The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[gr8bnme]

I've been in the final stage of transition for 5 days now. i was so worried that i would gain weight. but i weighed myself and have lost another .2 ... maybe this maintenance thing will really work!

i do have a question though... am i officially in maintenance now? or does maintenance start after i've done the last stage of transition for 2 mos?

how often do people on maintenance eat things that are not so good? i'm wondering how often i can eat something "off plan". once a week? once a month? i guess it really depends on how my body handles it but i wonder what are other maintainers exeriences?

[gr8bnme]

thanks vicky. i'm glad that i can be helpful. for me transition/maintenance is the scariest and hopefully with my questions being answered it'll be less scary for others when they get here ...

[Nancy]

Dear Gr8 ~

First of all, let me tell you how pleased I am with your progress and am very happy to know that you are following the guidelines for the transition phase.

Woo Hoo! It must be really great being YOU! You worked hard!

Phase 1 (weight loss) is the initial step that leads towards life-long weight management. You have learned the things that we will need to do for the rest of our lives if we are to remain at our goal weight.

You ARE in maintenance now!

I chuckled when you asked,

how often do people on maintenance eat things that are not so good?

How often do people on the weight loss phase eat things that are not so good? Hah!

The key here might be to rephrase that and ask, can people on maintenance ever eat ‘normal’ foods again?

The answer is: Yup!

To keep our blood sugar level at a steady range, we need to eat small meals every two or three hours. It is important to choose low fat foods and eat a balance of protein and low glycemic carbohydrates.

When our blood sugar level suddenly dips, we feel hunger and our body begins to search for something to raise it – this is where we must be careful and not introduce many high carb foods. We might as well have a big honkin’ spoonful of sugar if we eat high glycemic foods. Our blood sugar will spike and then shortly after it will suddenly drop off and we will cruise the kitchen and food aisles of the store or head for the drive-up windows…We must be diligent about following the plan or the weight we worked so hard to lose will return.

When I was on diets before, I looked at it as a temporary thing – as if it were a ‘sentence’ I had to endure for somehow being ‘bad’ with food. Now I know that permanent weight management means I must eat sensibly almost every day. We must permanently make the changes necessary for permanent weight loss or flab happens all over again.

It is an issue of calories in/calories out. intake vs burned up

I always thought I was a flab magnet!

Now I know that it is vitally important to not ‘save up calories’ to spend on decadent sweets with butter and whipping cream but to continue to fuel my body every two or three hours with low fat healthy foods.

I rarely eat processed foods – try to go the natural food route as much as possible. I avoid hidden sugars. If I am going to eat something ‘not so good’ I select something that is really good – as in high quality good. Oreos don’t cut it for me. Now a nice hunk of chocolate fudge cake with walnut halves pressed into the fudge icing is a different matter. I just don’t eat one third of the cake in one sitting any more.

There are many opportunities ahead to eat the foods we love – we just may not eat the quantities we used to eat and for weight maintenance we must choose to eat healthy most of the time.

It is hard to know how many ‘goodies’ per week will work for you – we are all different, our age, our metabolism, our physical activity, etc, vary from person to person. My experience may not be the same as yours but there are some general guidelines to follow that will work for all of us.

Follow the design of the BeSlim™ Philosophy; it really is the plan that helps us to maintain our weight.

You were on phase 1 for some time and I would suggest that you very gradually increase your calories and definitely keep within the 1400-1500 calorie range for several months. Increase your activity level somewhat when you know you have a special event coming up that includes extra food, use more Medifast packets on those days. When I have a special dinner or party that I will attend, I use more packets of Medifast on those days, cut out extra snacks and the day or two after a foody adventure, I stick to the 5 & 1.

Monitor your weight frequently, exercise almost every day and remain linked in with others for accountability.

You may discover that some of those foods you have been temporarily avoiding while on the weight loss phase may not taste that great after all and you just might not enjoy them as much as before.

Take it easy, enjoy your thinny life and venture slowly and cautiously into foodland.

[momof2]

gr8bnme, that is such great news!! Thanks for posting your progress. You're my inspiration.

I've been stuck at 120 for a couple of weeks now (my fault for cheating so often) and hope to finally convince myself to stick with the program and get rid of these last 5 lbs.

Are you having a hard time keeping your meals small?

[dede4wd]

Thank you both for sharing how transition is going for you, it's really inspirational to the rest of us that DREAM of being where you are! Thanks for showing us the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a TRAIN!

DeDe

[gr8bnme]

Nancy,

thanks for your quick response. i'm so glad that i can eat "normal" food again at times ... and what you said makes so much sense and i think it'll be really easy for me to follow those guidelines. i guess it really isn't rocket science.

ofcourse the exercise part is a bit harder for me. but i'm planning on doing some aerobics tonight (hopefully i don't come up with any excuses between now and then). i'll take it one day at a time.

i am so enjoying my thinny life. its a different perspective for sure. and i really still see myself as the fat woman i used to be but i guess i'll eventually get used to being thin. it's weird when people who didn't know me before describe me as the thin petite woman... that still freaks me out. and one thing i've noticed is that since my bottom has gotten smaller it hurts to sit on certain surfaces. i'd have never thought that it would hurt to sit sometimes, but it makes me happy because it reminds me of all the weight i lost ...

it's definitely true that "nothing tastes as good as thin feels"

[gr8bnme]

momof2,

i know how hard the last 5 pounds can be. you'll get there, i promise! sometimes you have to kinda fake yourself into thinking it's not really the last 5 pounds. you end up with more patience for the weight loss. because otherwise you just want it to rush off. and then there are people who are probably telling you that you are too skinny, stop dieting. i had that from every end starting from when i had 15 pounds left to loose. in the end my husband begged me to stop losing. i had 2 pounds left at that point and a week left til my designated transition start. anyway, all of those comments made me think maybe i should just stop and made the last pounds much more difficult because i kept thinking maybe i'm thin enough.

as far as keeping the meals small it's not hard. i just measure it like i always did for the L&G. i'm still eating 3 supplements and then have some toast, yogurt and a fruit. the yogurt is in a single serving package and I decided that God designed fruit to also be a single serving. so far i've eaten an orange, a banana, and an apple. i looked up the serving size for grapes (17) but i haven't eaten them yet. so anyway it's pretty easy and i'm definitely not hungry. hope that helps

[WillDoIt]

gr8bnme & momof2:

I really appreciate your input. Please keep posting.