Scared to add 28 points

[mamaknits]

I've been maintaining since June with Flex. I'm sick of counting points and want to maintain with Core. I'm really scared to add 28 points though. Should I start with just adding 14 and see what happens next week?

I asked my Leader who is on Core but she said she's never added points back in. She eats just Core food plus 35 points. I lost 1.2 this week doing that so I obviously need to add more in. I'm just scared to jump in with the whole 28. I exercise 3x week but am very active in my daily life with kids, housework, etc. I've never eaten FP.

Should I trust the program or go at it slowly?

[ema2two]

You can do any of several things, any of which are fine, IMHO

1) Keep doing what you did last week. I don't think you should make any drastic changes based on any one week's results at the scale. There are just too many variables that can affect it. Besides, the holidays are coming up, and going into them 1.2-5 lbs under your goal gives you a cushion so you can enjoy the holidays without putting as much pressure on yourself (though it doesn't give you the leeway to make the holidays a 24-hour-a-day-all-you-can-eat-buffet-eating-orgy-free-for-all).

2) You can keep to your same number of weekly allowance points as you used last week, but make an effort to eat slightly more of the core foods when you eat. I don't recommend this, as I think it is a set up to get sloppy and trains you to ignore rather than listen to your comfort zone.

3) Add some intermediate number of points to your weekly allowance for the week ahead and see how it affects your results at the scale.

4) Add all 28 points and use them, and see what happens at the scale. At worst, if you are really adhering to the program (and that is a key IF), and add back too many flex points you shouldn't do too much damage in only a week, and you can quickly undo that with a week or two of a smaller amount of weekly allowance points, since you know that at 35 points you can still have a very respectable loss for a person at goal.

So, yes, trust the program, and yes go at it slowly. You have to be comfortable with whatever choices you make as you try to figure out what will work for you to maintain on core. The whole point of maintenance (between reaching goal and lifetime) is testing the waters and figuring out what your limits are in order to keep your weight stable. You can only find this by a process of incremental trial and error. Even though you have successfully maintained on flex for several months, you have to go through that same process now to see what your limits are to keep a stable weight on core.