping, waited in line FOREVER and went home. Two days later I was getting the black beans going and grabbed the boxes of rice. I glanced at the nutrition label and this is what I saw.

I looked at the serving sizes to make sure that enormous sodium amount wasn’t for the entire box. No, that yellow rice really had 820 mg of sodium per serving. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t serve that to my family.

So instead of yellow rice we had a mixture of brown and white rice, which is how I usually make rice for black beans. I’m returning the rice boxes to the store this afternoon.

That experience made me think about how easy it is to assume that a food is healthy to eat but in reality it’s not very good for you. I falsely assumed that yellow rice would be fine but I was wrong. We have been really trying to watch the amount of sodium we eat and 820 mg in one serving of rice wasn’t fine for me or my family.

This isn’t the first time it’s happened to me. Even after I lost my weight I sometimes get lax about checking the nutrition labels and let extra fat, sugar or sodium slip into our diets. You’d think I’d learn!

Have you ever gotten something home and decided, “I’m not eating this!”  Diane

All I could focus on was what food I thought I could never have again.

I had it 100% backwards. Instead of focusing on what I perceived as missing – I should have been focusing on all the things I would gain when I was at a healthier weight. But through 10 years of dieting, I focused on the losses. That’s something that was different for me the last time I tried to lose weight. I focused on all the things I was gaining.

Here’s some things I gained or improved by losing:

Increased self-respect

Control over my choices

Better wardrobe

More energy

Improved health

Self-confidence

Ability to do physical activities I never thought possible – like ride a bike

As you travel your own journey – I wonder if you ever tend to focus on all the things you have given up and lose sight of the wonderful benefits to being healthier and more fit? If you do, I’d encourage you to sit down when you have a minute and make a written list of all the wonderful things you are gaining or want to gain on your journey.

Do you ever focus on the perceived losses or do you keep your eye on the gains?  Diane

The place was definitely “country.” Say that word with a southern accent and you get the picture!

Here’s the kids heading down the path.

Here’s them finishing up picking. I was there, but as usual – behind the camera.

After we were done, we had 4 gallons of blueberries. We were planning on picking five, but we all burned out because of the heat. When we were done picking we paid the lady $25.00 and she offered us some blueberry coffee cake and water. Not wanting to be rude, we went in and had some coffee cake. I had a bite and the kids had small pieces. She cooked it in an 8″ x 8″ pan and had cut the cake into 16 pieces.

Here’s where the “weight loss” part starts. . .

On the way home I told the girls that when you make a small cake like that the “official” serving size usually is 16 pieces. But these days, when “we” cut brownies or coffee cake we only get 9 pieces out of the same size pan! No wonder so many of us struggle with portion control.

I think in the “old fashioned” days people weren’t so inclined to cut huge pieces or eat enormous quantities at one time. It made me think about how much things have changed in just one generation.

It also made me think how we can change things back in one or two generations. I know that’s a long time, but there is hope!

Here’s what four gallons of blueberries looks like spread out on our table. I am going to freeze most of them for use throughout the year. They freeze beautifully and are very healthy for you.

Ever thought about how your parents or grandparents ate? Would they eat huge portions?  Diane

A cheat day gives a “dieter” the chance to eat anything they want to for a whole day or perhaps just one meal. You might save up your cheat calories and have a big restaurant meal or choose a special ice cream treat. Or maybe on that day you choose to just snack on foods you would not normally eat. However you might do it – is it a good idea?

Here are my thoughts:

♦In my mind, a cheat day might mean you are thinking of your eating plan as a temporary diet rather than a lifestyle change. If you are changing your relationship to food forever, then there is no reason to cheat, because you are just living life. Does that mean you can’t have the occasional brownie or piece of pie? No. If you choose to have those desserts once in a while, make it a choice that fits within your lifestyle.

♦If you are someone who struggles with controlling their sugar or processed food cravings, then a cheat day might set you up for failure. Oftentimes, if we crave those foods and then eat them to excess we might find ourselves on a “roll” and have a hard time stopping.

♦If you go all week eating a really clean, healthy diet but all you can think about is your cheat day coming up is that a healthy thing? Would it make you see that cheat day as a reward for good behaviour? It might, and when you do reach your goal you may still see food as a reward, which can hurt your maintenance efforts.

You can probably tell that I’m not a big fan of cheat days, but I’m very interested to hear what you all think.

Is there any benefit to having a cheat day while you are losing weight?  Diane

Here are the highlights of their recommendations. Of particular interest is section D, where they get down to the details of their recommendations.

♦The first two sections encourages us all to eat healthy foods, and offers guidance on how to achieve that goal.

♦The third section begins to address SoFAS. The cute government name for not so cute “foods.” Solid Fats and Added Sugars. The committee actually encourages people to AVOID sugar-sweetened beverages. Not just suggests they limit the amount they drink, but avoid them altogether. That should be interesting for soda manufacturers and lobbyists during the public comment time to come.

♦The report also addresses the reduction of  childhood obesity by trying to prevent the problem from happening in the first place.

I have to admit that I am encouraged by these recommendations. I am not a big government person, but having these guidelines can serve as a starting point and open up a dialogue concerning the sad state of Americans. When 66% of the adults in our country are medically overweight or obese that is a problem. Add to it the number of children who also struggle and there really is a crisis.

What are your initial thoughts? Do you see guidelines such as these making a difference in the lives of ordinary Americans any time soon?  Diane

My reasoning was that I was so big anyway, that there was no way I’d ever be able to lose 150 pounds, so I might as well enjoy all the food I desired. I did feel guilty sometimes after I ate “bad” foods all day long , but the guilt wasn’t enough to stop me from eating those foods. When I was writing this post, part of me wanted to say no food is “bad, because I do believe in moderation. But even within moderation, there are quite a few foods I do not eat.

I think it would be interesting to see if there are foods on your “no” list. Here’s a few things, with my reasons for not eating them, that I don’t eat anymore.

Movie theatre popcorn – Did you know there are between 1000 and 1200 calories, and 60 grams of saturated fat in a large tub of movie popcorn? Not to mention the sodium. I just can’t do it! (Source: WebMd)

Chicken Pot Pie I don’t make – Marie Callendar’s chicken pot pie has 1040 calories and 24 grams of fat. Other brands are similiar, and restaurant pies are too.

Most canned soups – The sodium counts on most of these makes these a no on my list.

Beef and pork – I know there is nothing inherently wrong with these. It all started when I got ecoli food poisoning and was in the hospital for four days. I had eaten a restaurant hamburger that wasn’t completely done. That crossed beef off my list, and pork soon followed.

Soft drinks – I stopped drinking these a long time ago. The calories are high (240 for 20 oz), and most of the diet drinks have artifical sweeteners, which I try to avoid.

My list has changed over the years, but these are the foods currently on my ”bad” list. 

Do you have anything that’s a “no” for you?  Diane

Some of you have been on this journey for a long time, and others for a shorter time. I think no matter where you are in your journey it is helpful to take a moment and revisit why you are doing all this hard work. And let’s be honest – losing weight is hard work. Good work–yes, but hard at times.

It can be easy to lose sight of why and get caught up in the weigh-ins, the food, the exercise, the highs, the lows. I know I did. I started out losing weight solely to get out of the 300′s and be able to wear clothes I bought in a store and didn’t sew on my machine. I wanted to fit into chairs, quit feeling too big for the room and quit being tired all the time.

Over time though, I sometimes lost sight of some of those reasons and just got discouraged with how long it was taking.

I wanted to ask you if it’s time for you to remember why you started working on your health and fitness. And to help you I’ve put together three questions, and I hope you will share to help others on their journey.

1. One reason I am working on my health and weight is: ______

2. One thing I’d like to do when I get to the weight I want to be is: ______

3. The biggest obstacle that is standing in the way of me reaching my goal is: _____ and I can overcome that obstacle by: _______

I found in my weight loss classes that writing down our goals, objectives and obstacles helps us stay focused and encourages us when we get discouraged.

I hope you will share your answers. So often, what we learn from other people are the very things that help make everything  “click” for us in our minds and in our hearts. There were many things I heard and read during the 10 years I struggled with obesity that motivated me, and even though I didn’t act on the motivation right away, I never forgot what they were. Somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered their success stories, and knew that someday that could be me. Diane