January Maintenance Magic

[gotsomeold]

Some of you may have noticed the way our maintenance threads seem to fizzle out

On other forums, maintenance is cause for big time angst, long discussions about eating patterns and what to do about regained weight. Most of us understand that...because most of us have reached the goal (or at least some goal) and tried to maintain there many, many times before.

Maintenance on JUDDD is a bit anti-climactic.

Oh, of course, a few of take making goal to mean "I''m fixed! Now I can eat whatever, whenever I want!" That works well for some. Not so good for others.

But, over the course of our JUDDD journey, many of us learned a lot about our individual metabolism...and gained NSVs that we do not want to lose. So, for us, maintenance does not mean we are cured. It means tune DDs and/or UDs in a way that ensures we keep the NSVs. It means watch the bounces and, if we see an upward trend, we know exactly how to handle it.

For many of us, maintenance is just a continuation of JUDDD...except the rules are a bit relaxed and the clothes look better. And, once we actually manage to believe the loss is real, we can produce some killer attitude.

Angst? Not so much.

I gained two pounds over the Christmas holiday. They were gone after one planned MD followed by a DD (not my fault, DH needed to change his schedule and I needed to support him).

I love maintenance!!!! It has just enough challenges to be interesting (if I eat this, how high will I bounce?), just enough successes to remain motivating (that bounce wasn't so bad), just enough special treats to satisfy my soul (caramel gelato with sea salt...I know, I ate it on UDs during WLM, but it truly hits all my buttons).

[KeirasMom]

I'm hoping to get there soon. Love JUDDD!

[Jbinme]

I'm still on the ride! I need the unlimited ride pass
I decided for 2 weeks in December to just let loose. No rotations, no counting calories, free for all. I found tons of recipes for homemade goodies I wanted to try. Only problem, not enough people to eat them! Of course I had my DH and 2 DDs trying them and gave some to my neighbors, and enjoyed a lot myself. Ended up throwing some away just so I would stop eating them!(something I've had to train myself through my weightloss is that it's ok to throw away food.)

After the NY DH decided he wanted to do vlc for 2 weeks to recover from the sugar explosion. I was thinking potato hack but decided to ride the ride with him.
Here we are a few days later and I'm off the vlc ride and back with my DD.(I don't combine, decided a while back I will only focus on one.) I

I found myself thinking about:
what I can really do long term?

What makes me most happy?
I get depressed very easy in the winter and I don't feel that when I'm juddding but I do LCing?

What works best with my family?
My husband loves JUDDD. Won't stop. Even though we eat different stuff we are doing it together.

JUDDD let's me enjoy my love of cooking and baking and trying new recipes. My youngest will start school next fall and I kinda don't know what I'm going to do with myself. I havent found any hobbies or anything I'm really interested in besides cooking. With JUDDD it's not a problem. I can try low cal recipes, bake cakes, anything really.

I lose weight the easiest on JUDDD!
I gained 9 lbs in that 2 weeks. I wasn't really worried because I know JUDDD works for me if I work it right.

So I'm on my first DD since my wonderful, relaxed, sugar explosion December.
So far so good. I really do best on mini meals. Knowing I can eat something every hour takes away the fear I still have sometimes of down days.

I started JUDDD a year ago this month. It has truly changed my life. Got me to goal. Improved my moods. helped with the pain i was getting in my arm every night during the winter,I think I'm peri menopausal and
I think JUDDD will help me survive it. And my family

Wow-this is probably the longest post I've ever written.
It helps me to put all these thoughts down. Maybe it'll help someone else too.
I really love JUDDD and I feel like one of the lucky ones to have found it. I still think its magic!!

Love you all, JBs

[Carly]

I want to ask you lovely ladies in maintenance how did you know you reached goal? A particular weight? Clothing size? How you looked in clothes or w/o them? I feel that the more I lose that I actually have no idea what my goal should be. I truly think I should not consider a goal higher than 125, but a lot of people look mortified when I say I'm planning to lose another 10 pounds or so. I hate how the loose, flabby skin looks on my upper arms, stomach and thighs, but of course in clothing no one sees that. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!!!!!

[adillenal]

I decided that 144 was fine for me. I am older and the more I lose the older I thought I looked. But then my size 8's fit so I was fine. I would like to lose to 140 but with my Christmas gain (which has finally shown up) I now need to lose at least 7 or 8 more pounds so get my bounce where I want it.
So back to WLM insterad of maintenance for January.
Carly - After about 6 months my arms no longer look like wrinkled prunes. So I guess time is the answer to some of your question.

[Carly]

Originally Posted by adillenal

I decided that 144 was fine for me. I am older and the more I lose the older I thought I looked. But then my size 8's fit so I was fine. I would like to lose to 140 but with my Christmas gain (which has finally shown up) I now need to lose at least 7 or 8 more pounds so get my bounce where I want it.
So back to WLM insterad of maintenance for January.
Carly - After about 6 months my arms no longer look like wrinkled prunes. So I guess time is the answer to some of your question.

That would be awesome! I'll start praying that time will help!!!!!!

[Jbinme]

Originally Posted by Carly

I want to ask you lovely ladies in maintenance how did you know you reached goal? A particular weight? Clothing size? How you looked in clothes or w/o them? I feel that the more I lose that I actually have no idea what my goal should be. I truly think I should not consider a goal higher than 125, but a lot of people look mortified when I say I'm planning to lose another 10 pounds or so. I hate how the loose, flabby skin looks on my upper arms, stomach and thighs, but of course in clothing no one sees that. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!!!!!

I am 5'3 and would love to get to 125 someday but my body really likes 130. I feel good and can wear clothes I like comfortably. I got there pretty easy and then stopped losing. It felt like if i tried to lose more my body was fighting me. And if I go up its not too hard to get back there. Maybe just see where your body wants to be? If that makes sense?

[Carly]

Originally Posted by Jbinme

I am 5'3 and would love to get to 125 someday but my body really likes 130. I feel good and can wear clothes I like comfortably. I got there pretty easy and then stopped losing. It felt like if i tried to lose more my body was fighting me. And if I go up its not too hard to get back there. Maybe just see where your body wants to be? If that makes sense?

It does make sense. My mind is not in sync with my body, so it seems so some times. My very, over critical mother even said that I don't need to lose more, which for her to say was SHOCKING since the only photos she has framed in her home of me is when I was 90 pounds and anorexic! I almost fell out of the chair when she said it!!!!!

[gotsomeold]

I called goal when size six jeans fit without muffin toppage.

I never worried about what the scale said. I have a bff who is my height and build/bone structure. She used to be a size four. But looked, oh so much, better/healthier when she gained into a six. So, I figured what worked for her would apply to me.

[gotsomeold]

One thing I find fascinating: fat lost during WLM shifts around during maintenance. When I called goal at 128ish, my waist was 29 and my legs were skinny. After five months of maintaining, my waist is 28 and my legs have filled out (which is nice because at first size six legs were voluminous).

I have read several sources which say it takes the body about a year - after weight is lost - to shift things around to whatever shape genetics say the bod should be.

[Carly]

Well, that gives me hope too, since I do not seem to have lost weight evenly. I will look forward to the cellular rearrangement after I stop losing.

[Jbinme]

Nancy-I've noticed the same thing. I have a little junk back in the trunk and my stomach is going down.

[Luv2Eat]

Nancy, I hope that's true about the body adjusting for genetics for a year after WL. If I only knew what my body should look like - I was a very young thing last time I saw my current weight, and none of the women in my family are small, they're all overweight. Hmm, might have to stay in WLM forever Thank goodness JUDDD is fairly easy

[Babsbabs]

My dreams of waking up January 2nd and slipping on my skinny jeans didn't quite pan out for me but things didn't go off the rails as badly as previous years for sure. I did have a lovely holiday with family (and food and drinks) and that is what is important as well. Thanks to the potato hack and JUDDD DD's I am back into my maintenance range which I am very happy about! Love that with JUDDD I don't seem to fall into that long denial phase of being off plan for months before I deal with weight gain. I think that on some level I used to see it as a life sentence and now it is just an every second day thing. With maintenance calories it is so doable to fit in all of life's social events as well with a little planning which is great.
I think my goal weight is based on a compromise. My body likes 152 and I like 142 and I kind of end up between the two depending on how diligent I am.
I also noticed changes in measurements with maintenance in that everything had tightened up a bit. Of course after the holidays, not so much...

[Luna Loca]

Nice post, Nancy. I've noticed that the maintenance threads tend to fizzle too, and I think that's just because there's not much to talk about! It's pretty much the same as WLM with a few more calories on the DDs (for me) and no real changes on the scale. It's just easy, and simple, and such a non-issue. Which is nice, I was ready to think of other things after two years of trying to lose the weight and working it like a job.

For me, I decided to call goal because DH asked me to stop losing. I am not tall, just 5'3", and my weight is rather high for someone of my height. But I'm curvy, and was starting to lose that. I'm also at about the same size that I was in high school, and while I thought I was fat then, I really was not.

I will probably always long for a plastic surgeon to do a tummy tuck, just the baggage from so many years being so overweight. I was just ready to be happy where I was and how I looked, and ready to leave behind the angst and stress of WLM. Now, I just have peaceful eating habits and that's worth the 10-20 pounds that another woman in my body might think she needs to lose. I'm happy.

[gotsomeold]

Luna, in that picture you look beautiful!!!!

(There is nothing wrong with having curves, looking great, and being able to focus on things other than weight! It is called 'having a life' and is way cool)

[Luna Loca]

Nancy, thank you! :blush:

That picture is actually old and out of date. I was wearing size 17 jeans then, now I wear 13s and 12s. But I like the photo because it's fun.

[Joedi]

Luna, not only do you have a healthy body, you obviously have a healthy mind and attitude, which is a rare and real treasure! You really have got it sorted!

Hug
Jo
X

[Luna Loca]

Aw, shucks. Jo, you've long been one of my JUDDD idols! Good to know you're maintaining easily. That is absolutely wonderful. You look beautiful in your photo, too.

I really appreciate the comments. Since I wrote that last night, I've had the little sneaky monster creep up on me..."maybe just a few more pounds...you'll look so much better"...I really don't want to go back to that mindset! I cherish your comments and am telling the monster to go back into the cave from which it came. I am doing what's right for me, and to heck with the numbers, right?

[Kissa]

Hi my lovely Juddd maintainers. Such great posts here.

I think we are all learning to be comfortable with who we are and how we look and feel.

Thanks for reminding us how lucky we are to be enjoying JUDDD and all its benefits Nancy.

[leonak]

Well, here I am in Main Lane, sorry to be the only negative one

I find it ever so hard.

Sure I put on 3 # since the holidays and I know they will be off before the end of January.

I just do not enjoy Main Lane, still have all the DD & UD and still counting calories too! My skinny jeans do not fit today, put I am thinner then a year ago and am wearing nice jeans today, just not the real skinny ones hanging in my closet!

Hope we get this post more action in 2013!

Thanks Nancy for starting it!

[Lyric's Mom]

I'll join! I've been experimenting a little now that I'm in maintenance. I made a promise to myself to enjoy the process & not stress. I worked hard to reach goal so I wanted a more relaxed approach this go round. I still set boundaries though so I stay the course. I am trying a 5/2 plan where I have DD's (400 cals) only on Tuesdays & Thursdays. The other 5 days I pretty much eat what I want. I don't always count cals but when I do it's around 2000. If the scale reaches 113 then I adjust if needed but so far, by my second DD, Im always back at goal. I'm hoping this WOE continues to work because its been really fun & easy! I do get a lot of encouragement & ideas from this forum so Im real appreciative to everyone.

[Jbinme]

It sounds like a great plan. Keep us updated how it goes.

[gotsomeold]

Originally Posted by leonak

... I just do not enjoy Main Lane, still have all the DD & UD and still counting calories too! My skinny jeans do not fit today, put I am thinner then a year ago and am wearing nice jeans today, just not the real skinny ones hanging in my closet! ...

I guess I don't mind having to continue the rotations because, over so many failed weight loss attempts and so much reading, I have concluded something in my metabolism is broken. Losing weight does not automatically mean I am repaired.

I believe my missing arthritis and formerly red cheeks are proof that low DDs have done some serious healing inside me. Will time gradually show more changes? Someday, maybe after years of JUDDDing, will I - like my DBs and DS - be able to eat pretty whatever, whenever and remain at goal? Danged if I know. Danged if I care.

I have found a WOE that controls whatever is not working properly. Hallelujah.

[SICCHI]

I can not WAIT fot maintenance! I hope to get there by my wedding day (May) and I would love a BMI of 20-21 or a flat tummy! Thats when I'll know, lol! I am 5.5ft and am aiming for 59kg (130) Either way, when the day comes, I feel safe in knowing that if I start to move upwards, good Judd rotations should bring me back down again

[adillenal]

I have done the maintenance plan for the past three months. I popped up a tad following New years so I am going to do WLM for a bit to get my high bounce back to where I want it. UD/DD is my life now. A total habit. Since I eat the same breakfast every day regardless, I don't even have to worry about food until lunch asnd sometimes I have to look at my calendar to see what I am doing for the day. Yes, food has taken a back seat to the other aspects of my life.
Plans for 2013 include adding a little exercise to tone me up some. I love ttapp and I just have to MAKE the time for it. I am just lazy. Once I done it for a week, it gets to be habit forming also. Years ago I had started an exercise group at school doing the Walk away the Pounds tapes. We had a huge group that did that after school in the gym for a long time. Maybe I should try that again although I have a small staff now. BUT I have a nice big room where we could do this and I am more likely to stick to it if I exercise BEFORE I go home and get busy doing other things.

[Carly]

Originally Posted by adillenal

I have done the maintenance plan for the past three months. I popped up a tad following New years so I am going to do WLM for a bit to get my high bounce back to where I want it. UD/DD is my life now. A total habit. Since I eat the same breakfast every day regardless, I don't even have to worry about food until lunch asnd sometimes I have to look at my calendar to see what I am doing for the day. Yes, food has taken a back seat to the other aspects of my life.
Plans for 2013 include adding a little exercise to tone me up some. I love ttapp and I just have to MAKE the time for it. I am just lazy. Once I done it for a week, it gets to be habit forming also. Years ago I had started an exercise group at school doing the Walk away the Pounds tapes. We had a huge group that did that after school in the gym for a long time. Maybe I should try that again although I have a small staff now. BUT I have a nice big room where we could do this and I am more likely to stick to it if I exercise BEFORE I go home and get busy doing other things.

I love that idea! In the summer a few of us went for a walk during lunch. I'll see if I can get something started at work. When I get home at almost 7pm it's highly unlikely that I'll do much- especially in cold dark winter!!!

[Crazy PreK Teacher]

Hi all

I will be re-joining you. I jumped on to hHCG to get the last few lbs. off. My general goal for right now was 175, but wanted to go a little lower. I am involved with TOPS, and submitted my goal as 175...so I can "legally" go 7 lbs. below. After 9 days, I reached 166.6 lbs...so this is it for now. Unfortunately, I have to wait until after the first week of April (I will receive awards then) to lose any lower if needed. At this point, I am very comfortable here...I was 291 lbs. last year, and 411 lbs. eight years ago.

So...I am going in to maintenance. I will return to DD JUDDD on Tuesday!!! Can't wait

Have a great Sunday!!!

[adillenal]

Originally Posted by adillenal

I have done the maintenance plan for the past three months. I popped up a tad following New years so I am going to do WLM for a bit to get my high bounce back to where I want it. UD/DD is my life now. A total habit. Since I eat the same breakfast every day regardless, I don't even have to worry about food until lunch asnd sometimes I have to look at my calendar to see what I am doing for the day. Yes, food has taken a back seat to the other aspects of my life.
Plans for 2013 include adding a little exercise to tone me up some. I love ttapp and I just have to MAKE the time for it. I am just lazy. Once I done it for a week, it gets to be habit forming also. Years ago I had started an exercise group at school doing the Walk away the Pounds tapes. We had a huge group that did that after school in the gym for a long time. Maybe I should try that again although I have a small staff now. BUT I have a nice big room where we could do this and I am more likely to stick to it if I exercise BEFORE I go home and get busy doing other things.

UPDATE: Could not get any of this groupinterested in exercise so I bought a Leslie Sansome walking DVD at the local Wal-Mart and before lunch in my office all alone I walk a mile and then have lunch. Plenty of time and when I go home my exercise is done. Loving it.

And I am no longer in maintenance. I have gone back to WLM and lowered my goal. Maybe the walking will help me get there.

And congratulations to PreK Teacher on reacing maintenance. You have certainly come a long way.

[gotsomeold]

Happy Dance for Angela!!!

I think taking a few months getting used to eating to maintain, and letting your body have a break and kind of sort things out, is a healthy, intelligent, success oriented plan. As you say, when and if you decide to lose more, you can do so. But right now I am throwing you a carnival today!!!!!