Survey Complete

I completed my yearly survey for the National Weight Control Registry.  This is the first time I have had to select that I gained weight over the last year so there was a new series of questions I had not had to answer before.

On a scale from 1 to 8, How have you felt about your weight gain?
1 being Extremely Happy as in I wanted to gain and 8 being Extremely Upset

I chose 7. 

I, in no way, wanted to gain weight.  But I am also not extremely upset.  It is frustrating and I often get upset at to why I don’t feel I can drop the weight as fast as I once did.  Or maybe I’m just not willing to cut the food like I did when I was losing.  Either way, I am less on the happy side and more on the unhappy side of this weight gain.  As with anything in life, you choose your happy and dwelling on it all the time won’t help anything.



How difficult is it for you to maintain your weight at present?

I chose Moderate

Maintenance is not as easy as it once felt.  When I was under my goal weight maintenance felt pretty easy.  Currently I have to stress over making my WI's.  Before I didn’t have to stress over that.  It wasn’t all stress free and at that time I still stressed a lot about the scale.  Looking back now it sure felt like it should have been less stressful than it was.  However, being over goal will always feel more difficult.



How difficult is weight maintenance now compared to right after you lost weight?

I chose “It was easy to maintain the weight loss initially, but it has gotten harder over time.”

This goes in part with my comment above.  When I first got to goal and continued to lose weight being 10 pounds under goal it sure felt easier.  It was fairly carefree.  Then, life shifted and I was no longer below goal.  Life shifted again and I am now above goal.  It is always a learning lesion and a constant reminder that I must stay diligent to my WW program, healthy eating, and activity.  I just can’t sluff it off and expect to slide by.  I am also very aware that had I not had back issues come up perhaps it would still feel easy?  Who knows really.



On a scale from 1 to 8, Compared to one year ago, how difficult is it now to maintain your body weight?  
1 being Much less difficult and 8 being Much more difficult.

I chose “6”

I’m not sure I can really describe what I am going through as difficult per se.  I guess it goes back to feeling frustrated.  I don’t want to use my back issues as an excuse to exercise at a lower level (which I know I do) but I also don’t want to live in pain.  Other than being less active I would say my maintenance program is the same as it has been over the last few years.  I still eat healthy most of the time, track, and attend my meetings.  My activity has suffered.  That is the biggest change over this last year.


It is good to see the changes year to year in maintenance.  I view weight maintenance as similar to any other type of maintenance.  As we adapt and grow as a person so does our lifestyle.  We must check in from time to time and adjust as necessary.