A look at maintenance...

Hey all,
Back from self imposed blog vacation.
I just wanted to say that I have every intention of carrying through with my every day till may exercise thing.
What my whole point was in that last post was disengaging the term success from a specific number.
I think it's problematic.
I have no idea what it looks like to maintain 132 lbs...let alone 146 pounds.
I have never attempted to maintain 132 pounds and if my maintenance plan doesn't get me to that number I do not want to sit around thinking I am a failure, because I am not.
There is a world of difference between losing weight and maintaining weight.
I know, I did it for three months.
When you are losing...you are pushing towards something.
There is something you are moving towards.
maintaining...there is something you are warding off.
It takes a different mindset.
So...
I thought I would give you a glimpse of my maintenance plan...yes, I have one.
why?
I always have a plan.
lol.
I decided to get a plan when it became apparent to me, that I was INDEED going to lose all this weight.
That would be when I crossed over the 200 lbs mark.
This was or had been such a huge mental obstacle that the very fact that I broke it confirmed my victory.
It was all downhill from there.
so to speak.
So I thought..
Maintenance plan.
I know some people's maintenance plan is to eat like a pig once they hit goal weight (another problem I have developed with numbers...the let down upon reaching it...)
Or their maintenance plan is to drop five more.
Or they simply don't know.
I wanted to know.
So I took my goal weight which is 132.
I added a zero like mattie "i am really skinny' roberts told me to do...
1320.
That is the number of calories I would eat every day to maintain my weight.
Then add whatever exercise you do on top of it.
I will be working out 6 days a week.
I decided this when I started.
It isn't hard.
I enjoy it.
And I love food.
Know what you love.
some people can eat little to no food the rest of their lives.
This isn't me.
I burn 700 calories on elliptical days (3 of these including upper body weights)
500 on non elliptical days..
and one day I will do a 3.5 mile walk.
Then one day of rest.
I plan on eating 1600 calories a day.
stay with me.
so 1320 x 7= 9240 calories per week.
add my exercise for the week 3450 calories..
If I eat 1600 calories per day (or 250 above maintenance)
I will eat into my exercise deficit by 1750 calories.
leaving me 1700 calories to play with...
Which I think I will leave for a saturday pizza night and maybe a special breakfast through the week.
The point.
That 1700 calorie 'budget' is mine to play with above and beyond my normal 1600 calorie day.
I could eat out at a mexican restaurant.
I could eat a large bucket of popcorn and still have a 700 calorie dinner on another night.
It's doable.
To have or find a maintenance plan,Know yourself.
Don't strive for 120 lbs...starve yourself, and then in frustration decide you just can't live like that and gain every pound back.
Better to be a happy 135 and incorporate exercise and eat, then starve and regain out of frustration.
This is the reason knowing they WHY'S of your journey are so important.
If it really is to look great in a pair of size 4 jeans and the 1200 calorie a day diet you eat is enough, and you feel that you can live like that ....good.
But if you think 'I just need more willpower and then I will enjoy it".
You won't.
models don't enjoy it.
And they get paid to look good.
Nobody is paying my @ss.
132-138 is good enough for me.
I would rather focus on my art...have an occasional fatty meal and be a size 6 or size 8.
If being 150 is good enough for you..then let it be...
I wouldn't suggest obesity is good only because it leads to heart disease and disability.
But they are choices some people have made.
They aren't my choice.
For me, maintenance has to be reasonable, flexible and doable for the rest of my life.
And say once I get up there age wise and don't want to be doing the gym.
I can still walk three or four miles a day...
that leaves me in the 1600/1700 calorie range.
doable.
not as fun...lol.
but doable.
So, however far away maintenance may see right now.
Stop for a moment to think about your destination.
don't let it sneak up on you without a plan in place.
Have a great night,
Chris out.