BigBallBellyGirl:
I've been planning to keep my weight in this general neighborhood, but I fell off the maintenance wagon hard last night at all you can eat sushi, and I have been eating ever since. Last night, I had 56 pieces with tempura vegetables and tempura shrimp. I woke up very bloated and also very hungry, and I have been eating since. It's so hard, when you were addicted to being overstuffed beyond your limits for a long time, to go back to regular meals. There was something so pleasurable about being packed like a drum, with my belly feeling bloated and sensitive, I haven't been able to stop myself. I've had around 14,000 calories so far today, and i know I'll gain some weight from this, but I'm going to give myself a day off from maintenance and get as stuffed as I want to. I've genuinely missed the feeling of physically ballooning outward from over indulgence. And tomorrow is another day!
The thing to remember is when you decide to maintain, you're not looking for perfection. You'll have days when you fall back into old habits.
And that's not the end of the world. It's completely unreasonable to expect anyone to do "all the right things".
You're right. Tomorrow is another day. Just because you had a period of time falling off the wagon doesn't mean you've doomed yourself from achieving what you want to achieve. Progress isn't a linear path. But so long as you're generally moving in the direction you want to go, you'll be fine.
We as a community glorify the gains. I think it's just as important to talk about the other aspects of the journey as well. Maintaining, weight loss, and changing body comp are also parts of the gaining experience. But since they aren't as sexy as getting fat, we don't talk about it.
And that's a shame. It's not like you can meet your needs in traditional weight management circles. They won't understand why someone wants to cap their gains at 500 or only drop from 400 to 250. I think that our community needs to engage with the practical side of things more. It's not as flashy as a never ending gain, but it's sexy in its own way.