Right now I'm in the honeymoon phase. My determination is rock solid. I'm a woman with a plan and nothing is going to stop me. I'm losing quickly because I just started. BTDT, right?

What do you do when the honeymoon is over, and endless days of weight control stretch in front of you? When results come much slower? What has helped you get back on course and motivated again?

I set a lot of little goals. Like right now my goal is to get to 247, then i have a valentines goal of getting to 220 by valentines. Just little baby steps. Like my motto:

I cant lose 100 pounds but i can lose 10 pounds 10 times.

Also, you have to get it in your head that this is not a diet, this is a lifestyle...I will never be able to eat like i was a year ago. That has been a hard pill for me to swallow.

I think I am falling out of the "honeymoon stage" now. I have lost weight relatively quickly, and now it is starting to even out. So I look forward to hearing from those who have dealt with this for a while! It's tough, I have discovered that much!

One of my biggest assets has been habit. There are things I don't think about anymore - I just do them. For example, I always go to the gym right after work unless I have an appointment I can't miss. I don't get to the end of my work day and start asking myself whether I want to go or not. If I did, the answer would probably be no a lot of the time. So I don't think, I just go out of habit. In the same way I have many "go-to" foods when I just don't want to think about it.

Also, make sure that you don't hate what you are doing. If you think you need to eat lettuce to lose weight and you hate lettuce, it will be very hard to stick with it when you aren't in the honeymoon period any more. You don't have to LOVE IT, but you should at least generally like it. I've found that I really like soy burgers - enough so that I could care less if I don't have beef most of the time. It isn't hard for me to eat them - I don't have to try and motivate myself to do it. It isn’t always easy, but it shouldn’t be torture.

The final thing is to cut yourself some slack. Things are going to happen. You are going to eat that ice cream or donut or whatever. Try and pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep on going – right away. The worst thing is to have one small slip that turns into days off plan because you feel like you have failed with the one slip. It's not all or nothing.

Good advice Nancy!

For me, it gets easier ... I learn new tricks, I eat the veggies and fruits I love, and I try to experiment with new ones once in awhile to keep things fresh.

But mostly I look at it as a lifestyle ... something I need to do to be healthy. I view logging my calories and weighing myself just the same as a diabetic who needs to measure their blood sugar daily.

That said, I make room for the sweets, the fast food, the sinful snacks once every so often. I just know that it means lower calorie foods on that day or perhaps having one less meal (I eat several small meals, rather than three large ones).

I think I'm at that stage as well. It'll be two months on the 21st. Although that big rush of excitement and enthusiasm is waning a bit, I'm also starting to see real results and that is very encouraging. I feel so much better than I did a couple of months ago that it is mind-boggling.

I keep myself focused by working at getting myself into new weight decades. There's always an immediate goal and it's not so far away that it seems overwhelming. That, and I'm just really tired of being fat.

Habits is definitely part of it, but I know that many of my old habits could come rushing back if I let them.

I think a big part of it is making a commitment to the process, finding lots and lots of ways to measure your progress, eating foods you love, finding fun activities... in short, making it a new lifestyle.

Motivation is going to come and go, but find a way to cement for yourself that getting fitter IS what you're about. And that doesn't mean you have to be perfect, but it does mean that you get back to it!

For me, it was really interesting to compare my eating and exercise behaviors to some of my other behaviors, like paying the bills... I do not always want to pay the bills, but I know that I have to do it, so I do! I do not always want to go to work, but I know that I have to do it, so I do. Likewise, I do not always want to exercise, or plan my food, but I know that I have to, so I do it.

And the plus side of ALL of those behaviors are living the life I want. If I don't pay the bills, my credit tank, and maybe I can't buy anything else. If I don't go to work, I will lose my job, and then ditto above. And if I don't eat right and exercise, I put myself at risk of gaining all the weight back and limiting the things I can do with my life.

When I realized that I did the things I needed to in these other areas of my life, I realized I CAN commit longterm to positive behaviors in this area too. Yes, there are other challenges, but this reframing helped me a lot (much as I struggled against it!)

Wow Wyllenn - perfectly said! Thanks!

Wyllen sums it up perfectly in seven little words. Motivation, in all areas of life, comes and goes. You can't rely on motivation to get you through the weight-loss process, because when motivation leaves you, what do you have left?

I think motivation is a secondary component of your primary mindset. And I firmly believe the primary mindset we need to hold is, "It will happen." Knowing that it will happen gives rise to the question, "Okay, I know it will happen. What can I do to bring it about?" and that question equals motivation.

Let's say that someday, today, this week, even this month or more, you've lost all motivation or will to eat properly, track your food, or exercise.

You know what? No problem.

That's right, no problem. Once you've accepted that "It will happen," all delays and obstacles are just that, delays and obstacles. They aren't game-wrecking plummets into despair and self-flagellation. All there is to do is ride them out, and get back on that horse when you are ready and not a moment sooner.

Motivation springs from the primary mindset. It is a result of trust in oneself and one's goals, not the instigator of those goals.