The FastDay Forum

And we are off for another month of keeping track of our maintenance results. Interesting times, as for many of us the holiday season might be approaching
Keep us posted and especially whishing an enormous amount of luck to those who need it @StowgateResident

This week I'm maintaining my goal weight of 135 in spite of a weekend away in Kingston, ON, the home of many excellent restaurants. My high for the week was 135.5 and low is 135.

My hope for others is that intermittent fasting works as well for them as it has for me

Entering July at 126.8. This week I'm fasting for the Fortnum and Masons treat next Saturday! I'll probably lose weight due to sheer EXCITMENT! 'Excited fasts' sound fun ........
Good luck maintainers!

I have just entered my regular Sunday morning weigh-in result onto my Tracker ( 145.5 pounds, 1.5 pounds under target) and have realised that it is exactly two years since I reached maintenance, for the first time!
Unfortunately that happy state of affairs lasted only until the end of September '13, when a variety of totally inexcusable reasons led me to take my eye off the ball and meant that by January 2014 I was thirteen and a half pounds back over my target at eleven stone, four and a half pounds (160.5 pounds)!
This may sound like bad news - but for me it was still a kind of a win because I had not entered the new year at anything less than twelve stone for many, many years and I was still ten and a quarter pounds down on the previous January!
So, I buckled down and by my 65th birthday in March'14 I was back down to my target and there I have stayed, holidays and family visits apart, over the intervening months. January '15, saw me at only a remarkable, 3.5 pounds over target and that was gone within a week!
I don't think that my weight is ever going to simply vary by just a pound or two, as witnessed by my Tracker, but this WOL is giving me the ability to manage my weight in a way which I have never succeeded in achieving during over forty years of yo-yo dieting.
Huge thanks must go to 'straight' 5:2 and the members of this fabulous forum for helping me to achieve a degree of weight stability that I had long imagined was out of my reach!

Congratulations @StowgateResident, great results and all that on 5:2 'traditional style', hear hear.
Thanks for your continuous positive contribution to making this forum a success

Thank you Stowgate Resident for your post telling us what has happened since you reached maintenance two years ago - it is so encouraging to read that 5:2 is working as I did wonder about keeping the weight off. So it is very reassuring to know that even if a few lbs (or more than a few) are put on but following 5:2 that you come back down to your maintenance weight. Well done!
I am just starting maintenance after losing 14 lbs and apart from going on holiday for a couple of weeks am hoping to keep that way until the winter months. Not so bothered about Christmas and New Year celebrations but I follow a different eating plan to keep me warm throughout winter which involves lots of casseroles and lentils/chickpea dishes! I could happily live on salads all year round.

@StowgateResident great post! Congrats to you and happy 2nd maintaining fastiversary. Here's to the year ahead. As you sat what a great feeling it is to have 52 in our lives forever.
I forgot to say I reached my first maintenance milestone goal on 1st July - 6 months, hurray. I continue to fast Mon/Thurs with the odd window thrown in when I feel like it. What I eat is what I like. Occasionally I bump up the veggies as I have a tendency to indulge in too much protein having reduced the carbs. I thought maintaining would involve making some changes, but so far it's not, I've had the same lifestyle for the last 18 months and I'm comfortable with that. Having also managed my way through two personal traumas in the last 4 months I feel like I've arrived Another happy 52er
@galexinda well done and congrats to you on reaching your goal and that wonderful feeling and welcome to the maintenance tent! Enjoy your hols.

Maintaining continues in July. Thank you so much P-JK for keeping up a site for us maintainers. I got excited about the super summer challenge, and have posted there, but want to keep up this site as well. This morning I was 52.9kg. My Maintenance range is 50.7 - 52.7 kg. Tomorrow is a fast day for me, and Thursday. I think these days, after a fast, I am within the range . Next week son and his girlfriend come for a 10 day visit. That will mean less fasting and more cakes for me. I will seriously fast again during the last week of July. Maybe even doing ADF.... I am hoping to maintain weight with all these ups and downs of life, i.e. fastings and feastings...Good luck to you, P - JK and everyone else maintaining, or trying to, in July.

It would have been nice to report that I was at goal weight today, my first maintainversary, but I am one pound over. Which is fine.

If I put a few pounds on they are definitely not mostly water due to excess carbs, as I rarely eat carb-laden stuff, consequently they creep on slowly and take weeks to get rid of. My solution is to throw in an occasional dairy-free period. I gave up dairy for Lent and was a couple of pounds under goal for several weeks. So if I drift up I will just have a dairy-free month, one where I do not forsee much entertaining or eating out. No way am I going to give up cheese, cream and yoghurt permanently!

Congratulations @barbarita on one year of maintenance. Fine results and good to have a strategy that works.
For me today marks the last fast before I enter holiday mode
Buffer in maintenance is available, so feeling comfortable.

Hi @Margotsylvia I agree with you, a good balance of our challenge thread and our maintaining thread works for me, as a young maintainer (6 months). I learn everyday x

@Barbarita a very happy first maintenance year to you. I'd like to climb a mountain with you sometime, soon

@Barbarita a very happy first maintenance year to you. I'd like to climb a mountain with you sometime, soon

Definitely @lizbean! PM me once this momentous weekend has passed and you know your itinerary for your trip up North

I'm feeling like an imposter in the maintenance room again. I was not quite 3kg above my maintenance window last time I weighed. I was away then had lots of visitors. I'll get it together as soon as things calm down a bit. My life isn't usually this chaotic, thankfully!

Hi @MaryAnn, I don't think you should feel like an imposter! I feel we are in "maintenance" once we reach goal, even if we subsequently put on weight. I have mentioned in earlier maintenance threads than it would be great if posts in this tent were less about reporting our actual weight (though if that helps someone remain accountable, fine) and more about sharing our experiences of weight management after reaching goal, including when we put on weight and what happens then!

After a month of consistent overeating when on holiday, I know I have put on quite a bit of fat, but have decided that I will not look at my weight until I feel like my body is getting back to what I am comfortable with. However, I did get OH to record my weight when we first got back from hols, and I will ask him what it was once I weigh myself again.

It seems that the "don't go hungry diet" approach works for me when I am home, but when I am on holiday, I really struggle with managing my food intake. I am continuing to reflect on what I can do to stop myself overeating. No answers yet. I will see how long it takes me to lose the excess and then reflect again. It may be that for some of us we just have to accept that there are times when we can't manage our consumption the way we would like, but hopefully we do have strategies to get back on track once those times have passed. So I am doing 2 fast days a week and "don't go hungry" the other 5, and seeing how it goes. Will let you know!

Good luck - and do share your experiences with removing those 3kg!