Losing weight is half the battle...keeping weight off is the other half!
Did I really do it? It's going on three years and I've managed to maintain a loss of 120 pounds. Am I safe now? Can I eat anything I want to? When it comes to maintenance and goal weight, the answer is obviously and emphatically, “no.”
Maintenance is not a destination – it's a journey! I believe the key to maintenance success is accepting the fact that it's a never-ending journey – and learning (and living) to enjoy the trip!
When I began the fasting program in March 2000, I weighed 272 pounds, with a 54" waist on my 5' 5 1/2" frame. After 6 months, I had lost 90 pounds and my waist was down to 38 inches. All of my medical problems had been brought under control – I no longer had to take gloucophage for my Type II diabetes, or Lotensin for my hypertension, or even Zantac for my chronic indigestion. My blood work said it all – everything was in the "normal/acceptable" range. My Health Risk Appraisal Profile had dropped from a plus 52 to a minus 10!
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 The security that the "decision-free" fasting program offers you is comforting (and for me, foolproof). During the next 6 months, I lost an additional 30 pounds while on the Maintenance Program. I was now down to 152 pounds, and a size 34" waist. I'm still "treading" at that weight today, as I approach my 3-year anniversary on March 4, 2003.
The nutritional and inspirational information I receive from attending Maintenance classes has been the difference in my success this time around. Maintenance is the KEY to life-long success in weight management.
Please consider my analogy of the difference between the HMR Weight Loss Program (fasting), and the HMR Maintenance Program: "Give a man fish, you have fed him for today. Teach a man how to fish, you have fed him for a lifetime."
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