A half a baked potato

In my mind - it has always been a half a baked potato.

And that half a baked potato got the whole concept of maintenance cemented in my mind. A clear, defined understanding of reality.

The difference between weight loss and maintenance is a half a baked potato.

I went back and found it for you.
Page 80-81 of Frances Kuffel's Passing For Thin:

"And that was that. The difference between rapidly and consistently losing weight, and maintaining it, is a six-ounce potato and one fruit. That's how narrow the pavement is."

To be honest, I had never noticed the fruit before I typed that. And I buy bigger potatoes so I translated it into a 1/2 a baked potato in my life. But I took the essence of it to heart. I took it literally.

That half a baked potato is the key stone of my maintenance arch. There are lots of other important parts that make up my arch (exercise, medicine, therapy, etc) - but that concept of a half a baked potato is key. Frances' simple passage - above - is (much of) why I am able to hold my goal range so steadily. Why I am able to maintain.

I happened to read it while I was very much in the midst of losing. So, all the while I was losing - I was thinking - when I get to maintenance - I will add back a half a baked potato - and everything else will be the same.

I did not get to maintenance and wonder 'how does this work?'
I felt like all my experience losing was practice for maintenance.
Like - work out the kinks - figure it all out.

Frances' half a baked potato was simple reality.
I believed it when I first read it nearly four years ago.
I believe it still. I do not fight it.
I don't think about whether I like it or don't like it.
It is always that simple to me.
Sometimes it is hard - but it stays that simple.

It is what it IS - a half a baked potato.


PS - I happened to go back and read Roni's archives (on her old blog) when she was going through this same thing - several years ago. She is a WW person - and when she got to her goal weight - she added back a few points at a time and then watched to see what happened on the scale. Literally - you could SEE it - she was trying to get the scale to balance out at -0- change. That gave her a WW point range for maintenance. It was very enlightening.