I've just done a long message for someone on a music teachers weight loss elist.
Thought I'd repeat it here
The questions came from someone who had lost 100lbs and was looking to step off the dieting treadmil.
Anyway...here goes.
Well done Louise! Not just for losing weight, but making the decision to stay there!
People often assume they will keep their new slim figures automatically. Perhaps that's why so many fail.
Your leptin levels will be lower, and this can cause cravings, and your body can try to make you put on the weight again, but fortunately we will always have choices, and we can chose to override them...(cool eh)
So where are you?
People often think that losing weight is the journey. Getting to goal is the final step. I believe that getting to goal is getting the starting point LOL. This is the beginning of a brand new exciting journey. Really learning about your body, how much you need, what foods work well for you, and retraining the brain....especially retraining the brain. I don't believe that you really retrain it a lot during dieting, as you are looking to an end, seeing the scales go down (great motivation), getting compliments etc. Focus and motivation for maintaining has to come from elsewhere.
Weighing
Daily. The National Weight control registry recommends it,and that's probably the best research department we have. I always weigh daily, though what the scales say can take a bit of deciphering LOL. They don't tell the true story as you probably know. Daily flutuations, hormone response, perhaps a little extra salt in some food and so on can make the scales give a false fat reading. Don't panic, but always be honest with yourself. Eaten too much the day before...move more and be a little more aware over the next few days.
Trigger foods.
I chose to learn how to 'untrigger' them. I wasn't prepared to give them up, just wanted to learn how to have power over them. Much head stuff, but one of the most useful techniques I used was to learn the pause. Always stopping after a portion size and waiting. Knowing that I had the freedom to have more if I wanted, but not just yet
It took time, but was well worth the effort. I don't have any trigger foods now.
Exercise
Yep. Need to keep that up. It doesn't have to be the gym though, just walking more, dancing when some music comes on the television, getting up in the adverts and moving around, or finding a sport that
you really enjoy. I don't exercise to control my weight though. I do the first few things. Walk lots, move when possible. I want to stay flexible and healthy. I want to live like a slim person not a person who spent a lifetime on diets.
I exercise because life now would be unbearable if I didn't. All mindset stuff.
Calories
It's kind of true that maintaining is just dieting with more food I don't like to think of myself as dieting in any shape or form. The closest I have come to it since goal is counting maintenance calories
for the first 9 months after goal. The reason for this was that I had spent a lifetime either getting fatter, or losing weight. I'd forgotten what a normal person should eat. I needed to know exactly how much I needed to maintain...portion sizes, a good balance of
carbs, fat and protein etc. I don't count anything now, though I am calorie aware. This doesn't mean that I purposely chose low calorie food, just like to know what I'm putting in my body. I rarely eat foods that are processed to be low calorie as they often contain loads of yucky stuff.
Focus.
Strangely, my focus isn't on maintaining my weight. It's on living life as a slim person. Making healthy habits that I can easily do and practising them. My weight was a side effect of my habits. Same with
food. I said I had a problem with food, and with my weight, when really the problem was how I used food
I have an analogy that I use a lot. If I throw myself against a brick wall, I'll get hurt. The wall isn't at fault. Other people can walk past the same wall without throwing themselves against it. Same with food. Food isn't the problem. Obviously it's how we perceive food and how we can behave around food.
Good and bad foods.
I try not to think in terms of good and bad foods. I have the choice to eat what I want. Some foods are more nutritious than others, that's all. I never treat myself with food either. That doesn't mean
I don't enjoy the odd unhealthy food, but it's just not something I reward myself with. I may have it if I want. Your body wants you to eat healthily, and though there are other reasons for eating, know them. Really know why you want something unhealthy and always moderate it. Understand yourself.
I have a phrase. "I've had some...I don't need any more". If I'm tempted to eat too much of the less nutritious food, then
something else is going on and I need to examine what it is.
Loving food
I love food even more than ever because I taste now rather than shovelling it down.
Did you know the first two bites of anything arethe most powerful? That's the amount that will have the strongest flavour. If you aren't hungry, anything after two bites is excess.
So why 2 bites? Well, think it's to do with the tastebuds being very receptive to make sure you aren't poisoning yourself LOL.
Then the tastebuds calm a little.
Dieting
I don't. This does put a certain amount of pressure on, because that means I can't overeat too much, but hopefully everything else is in order, so I don't feel the need. I was determined to get off the diet wagon, and since have found how much it damaged me. Not saying I'm anti diet...not at all. It was a tool I used to do a job. Now the job is done and the crutch had to go.
Umm...anything else? Probably, but this message is rather long already.
All the very best for the next stretch. Enjoy life as a slim person.
Highly recommended
Thought I'd repeat it here
The questions came from someone who had lost 100lbs and was looking to step off the dieting treadmil.
Anyway...here goes.
Well done Louise! Not just for losing weight, but making the decision to stay there!
People often assume they will keep their new slim figures automatically. Perhaps that's why so many fail.
Your leptin levels will be lower, and this can cause cravings, and your body can try to make you put on the weight again, but fortunately we will always have choices, and we can chose to override them...(cool eh)
So where are you?
People often think that losing weight is the journey. Getting to goal is the final step. I believe that getting to goal is getting the starting point LOL. This is the beginning of a brand new exciting journey. Really learning about your body, how much you need, what foods work well for you, and retraining the brain....especially retraining the brain. I don't believe that you really retrain it a lot during dieting, as you are looking to an end, seeing the scales go down (great motivation), getting compliments etc. Focus and motivation for maintaining has to come from elsewhere.
Weighing
Daily. The National Weight control registry recommends it,and that's probably the best research department we have. I always weigh daily, though what the scales say can take a bit of deciphering LOL. They don't tell the true story as you probably know. Daily flutuations, hormone response, perhaps a little extra salt in some food and so on can make the scales give a false fat reading. Don't panic, but always be honest with yourself. Eaten too much the day before...move more and be a little more aware over the next few days.
Trigger foods.
I chose to learn how to 'untrigger' them. I wasn't prepared to give them up, just wanted to learn how to have power over them. Much head stuff, but one of the most useful techniques I used was to learn the pause. Always stopping after a portion size and waiting. Knowing that I had the freedom to have more if I wanted, but not just yet
It took time, but was well worth the effort. I don't have any trigger foods now.
Exercise
Yep. Need to keep that up. It doesn't have to be the gym though, just walking more, dancing when some music comes on the television, getting up in the adverts and moving around, or finding a sport that
you really enjoy. I don't exercise to control my weight though. I do the first few things. Walk lots, move when possible. I want to stay flexible and healthy. I want to live like a slim person not a person who spent a lifetime on diets.
I exercise because life now would be unbearable if I didn't. All mindset stuff.
Calories
It's kind of true that maintaining is just dieting with more food
I don't like to think of myself as dieting in any shape or form. The closest I have come to it since goal is counting maintenance caloriesfor the first 9 months after goal. The reason for this was that I had spent a lifetime either getting fatter, or losing weight. I'd forgotten what a normal person should eat. I needed to know exactly how much I needed to maintain...portion sizes, a good balance of
carbs, fat and protein etc. I don't count anything now, though I am calorie aware. This doesn't mean that I purposely chose low calorie food, just like to know what I'm putting in my body. I rarely eat foods that are processed to be low calorie as they often contain loads of yucky stuff.
Focus.
Strangely, my focus isn't on maintaining my weight. It's on living life as a slim person. Making healthy habits that I can easily do and practising them. My weight was a side effect of my habits. Same with
food. I said I had a problem with food, and with my weight, when really the problem was how I used food
I have an analogy that I use a lot. If I throw myself against a brick wall, I'll get hurt. The wall isn't at fault. Other people can walk past the same wall without throwing themselves against it. Same with food. Food isn't the problem. Obviously it's how we perceive food and how we can behave around food.
Good and bad foods.
I try not to think in terms of good and bad foods. I have the choice to eat what I want. Some foods are more nutritious than others, that's all. I never treat myself with food either. That doesn't mean
I don't enjoy the odd unhealthy food, but it's just not something I reward myself with. I may have it if I want. Your body wants you to eat healthily, and though there are other reasons for eating, know them. Really know why you want something unhealthy and always moderate it. Understand yourself.
I have a phrase. "I've had some...I don't need any more". If I'm tempted to eat too much of the less nutritious food, then
something else is going on and I need to examine what it is.
Loving food
I love food even more than ever because I taste now rather than shovelling it down.
Did you know the first two bites of anything arethe most powerful? That's the amount that will have the strongest flavour. If you aren't hungry, anything after two bites is excess
.So why 2 bites? Well, think it's to do with the tastebuds being very receptive to make sure you aren't poisoning yourself LOL.
Then the tastebuds calm a little.
Dieting
I don't. This does put a certain amount of pressure on, because that means I can't overeat too much, but hopefully everything else is in order, so I don't feel the need. I was determined to get off the diet wagon, and since have found how much it damaged me. Not saying I'm anti diet...not at all. It was a tool I used to do a job. Now the job is done and the crutch had to go.
Umm...anything else? Probably, but this message is rather long already.
All the very best for the next stretch. Enjoy life as a slim person.
Highly recommended
