Thanks Meg ... I spent that bit of time considering the Stages ...

The honeymoon stage – when weight loss is oh so easy
The frustration stage - when weight loss becomes so hard and we wonder where the spark went
The tentative acceptance stage – when you learn how to live it but there are slipups
The lifestyle change stage – “they are confident that they’ll never gain the weight back and know what works and doesn’t work for them"

I've had snippets of them all and spend a lot of time wandering like a cement head in the tentative acceptance stage ... with back slides uh huh!

I just ordered Thin for Life but was interested to see your discussion of it. I'm a mythbuster!

Myth #1: If you’ve been overweight since childhood, it’s next to impossible to lose weight and keep it off.
This is me! I was "the fat kid" in a family of 9!
Myth #2: If you’ve dieted and failed many times before, there’s little hope of ever licking your weight problem.
Also me. I lost 26 pounds doing body for life but then crashed and burned. Other than than I've never lost more than 6 pounds on a diet.
Myth #3: If you do succeed at losing weight and keeping it off, you’ll have to eat like a bird for the rest of your life.
I am looking for my final maintenance weight while eating 2,000 cal/day. That's one thing that bugs me about the NWCR, the 1,400 cal/day factoid gets reported over and over without the essential caveats that it's more like 1,700+
Myth #4: In order to lose weight and keep it off, you’ll have to become an exercise fanatic.
Well, how do you define fanatic? I am fanatic compared to my old super sedentary self.
Myth #5: It’s really hard to lose weight once you pass the age of 40.
I did it, and I was inspired by my mother and a recovery mentor who started in their 50's.
Myth #6: You can’t lose weight on your own, let alone maintain weight loss.
call Leonard Nimoy, baby, here we are. Though I do think modern tracking technology has been invaluable to me. I think I failed on book and magazine diets because they were so few calories I couldn't sustain them.
Myth #7: Diets don’t work – if you lose weight on a diet, you’re bound to gain it back.
Define diet. I tracked my food. I learned about the foods I eat most often. I don't look stuff up or do very much math.
Myth #8: If you hit a plateau while losing weight, there’s little hope of moving on. I didn't have a big plateau, though I did gain a little on vacation.
Myth #9: If you start regaining weight, you’re bound to gain it all back. I haven't seen this yet, but I'm still a noob.
Myth #10: If you don’t stay at your original goal weight, then you’re a failure.I plan to get muscular. If my bodyfat ratio improves, I'm okay with the scale going up.

Questions (feel free to offer questions and comments of your own):

Do you/did you believe that you could reach goal when you started your weight loss?
I actually started out just wanting to get out of the obese range back into being overweight. But when I saw it working, I started to believe I could have a normal BMI which everyone seems to think is crazy.
Do you believe that you can keep the weight off for life? If my mom can maintain for 13 years, starting at 57, I believe it's definitely possible.
How important do you think it is to believe that permanent weight loss is possible in order to achieve your goals?
I think it's huge. The right tools are also huge.
What does maintenance mean to you?
The weight my body gives me when I eat what I'm willing to and do what I'm willing to. Though that was kind of always true, I know a lot more know about how to guide what goes in and what I do.
Do you/did you ‘break the rules’ of weight loss? The Myths? Nearly all of them. I just need to do what I've done like 3 more times (maintain for 7 months)
Are you presently in one of the four stages of weight loss? How many have you experienced? I pretty much lost a pound a week consistently for a year which got me to a health BMI. Since then it's averaged a pound a month as I look for my maintenance weight (though I probably don't want to go under a BMI of 23. I think by sticking with a consistent, sustainable plan I avoided plateauing. I did find confidence in the lifestyle change about 10 months in.
Have you ever tried to lose weight by non-dieting? Was it successful?Nondiets led me astray for so long, I'm kind of bitter. Those systems only work insofar as they help you feel full on a calorie deficit. But they are designed to be a calorie deficit.
Do you believe that you control your weight or do you believe that forces beyond your control predetermine your weight?I control my weight by respecting the laws of nature. But I no longer believe I or most people were genetically predetermined to be fat. I do believe we weren't meant to have unlimited access to food year round and never use our legs. I see a new pressure to undiet from people who tell me my appetite won't lead me astray and I shouldn't weigh myself. I don't believe that's realistic either.