Advice needed for staying the course long term

[2big4mysize]

Re: Advice needed for staying the coarse long term

your motto for Vegas with all those unlimited buffets should be

BETTER TO WASTE IT THEN WAIST IT!

I hate not getting my money's worth so I don't eat at those all you can eat places period.

You can call ahead and learn what is in the foods and then order your stuff on plan for you. With a food allergy I get lots of "help" from the chefsabout if an item has something in it or not. At one place we eat at a lot they even clean the grill for my food just so there is no possibility of contanination with my allergen. I'm sure they are just as careful with any stuff that has sugars in it for diabetics.

[mission to lose]

Re: Advice needed for staying the coarse long term

Hi there Kjel,

I can not comment about staying motivated to lose the last few pounds or maintaining, since I am not there yet. But I still have a few points that I can share. Staying on track now for some can be just as challenging as you trying to stay motivated later in the journey.

1. Every day and every week to me is a mini situation like you dealing with maintenance. Just a different stage. I still have to deal with where I am NOW. My mind is at the point where my motivation each day is "I can't keep doing this YO-YO thing anymore. This is IT! And that's all there is. A combo of Will Power but mostly of realization!!!

2. The Atkins WOE doesn't mean you can never ever ever have a piece of cake again. There is Induction friendly cheesecake that I make for family gatherings, that way I can have a slice with everyone else, and THEY (the host) keeps the leftovers if there are any!

3. Restaurants...? Just be a good menu reader.
Avoid places that are almost impossible to eat at, Chinese, Sushi, Mexican. If you order a steak, make sure they don't coat it in salt and a frenzy of other seasonings that are full of sugar, etc.

4. Social Situations? PLAN! Bring a dish you can eat. Fill up on salad if there is nothing else you can eat...eat a small meal at home first.

It all comes down to how much do you want it? That's the bottom line!

[atkinsgal08]

Re: Advice needed for staying the coarse long term

>so I'm really scared of going off plan.>

Do you have a plan?

You know that you're the one that's in control of the decision to go "off plan".

Have you read the Chapter in DANDR about Eating in the Real World?

It's as if you're pre-visualizing failure ... then allowing yourself to live up to your expectations of yourself.

>>I have stopped and started Atkins more times than I can count in the last 3 months.>>

Why do you stop? Why do you restart?

[atkinsgal08]

Re: Advice needed for staying the coarse long term

>>Maybe can't get past that mentality that I maybe missing out and I will never get to taste that food again if I pass it up?>>

Will life be not worth living if you never have <insert food here> again?

[kjel]

Re: Advice needed for staying the coarse long term

I appreciate all the advice. I will definitely be prepared for Vegas and think thru my choices when eating out. I guess it's just one meal at a time just as when I started out. I guess I can never let down my guard.

[atkinsgal08]

Re: Advice needed for staying the coarse long term

>>think thru my choices when eating out.>>

It's what we all have to do!

>>I guess it's just one meal at a time just as when I started out.>>

Even for me, too!

>>I guess I can never let down my guard.>>

True for all of us, I imagine.

Don't forget to have a good time, too!

[not2late]

Re: Advice needed for staying the coarse long term

I guess it's because I had never had health problems even at my heaviest. I'm sure now at my age I would or eventually will have health problems if I was that weight. I don't think I will ever get to that weight again but I'm struggling with 10-15lbs on and off again.

I think I'm realizing that if I just pause and think about my choices each and every time and not live in the moment...I will get there. I guess I'm wondering if it will ever get a little easier?

There are some who believe that being overweight is a major health issue because it predisposes one and contributes to other health issues.

I think you really have to sit down and think what your goal is. There is a "normal" weight range. You can choose to stay in the heavier side of the normal range or on the lighter side or in the middle. For me, as long as I stay in that normal range I'm happy----I have no desire to be as thin as an emaciated actress or model.

As for buffets...whenever I go to one, the first thing I put on my plate is vegetables, then I take 1 piece of whatever meat looks Atkins friendly. If I go for seconds, I limit it to veggies. IF I still have room, I have fruit.

[jcapulet]

Re: Advice needed for staying the course long term

It was a struggle for me to stay at 140lbs. I feel that when I get down to a healthy weight, than I relax my eating habits. My personal goal is 125lbs but I have never been able to hit that.

In order to lose weight and keep it off, you have to change your lifestyle permanently. That also applies to when you're near your goal weight. If you put on the breaks and relax when you're slimmer, that is not adhering to a permanent lifestyle. Also, that type of mindset is probably how most of us either 1) became overweight in the first place or 2) lost weight and then gained it all back plus more (at least, for me it did).

My question for those that have been on this WOE is How do you keep yourself motivated to do this for years on end?

For me, I love the foods. I've printed sooo many recipes from Linda's Low Carb menu website. I love the fact that I can eat these delicious foods and still lose weight. Plus, I think they taste way better than the high carb "crap" that is typical of the western diet. Not only that, but I am so happy to be finally rid of constant hunger pangs.

I mess up sometimes, but I get back on the plan. I have to, and want to.

I'm not getting any younger. If I don't take care of my body...then who will?

[blueberrylady]

Re: Advice needed for staying the course long term

I find it's relatively easy to pass up the pasta and bread that I used to eat because anytime I have tasted them again, I didn't like them and couldn't believe that I ever did. Eating those things was something that was taught to me when I was young but now that I choose my own meals, I choose Atkins because I love it. I have lost the taste for those things and you probably will to, in time.

[maxima]

Re: Advice needed for staying the course long term

Of course I'm nowhere close to where you are in your diet (I just went to OWL) but I did quit smoking and I would rather suspect that the attitude change is the same in order to be successful.

Even though I was a heavy smoker for more than three decades, I did quit and it was the hardest thing I ever did. It takes more than just not smoking to stay quit though, just as I suspect you realize that about this new life eating plan. Anyone can start a quit smoking plan, but the only successful ones are the ones that learn how to live it.

I was not suffering the effects of smoking yet, luckily, but I knew what was ahead of me if I didn't quit. So, I quit with the idea that smoking was a poison to me personally and I would no more smoke again than drink a glass of bleach. It was that unacceptable an action. Of course I didn't emotionally or mentally buy into that idea, but when I told myself that long enough, I very slowly began to believe it and live it. The belief didn't happen overnight or even for the first year, but it slowly really did happen, even when a rolling wave of addicting wishing was hitting me. It wasn't an option. So, I destracted myself with something interesting and let that rolling wave go - even after three years I still do this. It's just not an option and I'm not going to sit there and dwell, I'm going to distract the thought.

Now, it really isn't an option. I will have some occasional trigger thoughts and a chest pressure of desire I must deal with for a minute or two, and then it's gone. The only alternative is to smoke a cigarette - which would be a death sentence to my quit. So, it's not an option.

I think the longer one decides that "whatever" is not an option and lives it out, the less importance or dominance it has in one's life. The fake belief becomes a natural belief and control. I can deal with the occasional wave of wishing for a cigarette because that is all it is. I never want to go back and if now all I have to deal with is the occasional wishing, I'm on my knees that this is all it is because I did the work to get there.

When you reach your goal, your next goal is the work to stay that way and you have to make the mental decisions that 'want' is not "need" and you can be happy and content without it, even if it's a blimp felt on a really wonderful thin day. It's just a hiccup of emotion, brush it off as the unimportant little tug, because that it all it really is. Better a tug to brush off than back to square one, which is what off the plan will be when all is said and done.

We have to let go of the emotional and entertainment value that we used to use food for and I strongly believe that it can be done over time - we can fake it until we make it.

I quit my old way of eating the day I started this diet and that's just the way it is. I'll suffer whatever "thoughts" I have to suffer to do this right and in enough time, it won't be suffering anymore, it will be how I live.

This is what works for me, I am sure that if you do whatever work you need to do, you will find your answer that works for you to keep yourself a healthy and happy weight in life.