Ms. Crackerhead's Maintenance Tips

[Ms. CrackerHead]

Ha! I asked for this section to be created and then I don't post in it until now! That's so terrible of me.

Well maybe you can learn from me, maybe not, but I will try to post regularly on my journey in maintenance land.

In a nutshell....maintenance is HARD for me. I am trying to find a balance in what my body will accept and reject and still try to enjoy life. I am exercising quite a bit and I am finding that I really enjoy it and I feel really good.

I will say that I haven't followed the rules. Maybe if I did, I would have less trouble with unstable weight. It has been tricky trying to find the right amounts of carbs to have now.

A couple of times I just said "Screw this! I am going back on the diet and just lose 10 pounds so that I am happy!"

But that didn't work. I was sooooo weak. So I know that going back to the diet doesn't work for me.

I am having trouble with cravings for sugary sweets/carb foods, mostly at the TOM and this is when I have gained. Several pounds at each TOM in the last 3 months.

Otherwise, I do fine. At first, I felt like a big failure, even though I am still a size 6. Before small weight gain, I was a small 6 approaching a size 4. I am ok being on the high side of size 6, bordering on size 8. If I end up getting smaller, I will do it healthily. We'll see. If I just stay this size, I might be okay, or I may get sad. I don't know. But I do know that I can't do the berating self-hating talk that is common for some of us. I have to be aware of what my triggers are and let myself live a little and control a little--finding a balance is key. It is so much harder said than done.

I am focusing on the strength inside and on the strength I am also building on the outside. I might sound like I have it together sometimes, but it is a daily struggle for me.

So know you aren't alone if you struggle in the same way. There are many of us out there and we need to stick together.

Ms. Crackerhead:)

P.s. added this later to say..I have kept gaining and now am no longer a size 6, but a size 10 or a snug 8 in October 2009.

[Dayanira]

It's so good to hear from you again, and hope that you can figure out how to maintain your weight. Just remember that now that you are doing a lot of exercise you are building muscles and they weigh more than fat. Maybe you need to cut a little bit your physical activity and your carbs.

[L-cat]

Does this mean we will always have to follow some regiment? So we can't just start eating normally without counting and letting our bodies tell us when to stop, i.e., eat just what the body needs and can process without fat deposits. Ouch!

[Aqua Eyes]

I think that I will just stay away from sweets as much as possible and the carbs too. I haven't craved or missed sweets all during this time I've been on this program. I missed wine though. I love chocolate and I love ice cream but I have been doing really well without them in my life. I'm not saying NEVER, I'm just saying LIMIT... like a once in a blue moon, special occasion time. I am looking at all the processed foods with disgust these days. Honestly! And quantity control has been real good for me to learn as well, because you can gain weight on healthy foods too, if you eat too much, so the limitation of calories has been real good for me. They say those folks that limit the caloric intake daily will live longer lives. I want to strive to keep my caloric intake no more than 1200 cal./day, which is close to what I'm eating now, unless I start doing a lot of exercising.

Why is being overweight working for you? That is the question I asked myself a couple of years ago. I found the answer for me and figured out why it was working for me and I finally realized that I didn't need it to be working for me anymore. It took me 7 years to figure it out, but I'm more concious now. ;)

[OrlandoOz]

I have a little weight fluctuation but nothing I am overly concerned about. I go between 111 - 113 daily, depending on how naughty I was the day before. When I hit the high weight end I take out the carbs and starches for the next day and it brings me right back down.

I do however continue to eat my diet breakfast most mornings... only because I love yoghurt and fresh fruit. I no longer drink milk or add creamers etc to my coffee or tea.... just got use to it black. Salads etc have always been a part of my diet so that didn't change much and I usually have a glass of wine of an evening.

I have found when I eat desert or the dreaded chocolate I can be assure of being heavier the next day. So... I limit my sugar intake.

We really have to get intune with our bodies and find out what they will tolerate. I believe everyone is different.. thus the individual diet plans. So, continue to work at it and just like the diet, the maintenance will become routine and a way of life.

I think we are all wonderful!!!!

[Sharon]

Hi Ms Crackehead, (I Mean rocky boat)
I know exactly where you are coming from, and can relate to your daily struggle, I am 9 months off this diet, have gained some weight back - still in the same size clothes but they don't fit me as well, I try not to kick myself but talk to myself positively about what I need to do, but it is easy to be dissappointed in yourself. The diet was easy when on it, off it is harder, when on it you don't want all the 'bad' stuff, but afterwards its not so easy. You behave yourself all week, get a few of those extra pounds off, a little splurge on the weekend and - yoohoo we're back and we bought guests!!! On the diet my body adjusted very quickly to the reduced intake and it was painfully slow to loose the weight, the consultants were adamant that I was taking something that was slowing me down, my diet couldn't have been more basic for the last few months and frequently I wouldn't have any fruit or crackers to try and make a difference, so going back on strict is a serious concideration for me. I'm having serious talks with myself about portion size and my evening carbs, and hope that will help. I definately is easier said than done, but it is great for me to know I'm not alone - not so great for you to be in the same boat. (Cut and pasted into my journey)

[Maverick]

L-cat,

When you are done with the re-feed and on maintenance, you get a guide from Dr. Cohen on how to eat “normally” for the rest of your life.

If your body was correct in what it needed, none of us would have ever needed this diet.

Your body is like a spoiled child who has been running your life and household for a long time. It’s now time to put the discipline in and grab your life back.

If I want sugar, I know how to do it without spiking the insulin and starting the “fat factory”. I completely fool the body. Ignorance is bliss! LOL

If I want a drink, I know what to eat and how to drink. Again, fooling the body.

During the re-feed, I was able to determine what amount of food was good for me and I just stick with it.

This is a really important point - EATING SUGAR CREATES A CRAVING FOR SUGAR. EATING CARBS CREATES A CRAVING FOR CARBS!

So, no, your body can be an idiot at times and you need to treat it as such, meaning it doesn’t always know what is good for it. A craving is just the bodies reaction to a detox and what is being eliminated in the blood stream. The sugar is being release into the bloodstream and your body thinks “Wow, I want some more of this!” and the craving starts.

If you eat sugar, you will crave it and go through withdrawals for a few days. That is the price you pay. Same with carbs.

Me? I’m more than happy to go through it for that big bowl of ice cream. LOL The trick is to not do it the next day.

[Key]

Thanks Maverick - great information.

Key

[Maverick]

You're welcome Key.

I've done a lot of detoxes from liver, kidney, to heavy metals and I do a colon cleanse every year. I figure "Why not?" so I've learned the hard way that a craving doesn't mean anything other than that is what is being pulled out of the fat and dumped into the bloodstream.

Everything we touch, eat and smell is stored in the body in the fat. So when it is released during a detox, you'll feel it.

That's why the water is so important.

I was at a wedding last night, ate a little (not enough protein) and then had a piece of wedding cake. Really didn't want it, but it was a small piece.

Woke up today with a headache and aching muscles. And guess what my body is now craving? Yep, you got it - SUGAR!
My body is stupid sometimes! LOL

So, lots of water today and now I know it will take about 1-2 days to start feeling good again. Weight was up about a pound and should be back down tomorrow morning.

[L-cat]

Hello Maverick,

You are right, the body is not too bright, but the fact is the majority of our bodies have not evolved at the same rate that our industrial societies have. We have strived to purify and succeeded but our bodies are still in the Middle Ages. The refined products we now eat are just TOO REFINED for our body chemistry. The body’s metabolizing mechanism is as lazy as most human nature.:sadeyes: Sugars and carbs are extremely easy and fast to break down and so they are metabolized first messing up the insulin and so on … creating a vicious cycle :crying:of storing fat instead of burning it. It just seemed like this diet was going to fix that abnormality in our bodies in a permanent way without us having to constantly stay on top of it. I guess in our North American fast track crazy lives a lot of us have not scheduled in, time for food preparation …
As for spoiled child, I guess it depends on one’s philosophy. I really don’t believe in disciplining through … I raised my boys without saying NO – saying I would rather you did not do this … works just as well or better. Or maybe I was lucky! I have seen in SUPER NANNY (TV reality show) children being like … I cannot believe …
Thanks for the advice anyways, SERIOUSLY! Your philosophy brings another view to my attention. I am learning, and psyching myself up to it: the only way to win the battle is to stay on top of the weight gain – you and some others who have joined this program to lose less than 30lbs are teaching me that! When I gained my first 15lbs, I had been married for about 4 mths and it was my dad who noticed it. I actually didn’t believe him (and my husband claimed it wasn’t so), and of course, we had no scale. Went to a friend’s and weighed myself – I had gained 15lbs! I freaked for a little while and then forgot all about it. I have always liked loose clothes so it was after my pregnancy that I realized that now I had 30lbs more than the year I got married. I was on my fifth year of marriage and then for years I would blame my pregnancy for the weight gain if someone commented till one day, one day someone made me realize that my son was almost 5! Five years later my second pregnancy added another 20lbs and now I was bothered. Joined gyms for short periods on and off and in 2004 I reached a weight that I just was NOT COMFORTABLE with. Followed a diet, lost quite a bit and then gave it up and gained it all back and more and here I am, heavier than ever.
So thanks for the reality check, truly!:weights:
Luce

[Maverick]

Hi Luce,

Great post and I appreciate it! Well, since I was a horribly spoiled child, that’s the thought that came to mind. LOL now mind you, I was never hit or beaten but I know how to throw a good tantrum. When I first started this diet, my body felt like it was throwing a tantrum and I would say “NO!” and it worked.

I don’t have children but your story about the weight gain sounds like this is what happens to many women. You’ve got to be so wiped out physically and then tired after the birth of the child and now most women are working. It has got to be very hard to then take the time to lose the weight. I have a great amount of empathy for women!

You are so right about the processed food! Fortunately for me, I think it was easier to do the diet because I live alone and even that was hard during the first 2 weeks!

I didn’t eat enough for dinner last night - I was at a garden wedding and it was so hectic getting everything ready - that I just had a little bit of meat and some cheese.

I had a small slice of wedding cake and actually felt hung-over again today!

I am the type that has to keep smacking my head against the wall before I say “Wow, this hurts so maybe I should stop doing it”.

[Sharon]

Its become such a fast and busy world , we want it all to be a quick fix, whether it be our health our weight or our food, we have a cheese add there in NZ that says 'All good things take time' and I think it is so right, nothing like fresh baked biscuits - from scratch (only has half the ingredients, and healthier) or fresh baked bread, kneading is a great stress reliever - ( and my carb downfall, so only on the weekend), . Another quote I have heard and try to live by - 'if your grandmother wouldn't recognize it don't eat it' - only works for my generation or older though, otherwise you've got to go to great grandmother. When you look at the ingredient lists we have so many additives and our food can be so processed its scarey, no wonder our bodies get confused, our bodies are an amazing machine and the food we eat does have a significant impact on how well it works for example potassium is an electrolyte that is in our cells, and is essential for muscle contraction, if you are low (too low you should be in hospital on an infusion, cos the heart is a mucle) - eat bananas or strawberries or dare I say chocolate (good quality of course). Now if a banana can get to my cells - what about all the rubbish - you really are what you eat. I'm not a fanatic on the pure or organic by any means, but I am more careful what I have in my pantry these days and what I serve up to my family.
I think I have rambled enough
Hang in there guys
TTFN
Sharon

[KMac]

Hi Gals,
I love the saying about your Grandmother and recognizing the ingredients- so true.
Hung over from food, I can see that, I've woken up and felt that way and it wasn't from drinking.
Great insight ladies,
have a great day :)

[firecat]

Thanks to all of you who've posted on this thread. Today is my last day of refeeding and I'm a little scared to go into maintenance. I'm fond of my scale. It's my security blanket!

I feel like I'm being let lose when I go off the refeeding. I'm worried that I wont make the right choices. I know I have been taught some good rules on this diet I just need to keep them in mind when I eat.
I have to get to a normal routine of eating with my family rather then eating sometimes as much as 2 hours after they do. This will be very challenging...:praying:

[Aqua Eyes]

Firecat... You can do it! Look at all you've accomplished up to this point. Please let us know how you progressed into maintenance land. Congrats on making it through completely on this program!

I'm quickly approaching Re-feed land and I'm so nervous about what I'm going to do after that. I like the easiness of the foods I prepared on this program, so to eat other things, will be challenging. I envision myself just eating what has been given to me in the re-feed program just to keep it safe. Going outside of that would mean that I would be going to do some activity that would require me to eat out some place, like going wine tasting for a day. So... I see that I would probably stick with the Cohen re-feed diet Monday through Thursday and then the weekend, allow myself to live a little outside of that.

Sharon... I couldn't agree with you more about staying away from processed foods. After having breast cancer, I got off of the processed foods and started eating more home cooked foods. Thank goodness that I already had been off off the processed foods for 2 years by the time I was introduced to the Cohen diet. I always hated to cook, but now I don't give it much thought because it is a requirement for me to eat. I just look for quick healthy solutions.

hmmm... making home made bread. What a fantastic idea! I'm going to look for some recipes that will give me good plain bread to eat during re-feed. I'm not much of a bread eater, but the consultants stressed that I really should eat bread to get my body used to the carbs. Thanks for the tip Sharon.

[Ms. CrackerHead]

I've really enjoyed reading the posts in my diary that you have all entered!

Thanks for the good tips.

I wanted to let you all know that I have signed on for a new program and I hope to re-start soon.

I have gained back almost half..not quite, of the weight I lost, so the great thing is that it won't take as long as before to get to my happy weight.

This time, though, I am going to try better and harder at maintenance! I pray that I will have the strength needed to do the refeed right and the maintenance correctly. Last time I did well on the program but poorly on refeed and maintenance.

I hope to post more regularly and hopefully with good reports!!

Hugs!

Ms. Crackerhead:)

P.S. I guess I will have to make a new Ticker, huh?

[Aqua Eyes]

Welcome back! I know you can do it this time.

I'm finding that staying in touch with this forum keeps me motivated to do the best I can on maintenance. I hope I never have to go on the program again like before... but if I need to, then I will.

[mommabear]

Welcome back!!! At least you didn't wait until you gained it all back!!!

Unfortunately, we all live and learn. I have been nervous about reaching re-feed and how I will handle it!

[Sharon]

Hi Ms Crackerhead.

welcome back, sorry to hear about your gain but so pleased to hear you are addressing it in such a positive way and I'm sure you will do supurbly. The rules may be there but as we know it ain't always easy on maintenance, but I'm sure you will have the determination and the strength to suceed.
TTFN
Sharon

[Ms. CrackerHead]

Thanks Sharon for your support. :) I agree maintenance is not as easy as I would like to think it should be. I hope to find my way to get through it and succeed!

New program has not arrived yet. I have actually lost a few pounds this last week without trying. Only thing I did was cut back on some carbs that were a regular part of my diet now, such as oats at breakfast and bread at lunch and rice or potato at dinner. But....and a big BUT is that I did indulge in junk food snacking, so obviously what I did was swap one for the other, so I'm not sure why I lost around 3 #. :thinking:

[KMac]

Good luck CrackerHead & welcome back!

[Ms. CrackerHead]

Thanks for your nice welcome:) The new program arrived!!!!!!!!!!

I suppose that I will be posting updates in a progress folder as I re-do this with a new program.

18 pounds to lose so that I enter goal range given by Dr. Cohen.

I'll be back!:party1:

[Sharon]

All the best, and I know you'll "crack" it no problem
TTFN
Sharon

[Ms. CrackerHead]

http://www.1pdforum.com/showthread.php?t=1340


I wish I had this information the last time I did this diet!!

[Dayanira]

Hi Ms C,
I agree with you, but I think that in Dr. Cohen's Refeed programme we can find the key for our maintenance, too. I've traced back day by day what I ate during refeed and I've been eating almost the same quantities and types of food that I ate on the days when my weight was at the lowest.

We need to be more aware of our bodies and learn from other sources to maintain our ideal weights!

[Ms. CrackerHead]

Hi everybody! I am now only posting in a maintenance folder instead of a progress folder. I am not doing Cohen's actively. BUT I am happy to report that I have made adjustments to how I eat and I have lost 8 pounds so far since I was here last!

My cravings for sugar and carbs are gone and I feel happy and energized and more in control of myself instead of the food controlling me! I am not exercising much yet so I am mainly doing this by controlling how and what I eat.

Out the window were all added sugars (I check ALL labels for all possible sugar terms) and also out are processed foods and starchy carbs. I am keeping fruit consumption to a minimun also, but having enough to enjoy it as a topping instead of a main snack.

I am drinking tons of water and hope to start losing a little faster as I begin some light exercise.

Thanks to all of you for your nice messages of encouragement and support as I struggled with my issues. I came and read them all as I was figuring out what my plan was going to be to help myself and they really made me feel cared for.

Thanks again and I'll be back soon to update more and re-connect with my friends...I missed you all!!

Ms. C

[KMac]

congratulations.. 8lbs- way to go!!
I can feel your frustrations about finding a plan that works for you - I am struggling myself.
Sounds like your finding your way in maintenance world & no sugar- good for you!
Have a great day :)

[Dayanira]

Hi MsC!!
So good to find you here!!! And so glad to know that you've found the key for your success! [Please share it with us ;)]

Love to hear about your progress. Keep posting when you can.