Maintenance Calorie Trajectory --- Week 13 ---> Hanging Steady
Wow, here we are at week 13 in maintenance. It's hard to believe it's already been 3 months since I hit goal. I feel less anxious and stressed about it all now. However, there is a renewed sense of commitment as well. It's really easy to hit this place and start to become relaxed about our habits as well.
It can be a challenge trying to strike that balance between finding peace in the process, but remaining diligent at the same time.
The Holiday Employee Appreciation Party went well. I overate and drank my allotted calories by about 200. It's by no means the end of the world or even a big deal. But, I am taking the opportunity just the same to learn from the experience and see what I might do differently next year.
So, what did I learn from this experience this year? Well, I'm still shooting for that 3 drink minimum. I'm getting close. I need to work at leaving both parties a little earlier. When I'm tired, I tend to drink and eat more in social situations. Next years party - I will opt to give myself a 2500 cal day. It "may" be less challenging because I'm still increasing cals to find this girl's maintenance level. I'm currently at 1670/day and last weigh in was 138.8. So, taking cals from one day to put towards another might be less difficult next year.
All that being stated, I'm hanging steady with 1670 cals/day this week as reflected in the trajectory below. I didn't weigh in this a.m. because I had a high cal meal on Friday at the party. As stated before, it takes a few days to pee out that water from high cal days, so there's no relevant data to be gained.
I will weigh in tomorrow morn, just to see where I'm at, but not expecting any drops and it's possible there will still be some water retention - especially after all those gin and tonics. lol
I am getting close to my target cals. I only have one more increase to go before I hang steady for six weeks. I go back and forth about whether to increase if I continue to lose. But, I think I'm going to follow my coach's advice and just hang steady for 6 weeks at the target numbers, regardless of loss or gain. The thing is, when one get's to this point, it becomes readily apparent it actually takes around a month to genuinely see if the body is trending up in weight or trending down.
The weight on the scale may say 138, but I burned A LOT of cals last week running around, trying to get things ready for our parties. I do not normally burn 2900 cals on ANY given day. In short, that loss is not necessarily reflective of my standard level of activity. However, even showing a gain on the scale is not necessarily accurate as one increases cals. It can take a bit for the body's digestive system to adjust to more waste and more water. So, seeing an increase after hitting maintenance cals does not necessarily mean someone has gained actual fat.
My coach says, it's usually after about 6 weeks at approximate maintenance cals when one can see if they need to decrease cals, increase, or hang steady. It's just how it works. So, I'm going with it!
Anyhow, I hope everyone has had a restful weekend. It took a while for this mind to wind down from all the activity these past 2 weeks. After a good meditation, I can finally enjoy the peace and stillness of the present moment.
Have a blessed week, everyone!
