I have weighed between 110 and 118 pounds since I was 15 years old. That’s 56 years of maintaining my weight. Here’s what works for me and all of the following could easily be included in your eating habits as well:

• I avoid feeling hungry and I avoid feeling full - always. So I eat small meals and snacks throughout the day. If I start to feel just a little hungry, I eat something. If  I sit down to a meal whether at home or a restaurant I eat only small portions.  And when I eat I usually leave something on the plate – it’s OK to leave a little for the garbage or keep as leftover. This is my reminder that I’m not going to eat all the food before me – I’m only going to eat until I feel satisfied, not full.

• Over a period of time I learned and memorized calorie counts of all my favorite foods. Without much thought I will do tradeoffs such as if I want to eat some cookies, I quickly figure approximate calories of the treats and offset that with the rest of the foods I’m eating that day.

• I depend on food labels – I read them for all the pertinent information regarding nutritional (or harmful) ingredients. But this is always a quick reference when in doubt about how many calories are in the food you plan to eat.

• My experience has shown that watching calories rather than carbs and sugars is the best guide to avoid weight gain. Unless you have dietary restrictions,  we all need to eat well balanced meals. Focusing on avoiding carbs and sugars sometimes can throw off a healthy well balanced diet and should only be used for specific diets that will have guidelines for essential vitamins and minerals.

• The other obvious factor in weight maintenance is exercise. Once again it’s a tradeoff. Following surgery or during a sick spell, I am not active so I eat less. You cannot continue to eat all those calories you ate while exercising when you are unable to be active. Nature designed us to only feel hungry as needed and we find that our routines and food desires tempt us to overeat during periods of no exercise.  Once again – only eat when you are hungry and never eat until you become full.

• I must say that I don’t agree with the theory that when you’re hungry just eat some fruit or raw carrots, or some low-cal snack. These snacks don’t stick with me for more than about 10 minutes. I do eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, but for those tiny snacks in between meals I usually eat carbs and proteins:  a tiny bowl of cereal, crackers with hummus, or crackers with peanut butter or with cheese. Keeping in mind these snacks need to be small, (or tiny).

• I’ve watched people savoring their food, loving the tastes, enjoying the experience and so they eat more and keep eating more and more. That results in too much food consumed and ultimately weight gain. When I am enjoying what I’m eating that much, I have a thought tape that plays in my mind: “if you keep eating that candy bar it will make you fat”. I am mentally playing an argument between the pleasure side of my brain and the vain side. What’s better? Looking good for the rest of my life or enjoying this candy bar which is going to be over within a few minutes. Maybe this an exaggeration but the message plays well in my brain: “You will eat this candy bar and you will enjoy the pleasure for the five minutes it takes to eat it and then the pleasure is gone. If this candy bar is too many calories, you will pick up some really ugly fat cells around your hips and stomach that will take weeks or months to get rid of. Is it worth it?” The desire for that next candy bar might linger for awhile, but I know it will go away.

I’d say that weight maintenance is mostly a mind game – focus on priorities like looking good, feeling good, staying healthy, know your calories, be aware of your activity level, and know that it’s all up to you and you alone to be the disciplinarian of your well being.

- Sally Eggen