Day 162 - What I am doing differently this time

First off, I just wanted to report that my weight is back down to normal this morning following the weekend (125.6)... not that I was really worried about it, but getting used to those fluctuations that come as a result of eating a little more every once in a while is one of the hardest parts of weight loss maintenance (for me, anyway...)

If you've been following my blog, you'll know that this is not the first time I have successfully reached my goal weight. And it's pretty early in the game (43 days since hitting goal)... too early for me to confidently declare that THIS time I'm not gaining the weight back.

BUT, I do feel differently this time. 43 days, believe it or not, is longer than I have ever made it before. I tried to sit down and really analyze what I've done this time that was different from the previous times.

1. I am making better food choices: I find that this time around, I am eating like I am still on a diet... I am just eating more. Let me explain. For example, last Thursday night I had an omelet for dinner. I used egg beaters, light cheese, 1 tsp olive oil, lots of veggies. This is EXACTLY the same way I would have prepared my omelet when I was trying to lose weight. But because I am not trying to lose weight, I also added: one slice of whole wheat toast with light butter and sugar free jam, two slices of peameal bacon and a small side salad with no dressing... it was a lot of food. In the past, once I reached maintenance, I would have given myself "license" to make my omelet the "old way"...e.g. real eggs, more cheese, more add ins and more butter/oil for frying. But that would drastically increase the calories in my omelet without increasing the AMOUNT of food that I got to eat... so I would still add side dishes and the end result would be WAY too much of an increase...

2. I am staying in control: Not once since I have been on maintenance this time, have I let one bad meal turn into an entire day/weekend/week of bad meals. This past weekend was a perfect example. I ate too much Saturday night, but it was OK, because I didn't binge when I got home, and I went right back to my normal eating on Sunday. I have gotten much better at just forgiving myself and moving on with it... this is a biggie!!

3. I am not treating every event as a special occassion: It seems like my husband and I always have something on, each weekend (a dinner with friends, wedding, party etc) and I now understand that they are just "meals" and cannot all be excuses to overindulge. So, I will "scan" a month out and see all what occassions I have coming up (we have a lot in November), and they can't all be splurges, so I decide WAY in advance which ones I will treat like regular meals, and which ones can be splurges. And when I say "splurge" that means, a bun from the breadbasket and a dessert - NOT a crazy pigout!

4. I have been weighing myself EVERY day: This is all about refusing to pull the wool over my own eyes! Even when I am pretty sure I will be "up" because I overate at dinner the night before. No excuses, no denial. Just face it, and move on...

Those are the biggies. I mean sure there are other things I am doing... like sticking to my exercise and my proven routine and "go to meals" monday to friday. I follow my food rules almost religiously. I let myself have the treats, for example, every Sunday morning for breakfast, I have toast with butter and jam and scrambled eggs and I look forward to that ALL week long.

Here is my food from yesterday. I was inspired by Finding Radiance to try an egg sandwich on waffles for breakfast and boy was it good! My kids loved them too. It kept me pretty full until lunch (not quite as full as oatbran or oatmeal, but full enough!).