The first day of the rest of my life

View from the train window this morning

A favourite phrase of mine to use when asking if someone is in their right mind is, "What colour is the sky in your world?" Today, everything, not just the sky, in my world is rosy :-)

Having posted yesterday that I was going to start a maintenance plan, I got so much support from my FB chums that I was grinning all day. It's one of the brilliant things about talking to people with the shared experience of how tough trying to lose weight is. When one of us is doing well, the rest of us are happy for them. And the advice and help when things aren't going so well is just as good. Unfortunately, I'm not so great at telling everyone when I need that help. I usually huff in a corner by myself, then get my head out of my ass after a while and come back to 'fess up.

MyFitnessPal diary

It's pretty weird to look at my diary on MFP and see a daily calorie allowance of 1550. After 1200 a day for the last eleven months, it feels like a lot. Not that I'll have any problem using them :-) My issue will be using them sensibly, and distributing them fairly evenly throughout the day, rather than gorging on them at night. I also have to work out what to do about the calories earned through exercise. It seems extreme to try to eat them all. I don't know if I should use them in order to stop losing. I'll just have to find my way. I have over twenty years of conditioning to reprogram. Up till now, I've tried to avoid using them, in order to aid losses. Maybe I'll use them if I really need them? Save them for when I have a meal out to have a nice dessert? The world is indeed my lobster!

This is today's activity in my diary

• Breakfast: three egg omelette, with chicken, scallions and mushrooms.         Coffee with coconut oil and cinnamon. 450 cals
• Lunch: Homemade broccoli soup. Chopped raw veg (Pink Lady apple, carrot, celery, cherry tomatoes) 230 cals
• Dinner: TMM's homemade bolonese with carrot strips instead of pasta, with 10g of vintage cheddar. 780 cals
• Snacks: Black coffee x 5, Pepsi Max x 2lt, sugar free extra strong polos. 85 cals

                         Total for food today = 1545 cal

• Exercise: 5.4km run, 36 mins, 360 cals earned 

I'm pretty much bang on target for food, and it was well distributed throughout the day. I have used no exercise calories (thus far!) It feels like it's been a good day. One thing I'd like to do is try to get away from eating so many sugar free sweets. It would be great to make DFM* release its grip on me too. Beyond that, eating "clean" would be the ideal, to get away from dairy, wheat and processed sugars altogether. But one thing at a time. Let's not go mad here Terry! Try getting used to your new routine for a few weeks first, you dopey tart!

I have to say, the idea that I'm not trying to see a loss at the scales this week definitely feels like it has eased the pressure. Of course, it doesn't hurt that I have 300 extra calories in the daily bank, but it's mainly the lack of needing a loss.

That's it. Day one of maintenance is under my belt and I've genuinley been smiling all day.


* DFM = Dark Fizzy Master = diet cola