Your Maintenance Story - Please Share!

On August 24th I weighed 166 ~ 16 pounds above my goal weight. 

That might not sound like a lot to some people, but I have really struggled with getting back to where I want to be.  It's not easy to lose it like it used to be.  My clothes are tight and I refuse to go out and buy bigger sizes.  My goal is to lose the excess weight and in the long term to maintain within five pounds of 150. 

I've been experimenting with  different approaches to find out what will be effective and practical for me to get back into my comfort zone.  I've experienced the RH so I know refined carbs are an issue for me.   I tried Atkins for a while, but it wasn't a good fit for me.  I lost some water weight and immediately gained it back when I ate some carbs.   I even got stupid for a minute and starved myself.  We all know how well that works.

I started journaling my food intake.  It's actually helping me wrap my arms around it and be more mindful about what I put in my mouth.  I've also looked back at different programs that I've tried in the past to try to glean what was useful about them and also to examine what didn't work.

I do better with food when I have fewer choices.  It might sound counter intuitive, but if I don't have to think about what I'm going to eat, I'm less likely to obsess about it.  When I was on Optifast, that was what worked for me.  It was a no brainer.

It's easier for me to stick to a program if I get into a pattern of eating the same thing every day.  I used to get up and have a bowl of wheat germ w/ skim milk and a banana every single day.  It tasted good.  It made my shopping simple and I didn't have to count calories.

I need something fun to keep me occupied in the evenings.  Night time is when I am most vulnerable to binge eating or nibbling on food while I watch TV.  It's always been that way.

If it's complicated or unpleasant, I won't stick with it very long.  Whatever I decide to do has to be something that I actually like and will cause me minimal inconvenience.

I started testing how having a pattern with my eating and repetition in my menu would work.  I purposely chose foods that I like so that I don't feel deprived.  The only time I've had problems with hunger was once when I didn't eat enough food for breakfast. 

This is where I've tweaked my menu as of today:

Breakfast - Bacon, scrambled egg, cheese, oatmeal w/real butter, coffee w/skim milk
Lunch - Frozen diet meal,  vegetable
Snack - Unjury shake w/ skim milk , fruit
Dinner - Baked or broiled meat , vegetable
Bedtime Snack - Anything 100 calories or less

My first meal is 9:00 in the morning and I eat something every 3 hours or so.  I found an online calculator to set a reasonable caloric intake for a woman my age to lose weight.  My planned intake is around 1400 calories with 97 grams of protein.  When I reach goal, I can increase my calories for maintenance.

I still struggle with the night cravings.  Last night I ate four Double Stuffed Oreos and two Vanilla Cream cookies.   It was so much simpler sticking to an eating plan when I lived alone and didn't have this crap in my house to begin with.  I also need to make sure things are in place in advance for my evening meal so that I don't have to work too hard to get it on the table.

I'd gotten slack with my exercise, but that's coming back on board too.   I loved doing Zumba but it started giving me back and shoulder pain.  I brought my sneakers back to the office so I can get in a walk.  I can't always count on making myself get up early in the morning to do it.  Right now the weather's nice.  When that changes I'll have to come up with something else.

I haven't followed my plan perfectly, but the changes I put in place made a difference.  In seven days I'm down five pounds.   

Bounce Back is real.

Maintenance story.  Hmm.

I eat what I want, when I want, within my limits of my dumping and blood sugar reactions.  

I was the same weight for 1+ year until the last 1.5 weeks where I dropped some weight.   Before that I'd been up some -- and down some -- but I tend to average at 165 lbs after any ups or downs.

I am 159 pounds today, which is 10 pounds above my lowest weight EVER, which at 14 months post surgery.  I haven't been this weight in at least two years.

My "secret"  --- eating what I want -- when I want -- and not allowing myself to feel deprived -- within the limits of MY gastric bypass.

I have a large pouch capacity, quick digestion, lots of dumping, some good reactive hypoglycemia -- so this translates to eating --

DO NOT DO AS I DO.

No breakfast  -- EVER.  I feel nauseous if I eat in the AM.  
Meal by 11-12pm - Protein + whole grain carbs + veggie (Could be a Lean Cuisine)
Snack - 2pm - Cheese, meat (Could be string cheese + meat stick, maybe twice...)
Dinner - 5 - Protein + whole grain carbs + veggie
Snack - 8 - Usually something like cheese + crackers, or 1/2 turkey sandwich
Snack AT bedtime by 12am - A few bites of protein/fat/carb combination with pills 

Eating many times a day keeps my RH in check -- and I NEVER EVER crash.  If I DO -- it's usually (not always -- sometimes I crash out of nowhere, and it is scary)  because I ate CARBS or FRUIT alone.

This works for me.

I don't care for food first thing in the morning either.  My pouch needs a little time to wake up.  I usually start out with my coffee and then have breakfast a few hours later.  It seems to digest better. 

I can't do food first thing when I get up either.  My day starts at 5:00 a.m., but I don't eat until 9 or 9:30.  I drink water when I first get up while I get ready for work.  Then I drink coffee in the car on the way to work in hopes I am half awake when I get there.  Ha. 

I track everything on MyFitnessPal ...

Trying to shift a few pounds (gulp) so my intake is 1200 calories - 100g protein minimum - 45 mins of exercise gives me another + 350 calories to play with.  This is supposed to give me a 2lb per week weightloss:

Typical Day:

Breakfast:  2 hard boiled eggs, bagel, cream cheese, yoghurt
Lunch:  rotisserie chicken, salad pocket, salad, peach
Dinner: 2 x 2oz home made hamburger with hot peppers, goat cheese, green onions, steamed vegetables 2 slices white cheese

Snacks:   peach, steamed edamae beans, raw celery, peanut butter

I have lost 5lbs in two weeks so feel it is working without compromising my love of food and eating!

Congrats! 

I considered using an online tracker, but it wouldn't fit in with my lifestyle.  I bought a little memo book that I can keep in my purse.

I have (had, finally cleaned em out) a whole drawer full of filled up memo books.  I have been keeping one in my purse since day one.  When I would finish with one, I would throw it in a drawer as my therapist said they would be helpful in finding my way to be able to see trends and such in my notebooks.  She was right.  But, being almost 8 years out you can imagine how many I had accumulated.  I finally cleaned them all out.  It was kinda neat looking back through the early ones to see how little I could eat first out and to see what my choices were and how they changed over the years.

I wanted to make sure that I'm eating a balanced diet so I went online to find some sample bariatric trackers.  I found this:  http://www.muschealth.com/weightlosssurgery/nutrition/GBP-Fo od%20Diary.pdf  

I really liked the little grid at the bottom of the page with the check boxes, so I used it as a model to create my own in Excel.  I added a category for protein supplements.  I printed a bunch of them and cut them out to tape onto my memo book pages.  As I plan and eat my meals, I check off the box for the corresponding food group.  It gives me some structure and gives me the option to keep a quick accounting if I don't feel like writing it all out.

It's sort of like Richard Simmons's Deal-a-Meal but without the cards. 

I use the rest of the memo pages to make notes about what worked and what didn't work during that particular day.  It's a work in progress.

Oh my goodness, boy, do I remember the Richard Simmon's Deal-a-Meal.  I think I tried every diet known to man over the years before I had surgery.  LOL.

I clicked on the link. That is cool.  I like the grid at the bottom too.  I need something like that as I am trying to eat more balanced myself after having some issues with my intestinal flora being out of whack.  I am supposed to be eating more whole foods along with probiotic supplements to straighten things out.  So far, so good.  Trying to get my grams of protein in as well as the fruits and veggies needed for my little probiotic friends to colonize can be trying at times.  The little boxes could be helpful. 

The notes are helpful.  I would keep up with my blood sugar crashes in my journal. That is how I finally figured out it was milk that was the culprit for my worst crashes.  I haven't had a crash since giving up my cereal with milk and my no sugar added frozen yogurt.  I miss it sometimes but not the crashes that would follow.  I had no problems with milk the first 5 or 6 years out, but now I can't go near it or I have a terrible blood sugar crash and almost pass out.  So weird.