Oh come all ye injectors, slimmer and maintaining, oh come ye, oh come ye to Thread Number Three! For all those who've hit goal, maintaining in whatever way they can / want to / aim to etc

[MargoLivebetter]

Welcome fellow maintainers to our third thread! Tis the season to be joyful and we do have reasons to be joyful, as we are still here. Not always the perfect journey and full of treats and temptations, but we'd have nothing to talk about otherwise. So hop on the Magical Maintenance Sleigh of Wonder and lets go! (Apologies to all those reading this for the first time in March! I got a bit carried away my festive season puns.)

I usually have 1-2 times a week

I didn’t think was that bad

@Fluffypiece thank you for all of that!

I'm short so my maintenance TDEE is not huge. I really have to watch the calories in 'healthy' things like sweet fruit, and have them rarely. I usually only have fruit at the end of a meal so if I've eaten enough of other things and feel full it's the fruit that gets dropped. It also means that the sugar in fruit is going to be absorbed more slowly and cause less of an insulin spike (was pre-diabetic before MJ). I never have fruit on its own or as a snack. Whereas I might have celery / carrot / cauliflower with hummus dip. Or a few (very few) nuts. A nutritionist friend wishes that the '5 a day' campaign of 2003/04 had put 5 portions of vegetables and fruit, highlighting the veg rather than the fruit.

I'm also prioritising the 30 plant based items. I think it's another 'quasi' science approach (like 5 fruit and veg), I don't think there's anything magical about 30, or that there's any evidence that one teaspon of turmeric/nutmeg/parsley is the ingredient that makes all the difference in going from 29 to 30 . However, it is an approach that works for me in terms of planning a variety of meals and ingredients. So a thai coconut curry one day and an indian curry another (they include a different range of herbs and spices). A mediterranean inspired vegetable bake (with tomatoes, courgette, basil, garlic etc and some grilled salmon) and another time something Persian / Turkish / Middle Eastern e.g. lamb with walnuts, saffron, cinnamon, preserved lemon, mint, apricots, pomegranate. A selection of pulses, lentils, bean, plus seasonal British - cabbage, turnip, parsnip. Currently loving fermented stuff like kimchi.

I hate what some resturants (naralt) do to Asian food which has many, many dishes that are inherently healthy and bursting with fantastic ingredients.

Too often it ends up with everything fried and carb-laden and covered in a sweet sticky sauce.

I’ve just had a slice of Jason’s ancient grain sourdough to improve my fibre intake for the day. I rarely eat bread at all these days, nice treat!

So I try and stay under around 100g carbs a day with 30g protein at each meal. So that’s almost a meal worth of calories with virtually no protein.

That’s fine if it works for you but it’s basically sugar esp if in syrup. Doubt it had that much fibre. I might occasionally had a date or some grapes but tinned peaches is not something I ever buy.

i do have frozen berries daily in my youghurt

I love tinned peaches - usually have half a tin but scoffed the whole tin hence the higher cals

if I washed the slices before 😂 would that make a diff

I also have 1800c a day as 5/7 so guess that helps

I do love sour dough !

I bought this bread mix yesterday https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/322663448?srsltid=AfmBOoocY3WnPPUDFH5E9TafDu9ZmKVoe4rUO_X8yfgfmMAUjzXf4AYX]] And made it by hand - a good 10 minute arm workout! Plus that delicious aroma of baking bread...

I made 2 small loaves sort of baguette shaped, so one small slice is pretty low on calories and carbs but enough to give me the sense of having had some decent bread - the Jason's sourdough slices are pretty huge.

One loaf in the freezer for another time.

It's not the 'clean eating' I'm mostly going for but a tiny slice stops me from buying a big wholemeal bap for a bacon and fried egg sandwich!

Oh dear… i have decided to increase the lenght of time between jabs by 1.5 days and to go from 2.5 to 2mg. It has sent me spinning!! The idea of maintenance is really hard and i feel i am sabotaging myself… tonight i had pizza and wine when i could have had something a lot more sensible!! I feel i need to adjust to the idea… and accept i will need willpower

I was like that on 2,5. 2w later back on 5 and happy /settled again

Interesting discussion about fruits. I personally haven’t cut out any foods including fruit. I just eat everything in moderation and make sure it fits into my daily calories.
When I start cutting foods out completely, I tend to feel deprived so this approach works better for me. Fruits and veggies like carrot sticks have been my safe snacks during maintenance with lots of water.
I've been off the jab for 11 months and 1 week and as at my last weigh on sat, I'm happily maintaining at 7lbs less than my last weigh on the jab. I've lost the Christmas gain as well.

That’s brilliant @Tohaveandtohold - I can’t even imagine coming off them completely.

I’ve had an awful day today food wise. I’ve just done my first week on 7.5 after coming down from 10 and it’s been fine all week, decent enough suppression, eaten well, then today (day 7) it just all went to pot. I’ve been ravenous all day, munched my way through loads of biscuits at work (I can usually take or leave them) then bought crisps on my way home and ate the last of the Christmas chocolates 🤦‍♀️. Oh well, tomorrow is a new day! Will do better.

@Tohaveandtohold thats amazing, well done you!! This is very inspiring.
@MummyInTheNecropolissame here… how long have you been in maintenance for?
I do sometimes feel like i am obsessing a bit too much over food and i tend to catastrophise at times when actually, it was only half a small pizza for dinner so it isnt too bad.

It’s early days for you @MummyInTheNecropolis. I’ve been doing it 7/8mths and had a huge caterpillar day the other week

an hours time and be tomorrow and clean slate

@Tohaveandtohold Fantastic! There is so much negativity (from non-MJ users and the media) with a narrative about how everyone regains. So many people on these threads, are disproving that. Of course it takes effort, but like you I feel in a place where I can make that effort.

@Placestogo sometimes we all feel overwhelmingly tempted by pizza and wine. I was dying for a drive thru Big Mac the other day, the only thing that stopped mewas that I had dinner planned with my dgc 1 hour later. These are deeply ingrained habits. We've changed a lot of them, but sometimes they still grab us. So savour your pizza, enjoy it, feel tipsy on the wine. Don't feel guilty or awful - just don't have pizza and wine again tomorrow. One night of pizza and wine won't make you regain 2 or 4 or 6 stone (or whatever you lost). One year of that would! I guess like all of us you never want to be back there. So, for the rest of the week you have to plan what you're eating and drinking.Get back to the menus and food that have helped you make this momentous change. After a couple of days you'll be back in the swing of things.

@MeridaBrave please talk to me about fruit because I’m obsessed with it at the moment. Some kinds are more sugary than others, right? Berries relatively ok?

I keep gobbling kumquats, which I suppose have quite a lot of fibre for the sugar content, since they’re not particularly sweet. Also persimmons and physalis, which seem to be in season. But I’ve had my head in the sand about the sugar and I was pre-diabetic before MJ so I need to be sensible.

Oh persimmon. I love these and buy a packet each week

@Placestogo I’ve only been in maintenance for 3 weeks and only dropped my dose a week ago so it’s early days.

Thanks @Blondeshavemorefun I know it’s only one day and not the end of the world but can’t help feeling disappointed in myself and bit despondent that after a year of changing my habits so significantly I can still go back to my old way of eating so easily.

I was prediabetic too and I eat tonnes of fruit. I am not worried about the sugar. I don't believe anyone became obese by eating fruit. And fruit didn't cause my prediabetes or I would still have it

Thank you for sharing your good news @Tohaveandtohold . It is really encouraging to hear.

@Placestogo and @MummyInTheNecropolis I think we are all going to have days, where for whatever reasons, we eat foods we know are not actually good for us. Let's face it none of us would be posting on a thread like this in the first place if we hadn't all over eaten. For me, the critical bit is not being filled with self-hatred and self-sabotage when that does happen and reminding myself that in the grand scheme of things it was just a blip and focusing on how I can treat my body in the best way possible the next day. I'd say most of us on here will have beating ourselves up about what we eat down to a fine art and that isn't a good thing.

So, on that note, what are the plans for today to focus on the positives? What are you feeling thankful for now that you've lost all the weight and what makes you determined not to put it back on again.

From my perspective, every single morning I put my clothes on, I take a few seconds to feel so happy that I am putting on lovely slim lady clothes and I'm not wrestling with my over stretched size 16 jeans trying to get the zip closed and pretending that they shrunk in the wash. The second thing I think every day is how much less every joint in my body aches for not lugging those extra stones around. As I put my socks on I think how much more comfortable it is to bend forward without a massive fatty liver pressing on all my internal organs!!!!

That’s amazing! I’m titrating down. First week in 1.5 and next month hoping to go to 1….. my aim is to accept I have to be vigilant. So I’m going to move from my weekly weighing to daily weighing and like @MargoLivebetter taje action if the first 2 digits are not (in my case) a 60 (kg). I never really got the ‘can take or leave food’ aspect of MJ except in the first 2 weeks so I’m expecting it just to be increasing reliance on good habits 🤞🏼

Morning! I took 10mg this week down from 11 last week. I’m going to hang out on this dose for a few weeks. So far, it doesn’t feel too bad. I did have a long period of time I was spacing doses and then went back to weekly over Christmas so I’m hoping that will help.

I’ve got my period so not weighing, but I am tracking and that’s been fairly easy.

Yes some fruits higher in sugar than others. Berries are relatively low. Some people struggle to lose weight if they eat a lot of fruit. But for others it doesn’t seem to make a difference. I don’t think anyone became obese from eating fruit but equally I think a lot of it can make it harder to lose weight. I limit myself to berries and a couple of apples per day.

Completely agree with this! My DH brought me a cinnamon bun home on Monday, they’re my absolute favourite, he saw them in a gorgeous bakery in London. The first words out of my mouth were I can’t have that, I’m being good, both him and ds said yes you can. It’s my birthday this week and he’s not in London that day so knew he wouldn’t get one on the day. I ate the cinnamon bun, loved every mouthful and didn’t feel guilty because that’s how I think I’ll keep the weight off- if I fancy something I’ll have it, enjoy it and it’s done. The following day/ rest of the day I’ll be mindful. I think we all need to be pragmatic and accept that sometimes life can get in the way, there are special occasions and holidays and I’m not going to deprive myself all of the time. I’ve built great habits, have v limited upfs and exercise. Try not to beat yourself up @MummyInTheNecropolisyou have done amazingly and it was one day!
sorry, that was long….

edited for typos!