10:42 pm - Weds 11.19.2008
Weight Watchers - Maintenance (Wk 5)

Well, after two weeks of losing, this past week, I had a bit of an up-tick, gaining .6 lbs (Putting me at 192.4 lbs for the week).

So �Phase One� of my weight-loss experience is pretty much said and done - Even if this week goes in the dumper and I gain five lbs (And from how the week�s gone so far, it�s not out-of-the-question), I�m still golden...and by �golden�, I mean that this coming Sunday, I�ll be a Weight Watchers �Lifetime Member�.

While I wasn�t destroyed by this past week�s gain, it did leave me a little...concerned; how am I going to go from the faux-maintenance of these past six weeks, to genuine lifetime maintenance, when I�m going up-and-down on what�s supposed to be a losing number of points?

And, I don�t know if I need to hold out for 190 lbs (Since I said that was kinda/sorta my �personal goal�) or let whatever happens on Sunday be the official end of �faux-maintenance� and the beginning of my effort to actually �maintain� my weight, stabilizing somewhere in the low�to-mid 190s.

After this past Sunday night, I�m getting an idea just how tough actually �maintaining� my new weight might be...

I went to Jen and Mollys for Sunday dinner (The first time in a couple weeks; I also skipped their Halloween party, because, oddly enough, I don�t really like Halloween. Or Halloween parties. But anyway...).

Part of Weight Watchers mantra is �no forbidden foods�, but in reality (In Jim�s reality, anyway), there are foods that are at least �kinda forbidden� - for example, I can�t really justify eating Hostess fruit pies (A favorite snack of my youth) when they have more calories (And fat) than an entire meal I eat these days. Technically, I could eat them...but when I consider what a big �withdrawal� they�d represent from my daily point �bank�, it�s not worth it.

(Likewise, while I enjoy my once-a-week fast food - Usually Jack-In-The-Box - I couldn�t eat it every day, because what I typically get is pretty close to my entire daily point total. Which is why my weekly fast-food treat comes out of my 35 weekly points.)

Anyway, this week at Sunday dinner, there were more people than normal there, and more food, and absolutely nothing there for someone trying to lose weight/maintain their weight loss.

I probably didn�t do as badly as I imagined...but it wasn�t good, by any stretch of the imagination. I let temptation - brought about in part because I�ve been feeling pretty down-hearted lately - get the best of me.

But another Weight Watchers thing - and a good thing to remember in general - is that if you�re trying to maintain your good habit/stop a bad habit, and you �slip� one day, don�t beat yourself up over it (A favorite hobby of mine till now); just forgive yourself, figure out where you went wrong and where you can do better, and resolve to do better next time.

It�s something to work on (Dealing with parties where there are lots of tempting things to eat) - there are a number of �strategies� you can employ in those situations...but you have to employ them, and think about how you�re going to handle the situation before the situation comes up (And not as you�re standing in front of the food table).

I�ve been pretty great about doing that, and I�ll be pretty great at doing that again. But on Sunday night...not so much.

Basically, to keep myself motivated, I just have to remind myself, and keep reminding myself, that I like me much better this way. And that I have the power to keep things this way.

Cause I want my weight loss to be, not just something I did once, before gaining back more weight than ever, but instead, a change I made, then made stick, for the rest of my life.

And there�s no reason I can�t make that happen

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