Highest Weight: 187.4
Current weight : 116.8
Goal range: 113-119
Age: 48
Height 5'1"
Menopause: 2 years
Alrighty! 2.75 years into weight maintenance. I'm pretty happy about that.
I've been prioritizing sleep this month. I also had a run in with both fermented (pickled onions) and some cold onions (pre biotic?)
Well, let's just say I won't be eating any fermented food for a while. GI problems galore. More so from the fermented onions than the cold onions. Lots of chicken broth and back to my regular food template. I feel much better.
I'll be sticking to my regular food template for the rest of the year. I had forgotten how much GI pain I was in before getting off gluten. And, to think I lived that way day-in-day out thinking that's how everyone felt.
I spoke to a medium sized group at work about using my annual blood draw markers to help motivate me in 2011 to choose to lose weight (avoiding high glucose and HA1c, and hs-CRP) and some tools I use to maintain.(... like weighing daily) I got great feedback from the group after the talk.
I started tracking my food again at My Fitness Pal after I noticed a trend in early Oct 2014. Fast course correction is key to my long term maintenance. Carb levels are key for me. Scale creep, carb creep. It's no accident. Cooler weather will also shift me a pound heavier, but increasing carbs will start to move me into scream weight. I look at the big picture once a week or so, then decide on action steps.
What's working right now1. Daily Weighing. Data, use it, own it, look for shifts and trends. Action steps like tracking food and looking at carbs.
2. Chicken broth. For the win. 1-2 cups a day.
3. Eating from a lower carb, higher fat food template, feeling full after meals.
4. Prioritizing sleep, spending less time online.
What didn't work in the past
1. Not stepping on the scale and using my slippery slope magical thinking. Sure.. I can eat that Halloween "fun" bar. It's only 3 points. (Hey, I could eat 4. x 3 = 12 points, I hiked this weekend... I deserve.....)
2. Not really understanding how homemade foods could help me feel well and how much processed grains and sugars made me sick, bloated, and with GI issues.
3. Eating a high carb, low fat and never feeling really full.
4. Using TV or the computer (with lots of snacks in hand) to soothe myself at night.
Kudos to you, Karen, for catching the weight creep. I like what you say about sticking to your eating template for the rest of the year. I plan to do the same. Thanksgiving is not a favorite holiday of mine (and because I am can be a loner sometimes, I might spend the day reading and exercising and going to church). So I don't worry about the food for that day. Christmas I spend with friends and family, and my mom cooks eggs and a large brunch. I will have some eggs and fruit--and I'll be set. No need to gain this holiday season. I can have fun without the eating (which I have seen you write plenty and I agree). Plus I want my clothes to fit, and I plan to buy a smaller size this winter.
ReplyDeleteI need to start drinking broth, too (I made some beautiful stuff a few weeks ago), but for some reason, i'm just not doing it! I suspect it will turn into a good habit once I start....
ReplyDeleteTess, yes.... I get kind of hooked on it. I sneak it in mid-morning or mid-afternoon. Warm, slightly salty (sea salt makes me feel well, not bloated).
DeleteIt seems to be good for me GI wise, with the extra salt and no doubt minerals.
Ali,
ReplyDeleteGlad you are also staying on your food template. I celebrate in every way except not with sugar, grains, legumes, dairy, or nuts. This leaves spices like cinnamon or mint extract, roasting veggies or chicken or making bone broth (good house smells). And of course family, friends, looking at lights, listening to my daughter play in a bell choir. The new normal.
Ditto on clothes fitting. They do now, they will on Jan 1, 2015 Glad you are prioritizing and focusing on your goals. Many Xmas' and T-Days will come and go.
Good job, Karen! Anything interesting you add to your broth, besides the sea salt? And do you use the whole chicken to make it, or just the carcas, or...?
ReplyDeleteThank you Gwen. I roast the chicken in the oven first (350, 1.5 to 2 hrs, avocado oil, sea salt, I don't eat the skin) and take off most the meat.
DeleteThen I pop the carcass in the crock pot with water, 2 TBS apple cider vinegar, and sea salt for 10 hours. Then I pour it through a screen to filter it, then defat it and freeze it.
I'll do a whole broth post one of these days. So good!
Those before and after pics certainly show a huge difference. Congratulations on maintaining that loss. It's inspiring to those of us (meaning, me) who can lose...and then fail to maintain that loss over the long haul.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Deb. It took 2 other big losses and regains and many tries in between to get it figured out. The great thing is what I do to stay overall healthy also keeps binge urges at a minimum. Hand in hand. No mistake there. It takes a lot of effort but the good health is so, so worth it. What started out as weight maintenance really became value added. (fewer doctors office visits, no meds except thyroid, etc) Nice to spend my vacation time on vacation and not at the doctor.
DeleteWell done Karen - you are looking great and I love seeing maintenance instead of those who give up blogging because of gains. I too remember gastric paid... wind, bloating etc. How "normal" I am these days and to think the so called "experts" say you need grains to be regular.
ReplyDeleteThank you Lynda... way way back when I was approaching maintenance, I KNEW there were long term successes out there and I promised myself I WOULD be one of them. If a handful of people could do it, I could too.
Delete:) Yes, if the so called "experts" even knew how good the right diet was to be regular, they would also be recommending. I don't miss that pain.