DocAuD - like Bargoo and Megan said, if you've lost a pound and kept it off you're a maintainer. Lurk away if you want, or pop in and chat! I've been maintaining for a while now, but I'm still learning how to do it, too. The support here has been a lifesaver. Welcome!

i don't know about you guys, but i have a bad habit of going all out on a program (gym membership, then yoga classes, then running/training, etc) only to stop cold turkey and lapse into a hazy couch potato. seems like a vicious cycle. thankful i haven't done the fad and yo-yo diet cycle since i was a teen... so i've avoided that particularly bad habit for a long time. my exercise habits though... so shameful, so shameful. :( I could use some tips! thanks Maintainers!!

Well that's the problem—going all out! It can work for some people, but for many of us it just doesn't work :)

Start slow—even if it takes years to completely change your habits. I know you probably don't want to hear that, but slowly changing your habits is better than never changing them at all.

For me, I started exercising long before I began losing weight last year. I was an avid gym rat for six and a half years before I started my weight loss journey! Going to the gym was so ingrained in me that I didn't think twice about it and it wasn't such a big deal for me to change my eating habits and couple it with exercise because exercise didn't feel like some change I was making.

I often suggest that people start with one thing—healthy eating or exercise—make a habit of it (or at least get used to it) before adding in the other. It's a lot to change your life at once!

:comp: sontaikle, thanks for that tip. i never thought of it that way. I have been doing pretty well with eating healthy for the last 10 years but didn't take up calorie counting until now. so this is a big adjustment for me and it may be as you said that I need to make it a habit and then add another life change. I like your idea. Thanks. :hug: