Maintenance - my first three months

I wrote in my last blog that someone was really surprised, now I am at my target weight, that I still have what she thought was a rather austere diet. She asked whether I was planning on eating like this forever. The short answer is yes!

The longer answer is that just over three months ago I decided that my OK weight was in a band between 82kg and 85kg, and so my maintenance started the first time I hit the middle of the band - 83.5kg. Over the last three months my weight has bobbed about a bit, but this morning my weight was...exactly 83.5kg! That means that, like it or not, I need to eat only the calories I've been eating recently and do my daily 10,000 steps just to maintain my target weight. I don't care how austere my diet might look to others - if I eat more, I will put on weight.

The good news is that I'm very happy with what I am eating. Over the last couple of years I have come to love vegetables and fruit, and I have lost at least some interest in more calorific things, so I usually don't feel deprived. For those who might be interested, my 'austere' diet goes like this...

ABOUT NINE DAYS IN EVERY TEN

Breakfast is a big bowl of unsweetened porridge and a small amount of unsweetened almond 'milk'.

Lunch is a huge bowl of raw salad, veg and a bit of fruit, jazzed up with a small amount of salmon or tuna and a few nuts and seeds. With lime juice and no dressing.

Dinner is built around a mountain of veg, cooked in lemon juice, stock and herbs and spices. Also a small portion of brown rice, buckwheat or quinoa. The main attraction can be anything, but small amounts only, and often bulked out with even more veg. Desert is fresh fruit.

Drinks are several cups of tea with skimmed milk and usually a couple of beers (sometimes non-alcoholic beer).

I never eat between meals. I also don't have bread, pasta, cheese, chips, crisps, cakes, biscuits, chocolate, or any dessert other than fresh fruit. I avoid sugar like the plague, and I never use oil or fat of any sort ('good' fat or otherwise!)

ABOUT ONE DAY IN EVERY TEN

We have to stay away about three days a month, and usually with little or no choice of where we can eat, so these days are different.

Breakfast can be porridge, but often cereal, toast and baked beans. Sometimes fruit.

Lunch is often sandwiches (prawns usually) and fresh fruit. I do miss my bucket of salad!

Dinner is usually at a restaurant chain such as Harvester, so this can be anything really - even things I have banned from my nine days in every ten diet, such as fish and chips. I try not to think about the calories. Beer is usually involved, but sometimes wine instead, or even as well.

I imagine that looking forward to the one-day-in-ten eating is one reason that I can stick to the nine-days-in-ten. This 9:1 diet is my version of the 5:2!