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!

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.