I'm not in maintenance yet, but I'm trying to prepare for it. I lost around 70 lbs. before getting pregnant and hanging on to about thirty, which I'm now trying to lose again. I was still 15 lbs. from my goal before the pregnancy, so I still have a ways to go.
Anyway, this time around I've been reading books about maintenance, lurking on this forum, reading the stickies, etc. in hopes of being more mentally prepared next time.
One of the books I read (Refuse to Regain), which I thought would give more behavioral/mental tips, actually gives a specific recommended diet (Primarian-- a variation on paleo and encourages avoiding sugars and grains for basically the rest of your life).
I realize that I can never go back to eating a bunch of junk all the time or eating as much food in general as I did when I was really heavy. However, I've always also thought that maintenance would be more like eating how I do while dieting during the week and then being able to have a dinner or two on the weekends that has higher calorie foods like in a restaurant or something. I don't intend to give up bread/grains forever. I'm on a low-carb plan now, and I plan to always eat higher protein, lower fat, but I miss things like healthy cereal or bread for a sandwich, and I plan to add that back in.
Anyway, my guess is that people maintain in a variety of different ways, so my question to the successful maintainers out there is-- what do you eat? Do you still calorie count? Do you still have off-limits foods, or do you just try to avoid high calorie stuff in general but make a few exceptions every now and again?
Until I read this book, I was actually looking at maintenance quite positively-- I realize it will be most likely harder than dieting and will take some getting used to, but I felt like it was doable. I'm trying to put it in perspective (just one author's opinion!) but it really did kind of get to me.