Some things will stay the same in 2016, and I'll be changing up somethings in the new year.
Keeping what's working the new year:
1. Weight maintenance - because once you stop focusing on the habits of weight maintaining , I promise you'll find weight gain, if you gain weight easily in the past.
This will be my 4th year of maintenance in 2016, I've kept 65-66 pounds of 70 pounds lost. I'm stronger physically than I've ever been. I like fitting into my size 6 jeans every day. Zip-Zip hooray.
Tracking my food intake, daily weighing, interacting with other maintainers, TOUGH not moderate approach. Sustaining the Refuse to Regain principles. Read that book, no trying, no "hoping", no "wishing" DO. Adjust, refine. No excuses. Just problem solving.
Simple concepts, take time to implement.
I'll still be blogging monthly with my progress and graphs and current photos.
Current. Emphasis on current photos, graphs, and outcomes. Transparency is a currency. Very valuable.
2. Eating Paleo/ Low Carb/ modified Wahl's Paleo Plus/Abstaining from sugars & grains.
It works for me, binge eating switch is off, glucose is normal. All because I chose a food template that works with my body's genetics. Or did the food template choose me? Hmmm... ;)
I'll still be doing small n=1 experiments as the months go.
3. Blogging about weight maintenance using a Paleo/Primal/Low Carb/ NSNG approach.
We need more tools and more people sharing their success stories so that others with similar genetics can have some support- in my opinion. PaleoFx, NSNG, Primal groups are are very informative.
Please, if you blog, post some current photos. Update your progress, what's working for you? What didn't work? Those who have lost weight and are seeking to keep it off need a variety of maintainers, long term. Look beyond 1-2 years. Look at the 3+ years and longer.
Seek out the long term maintainers who use methods that are similar to your own genetics, age, template.
I still believe a no sugar (or super low)/ no grains approach is underused in long term health and long term weight maintenance for many, but not all. And that is okay.
4. Reading, learning, exchanging ideas.
I'll still be hanging out with the NSNG, Paleo, Low Carb crowd. They are my people.
There is no one right way, but there 2-3 ways that will work better for your health and genetics. Find what works, practice that.
Tomorrow, a post on a few new things for 2016, nothing earth shattering. But a few things that will strengthen my 4 year maintaining habits.
Here's what didn't work during my failed attempts at weight loss/maintenance
1. Failing to adapt practices and address root causes that even got me to maintaining for a few months. Hoping, wishing, I don't know (yes I did know!), supposing were all ineffective magical thinking words I used.
2. Moderating low fat, low calorie junk food because it fit my calories/WW points
3. Not adapting a low inflammatory, glucose stable food template based on my lab work and genetics.
4. Not continuing my education long term.
Safe travels to you all as the sun sets on 2015
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| Low King Tide 12/26/2015, Carlsbad Cliffs |
Thank you for your continued posting and sharing what works for you. There are so few people I am aware of on the Internet who follow a no sugar/no grain lifestyle and post about it regularly. It is so, so helpful for me to read your words and learn from you. I have said this before: I am predominantly grain free and hoping to get more and more sugar free in the new year. People like you who are "tough, not moderate" show me that this kind of lifestyle can be lived. I would never have gone grain free unless I was reading blogs like yours although not a lot of them are out there.
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to tomorrow's post. Have a nice evening!
Happy New Year Karen ...
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteAli, Jan, and Deb, thank you! Happy New Year to you. :) Ali- I wish I had more NSNG mentors when I was going through. Thankfully with Robb Wolf, Sarah Fragoso in the early 2012, with some Nom-Nom Paleo- I was able to scrape by. I think that Dr. Berkeley's book in combo with my early beginnings have really helped me over the last year and my approach into my 50's. It's fun to have whole communities and podcasts full of people.
ReplyDeleteOnward and I plan another great year of learning and blogging about weight maintenance.
Happy healthy prosperous New Year Karen ! Your blog has really helped me change my woe in 2015. Grateful !
ReplyDeleteKatie, thank you! Even though I post less often, I still remain doing the work that long term maintenance takes. If I've helped one person, I've helped myself. Glad to be on this path with you. :) Onward in 2016. So worth it.
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