Return to: Graduating- Maintenance

Pulling Food Back In

Here is a nice part about the new lifestyle.  Once you hit your target, you shift to maintenance mode.

What does that mean?  That means that you get to put some foods back into your diet occasionally.  You may get to take up the calories some.

It won’t mean going back to the old days.  You are on a new lifestyle now.

But if you have been working hard on getting your weight down to your target level, you can now ease up on the gas pedal and take it easier.

Among the things that we have been able to put back into our diet within reason:

• Beer.  We stick with the low carb beer.  We think the Michelob folks are onto something.   We expect that the others will follow.

• Deserts.  Once in awhile we will have a desert that we would have stayed away from when we were losing the weight.  The key line pie we had the other night was awesome.

• Popcorn.  It has become more of a standard at the movies for us again.  Not the feedbag size anymore and no choosing theatres based on whether you get free refills.  Just a moderate amount.

• Dinners.  Once in awhile, we will get out to dinner and eat a little later than we would have on the program.

• Appetizers.  We might have an appetizer sometimes now at dinner.

The key is to keep tabs on this.  We still do the daily weighing.  When we see ourselves get up a couple pounds, we know to lay off, work out a little harder, and pretty quickly we are back at the base level.   We are not talking big spikes, which are not healthy for you.  We are talking little blips.

Also see what works and does not work.  You might find there are still some things that should just stay off the list.  For us, for example, it is candy.

Moderation is the key too.  A dinner one night is one thing.  Dinners several nights in a row is quite another.  If you have to go out two nights in a row, tone it down on the second night.  Skip the bread, get a healthier appetizer, go for the salad instead, pass on the desert.  You get the picture.

The nice thing is with this lifestyle, that some of your favorites can come back in.  You are not making certain sacrifices forever.  It can be easier to keep it off than to get it off.

Know that is the end in mind and you can find that the journey along the way and temporary sacrifices are easier to take.