Thank you's for the first year of weight maintenance- Link Love

 

Okay, the sun is setting on my first year of weight maintenance. I surfed through 2012 and rode that wave.  The year went better than I thought it would go. For a lot of reasons. Choosing the right food template was the most important- then using the other tools as frame work made the year a success.

I love Mark's Daily Apple Sunday "Link Love"- so like any good award show, I'm going to thank everyone.

In no particular order

1. Refuse to Regain- Barbara Berkeley, MD - This book was ground zero for me. I fully utilized the rules to make the main frame of my year. 

2. Paleo & Primal eating, - Robb Wolf's The Paleo Solution and Sarah Fragoso's Everyday Paleo Family Cook book.  Had I not converted over to a paleo template, I suspect that it would have been harder to maintain, and I would not be as healthy. I feel so young. It's pretty awesome. I had no idea how much better I would feel by going grain, and processed sugar free would effect me physically and emotionally.  Such a powerful tool. If you've not tried it, keep an open mind about testing it out for yourself.

3. My health coach for Take Shape for Life. Emailing Erin my weight every week for a year kept me accountable.

4. My favorite bloggers- listed in this link . It really helped to see what worked for others so I could borrow from you. Let me know if you've gotten to maintenance and are blogging. No matter how you lost- WW, Medifast, calorie counting, weight loss surgery, abstaining from certain foods, or eating clean and working out like a beast - there are many overlapping behaviors, habits, and challenges that we all face in weight maintenance. 

5. My weight maintainer friends in real life and at WW. While I no longer count points or even subscribe to the WW way of eating, weighing in on a public scale and visiting with other maintainers in real life is very helpful to me. Lifetime membership offers me free access to a group of maintainers I can see face to face. 

6. My podcasts favorites. Because when I'm facing a few hours of food prep (Abel James), dish washing (Dean Dwyer) and general house work Every Day Paleo (Sarah Fragoso & Jason Seib)- this motivates me to remove any barrier I have in my mind to get up and get moving and stay positive.  I learn while I work. 

7. My friends & family- who will eat the paleo food that I serve up (most of the time!) and are totally on board with support for my first year. I'd still do this without their approval but it's so much easier with supportive people around.

It was a good and challenging first year. I plan on crushing 2013.

Oh- and the things that didn't work - I kicked to the curb ( like a few people who said I couldn't do it- that only certain people could)  M-Kay.... I decide what I do. After all, the doubters could be right.......  That's for me to determine. I don't drink their Kool-aide. Future post coming up on sabotage and food pushers.

 I left the doubters on the curb and left dust in the wake. ;)  They don't ride in my weight maintenance car.