Hi, maintainers! I’ve decided that I’m going to be entering maintenance on May 31st. I’m not concerned about the scale anymore, really – getting to 115 would be nice, but at this point I’m as happy with my body as I can be with weight loss alone, and really just want to focus more on fitness, including pushing my strength training and running.

I would actually go ahead and say I’m in maintenance now but the next few weeks (end of school term and then between term vacation) are going to be crazy with giving final exams, grading essays, and then two solid weeks of travel in May. There’s not going to be an easy way to track my calorie intake – especially during travel – and I want to try and monitor my transition to maintenance calorie level as carefully as possible. May 31st is the beginning of the summer school session, and seems like a good day to start re-tooling to a maintenance program.

One of the reasons I’m posting this thread is to give myself a public, accountable deadline. I don’t want to get close to the 31st and say to myself, “Five more pounds,” when I know in my head that it’s really not going to be about the scale from here on out. So by posting this on 3FC, I’m giving y’all permission to come find me if I look like I’m reluctant to finally say I’m done.

I’m looking forward to joining you all soon!

Welcome. I enjoy this forum and read it frequently. It has helped me with my maintenance success. I look forward to following yours.

Welcome Jen!
You are a teacher then?
I am a school librarian that can't wait for the end of the school year!

Looking forward to getting to know you.

That's really great....take it from a 'new' maintainer....maintenance is bliss!

Thanks for the welcome!

Michele - I teach academic English as a Second Language at a university. I have international students from all over the world and love it. But I've always secretly wanted to be a librarian (true!).

Jen Great idea about setting the "official" maintenance start date.

Will you be travelling out of the country? (I'm always interested to hear about other people's travels to anywhere).

Dagmar