Hi feathers,
I haven't been active for a while -- I think I posted a couple of times in the past few months to freak out about regaining the weight I worked so hard to lose last spring.
The interesting thing is that even though I didn't post, and I only counted calories for a couple of weeks, I lost ~13 lbs in just over two months this time without any plateaus or lags. I didn't think it was anywhere near that much until I weighed myself at the beginning of this week. It happened because of healthy choices, of course -- cutting out refined carbs, burning about 400cal in exercise every day, finally committing to veganism -- but I'm still surprised and torn between happy/anxious that I lost so quickly.
It looks like I'm starting a pattern of weight cycling, and I really want to avoid that... I'd like to stay the size I am now for at least one year, and ideally for the rest of my twenties (until I have kids, at least).
What seems to be my problem is that I can regain weight really quickly as well (those 12-13 lbs came on over only 3 months too -- and at my size, that's over 10% gain!!). Maintenance seems to be particularly tough for me.
Why do you think maintenance seems to be so much harder than losing? What can I do to make sure I stay "on the wagon" and don't burn out and regain with stress this time?