Establish a life charter

I'm picking a rule, with a sub-rule from Refuse to Regain (by Barbara Berkeley, MD) to write about. My opinions are my own, your experience may vary.  I would highly recommend the book.

Rule 1, step 3: Develop a Life Charter.

It took me awhile to establish my life charter. Mine did not jump out at me; I developed my charter over time. I like how in the book, Barbara states " My plan is utterly portable and has become second nature".  I like this because

1. My life is pretty dynamic, so portability is key. 
2.  My life in weight maintenance mode is a whole different ball game than my past attempts at maintenance, so second nature is required.

Okay here it goes:

1. Eat Primal/Paleo at structured times, 
2. Walk the hills with my camera, 
3.  Sleep more and stress less.
4.  Good Coffee, Good Friends, our Families, and  my Higher Power will get me through

I find I can apply that template to my days and my life right now.  It works. Feel free to discuss in the comment section below.

Make peace with the word diet

I'm picking a rule, with a sub-rule from Refuse to Regain (by Barbara Berkeley, MD) to write about. My opinions are my own, your experience may vary.  I would highly recommend the book.

Asparagus with a tiny bit of coconut oil- I sautee everything!

Make peace with the word diet. I have no problem telling people that I stick to a healthy non-processed, low inflammatory, weight maintenance DIET. I'm okay with that. Then, only if they are interested, I'll use the Primal/Paleo words.

What works for me

1. Eating a Primal/Paleo style diet template most of the time
2. Planning to have enough meat, veggies, fruit, and oil/nuts, acceptable snacks-my diet foods on hand.
3. Sticking to my diet while at home, work, travel, events, times of stress.
4. Making it clear, in a kind way, that I eat this way and there is no exception, this is my diet!
5. Throwing my doctor under the bus if there is fuss and hurt feelings. "Doctor says!" with a serious look on my face. Stops all protests to go off plan cold and reminds me why I do this.

What did not work in the past

1. Not having a structured diet plan of solid choices
2. Keeping off plan/(DIET) food items around AND eating them*
3. Making exceptions for too many times and places to deviate from the diet(think GS cookies, fair food, cookie exchanges, bake sales, holiday eating, eating during times of stress or to reward myself)
4. Waffle-ing back and forth and thinking it could work with steps 1-3. Slippery Slope thinking. Lack of diet ownership!
5.  Doing steps 1-4 and thinking I could get to and stay at goal weight without a DIET. And loosing focus of my goal.

* Disclaimer- I do have a non-Primal/Paleo family member who does have off plan food around. But I place it where I don't have to look at it and I absolutely do not choose it, no matter what! 

A solid diet plan is key in my maintenance process, in my experince- like the book says. Before, trips to Costco (samples!), holidays items, fairs, baked goods, goodies brought in from trips, baking for bake sales could all derail my best intentions. Now that I have a defined DIET template and don't deviate, weight maintenance is a lot more do-able. Not easy, because cooking this way and bringing food along is a lot of work! But so worth it.

Feel free to discuss in the comments below.

Be tough, not moderate- for weight maintenance

I'm picking a rule, with a sub-rule from Refuse to Regain (by Barbara Berkeley, MD) to write about. My opinions are my own, your experience may vary.  I would highly recommend the book.

This cactus grew in a tough spot!

Be tough, not moderate: Avoid moderation strategies.

This was a huge concept for me. I had fallen into the conventional wisdom trap of believing that "every thing in moderation" would work. I figured could happily grab a "snack sized highly processed" food item and be OK. Snack wells, 100 calorie packs, and mini-snack bites just are not the kinds of foods I can eat and maintain my weight.  I don't touch that stuff now.

What worked for me

1. Eating within a structured plan, predetermined items. Made the break cold turkey, not bit by bit. 
2. Eating every so many hours, most of the time. My hunger does not always speak the truth.
3. Eating a medium sized  meal, most of the time. My full button is broken and always will be.
4. Eating only foods that do not cause me to want to eat continuously. Some foods trigger me.

 What did not work for me

1. Eliminating food items in baby steps ( I needed a whole new normal, all at once)
2. Eating when I felt hungry ( I can feel hungry for about 5 different non-food reasons)
3. Eating until I'm full and no more. (again my full button is broken)
4. Eating trigger foods, even a little bit.( I still encounter a trigger food from time to time, easy to tell, and I can eliminate that food from my choices)

Feel free to share your experiences in the comments section.

4 Months into Maintenace and the 90 day opt out

4 months into weight maintenance:
There are no magic fairies, just good old fashioned work

• 1.5 Pounds below my maintenance goal
• 73.6 pounds lost and kept off for four months
• Ave walking per day is 8,000-11,000 steps

Short term goal met:

• 90 day opt out, as described in Refuse to Regain book, by Barbara Berkeley, MD = complete 

What worked

1. Using 90 days to get my food and exercise routine down pat
2. Tracking my weight daily.
3. Tracking my food daily, if I wanted to remain below goal
4.  Eating Primarian/Paleo 90% of the time
5.  Using Medifast or other gluten, mostly sugar free treats for the other 10%
6. Walking at least 45 mins per day
7. Reading weight maintenance & Paleo/Primal blogs for more learning

What gets in my way

1.  Too many almonds, pecans, or macadamia nuts
2. Too much time sitting on some days
3. My own stressing out over the perfect time to exercise
4. Dairy, causing some inflammation (as best as I can tell)
5. Lack of strength training.

The next mini- goals

1.  Maintain for 3 months, over summer
2. Build strength training in 2x per week during the summer
3. Maintain balance with my long term work goal that will keep me studying! (which means balancing my study time with cooking, exercising, family, and you know the drill.) 

The next long term goals:

1. Sign up for the National Weight Loss Registry in Feb 2013
2. Work goal complete by Dec 2012