Weigh In Day / Maintaining

First I must talk about maintaining. I maintained my weight loss from the time I hit it in July through the beginning of 2008. How did I do it? By generally eating OK and working out three times a week. It is very important for me to remember that maintenance unlike in the past is very feasible and do-able. And, most importantly, I did it! Also, while my goal weight was 149, I was actually at 143 for the majority of that time.

Then what happened? The usual. Stress, conflict, yada, yada. I didn't deal particularly badly with it, but not stellar either at first. Then stress built and the coping lessened. So, in 2008, I gained weight - 15 lbs to 158. Why? I was eating poorly (around the band!!!) and I was not working out AT ALL. Bad, bad, bad.

As I have said before and I will again - the band is not magic. It is a tool. The tool must be used appropriately to get where you want and stay where you want. It does not do it on its own and it requires effort - both in exercise and also in food choices. I knew this going in and knew it all throughout the weight gain. I just chose to ignore it.

Do I expect that now I will be perfect going forward? Hell no. But what I will try to do is learn from this and most importantly workout a minimum of 3 days a week once I am back where I want to be. For me the working out does two things. 1 - It somehow makes me eat better. Guilt? Not sure the label, but it works. 2 - It helps me cope with stress. I set it at 3-days per week because that is easy. I can easily find 3-days a week and in looking back at my journal most weeks did 4 and others 5-times per week.

One other thing that I just thought of, there are foods that I CANNOT have in the house. It's a fact and those foods must stay out of the house. I make bad choices when ice cream or candy is around (notice how the intake of those two things is totally not impacted by the band???). I don't need either of those things and there is no reason to have them. Not having them in the house has allowed me to make the progress I have in the past six weeks.

So, where am I now? (Yes, today is weigh-in day.) I lost 1.5 lbs. This is a huge loss for me, but for many weeks I was staying the same or gaining or losing the same 1/2 lb. That means 8.5 lbs to 143 which makes me very happy (currently 151.5). In six weeks, I have lost 7 lbs. No magic wand, no magic potion, just some hard work at the gym and sticking to eating what I should (for the most part) as a good bandster. In 6-7 weeks I plan to be back at 143. I use 'plan' vs. will be because I am not going to put extreme pressure on myself (aka stress). If it takes a few more weeks, so be it. But bottom line, I will do it. :-)