Weight Transition to Weight Maintenance- setting up my personal design and frame work for the first year

NOTE: I'm blogging about going from weight loss to transition over the next few weeks.  I made very specific plans and did a lot of trial and experimenting during this time.

 I went from a packaged food plan and loosing weight to a real, whole food diet with no grains, with limited dairy. My food plan for weight loss was much different than for weight maintenance. Both phases are very different and this worked well for me.

Problem to solve: Weight maintenance was uncharted territory and a place where I had not sustained my weight loss in the past.

 I'm a scientist so I formed a theory:
 If I use a plan that's been proven by other weight maintainers AND I customize the plan to support my life and health, then I will be successful for a longer time in weight maintenance.

I knew ALOT from past attempts, but I knew a lot less about a Primarian, Paleo, or Low Inflammatory diet. In the past, I've had Hashimoto's disease (15 years) and been overweight on and off (40 years).

Experimental design
1. I'd use the rules in Refuse to Regain  (Barbara Berkeley, MD) spend my first year of maintenance. I'd apply the rules and customize them to transition. One "rule" was to start a 90 day "opt out" - meaning opting out  of processed food and eating a Primarian style of diet, with one food off plan food that did not trigger, but was do-able. I'd also use the other guidelines in the book, since weight management involves more than food for success.

What I had:  In the beginning- A lot of my favorite protein & vegetable meals and a small amount of healthy fat from the Take Shape for Life (Medifast Plan). And, I had the packaged, gluten free shakes, brownies, etc for my one "off" primarian food per day. And a 4 week transition plan going off Medifast.

What made total sense: Not going back to a Standard American Diet.

What I had no idea: Would it work? Would eating healthy fat cause me to gain weight or throw in gallstones? I had a lot of years of traditional diets dancing in my head.

What happened in past attempts: Weight gain.

Next steps: Testing-Learning the new food template- I'll discuss what I learned in the books The Paleo Solution (Robb Wolf), Everyday Paleo (Sarah Fragoso) and more! Next blog posts...

I did follow my weight loss plan's  transition plan except I did not add back in dairy or grains.
Below are photos of me eating the best orange I've ever eaten in my whole life. San Clemente Farmer's Market, Feb 2012.  So sweet, so good, and an instant headache after going 10 months without fruit.

Small price to pay since the weight loss & maintenance lead to something permanent after 40 Years.

What worked:
1. Planing and Problem solving effectively
2. Reading
3. DOING

What did not work
1. Not setting a solid plan, blaming myself rather than problem solving
2. Not reading more than what WW gave me.
3. Not doing what weight maintenance required