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Weight Maintenance Experiment

Well January 3rd has finally arrived and there was no putting it off any longer I had to weigh myself to see what the outcome was going to be of my weight maintenance experiment.  Having made the decision to come off my very effective weight maintenance programme for the month of December as an experiment to establish if I would gain any weight or not, today was the day that I would see if I had actually gained weight or had I got away with it?  Would I now have to go back onto a weight loss programme to get me back to the weight I had so successfully maintained for the past 8 years since last doing a weight loss programme or had it in actual fact made no difference to my weight whatsoever and had I been doing my maintenance programme unnecessarily for all those years?

The Outcome Of My Weight Maintenance Experiment

Eventhough I had resisted the temptation to weigh myself for the whole month of December, which had been much harder that I ever imagined, I have to say, I could of course tell just from my clothes that I had indeed gained some weight during my weight maintenance experiment but how much had I gained was the big question, how much could I possibly have put on in just 31 days of not keeping to my weight maintenance programme – I hardly dare look at the scales as I stepped on to them this morning?

I’ll reveal the stark reality of how much I actually did gain shortly but of course the simple truth is that I had gained weight so now I had no choice other than to begin a further experiment detailing how and what I could do to lose it.  Will it disappear as quickly as it did the last time I used the weight loss programme or will I struggle this time? Of course I’m 8 years older than I was then and my job isn’t as active as it was them so who knows but let’s get on with it and see what happens over the next 30 days and maybe if absolutely necessary beyond … I hope you’ll join me to find out what happens.

Weight Maintenance Experiment Turns Into Weight Loss Experiment

3rd January 2011 – Day 1 is here and boy oh boy am I glad to be restarting the programme, I feel fat, bloated and uncomfortable in all my clothes other than my pyjamas!!

But before I get into all the nitty gritty about my weight loss programme, I want to talk briefly about some things that happened during December when I took myself off my healthy nutritious weight maintenance plan and swapped it for a more traditional breakfast as well as stopping all my health supplements too.

After all that’s pretty much all I did, my weight maintenance programme comprised a healthy nutrition protein shake for my breakfast 6 days a week along with several herbal supplements and then I ate normal food for the remainder of the time mostly healthy but sometimes not so healthy but always in moderation.

However when I substituted that one single shake for either cereals, toast, the odd cooked breakfast or worst of all nothing!  This is what happened.

Early in December when I began my weight maintenance experiment I have to admit that I found it quite hard at first just remembering not to take the shake for my breakfast because it’s become such a habbit and routine of mine.  In fact I found it so hard during the first week that I ended up having to remove my Magic Bullet Mixer from the kitchen so as to remind me to have something else intead.

The first few days I ate some cereals and/or toast and it was great a nice change, I enjoyed it thoroughly but as is always the case for me if I have cereals or toast by 10.30 am – 11.00 am I start to get hungry and I find myself hunting around for a snack or something else to eat which isn’t good news at all.

I then noticed as I approached day 7  that I was falling back into my terrible ‘breakfast skipping’ mode because if I don’t eat anything first thing then I don’t feel the need to eat a snack at 10.30 – 11.00 ish whereas if I eat cereals or toast first thing then I feel the need for a mid morning snack, yet when I take a shake first thing this sees me through until lunchtime quite happily which is perfect.

Breakfast skipping is one of the worst things you can do especially if you are trying to lose or maintain your weight because it plays havoc with your metabolism and when you are trying to lose weight you need your metabolism to be working at 100% plus to get the best results.  The really bad thing here for me was that the more I became aware of my bad habbit the more I did it!  I couldn’t seem to help myself, some days I would be strong and have something to eat first thing then the next few days I’d totally skip it.  So the temptation to restart my shakes was growing stronger and stronger.

However I knew that if I could just keep off the shakes for a few more days then I’d be going on my first trip away to a beautiful hotel in Tenerife where of course there would be breakfast laid on for us and I’d be able to get my breakfast skipping problem back under control – hopefully!

Skipping breakfast wasn’t the only poblem I came across and tomorrow I’ll talk a little more about some other issues I came across.  I’ll also have details of what I ate today on the first day of my weight loss programme, what I drank today, which supplements I’ve restarted and why those particular ones aswell as doing the Day 2 weight in.  Now I should point out that I  don’t generally advocate a daily weigh in but I think for the purpose of this blog it might be beneficial to do this for the first week at least and let’s see what happens.

But finally …

The moment you’ve all been waiting for!  After 31 days of not doing my weight maintenance programme what was the outcome?  Well to my horror I weighed in this morning at OMG …

Day 1 weight in = 10 stone  3/4 lbs

That’s a gain of just over one whole stone in 31 short days, imagine what I’d weigh if I continued for another 3o days or even worse, imagine what I’d weigh if I’d not been using my weight maintenance programme for the last 8 years – eeeeeekkkkk!  Even with all the extra activities I did throughout December I still managed to gain a stone!

If you’ve enjoyed this post and would like to follow the second part of my experiment ie my weight loss journey over the next 30 days then please do so and add any of your comments below as we go.

Please also pass my link (http://www.rachelmooreonline.com) to any of your friends, family or work colleagues that you think may enjoy it or simply Tweet or Facebook it – Thank you.

Alternatively if you or anyone you know would like help with weight loss or weight maintenance then please don’t hesitate to call me on 01423 529 708 or click here for further information after all I’ve been helping clients lose, gain and maintain their weight for 8 years now!