Let's talk "maintenance": easiest and hardest aspects?

Someone asked me in a PM to clarify why I had made a statement that, essentially, if you thought the losing phase was hard, wait until you get to maintenance.  As I clarified that statement, I was thinking about how -- just as losing the weight was a somewhat different experience for all of us -- maintaining the weight loss is also somewhat different for all of us.

So I'm wondering -- beyond the obvious general task of striving to keep the number on the scale stable -- what are the two or three most difficult aspects of maintenance for you?  What are the two or three easiest aspects (perks?) of maintenance for you?

Lora

For me, the hardest aspects have been:
1) Accepting my body... that I simply do NOT have a size 8 frame, and I will always have big boobs (still DD/DDD-cup!) and muscular thighs... but am at a very healthy (for my age group) 25% body fat (as of yesterday morning).
2) after an emotional "double whammy" a couple of weeks ago, the "eat for comfort" demon reared his ugly head again (after 3 years of relative silence). It was hard to have to admit that, despite my efforts to be both physically and emotionally healthy, that demon was still right there, waiting fro a vulnerable moment to re-surface.
3) maintaining enough physical activity when my knees are bothering me

The easiest/best aspects/perks are:
1) eating a GENERALLY healthy, balanced diet (this surprises the ^%#$ out of me!!!!), but yes, I do still have to be consciously diligent about not eating too much or eating too many treats)
2) perk: not having to think about my body size anymore (not wondering if I will fit someplace and finally having at least a reasonably accurate view pof my size relative to other people)
3) sticking to my personal vow to maintain my 5-pound weigth fluctuation boundary (when I exceed beign up 5 pounds, the extra cabrs go out and the protein and water go up in order to get those 5 pounds back off)

Lora

Maintenance,

The worst part is the mind games..... not wanting to eat a sensible amount for fear of regain, and then EATING a sensible amount and fearing regain.

I see my lower body as still fat, huge ginormous thighs

melting wax figure

But  the real hard thing is to continue on in the absence of rewards

When losing .... you have the reward of your weight loss and the numbers on the scale. the only reward in maintenance is in NOT gaining.

Sometimes I feel like a bit of a freak because I don't have a SERIOUS fear of regain.  Yes, I obviously DO fear it to a certain extent (NONE of us wants to go back where we were before!), but I have been very good about observing  my 5-pound limit, so I think that has taken away a lot of the fear for me.

Yeah, depressing that the "reward" of maintenance is NOT suffering re-gain.  Not nearly as motivating as getting into the next smaller clothing size, is it?!?

Lora
p.s. I bet MY "ginormous" thighs are bigger than yours, LOL.

Great post!

I don't find anything "easy" about maintenance. Sorry - it's not that easy for me.  The first year or two I was extremely focused and had the eye on the prize. I was a model patient my first couple of years.  It is going to be a challenge for life.  These are/were my frustrations:

1) Had to deal with the fact that I was not a size 0, 2, 4 etc.  Despite having major surgery, I still felt fat around coworkers.
2) I have other things to spend money on than plastics so my body is not the way I'd like it.
3) I did not wake up a gorgeous 20 year old blonde. I'm a wrinkly 40 year old. More critical of my body than ever.
4) I am hungry a lot.
5) I have stress. Still deal with stress by eating.
6) Still derive a lot of pleasure from food. Went from live-to-eat mode to eat-to-live mode with surgery and now want to "live to eat" again in many respects.
7) Keeping up focus is hard. No more compliments.
8) My issues are still there. Surgery did not solve all my problems.
9) I can gain a pound with a bad weekend of eating...but to lose weight now is really hard.
10) I'm still a food addict.

Dawn

Thanks for sharing.  I share MANY of these frustrations/hard aspects...  they just didn't make my top 3.

It IS hard to continue to be diligent when there are no more compliments or NSVs (or, as LL mentioned, the only reward is NOT gaining weight).

I also appreciate you sharing that you, too still struggle with the food demons.  I wonder sometimes why there is so little discussion of them here... I think that was aprt of the reason that I felt hit so hard when I automatically turned to the ice cream a couple of weeks ago... I have done a pretty good job of NOT eating out of stress, but then when the severe emotional upset came....BAM!... and I felt like even more of a failure because I couldn;t even remember when someone else her mentioned something like that.

I think it's really important for the new folks to get a glimpse into "real world" maintenance.  Thanks for being part of that.

Lora

Lora, one thing that has been my recent food demon is boredom eating ...... I'm prone to that more since I can't come home and sit in a chair and do THINGS as much as I used to be able to do them, and DOING keeps my mind occupied, and not doing keeps me unoccupied.

I've confined my "boredom eating" to berries and Fage and am still at goal and not gaining, but this worries me.. It's one thing to recognize it, but another to change the behavior (the couple of times I've tried to eat less often for fear of ballooning boredom eating.... I've had nasty RH episodes)

So I continue to weigh, and enjoy my Fage, and there ya have it! 

I am by no means near my maintenance period, but I have to say it frightens me terribly.  I worked so hard to get to the point of surgery, have been working hard to achieve goals that I have set for myself.  I have now passed what I considered a realistic goal for weightloss for ME.  I never thought I would actually make it there and am only 21 weeks post-op or so.  The thing was 2 weeks ago when I was 1 lb from that goal I did a little freak out.  I was excited and then the realization of "what now" hit.  I had to redirect myself and am fortunate enough to have a great support system in place with my husband, kids, family and doctors/support group. 
So in all honesty, I am glad you posted about maintenance so that I have a reminder of what's to come, to prepare, and know that the "demons" don't necessarily go away, but can be controlled.  A slip up is not a deal breaker and I am for all intents and purposes, a much healthier, stronger and happier person now.
Again, thank you for bringing up the subject because it is on my mind!

Hallie

You lost 83 pounds in 21 weeks?!?!  Thay's not unusual for someone who had close to twice as much as that to lose, but is VERY fast for someone who only had 80 pounds to lose in the first place!  Somehow I doubt that you are done losing...

Lora

I am currently scheduled for RnY. I wanted to know if any of you wish you had chosen to have the DS done instead?