I reached goal this morning! I started in July 2013 and wanted to get to 165 which would be low for me. Since kids were born, I have dieted many times and get to around 172, feel okay and then gain it all back. Tried all the fads and this time decided to use MFP which made me decide I would just count calories. So when I got to 165 I realized I was still overweight as far as BMI goes, so I set goal for 155. Then when I got there I set it to 150 and that's where I am now.

I still can't believe I'm here!!! I think many years ago I decided size 12-14 and 172 would be fine. But for the first time ever I added exercise and that really helped motivate me. Plus it's just my DH and I now. DS is out of college and working and DD in third year out of state, in NYC. So, with just us home it was easier I think. He'll eat whatever is here and is just happy if I make anything, because we were so busy with kids schedules many times no one cooked and we just ate out.

I teach HS full time and college part time and am a dog lover. We only have one small mixed dog now, but usually we have two dogs. Our golden retriever died in 2013. Still miss him. Looking for another but would like a rescue.

I've looked over some of the maintenance threads over the past month or so to see how you do it and I can see it is not easy. But with support like you all provide each other it can be done! I would like to move over to intuitive eating one day, but for now I'm going to keep counting calories until I figure out at which level I can maintain.
Hope to join in on your fun threads!

Welcome Sharon! Nice to "meet" you and read your story. We have much in common. I'm an elementary school librarian, my kids are out of the house (one in college out of state and one a first year teacher also out of state), and a huge animal lover-- 2 dogs and 2 cats currently. I also found adding exercise helped immensely with my goals and I am kinda addicted now.

Love Florida! Where are you? I actually have an Aunt Sharon in Florida-- are you her by chance??

congratulations on your achievement. I wish you all success with your maintenance but i know i would not want to be counting calories indefinitely. I can only do it for a few days.

I wouldn't trust myself with IE either so i keep a food diary. As i know what foods are high calorie and low calorie, i find just keeping a food diary is enough because you can see how to adjust or where you went wrong if things don't seem so perfect. I think its easier to keep a food diary than count calories

Another idea is in a book called CSIRO total wellbeing diet which has a very good and easy system of "counting calories". It gives food values in terms of approximations according to their actual calorie count. And tells how to juggles choices, though i think you would still need to keep a food diary or instead make meal plans which is probably harder. I can't find the book on my shelf but i wanted to try to explain how the measuring system works. Its like 1 cup of milk is ?500 kj/calories and this is equivalent to 70g of hard cheese or 1 glass of wine or whatever. So you can easily substitute.

Sorry i am not explaining it well because i can't remember any details. They tell you you can have say 2 serves of dairy, 2 serves of protein, 2 serves of complex carbs, 5 serves vegies, 2 serves fruit per day and then you just swap things around if you want extra or something. Believe me its an easy system. And in addition to that, it has great nutritional info, recipes and attractive layout. The writers are nutritionist scientists with the Australian science organisation CSIRO. This is a high protein diet but that doesn't mean you can't eat bread or pasta and so on. And you don't have to eat as much protein as they recommend if you don't wish to. I didn't because i eat fish but not other meats.

http://www.csiro.au/Outcomes/Health-and-Wellbeing/Prevention/Total-Wellbeing-Diet.aspx#2[/URL]

Michelle- I'm in Orlando. No, I'm not your aunt! Thanks!
Pattience - Thanks for the advice! I guess using MFP is really like a food diary, it's just that it also adds up the calories. Since I'm addicted to my iphone, , I don't really mind entering what I eat in there. Yes, I'm nervous about doing the IE, so I wouldn't be trying it until I am feeling confident in what works for me for maintenance.

Wow, congratulations CalCounter!