An Apology and a Correction

I gave out some incorrect information yesterday, so I'm back today to both apologize AND set the record straight.  I know a lot of individuals read my blog and I appreciated the comments that were left, so it's important that I correct my error.

Yesterday I shared with you a conversation I had with a friend, and I wrote that I told that she could not return to her former eating habits when she reached her goal.  To tell the truth, that's not true.

My friend can absolutely return to all of her current eating habits after she reaches her goal - her fried foods, her Bloomin' Onion, and even her beloved 500 calorie Starbucks concoctions.  And so can you.

In my zeal to try and help her - and you - I forgot one thing:  there IS no "can" and "can't" when it comes to what we eat after we reach our goal.  No "must eat this" and "can't eat that."  Nope, I was wrong.  We're all adults and we can eat absolutely anything we want, in any quantity we want, as often as we want.  Do you feel better now?  :-)  Yep, we can have whatever we want whenever we want - the choice will always be ours.  The full smorgasbord of food will once again be at our disposal once we reach our goal. 

We just need to make our choice with an understanding that there will be ramifications to the choices we make - we won't make them in a vacuum.  Ultimately, our choice of foods to include or exclude from our maintenance eating plan will be based on other choices we've made.  If we've made the fundamental choice to be healthy and stay in our goal range, we'll make food selections that support that choice.  If we approach maintenance with a "back to regular programming" mindset, viewing Take Shape for Life/Medifast as a short-term "fix", then we'll probably start to see the scale go up again.

Right now is a great time to start thinking about how you plan to approach maintenance.  Right now is also a great time to perhaps decide to redefine how you relate to food.  Identify what it is that you want, and make sure it's what you REALLY want, because if you really want it, you'll do what you need to get it (or keep it!).

For me, life in maintenance means that there are a lot of things that I don't eat.  My husband and I recently ate dinner at an Outback Restaurant, and while we certainly could have ordered a Bloomin' Onion, we didn't.  We didn't look at this on the menu and think "wow, that looks good, but we can't have it."  Instead, we CHOSE to not eat it, knowing that the 2,400 calories and 134 fat grams in that menu item (that's not a misprint!) just didn't support our fundamental choice to be thin and healthy.  Trust me, that feels a LOT more positive and empowering than longingly looking at something and begrudgingly thinking that we wanted it but "couldn't" have it.

Sure, there are times when I enjoy a bit of something from my "former life", but those times are planned and I adjust my calories accordingly.  For instance, if I know a restaurant has great dessert and I decide that I'm going to enjoy something, I'll skip the rolls and the potato and just have my lean meat and veggie or salad.  What I don't do is think, "well, since I'm going to have dessert, I might as well have everything else, too."  I could - it's always my choice - but I want something else even more.

So please forgive me for telling anybody that you can't have what you want in maintenance, because you can.  What you want will determine the choices you make, so choose wisely :-)