Hey Tanya, I've been maintaining for about 18 months now. For me, maintenance is exactly the same as losing weight. I do the same things. I still food journal, I still plan healthy meals, I still pack a healthy lunch/snacks for work everyday. I still count calories, I still limit the foods I consider nutritionally vacant (soda, fast food, booze, packaged baked goods, fried foods).
I did slowly increase calories to maintenance level over a period of a couple of months, I went up about 100 calories every 2-3 weeks. I made sure that the calories I added every day were nutritious and not junk (I didn't make up the 300 calorie difference in Hershey bars, just added more of the good foods I was already eating). In a way, this was easy for me since I was a calorie counter and it was easy to add in 100 calories a day. In a way, it was very difficult because I was terrified to gain weight back and eating more made me nervous.
It sounds like you lost weight sensibly, so trust yourself. That was tough for me, trusting myself to have built the good habits that would let me be successful.
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