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Saturday, May 3, 2014

Weight Maintenance Update 2 years and 3 months - graphs, trends and more- 3 year anniversary!

3 Years!


Hello All! Time for a 2 year, 3 month weight maintenance update. NOTE:  If you are here from the Paleo-sphere, please note: I'm a weight maintainer first. I'm a scientist in real life. No apologies- this what works for me. I use a Paleo-ish and low inflammatory food template as a tool to maintain my weight loss and manage emotional eating.  If talk of weight, weight graphs, loosing weight, or anything else does not float your boat,  stop by another day. Thanks!


Stats:
Highest Weight: 187.4 lbs
Current Weight: 117.0 lbs
Goal Weight Range: 113-118 lbs
Height: 5'1"
Age: 48
Menopause: 1.75 years
Emotional Eating: In remission 3 years
Auto-Immune Hypothyroid: in remission 17 years

May 3, 2014 marks the 3 year anniversary of the date I started my weight loss. It's a very, very special day. It also marks the day I started abstaining from most processed sugar. 3 years from the start of my final large weight loss that closed 40 years of yo-yo dieting. Today is a very, very special day for me. I didn't loose weight using a Paleo template, but the whole experience with Take Shape for Life (commercial weight loss program)  was like a stepping stone to the rest of my life. I'm forever grateful that I had the months of clarity and time to think straight


What's working this month
1.  Trend Identification. Yeah. I had a weight trend upwards mid-month. I took quick action after a sustained week of 118.5, above my range and so, so close to scream weight.

2. Food tracking. Yeah. I had a 1 minute pity party and tiny violin's played a sad, sad song. Carb creep is the root cause of all my sustained weight gain trains. I'm not emotionally eating or binge eating.  There's no room for my slippery slope thinking for not tracking carbs. There is no room for rug sweeping, justification, or excuses in my weight maintenance program. I'm tough, not moderate. I kicked the pity party to the curb after 1 whole minute and started tracking my food again.The ability to act quickly is key to my long term success.

3. Fit Bit- flex (see orange graphs below) is helping me to move more during the day. I got a fit bit mid-month as a gift. And, I'm having a blast moving more with a few people in real life who walk with me daily. I like that a lot. The graphs on the Fit bit are different from My Fitness Pal.

4. Stress management-  the second half of April 2014 has been stressful. Stress happens. Plumbing problems, work stress, a cat literally swinging off my dining room chandelier!  I've been taking a lot of fun photos, walking a lot, and trying to go to bed earlier to combat the stress.

I SEE you sustained weight gain
10 days of reversal
 What didn't work in the past:
1. Stopping weighing in and ignoring weight gain. By not looking, I felt I could "be strong" and reverse the gain. Nope!




2.  Not tracking carbs. By only tracking "points" I completely stuck myself for many, many years by choosing WW points rather than switching  my my protein/fat up and my carbs down. Better late than never.

3. Graphing: I was always a big graph person, but I did not act quickly enough to reverse small gains before the gains became 20, 30, 50, 70 pounds!!

4. Stress Management.- I would eat food to calm myself. It didn't work. Problem is still there AND I needed to buy larger clothes.

Coming up next, a post about my auto-immune thyroid disease. I haven't told that story yet.

If you like weight graphs, be sure to stop over to see Keep It Up David's weight maintenance graphs. Warms my heart to know there are other maintainers that use weight graphs as tools in the process. ;)  Keep It Up David!


3 YEARS graphed!!


17 comments:

  1. I wish there was a photo of the cat on the chandelier.

    You look and sound happy and awesome!

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    1. Norma, thanks. I keep my camera nearby. Something tells me it will happen again.

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  3. Congrats on maintaining the weight loss! That's quite an accomplishment. Keep bucking the statistics!

    I'm a scientist myself and maintain a daily plot of my weight on my blog. I'm also all in for the lower carb lifestyle, though I keep my fat much higher than the protein - 65:30:5 thereabouts. My excel sheet is too much for words, but I love it! I've found that it's really helped me to look at my efforts as an experiment!

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    1. LuckyMama- I keep my fat higher- close to your percentages for times where I'm trending higher in maintenance and need to reverse a trend. Seems to work well. Love the excel sheet. I've been populating one so I can own my own data. It does help. In the lab, I would not be making the best data driven decisions on releasing batches of work if I did not study my QC, have it batched and placed correctly on the run. Makes sense in weight maintenance for me. :)

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  4. Looking great... and you got a new door mat :)

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    1. OMG- yes, the door mat..... finally remembered. ;) Thanks, Lynda!

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  5. Congrats on your sustained weight loss! This is really an accomplishment to be proud of. You found the right method for you, and I love the way you graph and chart. I also have to weigh frequently (daily) if I am to lose and/or maintain.

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    1. Thanks, EJane! I'm a frequent reader of your blog- just struggling to find time to comment. I'll get over there soon. Congrats on your success.

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  6. Congratulations on your wonderful success, and for sharing it with us! I'm so glad I found your blog. I'm in the process of losing 117lbs (60 lbs down so far), going through the Optifast program. In my weekly Optifast group I'm digging deep and learning a lot about my emotional eating, which has been amazing. But now I'm looking at my next steps for maintaining the weight loss. I think the Primal/Paleo lifestyle will be best for me (I'm still doing my research). It's nice to find another person who also took "hybrid" approach! I'm blogging my Optifast experience and look forward to adding Primal to my blog heading later this year! This is such an amazing learning experience. Christy (optifastadventurer.blogspot.com)

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    1. Happyinca- congrats on your success. I found Medifast to be very, very good for both weigh loss and clarity of mind so I could work on my emotional eating. I went to a support session in person and listen to other women my age who have had long term success post packaged commercial plans. We were all like sisters in weight loss and maintenance- same stories. Good luck with the transition. Glad you are open to trying to see what works. :) I'll hop over to your blog later in the week.

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  7. Congrats! Thanks so much for sharing your experiences in weigh loss and maintenance. Love your What"s working/What didn't work section at the end of most of your posts. Many bloggers just quit their blogs when they hit their goal. Thanks for sticking around; I'm learning a lot :)

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    1. Thanks, Nikki. I know I've lost many times and regained many times (40 year yo-yo dieter!). But buy reminding myself day in day out what works, it keeps me from going back to old habits. Seems repetitive (and it is) but it helps me to stay on track. :) I'm hear to stay. I may blog less due to life stuff- but I still have my head in the game. :)

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  8. Fantastic work! Congrats on everything you've accomplished.

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  9. To coin one of my sons phrases AWESOME Karen.

    Inspirational.......and yes I like your new doormat too.!!!!!!

    Great stuff well done

    All the best Jan

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  10. Yum Yucky, Jan, and Diane thank you so much! Fortunate to work for continued success. And glad to have a new door mat!!!

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