I sorta fit in this forum since my goal weight is between 85-110 lbs....I DID have a fresh start on 1/1/11 but so far it has only helped me (I can say that I have been on plan for ALL of 2011 thus far and that will be even more awesome to say once I'm at goal...aiming for August 16th or before - my bday).

I plan to eat awesome 90% of the year just SO I can enjoy yummy, but maybe off plan foods the other 10% and not reap negative repercussions. I love the 3 lb rule...I am totally using that 'trick' to stay on track and in maintenance.

Judy:

That's good to know that others have made the 3 pound rule work! Before I didn't fret until say 15 - 20 pounds. Seems like the 3 pound rule should have been pretty obvious... oh well, now it is <grin>

Congrats on your successful losses!!
My neighbor lost drinking optifast shakes, about 150 lbs worth. She's kept it off for several years too and still eats their packets of food. I guess it works for her.

Me, I like to learn to cook and have made it into something that I truly eenjoy doing. My new hobby!

As for that 3 lb rule, I never used to have any rules about my weight as I refused to get on a scale. I preffered to live in the land of denial....oy!!! At my current weight, +3 lbs is kinda the same as 15-20 when I was near 300 lbs.

I literally have to fight with myself some days to get on the scale as my old mental chatter tries to pull me back into my old habits....but I fight on!!


I hope that this strategy works out for you.
I'm afraid it'd be too loose for me. what I did do as I was losing was to pick 2 old foods that I allowed to myself to have a portion of once a month as I lost my weight.
1 was pasta and I allowed myself a 2 oz portion of Dreamfields once a month and yes, I measured the 2 ozs and didn't go over.
The other was to allow myself a real NYC bagel once a month. Doing it this way kept my indulgences very small and it also helped me feel, in my mind that is, that I wasn't being deprived of my old favs.
As time has gone by and my committment to transforming my eating has remained, my food has continued to evolve and that box of Dreamfields in my kitchen has been untouched for about 2 yrs now.

Funny. I thought I was alone in my 3lb rule. LOL

For me, 3 lbs is just right. My normal ups and downs can be up to 2 lbs, so anything less is pretty trivial and not indicative of anything, but 3lbs or more is for sure my own doing. It's kept me honest, and has helped me maintain with no issue at all. I enjoy the things I want to on occasion, and that rule keeps me in check and in control. I haven't been maintaining near as long as Judy, but this is the first time ever I've been successful in even losing the weight, let along KEEPing it off. I've been stable since May (I've actually lost 5 since then, but it's nothing to really write home about lol). I feel like my biggest success was not spiraling out of control over the holidays, while still enjoying the things that I love and don't have often.

Knowing that you are in maintenance can be a blessing and a curse. You know that now, nothing is truly off plan...so that little voice is there saying "you know you can have this now, right? Just in moderation"....well...that doesn't mean you can eat it in moderation every day. So it's nice to have more varied options, but you have to learn to master a new type of self control if you do have those higher carb things from time to time. It makes it more challenging at first. Hence why I came up with the (apparently unoriginal lol) 3lb rule. It really has worked like a charm.

I know of a 100 lb loser who did not use this 3 lb rule and instead used a 10 lbs rule. ....you know that she has disappeared and I'm fearful that she has regained.

Coconutz, your goal weight sounds very low to me. Are you extremely fine-boned? For someone who's 5'5, a goal weight of 125 sounds perhaps more realistic.

ETA: wait, did you mean that your goal is to lose 85-110 pounds? If so, then nevermind.

--Melissa

Oh yes...I meant AFTER I reach goal. It'd be a slippery slope to fat if I tried ANY strategy other than awesome right now. I am giving myself 3 month increments at this time. After my 1st 3 months, IF I have lost the 50-60lbs I wanted to lose in that time frame, I will allow myself a small indulgence. If I even want it. I have learned over time that the physical repercussions on eating 'crap' far outweigh my desire to taste them (just like the bolded). I am so relieved to feel great right now as the holidays had me hating myself and feeling like I was trying to pull a horse carriage sluggish.

Melissa: yes I want to LOSE 85-110 total (must have been side tracked while typing as I can totally see why you thought that)...my first goal is 160 as I vaguely remember feeling extremely fit and healthy at that weight. 10 years and 3 kids later, my body may have other plans so I will re-evaluate my goal at that time. Pretty much, once I get down to 160, I will be more focused on fitness and body composition than a number on the scale and if more weight falls off, so be it, kwim

HI!!!
I have come back here and have been looking for familiar names, and there you are!! wonderful progress from you, and you even have a picture of yourself as your avatar. I am going to your journal and reading up on your progress. If you don't remember me, that is fine, I just so happy seeing a famliar name, I got all excited!! IF NOT NOW WHEN? love it

MO! Long time no hear from... please start a journal so we can catch up.

Dee

I love the 3-pound rule. My big worry was that I was going to be away for 2 1/2 weeks over the Christmas and New Year's holidays with no access to a scale! I feel so helpless without a scale - like being a trapeze artist without a net. I really rely on my daily weighing to keep me focused.

Only thing I was able to do was bring a pair of jeans that fit, but without much wiggle room, and hope that being able to wear those jeans would keep me on track - as there was FOOD everywhere. I did try to avoid the worst of the stuff - bread, candy...but I sure had my share of corn tortillas with salsa and guacamole. And my DiL begged me to make my Awesome Coconut Cake for Christmas dinner's dessert. It's is Awesome indeed, but a total white flour and sugar bomb, but I couldn't resist having some. Most carby sweet treats taste pretty horrible to me now when I try a bite. But I'm afraid the cake still tasted Awesome to me.

But the jeans still fit. They fit me the day I left for vacation, and they fit me the day I left to head home, so I hoped the damage was not too great. But even so, I had to *force* myself to get on that scale my first morning home. I could hear my brain saying "Not yet, wait until you have a good LC day under your belt first" - but that was always the slippery slope to disaster in the past. I would have a not-so-great LC day and would decide to wait *one more day* before weighing myself, and then I would end up having a cheat of some sort, and deciding to wait one more day. And before I knew it a month would have gone by, and I can easily gain 40+ pounds in a month, and it would be so dang much I'd say "the hell with it" and give up.

So this time, sort of like holding your breath and jumping into an icy cold swimming pool, I forced myself on to the scale. Sure enough, despite the jeans test, I had gained 11 pounds in those 2 1/2 scaleless weeks.

Of course I had to hope and assume that much was water weight, and I have been strictly back on track since I got home Tuesday night, and have already dropped 7.5 of the pounds. So I'm back on track again for the new year, and still have hopes of dropping my last 90 pounds or so.

Congrats on taking the icy plunge, Merpig! I have been the same way in the past. I didn't want to look at that scale to see how much I might have regained and so I avoided it.......for years!! Now here I am having gained back all my weight and then some. It's very sobering but that's reality!

I've lost 6 lbs since last Sat, probably half of that at least is water. I'm moving in a positive direction and I need to make sure that scale is my best friend from now on.

Isn't it amazing how fast the body wants to retain water after eating the carbs? I weigh in at the clinic every 3 -4 weeks. This helps me stay focus. But I so agree that with being dependant on the daily weighing to stay focused.

I feel to succeed I need to:
1) Stay focused. Make the weight loss and staying on plan my priority. Give it 101 % of my effort.
2) Stay away from trigger foods!
3) Keep my goal as to stay on plan. Not overly worry about the scale (since it has a mind of it's own) and concentrate on what I can control.
4) Work out ~ daily. To help the muscle tone and skin catch up as well as to keep the weight dropping.
5) Know that I can't do this by myself, I need help and support from my 'true' friends and family.

I was "bad" during the holidays, but I didn't go entirely off the reservation. The stuff I was bad with I only ate in moderation and I really watched my sugar intake to make sure it wasn't downright excessive. Starchy stuff doesn't bother me as much, so I wasn't as careful with that.

I kind of like the idea of a fresh start though simply because I'm starting 2011 with about 50lbs to go. 50 is a much nicer number than the 112 I started 2010 with! (Granted I didn't start on LC until the end of March '10.)

Congrats on loosing the 62 in 2010! That is totally awesome! Here to loosing the remaining 50 in 2011. You can do it!

Thank you!!