Welcome to 'Keeping the Bulge at Bay'
This blog is designed to discuss the hardest part of losing weight...keeping it off! To understand my story and what my reasons are for creating this blog, please follow this link to my first post: "The REAL Beginning..." It's raw, real, and honest.
Hope you enjoy reading my posts, and please feel free to leave any feedback you may have!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Falling Off the 'Healthy' Wagon…

Well, as any fellow maintainer can attest to, I fell off the ‘healthy’ wagon this past weekend. I found myself doing really well during the day light hours and then gorging myself at night (and let me tell you, the leftover Valentine’s Days Reese’s and pretzels were to die for)! I tried to justify that it’s OK to have a bit of a treat because of the 80/20 theory to maintaining weight; however lying in bed stuffing pretzels and Reese’s into my mouth while watching the movie ‘Signs’ probably doesn't exactly fit the theory per se (maybe I can use the excuse of emotional eating because I was watching a scary movie?!? …scary movie+nervous emotions=eating more?!? If excuses could burn calories, I sometimes think I would be fit enough to be in the Olympics!)

For those of you who don't know, the theory of '80/20' is that 80% of the time you are good-meaning you eat healthy, and 20% of the time you are allowed to have a bit of a splurge-nothing TOO crazy though! I try to really stick to this concept in general because I have found that depriving yourself of those few treats can actually make you gorge on those treats at another point (insert the massacre of Reese’s with their fallen solider Reese wrappers all over the bedroom). In a previous blog, I mentioned that splurging can be a slippery slope because having one chip can lead to suddenly being at the bottom of the bag and not remembering how you got there! Adversely however, if you deprive-deprive-deprive yourself and then suddenly allow yourself one bite-you may not be able to STOP! I usually allow myself to have small bites of the foods I really want, and those small bites here and there tend to keep the pounds and ‘gorging demons’ at bay! This works because the small bites here and there keep me from feeling entirely deprived of those foods. This is MY version of the 80/20; everyone must find a system that works for them!

However, this weekend was probably more like 60/40 for me, and though I was disappointed in myself I have to remember to climb back on that god damn healthy wagon; and yes, sometimes the ladder to climb back on seems longer and more painful than it does at other times! Don’t let the fact that your health food wagon lost one of its wheels and axles (right after going through the drive through of McDonald’s) stop you from fixing it and moving onward and upward.

After eating poorly, people who are trying desperately to maintain have the tendency to feel as though “S#!+, that’s it, I’m going to be large and in charge again!” But that ISN’T the case (I constantly have to remind myself of this)! After eating poorly this weekend I was lying in bed half asleep and I remember rolling over and having my arm brush against my stomach. I actually thought to myself, ‘wow, it’s not already fat again!’

One or two slip ups aren’t going to pack the pounds back on as long as you get back to being ‘good.’ When I was going to weight watchers meetings I heard a lifetime member who had been maintaining for years say, “If you gain 5 pounds get back on track, if you gain 10 go back to a meeting.” I wholeheartedly believe that only you are responsible for your own health, and if you live by this rule, you CAN and WILL succeed in maintaining!

Trying to maintain weight loss isn’t about being perfect 100% of the time. Instead, it’s about finding a healthy balance in eating; which is why 80/20 tends to work beautifully for some former ‘fluffy’ people, like myself, that are trying to keep the bulge at bay (however, the creamy salad dressing, tons of honey glazed bread, and huge bowl of pasta I had on Friday night probably isn't the best way to exemplify this theory...or to start off my weekend)…. 

Until next time, back on the healthy wagon and continuing to try to keep the bulge at bay...

4 comments:

  1. Hi Rachel - I just came across your blog on Pinterest and wanted to congratulate you on your weight loss success and your courage to start this blog. I also want to thank you. I just read everything and found many of your posts helpful and entertaining.

    My weight timeline is the complete opposite of yours. I grew up very slim and never had a weight issue until after the birth of my fourth child at age 35. Since then my weight has been subtly and steadily climbing. I've half heartily attempted to lose weight over the last few years with little or no success but when I hit 199lbs a few months ago I decided things seriously have got to change.

    My 2012 commitment to myself is to lose 50lbs and get in shape. I've hired a personal trainer (a local university student who is very affordable) and I've started working out, eating three healthy meals a day and including fruits and vegetables in every meal. I'm proud to say that so far I've lost 18lbs and 17 inches.

    I find a lot of informative and motivational information on Pinterest and I've signed up to follow your blog as I am already a little worried about maintenance. I'm new to this blog stuff so I hope I've set myself up properly to follow your posts.

    Once again, thank you for starting this blog! I look forward to reading more of your helpful posts.

    Regards,
    Patty
    PS - I especially liked your post on Triggers. This is something I deal with almost daily. I didn't put it together mentally that my one little nibble was sending me into an eating frenzy. Interesting food for thought (pun intended).

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    1. Hi Patty! Thank you so much for taking time to read the blog-I hope you enjoyed it! To make sure you're following it just click on the blue little boxes in the upper right corner in the Followers section..then click follow in the upper right corner of the next screen-that should do it! :)
      Also, congrats on your weight loss so far! You're doing great! Making the commitment to put one's health first is the first step and the motivation to keep going will come with the successes you will see everyday! Congrats!
      PS-I'm glad that the Triggers post helped you out-trust me, cheese and crackers are my demise haha :) Keep in touch!

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  2. HI I found your blog through Pinterest! Love your honesty and your story! I too have struggled with weight my almost entire life, that is as soon as I was aware of my body image! I just lost 60 pounds on weight watchers over the last year! I am now on Sparkpeople and trying to lose about 30 more, it is very hard, I have been basically at a plateau, fluctuating up and down about 4 pounds since December! Did you ever plateau? for how long? I am determined to have this be a lifestyle change for me........

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    1. Hi Noelle!
      Thank you so much for your kind words about the blog! I can absolutely relate with you about coping with weight issues since, well, forever haha!
      Also, congratulations on your weight loss! Weight watchers is a great program and it helped me out a lot...I still count points to make sure I'm being 'good'.
      I have certainly plateaued more times then I can count! In one of my posts I mentioned that I was within the same few pounds for literally YEARS--ooyvey (I like to call that maintaining rather than plateauing haha). Anywho, it happens to the best dieters and can be the most frustrating time EVER! Plateauing can suck your motivation away but try not to allow it to do that...
      The best thing that works for me is to use it as a challenge and mix things up a bit...different work out...different healthy meals-whatever works best for you! Even if it takes awhile, the pounds will start melting away again-don't fret!
      Please keep in touch, I would love to know how and when you break through this pesky plateau (possible new post topic? haha)!
      Congrats again on all you've accomplished so far-you'll get to your goal before you even realize it!

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