It was pointed out on another thread that us ‘maintainers’ don’t have a true home thread on here and I have decided to start one 😁 although in the spirit of the rest of the forum it is open to all following the way of life and not just those at target.

I hope that we can offer each other support and tips when it gets hard, when life drags you back into bad habits and you need a bit of help to say ‘enough is enough and I am not going back’. Even perhaps some menu ideas more suited to less restricted stages of the way of life if anyone like me has adopted MM’s ‘slow carb’ not ‘low carb’ variant of the WOE.

At the beginning of October I had been 8 months at or near my target, and spent those months trying different strategies with varying levels of success. I have settled on a mix of intermittent fasting including generally one day with only light fluids and med style meals for the rest of the week, but I find myself with still too much of a tendency to want to try ‘treats’ from my old life. Most of the time I am disappointed by them, but that doesn’t seem to stop me trying the next one. Christmas will be quite the challenge!

Mixnmatch, I’m so grateful to you for starting this thread! I guess
I’m the “guilty party” for expressing my feelings to our adminstrator,
Clare, because I’d been unable to find a dedicated thread for maintainers.
I know of many who have been wildly successful, but it’s been hard
to follow them if I miss any posts. I have so much respect for all
of you, and regret that I had no knowledge of this website until I
had already lost 146lbs following BSD principles. It would have been
so wonderful to share my journey with all of you!
The questions that concern me are how to go about increasing
carbs after keeping mine to <20. I’ve followed the expert advice
regarding increasing calories, and I am now coming in at @
100 under TDEE each day. Any and all experiences would be
appreciated! 🙂 I don’t feel at all tempted to return to the dietary
choices I was making previously, but I also don’t want to continue
on my present path to being 12lbs+ under target, and 21lbs. inside
a healthy BMI. I’m finding maintenance far more challenging than
10 months of strict Fast800. I’m probably being too rigid about
it, but I just don’t know how to change that. I’ve taken to only
weighing myself 1xweek, but that hasn’t helped much.
I would be so grateful to any and all who share tips on individual
experiences.
Thank you, Mixnmatch, for scooping up the ball and running
with it. I was all set to do the same, even had a name for the
thread, but you were one step ahead of me. I look forward
to hearing your story!

Allie

Hi Allie, with the carbs I have allowed myself to start eating them again, I know that is rare on here, but for me it was important to relax that rigid discipline that got me to this point and start to expand my horizons again. Having said that the ‘white stuff’ is still quite rare, and kept to small portions when I do indulge. For the ‘slow carb’ choices I try to stick to Rye bread or oat bread, rather than the traditional wholemeal, and use sweet potatoes (an excellent source of potassium) rather than potatoes, as the added fibre helps slow the digestion and it doesn’t seem to wake my carb monster. I also try to follow the principles of the carb addicts diet where such foods are only part of one meal a day, and all eaten within an hour. I can tell if I slip on that one as the carb monster gets restless.

I am probably averaging around 100 g carbs now, from very little on my fasting Mondays, to over 200 sometimes on a Saturday. It isn’t easy, and I know I would avoid stress by keeping more strictly to the principles, but for now it is working as a compromise. I have set a trigger weight at 10 pounds above my target and am currently in a mini reboot having hit this on Tuesday. So 800 calories a day until the end of the month, and then increase at 50 calories a day keeping carbs low for November. This should hopefully reset things before Christmas is upon us.

Thanks for starting this thread, MnM. I too was surprised that we didn’t have a dedicated maintainers’ thread and often thought about starting one myself but as a relative “maintenance newbie” (23 weeks and counting) wasn’t sure it was my place, as we have many inspirational long-termers – yourself included – on this forum.

Allie, I am also finding maintenance more challenging than sticking to Fast800, at least we knew exactly where we were with that and what was and was not allowed!

In total I lost 50lbs, but was only aiming for 42lbs (after several downwards adjustments during my journey) so the last 8lbs were achieved, somewhat unexpectedly, during maintenance and are very much my “wriggle” room. Currently I have only 5 of those left as we are away for a few days celebrating our anniversary so have been rather lax.

My maintenance strategy has been to stick very much to BSD principles, stay fairly low carb (averaging 50 – 60g a day) but not being over-concerned about calories. Frankly, I have found that keeping low carb pretty much takes care of the calories too!

I do still weigh daily and if I put on more than 2 – 3lbs I throw in an 800 day or two, or do a water only fast ( longest so far was 49 hours, which led to an immediate loss of 4lbs, with another 3lbs dropping off in the subsequent few days)

Mostly I still only have 2 meals a day (late breakfast 11am and dinner 6pm) eaten within an 8 hour window, but I’m certainly not fanatical about that. We eat out and entertain a lot (2 – 3 times per week) and then dinner is generally much later at about 8.30pm.

Yesterday in the hotel I “mindfully” ate a croissant and a Danish at breakfast, along with a 3 egg bacon and cheese omelette (which o/h had to finish) and my usual natural yoghurt with nuts. That was the first time since I started BSD that I’d eaten such things as the pastries and, whilst I enjoyed them, I cannot see me rushing back for more. Certainly wasn’t tempted by them this morning!

I think we all have to find our own way in maintenance – we all have different bodies, likes and dislikes and lifestyles after all, but it is so encouraging and helpful to hear how everyone else is doing and to glean a few tips and gain fresh insight. And it is wonderful to have the support and encouragement of others who really understand and have “been there, done that” when we falter.

I really hope some of the long-term maintainers will be tempted in, and look forward to welcoming lots of new ones too. Really looking forward to welcoming my January 17 buddy, ClarinetCathy soon as she is within touching distance – come on in CC, the water’s warm😃

Mixnmatch – thank you for starting this thread – we definitely did need a dedicated thread for maintainers.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ maintenance, so it is so good to read how other people are doing it. I am a maintainer who still has to keep carbs low or else my blood sugar readings start rising. I still log everything on fat secret – just to make sure I am still on the right track and to get an idea of how many calories will maintain my ideal weight.

All was going really well until husband broke hip in August and I started comfort eating meridian almond butter. The other bad thing I was doing was to increase the teaspoon of double cream in my coffee from one teaspoon a cup to three. The two together caused a weight gain of 7lbs.

One week without the almond butter and I lost 3lbs. Maintained this for a week but this week have decided to tackle the double cream issue. Had the brilliant idea to switch to single cream which cut fat and calories dramatically. Fingers crossed that weight starts dropping again as I would like to lose the remaining 4lbs to get back to 9st 7lbs. The only thing is that my face looks a little bit gaunt at 9st 7lbs but doesn’t at 9st 10lbs.

Hope you don’t mind me eavesdropping!

I have great admiration for all of you who have reached and then maintained your target weight. It must be so tempting to say to yourself “I’ve done it so let’s ‘live’ now! It’s really good to read about your coping strategies. There are so many useful tips for those of us still on the journey for when we’re on holiday etc. We all need to maintain at certain points in our journeys so it’s great to have all these tips on one thread.

Well done everyone, you are great role models and as s-g would say ‘just keep on keeping on …..’!

Oooh – this thread is just what I need. I have only just hit maintenance (week 2) so it is very helpful to read what others are doing. I am sticking to the on plan food for now and just trying to balance the calories. I’m weighing everyday just to make sure I don’t go off track too much. Today I am having my first bread! I bought a very tiny loaf of spelt sourdough from a local deli and I am going to have two very thin slices of buttered toast with a couple of poached eggs for my tea. I am very excited about it. I suspect if I like it then it will become a monthly treat.
Last night I was invited to a friends for ‘drinks and nibbles’. I took a plate of egg muffins and stuck mainly to them but a few crackers with pate and 1 (horror!) chocolate got through.
It is a lot harder than the 800 diet as I have to think and make decisions!
Still bouncing around the target weight though so can’t complain. I plan to keep track and if I do creep up I will copy Theodora and throw in a week or few days of 800 to get back down.

Hey there,
am just popping in to say how much i love reading posts from our wonderful maintainers. Your posts, along with posts from the “still working on it” group are absolutely without doubt the cord that has kept me attached to this way of thinking (even when I wasn’t 😔). My current “on-track” thinking has me sitting in a cafe wasting a little time while a script is filled, with a pot of my usual green tea, no food, NO CAKE, I’m waiting until I get home event though it is lunch time! Wouldn’t/couldn’t be doing this without you.

Thank you all, admire you all, hope to be joining you soon. Nothing but good thoughts for your future journeys xx Marilyn💜

Thanks for this thread and hope to join you again soon. I did so well but slipped and fell. Some work to do and look forward to finding the right balance for lifelong results.

I got back from Italy last night having stayed the course more effectively than I expected to. My idea was that I’d eat my first pasta in a year and a half at one of my favorite restaurants, a specialty of the house I’d ordered every time I went there in my wayward youth. I did go to that restaurant and I ordered … the grilled Mediterranean sea bass. It was phenomenal. Some of the best fish I’ve ever had. The roast potatoes it came with were handily dispatched by my OH.

No pizza (I had considered ordering a classic Margherita or a quattro formaggi). No bread. Not even a bite of a rosetta, bread you cannot find anywhere except for Rome and that I loved so dearly when I was a kid. Instead of making exceptions for bad carbs because I was in a place where they are especially wonderful, I faced forward, not backwards. The nostalgia draw of foods I once adored, I found, was entirely mental. It wasn’t even a real craving. So I ordered tons of fish, which I never once ate when I was a picky kid, and which was unfailingly beautiful. Best grilled salmon I’ve ever had. Best grilled swordfish I’ve ever had. Then the veggies in season, either raw (holy crap the puntarelle with anchovy dressing) or sauteed (chickory, chickory, escarole and more chickory). I had two fantastical binges on salumi (prosciutto cotto spiced with truffles, you say? I’ll take the whole pig please thank you.) and cheeses which were crazy high in calories, no doubt, but didn’t touch the bruschette and breads they came with.

My family ate pasta, bread and pizza galore and drank wine by the barrel. I stuck with the many lovely Italian fizzy mineral waters and the greatest public water ever piped by hand of man: Aqua Vergine, still chugging down ancient aqueduct lines from the hills outside of Rome. Ice cold, pure, stoney tasting, absolutely delicious.

The morning of my departure for Italy the scale read 127.8 lbs. This morning 127.1. This is the first thorough test of maintenance I’ve had since I began the BSD on August 1, 2017. Those of you who know my posts know that I am extremely punctilious in measuring, counting and logging every bite I eat. For 8 days I couldn’t weigh or count anything. Everything I ate was prepared by someone else. I just stuck to the categories, and it was in no way a hardship or deprivation. It was the gourmet experience you want from a trip to Italy, just without the carbs. I didn’t think it would be possible, to tell the truth, for me to feel satisfied without some form of indulgence in the foods I used to love. It is more than possible. It was better than I could have imagined.

Just want to add my heartfelt thanks for starting this thread! I’m in the last week of BSD Round 4, started Round 1 back in late January and will have lost a total of 70lbs by the end, so I’ll be facing maintenance and am frankly quite scared by the prospect, having lost/regained so many times in the past…but I’m sure this changed WOE can be permanent for me. My preferences have changed so much and it really hasn’t been hard.
I am well and truly ‘over’ weighing everything (FatSecret has been brilliant, but I’d love to graduate from it!). I feel that I’m really aware now of what a healthy day’s eating looks like, both content and quantity, so my plan is to carry on pretty much as I have been but not weigh and log everything, just keep an eye on the scales and refuse to allow “creep”?
Only thing is, I think I’m a sugar addict, so I really have to treat it as a ‘never’ thing….but that’s OK, with fruit as a substitute. Still find it hard to be moderate around chocolate, cakes & so on, even though I hardly enjoy them and don’t feel well afterwards…..no logic there at all!
It’s so encouraging to read everyone’s stories….thanks again!

WOW, Esnecca, well done you! Returning home even lighter than you went is an amazing achievement, and I do so agree that on the whole, we maintainers seem to have retrained our taste buds. I no longer miss the white carb stuff either and, even when it is sitting in front of me, I feel no temptation.

However, I do like wine, and now have a glass or two several times a week. We are away at the moment and I’m afraid to say I have eaten (all bsd friendly) and drunk far too much, resulting in losing several pounds of my wriggle room, although still 2lbs under target. Today I got up feeling so sluggish and bloated that I have embarked on a 24 hour water only fast – not difficult as I really can’t face any more food atm! In fact, whilst we will be dining out again tomorrow (our last night), after that I am really looking forward to a few abstemious days when I get home.

Sue, welcome to the world of maintaining. And congratulations on losing 70lbs – very well done, you should be very proud of yourself. I agree, to me the secret of maintaining has been to “refuse to allow the creep”, so good plan.

Keep up the good work, everyone.

Thanks, Theodora!

I’ve been scared of maintenance too, Sue. I’d still like to get down to 120lb, but I’ve been doing the Fast800 non-stop all this time and I know I need to loosen up the chains. That’s why this trip was such a test for me, because it forced me to untie myself from my beloved kitchen scale and find a way to live right without controlling every morsel myself.

Now that I’m home, I’m still going to weigh things as, unlike you, I have little confidence in my ability to identify portion sizes and calorie/carb content without running it by my scale and MyFitnessPal first. I know my limitations, and accurately estimating the measurements of anything is one of them.

Have you noticed any change in your tastes? For instance, do you have a greater tolerance for bitter or sour, tastes that are the opposite of sweet that maybe you used to dislike? I ask because that happened to me, and if you can push that envelope, it might help kill that sugar fetish once and for all. My favorite treat nowadays is a square of 100% cacao chocolate, no sugar whatsoever, 2 grams net carbs per 14 gram square, slightly melted in the oven then topped with flaked sea salt. It sounds insane, I know, and if you had proposed it to me a year ago I would have told you to pound sand, but I love it passionately now. Bitterness, even extreme bitterness, doesn’t read as bitter to me anymore. It just tastes intense. Sour reads as tangy. That sea change is a large part of the reason I didn’t fall into a carb hole in Italy, I’m sure of it.

Esnecca really proud of you! I wondered why you hadn’t joined this thread but now of course I understand. It really is so good to know that this really can be a ‘new way’ for us all.

I am away at the moment and we have had a day at the races. Lunch was very BSD friendly with lots of fish starters and then sea bass as a main with spinach etc. Then there was afternoon tea and I had a scone with a teaspoon of strawberry jam and some whipped cream …. it was delicious. I ate it mindfully not just because it was ‘there’. I very very rarely eat those sort of carbs these days so if I do, it has to be something I really fancy and I can then enjoy it without guilt. This is ‘life’ and we need to make choices that we can live with but that also keep us on a healthy path even if it’s for only 98% of the time. No going back to that ‘old life’ after we have travelled so far.

Esnecca – I am finding the same. My tastes have changed completely and I absolutely love bitter now. We were are Sea Life Hunstanton with daughter and family. Everyone had sausage rolls at Sea Life. I just looked at them and they looked yuk. I had bought 20g of 90% Lindt chocolate and 20g of organic walnuts with me to have for lunch but just wasn’t hungry so didn’t eat them. We then went to Oxburgh Hall and the National Trust food looked lovely but not in the least tempting. I just had coffee. Before BSD that just would not have happened.

Home this evening and I did a salad with cold roast pork and then had my 20g of 90% instead of the apple crumble made with heritage apples that husband made. I wasn’t tempted by the apple crumble either and really enjoyed the chocolate.

Thanks so much, Verano. I’m not exaggerating when I say that the BSD is the best thing I’ve done in my life. Heck, in a few years I probably wouldn’t have had any life at all without it, certainly in the metaphoric sense and very probably in the literal sense. Walking the streets of Rome in my cute new outfits without having to spend a single moment worrying about whether I’d fit in a restaurant chair or be able to walk through a museum without collapsing in exhaustion was such precious freedom. I’ll never forget how imprisoned I was in my own flesh and never, ever take my liberation from that hell for granted. Not. One. Step. Backward.

Esnecca how great! You know I’d forgotten about the miseries of being ‘fat’….. sorry but that’s the truth of it! I remember going into small restaurants and wondering if I would be able to walk between the chairs, even more difficult when you are fat and using crutches! Yes wondering if a seat belt on a plane would do up. I suppose everyone has some memories of those days we just tend to forget how difficult life was but it’s certainly good to be reminded now and again.

I’m off to start a new thread from tomorrow to get back on the wagon again!

Hi Sue. Congratulations on your achievement. Re maintenance, I’m now on the 16-8 and I recommend it highly. For my sweet tooth I tell myself I can have whatever I want one day a week. Giving yourself permission to have something is important (for me), otherwise I go into deprivation mode!

Krysia, I’m sorry I missed your post. Isn’t it wonderful to enjoy a whole new spectrum of flavors now that your tastebuds are no longer burdened by sweetness? I had no idea the effect would be so radical. Now I realize that sugar/white carbs numb your sense of taste much like smoking does. The only difference is that sugar just does it for flavors that are not on its side of the spectrum while tobacco does it for everything.

A square of 100% cacao unsweetened bakers chocolate slightly melted and topped with flaked sea salt (Maldon, salt of the gods) has become one of my favorite things. That lovely, buttery richness of the pure cacao, the intense chocolate flavor, then closing with the crunch and brininess of the sea salt… Every nibble is a voyage through beautiful textures and tastes.

Your salad sounds delicious. Did you roast the pork yourself? If so, how do you make it?

Esnecca – husband roasted the pork joint. It was seriously tasty because he made cuts in it with a knife and inserted slivers of garlic then sprinkled it with salt.

Your slightly melted 100% cacao chocolate with Malden sea salt sounds lovely. Can’t wait to try the mixture of different textures and tastes. I agree that the white carbs numb your sense of taste. I love this way of eating so much I could never go back to the white stuff.

I am also enjoying the freedom of walking around in cute new outfits. It is also lovely to choose clothes because I like the colour or style. In the past I only chose clothes that hid the rolls of fat around my middle – or clothes I hoped hid the rolls of fat. That was the only criteria for choosing something.

Such an interesting thought….thanks heaps. You’re right, I have seen some unexpected changes, but had not really considered why – for example – I now enjoy olives for the first time ever (and I’m 64!) I have to try the choc/salt and see if I can just enjoy one piece….!

Thank you, ismac….I do hope at some point I’ll be free enough to do the same! By the way, what is the 16-8?

It’s a type of intermittent fasting when you don’t eat for 16 hours out of 24. Half of those 16 hours you should be sleeping through so it’s not as hard as it sounds. I do it regularly, restricting all caloric intake between noon and 8PM, and most often these days I wind up shrinking the eating window even more, doing 18-6 or even 20-4. It all depends on how I’m feeling, what’s on the schedule that day, etc.

Good morning Maintainers.

Thrilled to say that, having been away since last Wednesday morning, returning last evening, so 9 days in gorgeous hotels, eating in lovely restaurants every night, indulging in wine every day, a croissant and a Danish with breakfast one morning, and 3 delectable desserts, I have come home……..wait for it………..HALF A POUND LIGHTER!!!🎉🎊🎉 Body fat % down a tad too, and body water %age up to a whopping 59%😃 (started bsd at a paltry 47%)

Not quite sure how that happened but I’m taking it, thank you very much.

To be fair, as we were travelling all day, and arrived home to not a morsel of fresh food in the house, I fasted all day yesterday. Feeling refreshed and invigorated and THIN. It’s a glorious, crisp autumnal day, so just about to take the dogs for their morning 5-miler before doing a supermarket run. I’m not feeling at all hungry, but will then break my fast at lunchtime with a big bowl of yoghurt and mixed berries – I am 8lbs under target so really don’t want to drop any more by prolonging the fast – though I certainly feel as though I could. O/h has already nicknamed me The Incredible Shrinking Woman!!

Amazing Theodora!! I just wish I had a little of whatever it is you have!!! Really well done though …. better shake those shocking pink pom-poms in celebration!

Thanks, Verano. ……and it’s called focus, which is exactly what you’re doing at the moment!

Oh, and all that extra exercise, jumping up and down, frantically waving my pompoms at you won’t have done any harm, either 😜

Hey there all, I am pleased to announce that as of this morning I have 100g to lose and then I am a healthy weight, so I hope that I can count as a maintainer. I do intend to lose more weight, but am not calorie counting, just carb watching. I’ve been doing this the last week or so anyway and the grams are slowly dropping away.

Am not yet ‘thin’ (4kg would do it I think) but I am no longer ‘overweight’ either. 😁😁😁😁😁

Yay! I am now officially a maintainer at a healthy 25 BMI!! That 100g hung round for a bit but now 63.9kg which counts as below my maximum weight! Still not weighing food or counting cals, still just eating low carb foods (but with extra fibre as it was – ahem – uncomfortable – for first time last week.

I am doing a happy dance!! And off to gym next, having just got back from puppy walk.
Last week I left trousers undone as I walked towards changing room – and they fell down! 😂😂

Congratulations,JackieM! There is nothing like the first weigh in at
a healthy BMI, is there 🙂 I’m about 6 1/2 months into maintenance
now and 12 lbs. under target. BMI 21.69 today. ( I started at 44!)
I’ve been fortunate that none of my wardrobe malfunctions happened
outside of the house! I “lost” a pair of trousers reaching up for
a heavy casserole on the top kitchen shelf not too long ago. It
was then that I decided to dispense with the safety pins and throw
out my fat clothes. Looking forward to seeing how you approach
maintenance. There are so many different ways to do it!
Best of luck,

Allie

Hi JackieM

I just wanted to say a big congratulations on becoming a maintainer!

I don’t think we’ve ‘spoken’ but I started BSD around the same time so have always been interested in how you’ve been doing. This thread is really helpful to me in thinking about the future (a few months off yet for me). Glad you’ll be on it!

Marie x

I remember when you started JackieM! And now you are a maintainer!! Very very well done!! What were your two best tips for sticking with it day-by-day?

Welcome, and well done, JackieM.

I am just a tad behind Allie in the maintainer stakes – 5.5 months in (almost 25 weeks to be exact) and counting, 6 lbs under target, BMI a little on the low side for someone my age, at 19.4 (started at 29)

Think we’ve all had wardrobe malfunctions, but they’re a thing of the past for me as all my larger clothes have long gone to the charity shop. Now comfortably in UK size 8 – and even in that size, I don’t have to unzip my trousers to get them off!!.

I’m sure you’ll do just fine on maintenance, Jackie.

Hi, Theodora – It’s great to have a maintenance thread, isn’t it?
I’ve read elsewhere that reaching a year in maintenance increases
the odds for “permanent” weight loss long term. I’m setting that
as a long term goal. We should arrive there at approx. the same
time, so it will be fun to get there together!

Yeah, Allie, great to be maintainer buddies!

I’ve read the same, and I’m certainly aiming to get to one year (and beyond) as I never want to carry all that excess blubber around again, and I’m feeling better than I have in years. Having booked a fantastic (and b****y expensive) luxury African safari holiday for next April/May (incidentally I will reach my BSD one year maintenance birthday whilst away) I have a powerful incentive for making it, particularly as I have already treated myself to new clothes to take with me – all hot-weather clothes, so they won’t be used before the holiday, and don’t think o/h would appreciate me having to buy them all over again in a bigger size!! Me neither, for that matter😜.

So let’s keep on keeping on together.🎈

Congratulations, Jackie! One of the great joys of the BSD for me has been the realization that I finally cracked the code of my own body. You can’t put a price on that sense of accomplishment. I never want to lose sight of that, which is another reason this maintenance thread is so important. Welcome to the rest of your long and healthy life. 🙂

Allie, it was so awesome babbling like teenagers on the phone for ages yesterday. I half expected my father to yell up the stairs at me “You just spent all day at school with her, what do you still have to talk about?!” 😀

Thankyou Esnecca 🤗

Hearing your not falling on your ass story (😂😂) reminded me of recent trip to physio for my daughter. She was saying standing on one foot, then the other when brushing teeth great way to kick start core stability. Then on tip-toe once that’s mastered. I’ve been doing it all week and have def improved.

How did the ab regime go btw? I’m back at Pilates once a week and loving it, plus weights/core at gym. Plus a little walk for our massive puppy! Loving no aches and pains and mental alertness I’m feeling.

Next step to improve micro-nutrients I get. Too easy to fill up on meat and dairy. Conscious effort to eat green every day now.

Omg, just read last post from Esnecca then posted THEN scrolled up – hadn’t realised all the other posts were there. Thankyou everyone! It is great to not be overweight anymore!!

California girl – my top tips.

1) really low carb and no ‘days off’ – followed the Esnecca approach there. About 20g of carbs at most. Was so scared i’d Get hungry if I ate too many carbs so was really strict on that. Not so strict on calories or a balanced diet – probably 7 weeks at 800 calories and then followed principles. I am going to address eating too much dairy/meat next as it can’t be a long term strategy, but when I felt deprived double cream feels like a treat and I definitely have (had?) disfunctional eating habits. Am not weighing anything anymore, and eating small quantities of veg based carbs plus more greens and still losing now.

2) drink all the water. I was so thirsty!! I still am but not as much, weirdly.

Well done JackieM it’s a great club to join…. one day I may be here legitimately as well! For the moment I just take heart from all the maintainers. I am just starting to try and stay at 20g a day just need to take Escnecca’s advice about ‘greens’. Well done again!

Haha, esnecca – Did your father know mine, by any chance?
The pleasure was all mine yesterday, I promise! I’m ridiculously
happy to be able to say “talk to you soon” 🙂

It’s my 9 month targetversary today, so 9 months into the rest of my life, and to celebrate I decided to see if I could still squeeze into my size 8 stretch jeans, which I can! So I will wear them today, actually for the first time as I still prefer the size 10 pairs lack of wriggling to get into them. Still a little higher on the scales than I like at target + 5 pounds, but only 2 pounds outside my comfort range and looking for a few weeks of discipline to get me back under my target.

Hi JackieM and welcome to our little and growing (not in the bad way) band of maintainers. I still hover around the BMI overweight category as I put on so much muscle while getting fit and losing fat that I was only 22% fat at the end but still BMI 25. Increase your calories gradually while still eating the good stuff and you may well lose a little more, but listen to your body and you will know when to stop.

Happy anniversary Mnm!

I know there are quite a few ‘fasters’ on this thread so I wondered if somebody could recommend a good book explaining ‘fasting’. I have been missing breakfast for the last few days so extending my overnight ‘fast’ but I would really like to read some more about it.
Thanks.

Hey Verano, l’m not a super faster, am sure others will be able to help more, but I did find missing breakfast a great way to power through the day, as long as I had lots of coffee and water. Though I try to eat before gym on those days. Today was massively hungry, so had spinach with grated cheese and a fried egg. Yum. And cream in my coffee, but only a tablespoon as it is my kryptonite (just read someone swapped to single cream, so I am going to do that). Can probably not have lunch now.

Made family a beef and sweet potato casserole last night (beef, sweet potatoes, 1 onion, 1 can tomatoes, 1 carrot, lots of water and paprika – between 4 that’s max 1/4 of the carbs stuff I figured that would be OK as my only vaguely carb meal) – my first time eating sweet potatoes, though I skirted round them and focussed on the beef and the juice/mush. It tasted nice, but got a bit boated, which doesn’t really happen anymore generally.

Halloween here last night, lots and lots of sweets around. Feel like I am poisoning kids by allowing them but also know I need to not go ON all the time. So I may have had a bit more dark chocolate and almonds than usual to keep temptation at bay – I know I wouldn’t like it, but it’s just so easy to take something out of a packet. Most of my sweet tooth was definitely in my head not my mouth.

Happy 9 months in maintenance, MnM – and well done on the size 8s.

Jackie, don’t be surprised if you carry on losing for a while, despite an increase in calories. I lost a further half stone after entering maintenance, almost 6 months ago, despite gradually increasing cals – I did keep carbs low though, and still do – and that is my wriggle room. This morning the scales registered a 1.5lb drop since yesterday for no apparent reason (although I had an alcohol free day, but then I often do) so now have 7.5lbs wriggle room.

Verano, sorry but, whilst I am a committed “faster”, I have not read any books on the subject, just various articles on the internet. So can’t help with recommendations, sorry. But good luck.

Verano, try Jason Fung’s The Complete Guide to Fasting. It really does cover every aspect you can think of. https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Fasting-Intermittent-Alternate-Day/dp/1628600012/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

There are a ton of interviews with him on YouTube from his book tour in which he talks extensively about fasting (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9Aw0P7GjHE ) , and his own Diet Doctor channel offers a number of shorter videos about IF for weight loss and reversing hyperinsulemia/diabetes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a2Fsfa8e4I ).

Thanks for posting this, Esnecca. I’ve just started his book, The Obesity Code. I shall check out youtube also!

Thanks for your replies. I will check out those links Esnecca and let you know how I find the whole idea.