Ch-ch-ch-changes. Life is full of them, yes? Maintenance is no exception to change. I think people assume that once you get to maintenance that you just do the same thing forever, but that is not the case. Maintenance ebbs and flows. Some days are easier than others and some periods of time are easier than others.
Maintenance has felt a little strange to me this year because so much of my life has been up in the air with the endless waiting to close on the new house, strange things happening with my job and a feeling of being unsettled and restless. Regular readers know that I am a stress snacker and there has been no shortage of stress for quite a while now, so there has been a fair share of food overconsumption.
I have been concentrating more on trying to lose some weight, the interesting result of which is usually just maintaining – which is a good thing, even though not quite the result I was looking for. 😀 This, too, shall pass, though. I know that.
AIM is also changing a bit. First off, Shelley has decided to focus on other things and won’t be blogging as part of AIM any longer, but we still consider her an integral part of AIM. Not to mention the door is always open if she wants to jump in on a topic again!
Since we have already posted monthly for over a year now, we have hit a lot of the common topics, so we are going to transition to quarterly posting instead of monthly. Of course, we all still have our individual posts on the blog and maintenance topics will come up as a matter of course, but the formal AIM postings will now be quarterly (resuming in November) – and let us know if there is something you want us to discuss!
Make sure you read more at my fellow AIMers’ blogs for their thoughts on this topic!
AIM: Adventures in Maintenance is Lynn, Lori, Debby, 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 quarterly. Let us know if there is a topic you would like us to address!
I had that same Bowie song going through my head while I wrote my post. Now I can’t get it out of my head!
What I appreciate most about blogs like yours, the other AIMers, Shelley, and other weight-loss blogs is that I don’t feel alone. Knowing that others have trials and unexpected changes in their lives that impact their weight helps me face my own trails and changes more bravely and with more clarity. Hearing someone say they’ve overconsumed and have moved on doesn’t give me permission to overconsume, but it helps me forgive myself when I do and to move on.
The fact that maintenance has been different for you this year, is just more knowledge in your bucket as far as I’m concerned. May you soon have a house closing, less work stress, and be back to your old boring routine!!
I like hearing about how maintenance IS a changing process, and how people respond to weight fluctuations… when to just watch and accept a few pounds up and down versus when to jump into action to stop an actual gain. I am still losing but this time I am making a point to learn as much as I can about successful long-term maintenance, so I don’t regain again when I get there. I really enjoy the AIM posts! Thanks for sharing all your insights.
I like what Lynn said about not feeling alone. What you wrote about trying to lose and just maintaining–ahhh. I don’t feel so alone anymore.
I think sometimes other stuff in life becomes more, well, not important, but more pressing, and maintenance takes a lower priority. You’ll get your mojo back once the house uncertainty is over.
Life has certainly dealt a few nasty hands this year. I think it’s awesome that we’re still in the game at all, even if the field doesn’t look like one we’ve played on before. 🙂
So sorry about all the stress Lori!!! Maintaining is a good thing under your circumstances!!!
As one that has done this forever, YES, I can say that maintenance is still a constant battle of figuring out what works for you as we age & life changes….
I am with you on feeling unsettled – with my husbands health in the air, me being home alone, it has all the signs to eat whatever because who will ever know?
But then I realized I have to get healthy for both me and my husband – because if something happened to me, who would take care of me?
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