In today’s episode, I’m talking about the most important lessons I’ve learned in maintenance.
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The following is an AI generated transcript of this podcast.
Welcome to the Six Miles to Supper podcast. I’m your host, Kayla Cox, and I’ve lost over £80 with intermittent fasting six days a week, eating whatever I wanted at my meals, taking a cheat day every Sunday and walking six miles a day. And I’m here to help you on your weight loss journey.
Hey, guys, before you get into today’s episode, I just wanted to take a minute to let you know about something you might not know about, which is my live Q&A, is that I do on YouTube. These happen on Fridays at noon Eastern, which for you international people, that is UTC minus four in these lives. I take questions from people in the chat.
So if you have any questions, you just can join up and you know, ask your question. Usually I’m live for about an hour and I’m usually able to answer all the questions that are asked. I’ll put a link in the show notes to the live and if you are subscribed to my channel, you can also choose to get notifications and then that will alert you whenever I go live.
These lives are always a good time, so I hope to see you there. And this episode, I’m going to take you through my two maintenance experiences and talk about the similarities and the differences and what I’ve learned. I went from 220 to down to about 157 158, and that was my initial weight loss. I was really happy at 157 and I remember thinking, you know, we’re coming up on the holidays.
I don’t really know if I’m going to be able to keep this off. It felt so easy that I wasn’t really sure, you know, like would it continue to be easy or what? And so I decided to maintain and I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to do. I kind of had it in my head, you know, Is it.
It was this question of is it is it like failure? If I continue to do the plan or some version of the plan, like, you know, is it kind of like graduating from the weight loss program and then you got to go back to real life? You know, this is where I had always failed. I had always gained the weight back, which was, you know, at this point in my life, I had done it many, many times.
I don’t know how many times I had, you know, lost weight, gotten down to a goal away and then just promptly gained it. All right. Back. So I wanted to do it right. So I made some decisions that I think were really important right upfront. And that was, first of all, I cannot go back to eating how I was eating before, like eating all day, no boundaries with food, overeating, you know, on a regular basis, snacking all the time.
Those things I didn’t think would be wise, you know, to do anymore. But as far as the day to day planner wasn’t really sure. And so I decided to just keep the experimental mindset. And I just wanted to see, you know, like, what exactly do I need to do in order to keep the weight off another decision I made that was really important was to continue to weigh.
And my idea was, you know, I’m just going to do some experimentation here. But ultimately, if my if my weight start to trend upwards into a place where I’m just not comfortable anymore with the weight gain, then I’m going to stop. I’m going to, you know, change something up and I’ll lose weight. My, my, my kind of vague idea was I’ll I’ll just go back on the plan that I know works and so I started experimenting and I tried to keep, you know, self-aware, like, you know, what’s going on.
So there were days this would have been like 2016 and into 2017. I just would sometimes do, you know, homemade like I like to do. Sometimes I would do two meals a day. Sometimes I would do no fasting at all. Just eat, you know, like just be, you know, quote unquote normal, you know, just have breakfast and have lunch and have dinner.
And I would even experiment with like, okay, you know, like, what if I what if I snack? You know, what? What is that like? And I really wanted to see, you know, what works and what doesn’t. And a big lesson I learned that year was that my walks were important and it wasn’t because of calorie burn. I don’t think, you know, it was more going for my daily walks put me in a good headspace, like it just made my emotional life better.
I found that I was a more patient person, both with myself and with my family, and I just didn’t feel great if I didn’t get out there and do my steps. So that was really the first lesson I learned in the maintenance journey was, okay, I need I need to keep active. And I found that I could maintain my weight pretty easily within like a £5 range based on my seven day average with really being pretty, pretty lax.
I would say like looking back at those times. I mean, again, I wasn’t practicing intermittent fasting very consist ardently as far as like I didn’t have a consistent plan. I was being really lucid. So maintaining my weight between 158 and 163 was pretty easy in my experience. It didn’t really require too too much thought really, as long as I kept, you know, walking like I was walking and which was six miles a day and and just keeping on weighing that, that was really easy.
So then I decided in September of 2017 to start my YouTube channel, and I got it in my head that, you know, I really need to lose these last like, you know, it was at this point probably five or £6 to get, you know, into the normal BMI, which I know, you know, BMI is not perfect. It’s arbitrary, quite frankly.
But it was the the yardstick that I had decided to measure, you know, by and and it did kind of bug me that I was a few pounds overweight. It did not bug me as far as my weight felt great. As far as me moving through life, I felt great. My energy levels were really good. I my joints were good.
I didn’t I didn’t feel like my weight was holding me back at all. But, you know, the idea of being on YouTube and having a journal about weight loss and being a little bit overweight, like, I just couldn’t handle that. Like I was afraid of what people were going to say. And I wanted to be helpful to people like I didn’t want the fact that I was slightly overweight to prevent people from learning about intermittent fasting and that kind of a thing.
So I thought, you know, like, I want to do this, I want to do it for myself, but I also want to do it, you know, just to show people that it’s possible to do it. And so for the next year, I went on this journey of, you know, losing more weight. And so I went back to the plan that I had used to help me lose weight.
So that was eating one meal a day, walking six miles a day, and then taking a cheat day on Sunday. And I documented that process on YouTube. I just, you know, like every month I would sit down and give like a report of my numbers, what my weight did and all that stuff. And so I got down to a point by like the end of 2018 where I was like, okay, I feel like I’m just chasing a low number at this point.
Like, like there was there was just nothing that was like motivating me to lose more, you know? It was just like, Why am I doing this? I kept thinking, like, what? Like why do I continue to want to lose weight? I mean, and I wasn’t even really wanting to is just kind of like, you know, you need a Y, right?
So I thought, you know, since I’ve been the type of person historically who’s just never satisfied, like, no matter what the number is, it’s like it needs to be one less, you know, like if I’m at 142, it needs to be 141. If I’m at 141 needs to be 140, and if 140, then I’ll be happy when it’s 139.
So I said, I’m going to stop doing that. I’m just going to be satisfied with that number, which I had been satisfied with. 158 So so I decided, okay, I’m going to try to maintain this and so here’s what I’ve learned since then. So that started, you know, like at the end of 2018, I think it was around September or October of that year that I decided, okay, I’m done and now I want to maintain again.
And I wasn’t really sure once again, like, what exactly does this mean? And I think that’s where a lot of people find themselves when they get down to their goal weight. They’re like, I don’t know really what I’m supposed to do next. And so, you know, based on the the the things I had learned before, I knew I wanted to continue to be active, to continue to do my walks.
I knew that was going to be really important. And it was definitely important to continue to weigh. But I wasn’t really sure about my day to day plan. I felt kind of I was overthinking it, quite frankly, which I tend to do about things. But I was you know, I was thinking, well, you know, I know what would work.
Obviously, eating one meal a day, like if I just kept doing what I was doing, I would either, you know, maybe lose some more weight or I would just maintain. And so that was an option. But then I thought, but what if, you know, what if the only reason I’m doing this is because I have this YouTube channel and people are watching me and, you know, and that created a little bit of a problem in my head because I don’t want to do things like that just for the sake of doing them because I’m being watched, if that makes sense.
Like, I think it’s much more helpful for you guys and anybody who watches my videos, if I do my very best to act as if in my own life, as if I do not have this podcast, as if I do not have the YouTube channel, and as if I have not written books about intermittent fasting and weight loss.
Because if I do that, if I, if I, if I try to just live my life in that way, as if I do not have those things, I feel like my daily actions are just going to be more normal and I know that this is on some level futile. The Hawthorne effect comes into play, which is, you know, when you observe something, it changes its behavior.
It just does. But I still try to do my very, very best to act as though I don’t have those things. And so with maintenance, I was like, well, you know, like, I remember when I was maintaining last time, I was pretty loosey goosey. Like I really didn’t have to be on any particular kind of like fasting window.
I could, you know, just it was just easy since then. So at this point it’s been about five years and I’ve just been experimenting with all different ways of eating and, you know, like there have been times where I’ve done, you know, like two meals a day. Sometimes I’ve done just an eating window like a six, eight or an 18 six.
I’ve done shorter fasting windows to like, you know, like a 1212. And there have been days where I’ll just do, you know, like no fasting at all. Like we’re just going to have a, you know, quote unquote regular day. And so here is what I have found. Maintaining at a higher weight is easier. And maybe that sounds obvious to you when I say that out loud, but it really is true.
I mean, it was it was just a lot easier to maintain in that £5 range when I was up at that height weight. I mean, which makes sense. You can eat more at a higher weight and maintain that weight. When you weigh less, you have to eat less. And as someone who likes big portions and likes to eat, that is just something that I have had to learn that, you know, if I want to be in the one forties, then that means I have to eat at that 140 level, which is fine.
That’s actually something that I that I can do without too much effort. But it does mean that I have to be a bit more structured than what I have found during both of these times of maintenance, that it’s been very important to stay vigilant because those little habits can just creep back in, you know, these little things and it’s like it’s not it doesn’t seem like a big deal at the time, you know, like one little time where you eat just a little too much or, you know, like that time you’re like, oh, I’m just going to, you know, have the snack or, you know, those things can really creep in and then the weight
can start to come back on. And so just being vigilant about that and just remaining aware like, okay, why, why am I want in this snack and, you know, 99 times out of 100 for me, it’s I’m stressed about something. So it’s not actually that I want to snack. It’s actually stress eating, which is not good. That will definitely make me gain weight.
And in general, what I have found because I am a tinkerer, I know that about myself. I like to experiment. I like to, you know, kind of see like, well, you know what? If I do this or what if I try, you know, this this way of, you know, doing, you know, an eating window, you know, or just doing it, you know, every other day, like, how is that going to work?
And I like to do that at times. But what I have found works the best is to pay attention to what’s going on in my life and then proceed accordingly. So when my life is chaotic, you know, things are really stressful. There’s a lot going on, maybe a lot of changes are happening. The best thing I can do is be on just a regular plan with a lot of just regularity.
So in other words, like just saying, okay, I’m going to do ad, you know, six days a week or I’m going to do, you know, six, eight, six days a week, or I’m going to do to med six days a week, just keeping it the same and not experimenting and not being loosey goosey. And when things are like really, really stressful, I’m talking, you know, not only are they hectic, but also maybe upsetting.
Like, you know, I’ve gone through a couple of different periods of time where it’s been some really difficult things to deal with, like with some deaths in the family or, you know, of friends during those times. I have found it’s a lot easier on me to just go back to Omaha six days a week, walk six miles a day, six days a week, and, you know, take Sundays off and just keep it super easy.
And it provides a balance there, because when life is hectic and I need my my, my eating life to be orderly. On the other hand, when my life is really calm and I’ve gone through seasons like this where it’s like, wow, you know, like it’s just been calm. It was, you know, no stress, really. Then during those times, it’s a better time to try those experiments to, you know, like kind of be looser and see like what’s going on, you know, how how’s my weight going to do.
And so there is that balance there. What I have found to be most important, though, because I think this is something that happens to everybody on, you know, in maintenance there. You’re going to have times, right, where your weight is going to be a little bit higher. And, you know, it may go out of the range that you want it to be in, like I like to say, a £10 range.
That’s a good thing to shoot for. I know Joe Holman, a guy that I interviewed years ago, he’s an Omega guy and he says £15. But, you know, like I like £10 of beef. 15 just a little bit, you know, like I feel like that’s maybe a little bit too much free rein for me, but like a £10 range, right?
So I want to be in the one forties. But what happens when I get outside of the one forties, which has happened since maintenance? There have been times when my seven day average has even been one 52.49 because I keep track of all this stuff. And so I want you to know that like there are times where mine is not in range.
And so what do I do in that moment? Because those are the moments I feel like that are just crucially important. Nobody likes to talk about those moments because it’s like, Oh, no, you know, you want to believe that it’s always going to be easy, and sometimes life is just not easy. Sometimes you mess up, sometimes you just have water weight, like sometimes you get sick and that can cause water weight.
Sometimes you eat salty food and that can cause water weight. Sometimes you go on vacation, you gain weight, you know, there’s like a lot of things that happen where you may just get into bad habits for a while. What what my process has been doing during those times is to say, okay, what’s going on? Because that’s the first thing, is to figure out, you know, like what’s going on.
And usually if you’re just able to just sit and think, you’ll know what’s wrong, like you’ll know, you know, when you look back on your days, like, yeah, like there’s this stressful thing happening. I mean, and there’s lots of things that can that can mess with you. So in that moment though, if you will, just give yourself a pep talk.
And that’s what I do. I just I sit down and I’m like, you know, what’s going on? I usually can figure it out most of the time. I know at this point, like I am more self-aware than I used to be. And I can tell when when I’m, you know, feeling stressed out, especially if my sleep is out of kilter.
Like, that’s always a big red flag for me. If I if I notice myself waking up too early in the morning or having trouble going to sleep at night, something’s up. Got to get that under control. But I’ll sit down and I’ll just say, okay, what’s going on? And I’ll figure out, you know, usually it’s just stress. And then the main answer is, okay, go back to the old reliable plan, you know, which is bad.
Six days a week, get down Sunday, what, six miles Monday through Saturday? And that’s what I do. So and I’ve found that every time that I do that, then the weight, you know, comes back down, gets back in range, and there’s nothing really to worry over. But I have had moments, you know, where I kind of get nervous.
It’s like, oh, wait, you know, like, does this mean I’m gaining the weight back? And I always have to remind myself the only way that’s going to happen is if I don’t change something. And I think, you know, remaining humble always, like just remembering like, look, no one’s perfect. We all mess up. If you’re ever out of range and you realize, like, wow, you know, like even if you’ve gained, let’s say you’ve gained ten more pounds, right?
Like you’re not only out of range, you’re like £10 out of range. All you have to do is just go back to work, go back to what worked, get back down into your range and then try maintenance again. Like it’s it’s a process is what I’m trying to say. So I hope that my experiences can help you on your maintenance journey whenever you get down to your goal weight.
Thanks for listening and I’ll see you in the next one. Do you want to lose the weight without getting rid of the foods you love and that you know you’ll go back to eating again? Anyway, my book The Laid Back Guide to Intermittent Fasting, teaches you how to practice intermittent fasting so that you lose the weight sustainably and keep it off for good.
You can get the audiobook read by me for free when you sign up for your 30 day trial of Audible. The link is in the show notes, and if you’ve gotten value from this podcast and you’d like to let other people know about it, it’d be great if you could leave a review on either iTunes or wherever you get your podcast.
Thanks.
