Julie was feeling disgruntled. She was tired of following her eating plan. “You know, I’m still pleased when I get on the scale every day. But now I’ve been maintaining my weight for the past year and a half. It’s not a thrill like it used to be.”
I asked Julie what was the hardest part of sticking to her maintenance diet. “I’m just tired of what I’m eating. I want to eat more. I want to eat different things for lunch and dinner. I want to have a glass of wine when I go out with friends and dessert every night. I want to have an afternoon snack, like pretzels or crackers or chips. But I know if I do,” she said glumly, “I’ll gain weight.”
Julie and I reviewed her food intake on a typical day. It looked as if she were eating about 1600 calories per day. “What would you think,” I asked her, “about making just one change for this week, instead of all the changes you want all at once. You could plan to eat 200 extra calories each day. Today, for example, you could have a higher calorie lunch. Tomorrow you might want an afternoon snack. The day after that, you might want dessert. Or maybe you want to have dessert every night and keep everything else the same. You could try this for a week or two, and see how it goes. If it’s going well, you can keep on doing it. If you’re still unhappy, you could add another hundred or two hundred calories.
“But I’ll gain weight, won’t I?” she asked. “Yes,” I replied. You will. But it will probably only be a few pounds. And you might decide it’s absolutely worth it. I know you were proud when you lost 47 pounds. But what’s the big deal if you gain back three or four pounds and maintain there? There’s nothing magic about the number 47. And if you can feel more satisfied at a slightly higher weight, why not go for it?”
Julie decided to go for it. Over the next few months, she gradually added more calories to her daily diet. But she didn’t slip into it. She made conscious decisions to eat more and she planned in advance how she would use the extra calories. Her weight went up by 4-5 pounds and there were a few outfits that became too tight. But she recognized that it was worth the trade-off. She was happier being able to have more variety in her diet.