Welcome back to the next installment of AIM! This month’s topic is quite interesting and affects all of us on some level. Weight regain. It’s so common in life to lose and gain weight over and over again. And after a really large loss, is it inevitable to have some regain? I don’t think it is a universal truth, but it is common. Some people are able to lose the weight and stay there. Others, not so much.
I have lost and gained over my lifetime and it wasn’t until I really made a lifestyle change that the loss stuck (mostly). I know that you always hear that, but it’s true.
I was here:
Then I got to my lowest point here:
And for the last 2 years I have been here:
Don’t you love my most recent dressing room shot? This was a couple months ago. I’m a size bigger than the previous picture. The reason? More food, basically. I am a foodie. Not a 5-star restaurant, snooty nose in the air, must have the latest and greatest item foodie, but someone who appreciates good food. Simple food that is well made – or gourmet food. So, there was some weight creep from that – and I was aware when it was happening.
I also find that I have trouble in the summers when I am doing tons and tons of biking trying to balance calories in and out. That seems to be where I struggle the most and that season is pretty much here now. When you burn 1200 calories in biking and need to take that back in on top of your daily – that can be hard. Then the next day if I am not biking, my stomach is like a bottomless pit. It’s hard to balance. I am hoping to do better this year.
While the black pants in the middle photo are a pair that this year I said I was going to wear again, the work that it takes to get there (and STAY there) could be more than I want to do. I have made some progress this year so far, which is good, but it’s extremely slow. I’m not totally comfortable where I am, but then again, I am not really uncomfortable, either.
Yeah, I could drop my calories really low and exercise like a demon and cut out more of my favorite things and get a lot smaller, but at what cost? Food is enjoyable to me. I love to exercise, but I don’t want to spend more than an hour or so doing that a day – unless we are talking a cupcake bike ride on weekends! I have a full-time job and I don’t want to spend all my free time trying to burn calories off. Exercise is fun to me and I want to keep it that way.
I guess I am just a bit more relaxed about the whole thing as long as I am not gaining more. Then I tighten things up again. Then I relax. I don’t want to be someone who white-knuckle rides on the scale and is paranoid about eating. I finally am in a pretty good place with food, other than over snacking at times, and I do not want to ever associate food with guilt again.
One blog I love to read is by Dr. Yoni Freedhoff called Weighty Matters. He really has a great way of viewing weight loss in the context of real life and not a weight loss bubble.
He recently had a post about all or nothing thinking. The title is pretty awesome in itself and if I was a quote person, I would probably hang it on my wall. All Or Nothing Thinking Will Always (Eventually) Get You Nothing
Ain’t that the truth?
The other thing he has stated a few times is this: “Life is about the healthiest life that you can enjoy, not the healthiest life that you can tolerate.”
I think that plays a role in my maintenance journey.
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Make sure you read about “Through Thick and Thin,” at my fellow AIMers’ blogs for their thoughts on this topic!
AIM: Adventures in Maintenance is Lynn, Lori, Debby, Shelley, and Cammy, former weight-loss bloggers who now write about life in maintenance. We formed AIM to work together to turn up the volume on the issues facing people in weight maintenance. We publish a post on the same topic on the first Monday of each month. Let us know if there is a topic you’d like us to address!
Im loving this topic from all of you.
AND YES
YES YES YES TO THE ENJOY.
So many women look amazing at 60+ and yet it breaks my misfit heart how their lives—after we chat—-seem more about the tolerating.
LOVE LORI!!!! I love how you write honestly & open about why you do what you do. That is the most important thing – to find a program that works for you, you are happy with & still can enjoy life! That is where it is at! 🙂
As you know, I just wrote my post about why I don’t eat Paleo which was really about why I do what I do & it is because I still want to enjoy certain foods. Yes, I am pretty strict in a lot of ways & do things to stay as lean as I am BUT I also let myself enjoy the things that I really want to enjoy like bread & COOKIES! 🙂
LOVE THIS POST! You are an inspiration in that you lost all that weight & live life in a great way that works for you!
Hi Lori! I feel much the same way. I probably could be one size smaller, but then I would have to knock out about 200 more calories in my day. Right now, it’s not worth it. But getting to size 10–definitely worth the reduction in calories.
You look good at your current weight, btw.
🙂 Marion
“…the work that it takes to get there (and STAY there) could be more than I want to do” – BINGO. There’s a certain weight that, while nice, is much harder to maintain than where you (and I) are now…and let’s face it – we’re both so much better off now than when we were overweight, that it’s hard to make so much effort for one more size down. There’s life to be lived (and cupcakes to be had), dangit!
I like this post. I think I have said it before but I always appreciate your approach to a healthy lifestyle especially since I’m a foodie too.
I like (well maybe not every day) my exercise too and like you an hour a day is good enough. Usually I do someting around 30 minutes in the morning and walk 30 minutes in the evening. I have so many things I like to do and constantly looking at what I eat and how much I exercise is not one of them. Nevertheless I must lose some weight, I don’t feel comfortable at all at the moment.
Thanks for this post!
Balance is a hard thing to find to be happy and healthy together.
Lori I think you look wonderfully fit and healthy! I would never considered you to be overweight. I think that a “normal” weight is more than what most people would actually think it is, and we must enjoy the food we eat.
I have had long periods of being a normal weight, and I think one reason that I regained is because I was never satisfied with myself, so I was always in turmoil about losing more. No wonder I regained. Thanks for this very good post!
Do you know the interesting thing is that I was *still* in the overweight category in the middle picture according to BMI charts – which is why they blow, big time.
“Then I relax. I don’t want to be someone who white-knuckle rides on the scale and is paranoid about eating.” Bingo! I don’t want to be that person either, or the one who obsesses about her body in the mirror. Life is about so much more than that. (Of course, it’s easier to say that when you look as great as you do! :))
Thanks, Cammy.
Same thing over here! I’m up a few pounds since earlier this year. Had a little, errr, cupcake extravangaza. But eh, it’s no biggie, I can melt those pounds away. I enjoyed those cupcakes and there’s no regrets. Your fellow foodie over here, signing off! xo
Great post. I love your focus on the REALITY and not wanting to just get back to your lowest weight ever. I’m the same way. I could probably stand to lose 10 pounds but that would mean severe restriction and denying myself of things I love to eat. I’d rather eat in moderation the things I like and be where I’m at, then never eat that stuff again and be 10 pounds lighter!
That first picture doesn’t even look like you Lori! You continue to inspire – great job! 😀 And I love that you guys bike ride for cupcakes!
“I don’t want to be someone who white-knuckle rides on the scale and is paranoid about eating.”
So true, Lori! I did that at one point in my life, and I let the scale dictate how I felt. I haven’t weighed myself in months and I can tell when I need to work harder (I get the uncomfortable feeling about how my clothes look and feel) and when I need to relax. I think that is so important when it comes to maintenance – health, happiness & comfort without the stress!
Once again, this month’s topic is so helpful for someone like me who reached goal, bounced a bit and now is finding where to “settle” as Lynn wrote about. I could settle where it’s fairly easy to maintain (where I am now) or I could settle 10-15 pounds lower which takes a bit more effort but pays off big time on the hiking trail and on the bike. I also can never deny the advantage of less weight on weight bearing joints for someone with Rheumatoid Disease. So for me, settling where it’s easy is probably not the best answer in the long run.
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Yes! I want to ENJOY life after weight loss. If that means I bounce back up a few pounds, then I am going to be OK with that. I appreciate your voice of experience in this journey. Every once in a blue moon, I want to have cheesecake!
Ah ha! Now I see why you told me to look for this post. It’s giving me lots to think about with regards to my “goal weight”.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the subject.
I’ve always liked your approach to maintenance wish it was as easy for me. I’m still sorting through my food addition and trying to settle into where I’d like to stay. I am content enough where I am but I keep wondering if I could just manage “sugary things” better would I be more content and able to drift down the scale more. As us bigger weight loss folks know it’s a fine line between enjoying and over indulging. You seem to do so well with balance though that’s what I’ve always loved about you, so at peace with life 🙂 If I wasn’t already older than you I would say “I want to be just like you when I grow up” lol.
On a side note, I will be arriving in town Thursday evening. Are you around this weekend? I had sent you an email but think maybe I have the wrong email for you these days. Hope to get to see if you if at all possible 🙂
Now I’m done reading all the posts…definitely deciding if I want to use the concept of “inevitable gain” as an explanation for why I stay where I’m at, or am I making it an excuse not to lose a little more. hhmm… You’ve all got me thinking and I appreciate the perfect timing of this month’s subject. 🙂
You have such a healthy attitude towards weight loss and healthy living. Thanks for sharing.
You know what I notice most about those photos (and having met you in person, I can attest to their authenticity…LOL), you have the BEST curves! But me saying that and you seeing it might be two different things. When people say to me now (and I’m sure you’ve heard this, too, at some point when you’re not feelin’ the love), “You look great!”, I try to put myself in their shoes and see me from their perspective. Hard to do. That’s why I feel thicker than I probably appear to others, you know?