"Maintenance is no joke."

Elina just wrote this in one of her posts and I think I'm going to adopt it for when I get to maintenance.  So much wrapped up into one, seemingly simple, sentence.  Goal is not the end, it's the beginning, and the real work begins.  It's not fun, it's not a joke, it's diligence and effort to make this all pay off.

I have observed that there are stages in maintenance, just like there are stages in the weight loss process.  It is not all the same from the time you reach goal to forever.  Very little is ever written or mentioned about these fluid but distinct stages.  Looking back at my 4.5 years of maintaining, I can easily identify them for myself.  Each of the stages was connected to a specific goal that needed to be met.  The goals were no longer weight goals, they were mind set goals, awareness goals.  When I see people regaining their weight at different stages of maintenance, I see much of that being connected to failure to meet those specific developmental goals.  I want to be clear, not all people face these goals in the same way or feel that they must meet them at all.  We can all do what makes sense to us.  For me, this is more about looking back from this perspective and realizing that things went in stages.  For example, the first year or so of maintenance was all about realizing and really coming to terms with the idea that goal weight was not a destination and that I was not "done" when I reached goal weight.  I had to continue to watch what I ate, and stay just as vigilant and mindful as during weight loss.  Weight gain often happens in this first year partly because we feel that we have achieved our goal and can now go back to eating the way we always ate.  After all, the "diet" portion of this journey is over, right?  Wrong.  The diet is simply what we choose to eat, and what we choose to eat will always count.  This might seem like basic stuff, but it's really not so easy to wrap your head around it and really accept that this is for life.  Doing this stage early in maintenance is really important (for me) because it provided me a solid foundation for the next stage (years 2-3) when weight loss happens easier in my opinion and we have a whole new set of challenges of overcome and come to terms with or else risk gaining weight.  I am only five years out, so I only have experience with the earlier stages of maintenance, but for me, they were: first year, years 2-3, 4-5 and from what I hear the challenges do not end.  When I speak with people that are closer to 6-8 years out with the sleeve, most of them have regained some weight and only a few have maintained.  Most of them seem to have all come to terms with the same stages that I needed to go through.  I always look for their posts and personal advice as I continue to learn how to maintain long term with the sleeve. They tell me that the challenges do not end, and I believe them and have avoided quite a few pitfalls that they were kind enough to warn me about before I fell in.  (Thank you Lizanne).  

Thank you for sharing.  And please, if you see me headed to one of these pitfalls, you have my complete permission (I'm actually begging you) to call me out on it!  I've learned so much about getting to this point from everyone who has succeeded and shared their success with me.  

I am learning to be more careful with sharing my advice, but I have always been clear that you are more than willing to hear it and give it a good hearing.  Each of us has our own journey, but I know that I have learned a great deal from those that came before me and I hope that there as some out there that have benefited from my words too.  We are stronger together. 

I am still in loss mode, but from what I can see, it is like alcoholism.  I cannot eat sweets or a lot of simple carbs or I risk falling back into old habits.  I know this is something I will always have to deal with.

The other day we had a birthday party at work and they had some awesome looking cupcakes.  To be polite, I attended but did not partake.    One of my coworkers who has had WLS, I think the band, said, "Oh, you can have just a little bit."  I passed and said no thanks.  Maybe after loss mode but probably not even then.

My surgeon stresses, three meals a day for the rest of your life with no snacking between meals.

If you can do as your surgeon suggests, you should be golden.  The real issue for most of us is drinking our calories, and/or grazing.  People who have smaller sleeves AND eat 3-5 planned meals a day, do just fine.  

This is where I've posted before but it is very hard for many noobs to comprehend......

WLS and the education is really NOT about WL, It's really about keeping the weight "off" that you/we lost.....

Yes, this is where sleeve capacity can make a huge difference, because you can gain weight with to much good food.

More capacity=More "conventional dieting" as we know it.

It is VERY overwhelming to understand all the elements that goes into this huge undertaking.

You will read about "what a breeze" maintenance is from a few and it very well may be for them, but I can assure you that is no where near the norm for most.

And when you read a three month-er directing a maintainer with issues, you have to just pass over that....

I just came off a long weekend navigating through a plethora of complimentary comfort foods by some traveling European chefs.

Did I roll 100% .... Nope, but I didn't do bad, was it hard? You bet, fatboy still lives within.

The difference for me is clearly the education and the still very tight restriction of capacity. Yes, there is much more to it, but for me those are the core basics that I work from.

Again, when your in the early stages of WL, maintenance can seem far far away and in reality it is.... but it's chapter one of many in the big picture.

I'm closing in on 5 years out and still feel like there are many more levels and much more to learn.

Is it hard?.... Yes, very hard..... Is it rewarding? oh hell YES !!!

When we think we got this in the bag..... time to think again....

frisco 

Just starting my second year in maintenance, I'm still able to freshly reflect on the weight loss phase. Looking back now, I think it's pretty easy for most of us to lose a great deal of weight. It really doesn't matter what approach you take - the weight comes off.  

So where does the rubber hit the road?  Getting ALL the excess weight off. Or barring that, reaching a preset goal that is maybe a little less weight loss than that. It takes special effort to take it all the way. And does it matter?  I think it does because it is the mindset and discipline that prepares us for maintenance. 

I've done well in the first year of maintenance because I had established the mindset and discipline. But what I can tell you is after just one recent round of 'dialing back' after a slight regain, it was tough to give up those extra calories that I've become used to taking in.

My truth today - It is much easier in maintenance to KEEP weight off rather than TAKE weight off. Those are the words I plan to live by as I move into year two. 

 

I have the same truth, I stole it from Lizanne, but she doesn't mind.  :)