I hit my 9 month mark for maintaining 72 pounds ( plus or minus 2 pounds) on Nov 3,2012. What did I do to celebrate? I went to Disneyland!!! Well, really, a kind relative gave us park hopper tickets and the tickets were about to expire. My relatives are awesome.
Anyhoo, as I was walking around both parks for 13+ hours I had a lot of time to think about where I was, where I was going, and how things were going. I was struck by not just weight maintenance but by the following improvements in my overall health
Improved:
1. Weight Maintenance- longest time ever at a stable weight. 40 years of trying. Wow. Just Wow.
2. More muscle tone, strength, balance.
3. Over all fitness- I walked 23,000+ steps that day- some were "in-line" shuffles. I woke up the next day and did a 45 min walk including a steep hill with no problem at all
4. Better sleep- I sleep longer, better, and dream more.
5. Less stress- better life balance. I work hard at work, then leave it behind and jump into my home family life. Crazy busy, but keeping the balance is key. I'm more engaged in both places.
6. Blood work: Holy Smokes!!! My CRP went from 6.8 to 0.8. Hemaglobin A1C from trending high 5.7% to 5.3%. HDL went from the 40's to the 80's. Weight loss and removing foods like wheat have really made all the difference.
Total transformation between my obesity days and today. The willingness to work a solid maintenance plan has made all the difference in the world.
It's not all Disneyland though. Here's what I still struggle with daily or occasionally
Struggles:1. Looking objectively at the scale if I'm gaining
2. Getting to the gym two times a week- already going once a week or doing at home strength. (improved, but still slippery slope thinking here)
3. Time to get in my walking.
4. Going to bed earlier some nights and turning off the google reader...
5. Stress- balancing it all- lots of work here, ongoing.
6. Time spent cooking, packing food, shopping for fresh food. I love, love, love my fresh food and eating style- but I find I do get tired of washing all those dishes and food containers for the foods I take to work. Small price to pay for the benefits, so I suck it up and keep moving on this one. My bio-markers (blood work) are totally dependent upon the quality of food I put into my body. That mountain of dishes is not too tall to tackle!
Well, that is the scoop here. I'm sure that there are Non-scale victories that you found in weight maintenance, too. Feel free to discuss. We are stronger together.
I really enjoy these check-ins that you do, Karen. So helpful to here what is working, and to know where the tough spots are. I think one of the things that impresses me most about your journey is how you were able to transition from one type of eating for your weight loss (Medifast) to a different template (primal/paleo) for maintenance. How did that transition work, exactly? Did you work on making certain meals primal-compliant one by one as you went into maintenance? I experience a lot of anxiety when changing anything about my eating style, so I'm very interested in how you did this.
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