149.2 - Refuse to Regain sneak peak

This is the first Monday since mid September (when I had just started the Crack diet) that I haven't gained from the weekend. It's not because I was super good Saturday and Sunday. I think it's more because I stopped eating last night around 6 p.m. and drank lots of water before bed (yes, I had to get up to pee like 3 times in the night).

I started reading Refuse to Regain this weekend, and what I read last night influenced my decision to stay out of the kitchen after dinner. I'll post an in depth review once I'm finished reading the book carefully, but I wanted to share some initial thoughts today.

I've scanned the chapters & read her food plan. And my overall impression is this:

Maintenance is a diet.

This is no big news flash, I realize. We should all know by now that when you reach goal weight, you don't get to go back to the way you lived life before the weight loss began.

As in:
I don't eat powdered sugar donuts by the boxful any more. I don't hide empty Ben & Jerry's Phish Food pints in the bottom of the trash can any more. I don't eat in the bathroom to hide my food from my family any more (well, 99.9% of the time I don't anyway).

But. There's still that feeling that once you reach a certain weight and a certain level of fitness, you should have more lattitude with your eating plan. Afterall, you've worked so stinking hard to lose the weight. It took months and months of writing down everything you put in your mouth, and weekly (or daily) weight tracking, and miles and miles on the treadmill. And gosh darn it, you deserve a break.

NOT SO! Says the author of this book. The first year of maintenance--particularly the first 3 months--should be just as strict (and actually much more so, really, from what I ate on my LA Weight Loss plan) as your weight loss diet.

Her food plan for maintenance is very clean food, which is not surprising. In fact, other than her omitting beans and whole grains, it reminds me very much of Vickie's diet and lifestyle.

Her rules for maintenance are hard core. For example: to maintain your loss, you need to workout 60 minutes, 5-6 days a week. And that's one of the things I agree with. Let's face it: no one can lose 60 pounds just by taking the stairs at work and parking as far as possible from the entrance to Target. Sure, these are good habits to practice, but they aren't what take off the pounds (at least, not in a short amount of time...maybe if you only want to lose 20 pounds over 5 years they would work).

And at least one of her suggestions for handling saboteurs was so far from any "real world" experience in my life that I laughed out loud. To wit: When having coffee with a friend who wants to split a high calorie pastry with you and who gives you a hard time for saying no, you should reply "I feel really great on my Primarian diet. You should try it." I can't see myself ever saying "You should try my diet" to someone trying to split a donut with me. No thank you--I could say. Telling someone else to go on a diet--not gonna happen.

Anyway, that's a teaser for you. The Primarian Diet explanation and plan take up the bulk of the book. It's basically what you already know--eat lean protein, veggies, fruits, some nuts, and very little or no grains. One small low fat/low sugar treat a day. I was surprised that she doesn't allow legumes on the diet; I still think they are OK for most people, even though they are starchy. I've never heard of someone getting fat from eating black beans. But our ancient ancestors didn't eat them, and that's what her plan is based on.

Overall, I think it's important that there is finally a diet book for maintainers. And I'm glad I bought it and am looking forward to reading it carefully. I'm sure I'll be putting a lot of her ideas into practice.

Thankfully, I'm already one year into maintenance so I feel like I have a leg up on it. But I know that I am still a newbie and a light weight, so to speak, when it comes to the real test. Which is keeping it off for good.