Anyone Maintaining Who Wants Help And Mutual Support To Stay Put?

Ok, theres the 14s - 13s, the 12s - 11s, the 9's to 8's etc etc.

How about a bit of mutual support for those of us who have stopped losing and plan on keeping it off without losing any more? Maintenance is the long term part of the whole weight loss experience and if we want to be successful and not waste our hard work losing, we need to keep on top of the maintenance afterwards.

This should theoretically become the BIGGEST GROUP IN THE WORLD over time because EVERYONE will want to get in here

I think your all fab and defo deserve a thread can't wait to join once I get to target

Briliant idea.

Most of the time I don't struggle maintaining, but when I do it's my mind which I struggle with.

For example we go out for a curry, I chose the one which is the most SW friendly; then comes the kerala bread, soooooooo yummy I just want to eat it all, and then starts the 'discussion' in my head about how I can/can't have it all............

Sometimes (not all the time) I feel guilty about having something which is quite high in syns.

Anyway, love the start of this thread, I'm sure it'll be a success.

Count me in. Have managed to maintain for 3 weeks, but despite eating more this week, including a cinnamon swirl pastry, i lost 2lbs! maintaining is so much harder.
I could very easily put the weight back on, but dont want to do it by eating all the lovely things, cos once i get the taste of high fat/sugar things it kicks the craving back in. Am better to just not have them. cos then a yogurt can fill the sweet need.
Its hard work to be and stay slim!

Am not quite there yet but last night was on a bit of a downer thinking about the fact that if I want to keep off what have lost its going to be a continual thing. Really fancied having a beer/takeaway etc but was saving myself for a meal out tonight and as mentioned above I can't have it all yet others (including my hubby) seem to be able to and they don't understand why we can't :sigh:
So am interested to see how others are coping with it and wish you all luck and can't wait to be a proper member of the thread x

Good luck with the maintenance - hope to join you soon.

Looking forward to having all you "nearly theres" join us!

For me, its like a constant juggling act, really, I have in actuality only been maintaining for a few weeks, although I called target originally back in October, I have moved it twice since then. I'm happy with where I am now, finally, but I havent yet found a stability to the weight. This is partly due to life events, my sons 18th led to a massive gain last week so this week I have been working hard to make sure it wasnt a gain that stuck (the party was the day before WI) and fingers crossed, it wont be - things are looking good for being back in range by WI on Monday.

But really, 3lb up or 3lb down, is NOTHING in the bigger scheme of things. It's a couple of extra drinks on the day of WI, or a big dinner before you go to group. Because I want to still attend group, I have to stay within that range. It is funny, when you are losing, a lb seems like such a tiny small amount, but when you are maintaining, it suddenly looms a lot larger.

I think its just going to be a case of balancing and counter-balancing in order to stabilise, but there is no way I can afford to rest on my laurels and think "Thats it, job done" because it really isn't. Thank goodness SW provides a plan that can be utilised for life.

i look forward to reading how you all maintain your weight, i guess thats the biggest challenge of all

Just a quick post to say I'd like to join in. I've often wondered why there's not a sticky for mantainers and feel quite lonely sometimes....

Well thats what I thought really Eternity, we are here, but kinda widely spread around and not really discussing it with each other - so being as all these other progress threads are popping up, I figured it was a good time to have a "non-progress" one!

Although maintenance is a progress of a sort, its a whole different ball game to the losing.

Excellent idea and looking forward to joining you in 5lbs time

I got to target ages ago, maintain for a week or so, then a special occasion or trip comes up, and i have some 'yummies' end up eating some more afterwards, gain a few pounds ( worst was 9lbs over xmas) then work on losing again, and the cycle begins again...lol
really want to work out how to maintain and not gain and lose.

Please keep me a seat hopefully I will be a fully paid up member my the end of the year

Count me in! This is week two's attempty at maintaining. Hopefully on Wed I'll know how I've done. Being Scale free at the mo.

i think you know you can count me in!!!!!!
juggling act......not half!!!!!
been maintaining since november,definately not as easy as you'd think!

Im crap at maintenance, I dont think I even deserve my target sticker anymore but too scared to weigh to find out!

I think its fairly safe to say that we are all prone to weight gain - so maybe its an unrealistic expectation to be able to have an entirely stable weight at all times.
If SW has taught me anything it's that I am not a person who can eat whatever I like and not gain. And life will often put us in the position of being in the path of temptation. And as good as we are at SW - there will be times, whether they be times of high emotion or social events where what we eat is somewhat out of our control.
Another consideration is that weight does naturally fluctuate, particularly at certain times of the month. So maybe we do have to accept that maintenance at times will involve a bit if juggling and the odd bit of compensation for the times where we overdo it. Maybe that's actually how this works.

What advice were you given for maintenance, if any, and how are you personally approaching it?

The only advice I get about maintenance if from this site as I dont go to class. I find I stay within the same 2lb window by having one day a week off plan and being good the rest of the time, but I know this doesnt work for everyone and is not something that SW advise!

There was no advice given when I reached target, but I do know I can approach my C at anytime.

I don't keep a food diary anymore, but I still write down my syns, I've no plans to change this as it keeps me in control.

I'm currently working my way through those other threads but can't wait to join you here!

Well done everyone on getting to target